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28 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Relentlessly depressing, but fascinating, June 24, 2004
This review is from: Daughter From Danang (DVD)
At the age of 7, Heidi Bub was airshipped to the United States when her mother, a Vietnamese woman, gave her up for adoption. Heidi was Amerasian, a result of a relationship between her mother and a US soldier. Heidi was adopted by a single Southern woman (with whom she is estranged), and grows up with a charming drawl and rather American attitudes. Nevertheless, she wants to find her birth mother. This documentary is about Heidi's reunion with her Vietnamese family. You've probably seen long-lost adoption reunions on the news magazines, that end in happy tears and a 'new family.' This is not one of those reunions.
The documentary eventually turns so depressing that a number of ambiguous questions come up. Was it fair for the filmmakers to even reunite Heidi with her family? What are the intentions of Heidi's Vietnamese family? Is Heidi simply heartless, or does her Vietnamese family ask for too much? Does her birth mother even "deserve" anything, considering she abandoned Heidi?
The film-makers maintain a nonjudgemental attitude throughout the film. Nevertheless, several things are striking. One is the utter poverty of rural Vietnam. Heidi's family at times seems greedy and grasping, but look at their living conditions, and you can understand why. Heidi also seems to possess some of the worst "American" traits: a superficial friendliness coupled by profound aloofness. Heidi's mother is the saddest figure of the film, a woman who is haunted by a series of misguided choices in her life. Just the look on her face as she realizes that she's lost her daughter not once, but twice, is heartbreaking.
No matter what "side" you take in this difficult, depressing film, the ending is chilling. One of the recurring themes of the film is Heidi's soft, cherubic face and her sweet, honey-voiced drawl. At the end of the film, all of that is still there, but her words are so ice-cold that you wonder if the continuing fad of adopting foreign children (first from Vietnam, now from Korea, China, or Romania) does more harm than good. "I don't know them," Heidi says of her Vietnamese relatives. But we, the viewers, do know them, and when Heidi says, "I've closed the door on them, but I haven't locked it," I found myself desperately hoping that one day, she'd open the door again.
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14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Be careful what you wish for, May 24, 2004
This review is from: Daughter From Danang (DVD)
Heidi is married to a junior American naval officer and living in military housing on a U.S. naval base with their two young children. But, in 1975, Heidi was Hiep, the 7-year old daughter of Mai Thi Kim, a poor Vietnamese woman living in Danang while her husband was off fighting with the Viet Cong. Hiep's biologic father was an American serviceman, with whom Kim had a relationship in order to keep food on her large family's table. When the U.S. forces scurried for home, they took several thousand children of mixed parentage, including Hiep, with them for adoption in the States in Operation Babylift. Hiep was raised in Pulaski, TN as Heidi by a single mother, who convinced the girl to bury her heritage and grow up American. Now, years later, Heidi wishes to discover the identity of her birth mother, much to her foster mother's horror and eventual estrangement. With the help of the original adoption agency, Heidi locates her long-lost family. DAUGHTER FROM DANANG follows Heidi as she travels to Vietnam in 1997 with a Vietnamese social worker, gifts, and good intentions to meet her birth mother and half-siblings.
What starts out as an emotional and poignant reunion between Heidi and Kim slides steadily downhill as cultures collide and the collateral damage mounts. As Kim cloyingly attaches herself to her daughter's every movement, one can see troubles ahead. I was irritated that Heidi's Vietnamese travel companion/interpreter apparently didn't give her a clue as to the responsibilities inherent to Vietnamese familial ties, and what might be expected of a perceived-to-be-rich American. By the end of the film, the viewer can only feel profound sympathy for all involved, especially as the initial expectations were so extravagantly high.
The history of Kim's family during the Vietnam War is nicely fleshed out with general archival footage of the time and place, e.g. VC on the march, American troops interacting with the locals, the South Vietnamese panic during the U.S. withdrawal, the victorious North Vietnamese forces.
Most of the documentary is comprised of interviews with both Kim and Heidi, as well as a visual record of Heidi's one-week interactive visit to her homeland. The repercussions of Heidi's brief sojourn in the Old Country are emphasized by the last sequence of interviews done two years later.
While watching DAUGHTER FROM DANANG, several tired-but-true aphorisms came to mind: "Be careful what you wish for", "No good deed goes unpunished", and "You can't go home again". Sometimes it's better just to move on.
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Vietnamese Culture, June 12, 2006
This review is from: Daughter From Danang (DVD)
This documentry reveals a common knowlege about the vietnamese culture, something that i was raised with, being a first generation vietnamese immigrant. vietnamese children are expected to care for thier parents, its a way of life for most asian cultures living the traditional life style. you care for your parents when they are no longer able to work and manage the household, you repay your respects by taking on the family burdens and financial needs. However this film brings an interesting perspective when the daughter is american raised, with american values, and has been seperated from her traditional vietnamese family since she was 5 or 7 years old. its 20 years since her serperation and she's finally reunited with her biological monther and other family memebers. She's abrubtly expected to carry on all the burdens expected by this traditional family.
When my family and I watched this movie, dispite the fact that we come from the same background as the traditional vietnamese family, we completely sympathize with the estranged daughter, feeling who's offended and overwhelmed with her family's bombarding expectactions and rude approaches. This film does an excellent job of documenting an american reaction to the vientamese culture.
I only gave it 4 of 5 stars because its still missing the followup to this reunion.
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