bruzee Review of Daughter from Danang

Daughter from Danang (2002)

Good example of the limited cultural exposure of rural America

[10/10 · 5 January 2006]

I really liked this movie. It didn't pander to anybody and showed a bare bones look at the hardship and deprivation of a family in rural Vietnam as they received a visit from an American relation who they had not seen since childhood. The American woman, Heidi, was looking for a no-strings attached relationship that would provide her with some sort of emotional security blanket that apparently was absent in the cold upbringing of her adoptive mother. Her mother and half-siblings bluntly requested a monthly stipend for financial assistance as she was the better-off relation in the family tree. Now, these people had not had the privilege of an education past grade school and she was given a free ride thru college by her adoptive parent. They were very hospitable although the mother was a bit overbearing. Nevertheless, I just wanted to cringe when Heidi pulled that phony Scarlet O'Hara act with the crying, whining and sniveling as soon as things got a little out of her comfort zone. Here were people on the fringes of survival and the overfed American military wife is complaining about the discomfort her mother, whom she hasn't seen in 22 years, is causing her by stopping to chat with people while shopping in a smelly food and fish market. But who knows, maybe she saw her long lost relations as being nothing more than greedy, non-productive, materialistic leeches whose interpretation of family ties extended only as far as latching on to her for financial support. Regardless of these comments, it is a good movie to view for free on PBS.