Daughter from Danang (2002) User Reviews

A sad story of loss and cultural divide...

[twowaydream · 7/10 · 5 March 2005]

This is a beautifully shot but often difficult film to watch — mostly because, as a previous reviewer has mentioned, the Amerasian daughter, Heidi, seems ignorant of her cultural heritage and unwilling to learn. We learn that she was raised by a cold woman who kept her Vietnamese heritage a secret, but even as an adult Heidi doesn't do anything to educate herself about her family or their culture. As she's leaving on the plan for Danang, we see her only just learning how speak the language in a cursory way.

The film beautifully communicates how traumatic the separation of half-American children from their Vietnamese mothers was on all sides. Heidi was denied a family, her mother was forced to sleep with an American soldier to save her other children during a war, and the family continues to live in poverty. It is very difficult to watch how shabbily Heidi treats the family after they open their lives and homes to her, but I suppose that highlights how ignorant many of the children who were brought here in "Operation Babydrop" were and are. It is particularly sad to see how judgmental she is of them — she brings them useless American gifts, but gets angry when they ask for help in supporting her mother. It is especially sad when you realize that if she had only taken the time to understand Vietnamese culture, the misunderstanding may have never come up.

Overall, it's an often frustrating and difficult story to watch, but one that is well-told and forthright in its honesty.

our cultures

[ehsanm · 7/10 · 26 April 2005]

I just want to note that, from my view and contrary to what many of the previous posts suggest, Heidi's family did not see her as a dollar sign. The Vietnamese are very straightforward when it comes to money and family. I was most surprised at Heidi's reaction. Someone should have guided her and helped her understand before she met with her family. She should have done some research on the Vietnamese culture as should have her family with western culture. I enjoyed the movie as it portrays how vastly different our cultures are and how we can easily misunderstand each other.

I lived in Vietnam for about 9 months and have been asked for financial help just as Heidi was. I however didn't cry hysterically as I understood why I was being asked. Whenever friends or in-laws asked for money, I jokingly explained that I really could not afford it. Mind you, I was only asked by a few people.. I explained how life is far more expensive in the west and how a westerner could find such a question offensive. In turn they explained to me their reasoning. We didn't make any rash judgments and because of it, we left the incident more aware, experienced, and as friends.

Heidi needed guidance in understanding the difference in cultures because she was obviously not prepared to meet with her family. Based on what I gathered from the movie, growing up, Heidi seemed to have been closed off from the world. I feel that she needs guidance in life and not only in Vietnam. I don't mean to judge her as I could be wrong; I only know what the documentary offered.

Tragic example of American cultural ethnocentrism.

[OysterEatsWorld · 7/10 · 10 July 2006]

Daughter from Danang is a poignant portrayal of a woman who searches for her estranged birth mother in Vietnam. In the end, she does not discover a happy-go-lucky "memory" to take back home to America. Not all stories have a happy ending, and in this case the ending is tragic. Although this film is well constructed, I would probably have flipped channels if I had tuned in from the beginning on PBS. Instead, I had rented this from Netflix and stuck it out to the end despite the rather boring set up of a family reunion. However, getting the back-story early on is helpful and the preliminary interviews with Heidi are a striking character study. This does not become truly apparent until we reach the end.

The reason that I would consider this a striking character study is because of Heidi's naive and truly American views on this reunion. Heidi seems to believe meeting her Vietnamese mother is a panacea for the pain and confusion she endured due to the separation. She only speaks in terms of "bad memories" of Vietnam and the new "good memories" she hopes to gain. She is hopeful, positive, and rather unthinking in what she will face in Vietnam. She has taken no time to research Vietnamese culture, she assumes everything will be exciting, new, and does not anticipate challenges. This becomes more clear at the end when the insufficient cultural awareness of Heidi surfaces in her final meeting with the family. Her character represents the ignorant and dismissive attitudes of many American's towards other cultures.

When she comes to Vietnam, she reunites with her family. Her mother is proud, her family happy to see her. They feast with her, take her around their village and homes and try to communicate about the past and present. After a few days of being with her "smothering" mother in the heat and humidity of Vietnam, eating strange foods, and being away from her children, she begins to emotionally buckle. The last straw is when she discovers her family wishes to have financial support from her for her mother. Heidi breaks down in a frenzy of tears and is unable to understand why they would dare ask her for money. She does not stop to think about the cultural differences at hand - and rejects her mother and her family.

This is tragic and leaves me to wonder why the accompanying interpreter and journalist (Tran Tuong Nhu) did not educate Heidi about this possibility. In Asian cultures it is common for the youth to support the elders and asking for money does not have the same negative connotation. It is almost as if this information was withheld from Heidi so that a dramatic moment could play out on the screen. It makes for a great documentary scene, but it is disturbing that Heidi seems to gain very little from the experience, crying "I only wanted good memories, now all I have are bad memories". For Heidi, this was a waste of a plane ticket to get this blubbering insight. For the audience, it is a glaring portrait of an American learning about her convoluted past, meeting her estranged family, finding out it is not easy to do this, and finally running away when faced with a cultural challenge.

I have some qualms about the misinterpretation of the language in the film, the interpreter that was hired for the final family meeting was not good at interpreting the Vietnamese nuances into English. Regardless I think Heidi was ready to run long before the issue of money came into to forefront. Emotionally she was not equipped to deal with the poverty and affection of her natal family, and culturally she was not able to understand their request for financial support.

I can sympathize to a degree with Heidi about the prospect of financial commitment to people she hardly knows, but in Vietnam $40 is one months salary for some people. Of course Heidi would never take the time to figure this out much less take the time to figure out why they would ask her for money in such a frank manner. I think in truth, she really does not want to commit to being associated with this Vietnamese family, period. She uses the offensive financial request as a very good excuse to separate herself from her mother.

I am glad I watched this film, however I am disappointed that Heidi remains unchanged and ignorant.

a new image of the Ugly American

[cranesareflying · 9/10 · 13 June 2003]

I particularly liked John Petrakis's Tribune review where he writes in bold print: "not recommended for young children." There is no blood, no violence, no profanity, but this rating is due to the high emotional content. You have to search through your vocabulary for superlatives here, featured throughout are extraordinary glimpses of faces framed in their own natural environment, the underlying original music is superb and perfectly balanced, there is a wonderful golden-orange sunrise on a quiet riverbank following her first night in Vietnam where the camera finds a dragonfly resting atop the highest leaf, when her Vietnamese childhood memories return they appear to be almost sketched onto a canvas in an impressionistic blur, all beautifully layered together.

This film begins in 1975 as the Vietnam War was ending with Operation Babylift, (an event which, on it's own, is worthy of it's own documentary, particularly the newsreel footage seen here of an American social worker attempting to convince Vietnamese women to send their children to the USA under the guise of an airlift for war orphans), when a 7 year old Amerasian girl is separated from her family and sent to the USA for adoption, supposedly for her betterment, and she becomes `101% Americanized.' Yet in her 20's, when she yearns to meet her real mother, she discovers her mother feels the same way about missing her, so after 22 years of separation, she travels back to Vietnam in what turns out to be one incredible re-unification, beautifully capturing unanticipated depths of an experience that even the filmmakers could never have imagined. Both the mother and daughter are immensely appealing and couldn't express more genuine affection, but both are overwhelmed and completely flabbergasted by the personal and historical abyss that exists between them, leaving them both reeling, as if stepping on a land mine, from the unseen, misunderstood emotional scars left behind from the aftermath of the war. What starts out as a well-meaning attempt to wipe away bad childhood memories only ends up compounded with still more complicated, bad adult memories. One irony here is that her Vietnamese name means `united.' Sometimes in a documentary, the most difficult decision is to let the cameras continue to roll when you know you are intruding into the personal regions of someone's private anguish. But here, it is the best part of the film – a heart-wrenching, emotional jolt for the whole world to see that is simply unforgettable. What this film has to say about love, that it is so much more than just saying words, that sometimes you are called upon to demonstrate your love with deeds, is indescribable.

There may be an inclination to consider the girl too naive and spoiled and to disregard her out of hand. But I would urge people to reconsider this view, as she was unexplainably (to her) separated from her own family, raised instead by a single mother who eventually had no use for her at all, was also raised in one of the more racially intolerant communities in America, which might explain why she was so unprepared emotionally to handle something as simple as affection, a family notion completely alien to her, and which she found, at the time, completely suffocating. ("Get away from me!") Is it any wonder that she might prefer the more emotionally distant relationship with her adopted American family, as that's all she really knows? It should also be viewed in another perspective, as the translator reminded her, that the family pressure and the cultural differences would diminish the longer she stayed. Contrarily, by shortening her visit, which she herself chose, she put even more pressure on herself and her Vietnamese family to finalize what was missing for 22 years into one final day - a sheer impossibility. From a Vietnamese perspective, they were simply trying to include her, permanently, as a member of the family, not just in words, but in deeds.

But what I found so compelling in this girl, who was born in Vietnam, was that she really had no more sensitivity or understanding of Vietnam than the US government, namely none, which certainly demonstrates how easily we can learn to drop bombs on one another, and how inadvertently, by being so Americanized, besides living in material comfort, she was also taught the arrogance and narrow-mindedness of our American values when it comes to understanding the importance or significance of cultures from other nations. What have we learned since Vietnam? Look at our Government in action today, and the contempt we show to other nations unless they agree with us in lock step. What I found so compelling about this girl is how she represents, through no fault of her own, a new image of the ugly American, that looks different but thinks so much like the old image, how little progress we've made on that front, and how far we have to go.

Emotionally powerful and compelling

[scootterp · 26 May 2004]

This documentary film, Daughter From Danang (DFD), is absolutely incredible.

Not that the film-making is anything spectacular, it is the content that is so emotionally powerful and compelling. I would suggest or request that you see DFD first, then come back and read the reviews, because the only way to give a good review is to give away what makes it so good.

There have many reviews that are very harsh saying Heidi is selfish or did not understand Vietnamese culture and so acted atrociously. I would say that these reviewers have only skimmed the surface of the DFD and not realized or thought about the root causes of Heidi's actions and thoughts. And that would be my only criticism about DFD is that that there was additional information that could have been given to the viewer to understand Heidi and then make a better informed judgment concerning her choices. The producers have a website

that gives more insight into Heidi's whole story and more of her thoughts about the reunion with her mother. But I think DFD does give enough clues for the viewer to understand Heidi's reactions.

After 22 years of separation she learns that her mother is alive and wants to meet her. Four months later and only one month after finalizing plans, she goes to Vietnam. In hindsight she says that she should have probably waited longer to let everything settle in emotionally and do some research about Vietnamese culture and society. But after not knowing about her past for so long she is too excited to wait and wants to be reunited with her mother as soon as possible. The first few days seem to go well as she gets to know her family and extended family and where she grew up. But she then starts to get homesick and misses her two daughters. Her mother wants to be with her 24 hours a day, even sleeping in the same room with her, which starts to suffocate Heidi. She thinks about going home a few days early. I think this would be a normal reaction for any American with our tradition of personal space and privacy. Also with the incredible emotions of reuniting with her family she needed some time relax and reflect on everything that had happened. She is persuaded to stay the last few days by her companion T.T. Nhu even though she was leaving to visit relatives in Hanoi. The last few days are hard for Heidi from the effect of culture shock and being overwhelmed by all the emotions. Which leads to her breakdown.

The most telling thing about Heidi is her saying before she left for Vietnam, 'I have always wanted to have somebody love me unconditionally.' Because of the way she grew up I think that is her main reason for going to see her mother and family. She wants to reconnect with her past that has been missing for so long. Her mother undoubtedly wants to reconnect with her also, but not just because she is her daughter, she sees Heidi as her daughter and the family's savoir. Heidi is going to help them from the poverty that they have endured for so long. After the many requests for money and the formal request from her brother to take on the responsibility of taking care of her mother, it all hits her at once. She only came to meet and get know her family. And now after finding out her mother was alive only four months previously, having met her and her family a few days before, still reeling from all of events and emotions of the last few days, being alone, isolated and homesick, she can't articulate and express her feelings to her family so she just shuts down. Her dream of unconditional love from her mother has been compromised by the requests for money and filial responsibility.

Months after the trip she still cannot come to terms with all of her feelings. I think she wants to tell her husband and for him to understand what she went through, but is unable to open up and relive the pain all over again so soon after it happened. Even two years later she is still having problems and has not written her mother. The continued requests for money from her family do not help also. I think the pain is so deep from the perceived abandonment of her birth mother, real abandonment from her adopted mother, and the 22 years of separation, it has made the pain deeply imbedded and it cannot be put aside in a matter of days, weeks or even years, it has to be worked through. I think time is the only thing that will heal Heidi's pain and it will heal as Heidi comes to terms with her life and if she gets to know her family in Danang.

How could all of this been avoided? I think that both Heidi and her family in Danang needed to learn about each other's culture. Heidi needed to know that her family would love her, but would also see her a benefactor and would not be shy about asking for help. The family in Danang should have been told that first Heidi wanted to meet her family, get to know them and establish a relationship before going to the next level. I hope the damage is not too great that this can be achieved.

I wish Heidi and her family the best, and her family in Danang also.

Daughter from Danang update

[milltom · 10/10 · 27 December 2007]

It's almost 2008 and Heidi's mother still waits. Heidi may never understand the complicated reasons for the failure of her visit, as expressed so well in various commentaries. She was told her family would expect help, and perhaps if Tran T Nhu (who paid for and planned the trip to visit relatives in Hanoi before Heidi and the film crew asked to come along) had been able to stay with Heidi, there might not have been the breakdown. It certainly wasn't planned. The film followed the unfolding events with honesty. It remains a small slice of the multiple effects and ongoing trauma of war. Maybe Heidi's children will some day want to visit their Viet Nam family, but they too will have to face the cultural divide. With the right background, which Heidi unfortunately lacked, visiting one's Asian relatives becomes a wonderful and enriching experience.

Cross-cultural understanding...and mis-understanding

[deb_316 · 7/10 · 5 August 2010]

This documentary film invites viewers into history, emotion and extreme cultural differences. It follows the travels of Heidi, a half-Vietnamese/half-American woman who at 7 years old was transported to America as part of Operation Babylift in 1975 when the Viet Cong were terrorizing Vietnam. Now professing to be 101% Americanized and living in the deep south, her life and even her appearance bears little resemblance to her Asian heritage. This proves to make her first visit with her mother and family difficult as she wrestles with the culture shock from Tennessee to Vietnam.

Having been raised in a small midwestern town and having traveled around Asia, I was intrigued by some of the similarities of my own experiences with this film. However, I love to embrace cultural differences, whereas the subject of this film was much more hesitant to be out of her comfort zone. Her main goal was to have a happy reunion with her mother, but she perhaps should have had more preparation for the shock of the experience. Everything from the food, to hygiene, to personal space, to language, to economic differences was overwhelming for Heidi, and she grew more tense as the visit went on. It finally all came to a head when the family asked, as is completely common in Vietnam, for Heidi to help her mother monetarily with a "monthly stipend". For reasons poorly explained in the film, Heidi completely broke down, thus putting up a wall between her and the family. This was the turning point from which Heidi never recovered as the film ended with her still reflecting on the negative experience.

My first reaction was that of anger about the American ethnocentrism in refusing to take time to understand the customs of another culture. To me, I felt that she had such a harsh and unforgiving reaction when it seemed that the family regretted upsetting her to such a degree. However, after reading some of the background information on the website, it seems her reaction was more out of personal hurts than of cultural misunderstandings. Heidi grew up never knowing unconditional love and was told by her adoptive mother that she "owed" her adoptive mother for sacrificing so much. With this knowledge, it is completely understandable why Heidi was so hurt by the notion that she was expected by the Vietnamese family to send money to her mother. Again, she felt she was not loved unconditionally as a daughter, but was instead being asked to "mother" her mother.

The director touched on Heidi's personal story some, but it wasn't referenced very well in explaining Heidi's breakdown, as I thought she was upset and appalled purely because of cultural misunderstandings. Overall, this was a fascinating film about two very different cultures - Vietnamese and American - but not only American...southern culture!! (Which is a whole other level!) Most of the film was tied together very well, except the last 20 minutes. I wanted more explanation. But perhaps that's why this is best as a documentary - it shows real life, rather than a neatly-wrapped box of a fairy tale story. Life isn't perfect.

Not prepared for this..

[m_ats · 9/10 · 18 August 2007]

Just like Heidi wasn't prepared for the way she was treated in Vietnam, I wasn't prepared for watching this emotionally violent documentary. I expected a "good feeling" documentary, showing what could be perceived as some kind of reconciliation between USA and Vietnam, by the public.. How can a daughter-finds-back-her-mother ever turn our to be a sad story? I had better braced myself.

The first moments of the reunion, at the airport, already start to show a distance between the mother and daughter. Such violent emotions.. You can feel the daughter shying away. I was thinking that the documentary would hide the bad stuff and only focus on superficial emotions. It did not, and that's why it's such a great documentary.

First off, it doesn't present a negative view of Americans nor Vietnamese. It just shows a few individuals from those two cultures, without attempting to make them look bad or worse. Heidi is not the typical American girl and neither is her mother the typical Vietnamese mother. It isn't any more Vietnamese than American to have strong emotions like Mai and pour out every time. Such characters exist in both cultures. Just watch Oprah and Dr. Phil and you'll see lots of crying and overreacting. As a matter of fact, many Vietnamese consider improper the display of strong emotions in public.

Now this being said, the movie shows what culture shock is all about.

Heidi has been raised in America, where bread is white and meat comes in burgers. She can't stand the smell of fresh fish in a hot market. She can't stand being in Vietnam for so long, with such heat, humidity, without her commodities. Many Americans and Europeans would feel just the same. To show it on film is not a stab at American culture or a display of American egocentricity. It is a mere fact of life : if you grow up in comfort, even at the expense of freshness and excitement, it is hard to give it up.

On the other hand, the whole "fillial obligation" thing in Vietnam is real, but it is not just about the money. I don't think Heidi was crying because she was being asked money, but rather because she saw them clinging desperately at her as if she were a Saviour. No one can handle that kind of emotional pressure, combined with all the extra attention she kept getting. However, she just needed say No and they backed off.

I think that the two sides need to work a little to make this a better relationship. I wonder how the viewing of this movie was perceived by both parties. It must be terribly difficult for them to watch.

3 stars

[mweston · 7/10 · 5 April 2002]

In 1975, as the Vietnam War was drawing to a close, some 2000 American/Vietnamese babies and children were airlifted from Vietnam to the United States. The official plan was that these children were to be limited to orphans, but many were not, given up by their Vietnamese parents in order to hopefully provide them with better opportunities, and also to prevent their persecution due to their partial American heritage. This documentary follows one particular girl who was 7 years old when she was sent away by her mother. 22 years later the mother and daughter are each seeking information about the other. The daughter, now named Heidi, has been raised in Tennessee in a society where her adoptive single mother feels it is best to hide the truth. The KKK parade that is shown seems to support this decision. With the help of the documentarians, mother and daughter are reunited. As we learned from the question and answer session after the film (shown in San Jose as part of the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival), this reunion was set up very hastily, giving little time to prepare for the cultural differences which turn the later parts of this film far more challenging than the filmmakers expected.

This film won the grand jury prize for documentaries at this year's Sundance Film Festival, which might have set my expectations a bit too high. The film is expected to show on PBS in 2003.

should have won an Oscar

[thomasvinh · 10/10 · 18 June 2006]

Had it been some probable twist of fate, Heidi would be standing in their sandals amongst the squalor. Perhaps she could not provide much assistance given her own circumstances but that's no reason to cut off her family like she did. She could continue some communication through a third party and help out if she could. She could attempt to make them understand how things are in the U.S. and that she has been raised in a different standard of living that is unlike what they go through in Vietnam. The tragedy of this story is the misunderstanding that belies these two cultures and says a lot about our poor understanding of each other.

The Shocking Reunion

[joyco7 · 8/10 · 29 December 2004]

I watched this movie by accident. I was reading a material and had left the TV on when the title came up ..... " Daughter From Danang" .... I did not know what it was, but my instinct told me it was a drama movie/documentary film. I am all for dramas and more so with true to life story documentaries. Without hesitance, I dropped what I was reading and soon became engrossed as the story was unfolding. True, I was expecting a happy ending. Instead, the movie ended in a sad tone with a subtle hint of possibly another tragedy in the making. I was deeply saddened and felt the pang of pain for Heidi that her visit turned out like a nightmare. I myself is a mixture of Chinese and of Southeast Asian background (not Vietnamese). Most of my relatives from both sides of my parents are very poor. They hardly have any food on the table, let alone a decent house or education. I grew up seeing my parents helped their relatives in every way they can in terms of food, shelter, clothes, education and employment. A lot of times, we the children had to sacrifice our wants and likes such as fun outfits, nice toys and holiday trips because my parents could no longer afford those. With all gratitude, my parents provided all of us seven (7) children, the education that was inexistent in our family tree. Helping family and relatives is like a tradition in my family. It is also like a legacy and it will be passed on to the next generation, especially to the ones who are in a position to help. Growing up in this type of environment .... I totally understand and sympathize with the Vietnamese's predicament and the need for help. I am almost sure that when they knew Heidi was coming to see them, they probably thought she will bring them the much needed salvation. The Vietnamese Family may have expected this to happen, more than just hoped for it to happen. This was demonstrated by their aggressiveness in asking for financial help, of which Heidi took it as rude and offensive. Heidi's reaction was also understandable because she was brought up by her adoptive parent the "Americn Way". Very strong minded and independent, amongst many other qualities. I am just curious as to why Heidi was not prepared for all of this? I am aware that the lady who escorted her to Vietnam have told her that life is very different there. But somehow, Heidi should have gone a little further or at least, she should have been encouraged by the filming group to do a little research on the cultural background of her estranged family. Her awareness and familiarization of the social culture could have helped her interact with her family in a more positive way, and may have avoided the unnecessary feeling of shock, anger and resentment that caused her so much anguish, it broke my heart. It's been 2 years now since her emotional visit to Vietnam. She may have taken some time to think things over and have created a plan to reconsider her brother's plea for help. At the end of the interview, Heidi said something to this effect: "I guess I closed the door on them (paused and thinking). Yes, I may have closed the door, but I did not lock the door (gave a smile"): This gave me a strong sense of hope. It tells me that she's taking a step back in order to make two steps forward. Heidi's American upbringing ..... the morals, virtues and principles that she was shaped into by her adoptive family may play a big role in her recognizing and exercising humanitarian gestures towards her Vietnamese family. I hope that this act of good deed will serve as a vehicle for her to learn to accept her real family and to love them unconditionally, as they did for her. According to Heidi, she lives for the present and for the future. The she does not live for the past....... my comment to this is that for Heidi to accept and acknowledge the fact that there was a huge void in her life that needs filling up. In my opinion, she needs to find a way to connect the past to the present, so that she may able to proceed with her journey to the future. I think, if she's able to do this, she would feel whole, strong and liberated. This is then a call for PART TWO of the drama ...... ah! what should be the title? HHHmmm, I'll leave that to you. This movie has been inspiring to me, and no doubt .... should be inspiring for those children like Heidi. This presentation, could help thousands of those children ease their silent suffering, and may help aide them in their healing process. That ultimately, the tragedy in Vietnam War will yield a happy ending. At least, for those innocent children like Heidi who will successfully come to terms with her past, present and future life as a person. To the people who created this film, thank you and more power to you. To Heidi and her family .... be patient for "LOVE WILL CONQUER ALL".

Provocative but flawed documentary

[kitsuned · 4/10 · 13 March 2002]

"Daughter from Danang" was recently shown as part of the Asian American Film Festival in San Francisco, and while it may have been acclaimed at Sundance, here in San Francisco, which obviously has a much larger Asian population, the film induced a much different response among viewers. The film follows a half-Vietnamese, half-American woman named Heidi as she returns to visit Vietnam and the family that gave her up during operation Baby Lift in 1975. After having lived 22 years in a small town in Tennessee, Heidi is woefully unprepared for even a week in such a different culture and the film focuses on a dreadful cultural misunderstanding surrounding family responsibility, money issues, and shattered dreams. Though it was not the filmmaker's responsibility to prepare both Heidi and her family for their meeting, you would think that someone would have had the sense to counsel both parties before thrusting them together for the sake of an emotionally provocative film. The almost unbearable pain that Heidi and her natural mother experience during the film's climax could easily have been averted if someone had simply talked with them beforehand about what to expect and what not to. While this may not have been the filmmaker's fault, I can blame them for the dreadful way in which both Southern Americans and Vietnamese are portrayed. Heidi and her friends and family come across as moronic simpletons, victims of the shamefully ignorant South. In trying to show that Heidi lacked a culturally diverse upbringing, the filmmakers subject us to images of the Klan, racist comments about blacks and "Orientals," and a host of bad accents and bad hair. I mean, why not just have Heidi out in the yard eating dirt? The one-dimensional way in which Southern people are represented is ridiculously prejudiced and, as a Southern American myself, I'm ashamed to have this film serve to reinforce all sorts of cultural stereotypes. The Vietnamese, on the other hand, fare little better. They are all poor and long suffering; veritable martyrs struggling through their oh-so-noble task of surviving day to day in a third world country. As such, we see any number of women running around in their Ao Yai's and humble peasants in their big straw hats wading through water in the rice patties with their cows. This admittedly picturesque façade is no more real than that of the silly Southerners with their bad perms. The filmmakers fail in trying to achieve some deeper cultural understanding about what it means to be American, Asian, and a blend of both, focusing instead on the devastating emotions experienced by Heidi and her natural mother in order to emotionally manipulate the audience.

A sterling documentary

[jonr-3 · 14 April 2003]

Any documentary that keeps me glued to the set (I saw "Daughter from Danang" on PBS television) and can provoke compassion, delight, consternation, embarrassment, anger, admiration, and deep chagrin, is, to my mind, a great documentary.

"Daughter from Danang" fits that description. Regardless of my personal reaction to the players in this particular true-life drama, I will never see human relationships in quite the same way again. I'd challenge anybody to see it and come away indifferent.

A masterwork.

An International adoptee who didn't get it.

[winkpc20 · 9/10 · 19 November 2006]

I work in the adoption field and I found this documentary to be a very interesting piece about an adoptee who is reunited with her birth family. I also found the final part of this documentary quite shocking and hard to take. However, as many others have commented, Heidi was poorly prepared for the moment when her birth siblings asked her to take care of her Mom or to send money to support her. To top it off, the person who had accompanied her left early without apparently warning her that this would happen. I don't want to judge Heidi, but I do hope as many other commenters have indicated, that Heidi will in time try to come to terms with her birth family. It is great that she has the love and support of her husband and two daughters, but it is very sad that her adoptive mother failed her miserably. If she is to be a more complete human being, Heidi needs to learn more about her Asian roots and culture and to form a meaningful relationship with her birth family. They were all victims!

Good example of the limited cultural exposure of rural America

[bruzee · 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.

Genuinely emotional documentary

[baaab · 9/10 · 4 March 2002]

Saw it at Sundance 2002, where it won the Documentary Grand Jury Prize, and deservedly so. This story of cultural differences and blood relations is very powerful, in an extremely unexpected way. One of those documentaries that truly captures the mystery of real human nature, rather than just explaining a situation.

Great study in collision of cultures

[moviegoer · 8/10 · 17 April 2003]

No director or screenwriter could have done a better job of portraying the very different ways Vietnam and the U.S. view family roles and responsibilities! (Plot spoilers ahead)

I really liked the slow way it evolved from being a heartfelt reunion to a family conference on how Heidi was to fit in with the rest of them. There was obviously a great deal of love and acceptance between Heidi and her family, but very real cultural differences put up a not insurmountable barrier between them.

Another comment chided Heidi for not be willing to help out her Vietnamese family by sending a mere $20 a month, but I believe Heidi did the right thing. Her Vietnamese relations were so poor and could have used so much assistance, that once that fountain opened it it would have been drained dry and Heidi had her own family to take care of and raise. It was very telling when her Vietnamese mother prayed that now her daughter could come and build a tomb for her own deceased mother. I did not see these people as being selfish or money-grubbing--that's just how they do things there. And maybe our society has gotten away from this type of familial aid because we have Social Security and welfare, but it is not Heidi's responsibility just because she is American and has money to pick up the slack.

I do hope she is able to go back with the her own daughters and husband and visit again. That door needs to be kept open.

Lovely

[bryedtan_02 · 9/10 · 28 January 2004]

This documentary was in my view the best I have seen in a long time. The main emphasis is the reuniting of mother and daughter despite of all those years of separation. Although the last part which shows of the differences in tradition comes out. It is in my view insignificant to the main idea of reunifying with the your parent. And although there are people who would be critical to Heidi for not supporting her mother financially. I say that is nothing wrong she did she went to see who her mother is and to be reunited with her. Both mother and daughter were placed in extraordinary circumstances and as painful as the decision was it was necessary. My grandfather died without finding out what happened to his relatives in China but even though he did not want to see them because he said he wanted to be seen not as a meal ticket but a love one for that is more important than anything.Heidi went to see her parent and her brothers and sisters that is all it would be wrong to depend on the more well off of any family member my grandfather would say that if he were alive today. Another point it has revealed to me that despite of the mess the Americans did in the Vietnam War the government still did one thing which was decent enough to save the lives of hundreds of thousands that if remain would be killed in a Ethnic Genocide which is mostly ignored by the world.The Americans involvement in the bloody war in my view at first was a noble intention however as the war reached the Johnson administration it became a disaster since then. For there was nothing wrong with the defending of a democratic country from a powerful totalitarian Soviet Empire it was the tactics which were a mistake. Most important is that the bonds of a parent and child is still strong despite of any problems.

Heartbreaking...

[gisele22 · 8 April 2003]

The way Heidi treated her Vietnamese family was a travesty. Maybe it's because I come from a culturally diverse background and was raised to understand and accept cultural differences, but I thought it was common knowledge that in many cultures throughout the world a way to show love for your family is to help care for them financially if you are able. The fact that she took offense to her sister, who has a hole in the floor for a toilet, asking her for money was unbelievable. Instead of showing compassion for her family's situation, she showed nothing but contempt. She said, in effect, "I can't believe they live like this, but how dare they ask me for money to improve their lives?" I'm sure if she would have sent only $10 a month, it would have helped them considerably, but because her Vietnamese family didn't live up to her expectations, she wants nothing to do with them? I have never seen such coldheartedness. And to wipe off her mother's kisses! She had supposedly been starved for affection for 22 years from her adoptive mother, but after only 7 days with her real mother she was tired of her affection? She should have felt ashamed when she sat down to watch the finished documentary and saw her mother still in tears two years after her visit. I feel the utmost sympathy for Heidi's mother and the rest of her family, but I couldn't muster up any sympathy for Heidi... Actually, that's not true. I do feel sorry for Heidi that it wasn't part of her nature to love and accept her family no matter what. I know she was raised by a less- than- affectionate adoptive mother, but she is no longer an innocent 7-year-old. She is an adult who needs to understand and accept that her monetary and, much, much, more importantly, her emotional selfishness will have a lasting effect on many people.

A challenging film for a challenging time in our history

[Michael Fargo · 8/10 · 23 March 2003]

Those who allow us to witness the unfolding of this story bring much of today's headlines into focus: What is the impact of a war on the people who live it. The daughter in this story rises far above the circumstances she was thrown into. With grace and courage and humor, she lets the hard knocks of her life roll off her back like water. I was so impressed with her debth of character.

I don't agree that it is "cultural differences" that skewer these families and the audience at the climax of the film. It's the universal desperation of poverty and issues of abandonment that collide. Heidi survives abandonment twice. And she walks into a situation where her birth mother accurately recognizes that she is "naieve." But so are we.

The airplanes these children were put on back in 1975, we wished, were the equivalent of the basket that carried Moses to be a leader. And Heidi ultimately demonstrates that those dreams can be realized. But we see the toll she paid...and the misery her birth family still endures. If she's not their liberator, let's hope that her life--which she generously exposes--teaches us.

A humbling, beautiful, tragic story that left me inspired.

a sad example of a loss of roots

[NolanSorrento · 9/10 · 14 March 2005]

I really don't know how 'offended' I should be by Heidi in this documentary. When I 1st heard about it, all I really got was how this 'Nam baby was raised in the states and turned her back on her birth mother. With that in mind, I was really ready to be annoyed by her.

Instead I got annoyed with the environment she grew up in. She really had no cultural diversity. There was a large black community and a large white community but nothing else… unless you want to include the Klan. The people she grew up around where something out of King of The Hill, basically if they never even noticed that she was different, they just figured she always just had a tan. I guess unless you have an actual accent or a non-American sounding name, they just aren't going to notice.

So basically she grows up in this overall sheltered bubble, never being exposed to her actual culture. But she finds the need to go & finally meet her birth mother, sort of as a need for closure. What she doesn't really realize is that the rest of the world doesn't really function like Tennessee.

What we end up following is a woman going back to her roots but facing culture shock, she doesn't understand or really comprehend the hows & why's of the way people interact in Vietnam. This really disturbed me since the Heidi came to the states when she was about 6 or 7, but every bit of her Vietnamese side has been burnt out of her. In turn, her birth family is confused because she's one of them but doesn't understand why she doesn't want to accept their family ways.

The hardest part for me was her misunderstanding of their request for them to take care of her birth mother; she refused to help financially either by mailing money or just by taking her back to the states and taking care of her in Tennessee. I do understand that to her, this woman is pretty much just a stranger, but than again, this woman gave up her daughter for her own daughters' safety. Probably the hardest thing a parent could ever have to choose to do.

The gratitude her mother gets from her daughter is to be completely cut off. Heidi, even though she's exposed to the hardships that her maternal mother faced/faces, she still doesn't get it. She doesn't understand that in an Asian culture it's expected that the children take care of the parents when the parents are old. Basically, a very respectful thank you for all the years they spent raising and sacrificing for their children. Unlike America that it's more dependent on how well the parents saved up & how well their retirement plan is that a person bases on whether the parents should live in a retirement community or a house that they paid off. Options that her mother, realistically, does not have.

At the end of this all, I can only hope that Heidi sees this documentary and sees the reflection of herself, in hopes that she'll find the desire to learn more about her roots & take on her rightful responsibilities and roll for her mother.

A Mother-Daughter Reunion after two decades.. A story of happiness and Sorrow

[medusa211 · 8/10 · 12 December 2006]

I found the documentary disturbing. It is definitely a great demonstration of cultural difference and human nature. The daughter who reunites with her Vietnamese mother after two decades, is happy to meet her mother again, but is disappointed at her mother's financial expectations from her.. I understand her pain for wanting to feel this pure love, but she treated the mother at the end, as just a page in her scrapbook. There was no connection.. There was no need to have her mother come visit her to meet her children and husband.. I was left with a strong feeling of disappointment in the daughter. Her half siblings' demands for financial help were a bit annoying, but with the level of education and "exposure" they'd had, one cannot really blame them. Shame on you Heidi! you "closed the door but didn't lock them?", you need serious therapy..

Emotionally Charged Documentary

[hupfons5 · 8/10 · 29 November 2006]

Controversial, enlightening, and emotionally unsettling. This is what you can expect to experience and more, when you watch this extremely well-made documentary.

The reunion between mother and daughter after more than 20 years of separation begins as tearfully happy and eventually becomes tearfully unsettling.

The film describes how Operation Babylift was created and then shows the consequences of that socio-political program on the lives of a Vietnamese child and her estranged mother 20-plus years later. The child is adopted by a single American mother whom we soon discover emotionally abused the little girl and eventually disowned her. The Vietnamese mother has lived all those years with virtually no knowledge of her daughter. This is the backdrop for the highly charged emotional encounter that plays out in front of the viewer's eyes. It's a raw, emotional roller coaster ride for the family and viewers.

I highly recommend this film to those who are willing to grapple with the strong emotions that surround the reunion of an adopted child with the birth parent. The emotions and expectations of all involved are intense. When language and cultural differences are added to such reunions, the emotional stakes become even more highly charged.

These are the compelling issues that you can expect to witness and not soon forget when you watch Daughter From Danang. Unquestionably this is a memorable documentary

America the Bank

[sfran10690 · 8/10 · 22 March 2006]

This was a very sad Documentary, here you have this girl who came to the U.S. and never really experienced any real love from her Adoptive mother. Goes to see her Vietnamese mother and ends up with all these conditions placed on her how sad.

Re: the family, I'm just wondering if they would have their hands out if she lived in France after the war. It seems to be a view that many countries have of this country maybe if they knew that we have 37 million living below the poverty level here it would stamp out the gravy train notion.

Moreover she lived in Army housing with her husband and probably didn't have much herself. Its a shame that money changes all of this, I hope and pray that they can just accept her and love her without expecting her to dig deep in her pocket to please them

Sad and interesting

[eliser · 19 August 2004]

I just saw this movie, it was so difficult and emotional. I was so dismayed and touched by the footage of these children being separated from their Vietnamese mothers. How heart-wrenching it was to watch and I just thank God most of us will never be in that situation.

The warmth and affection Heidi received from her Vietnamese family was very endearing. I have to wonder if she was not at all coached that she would be hit up for money, she seemed so shocked. I also don't want to judge her because I will never be in her situation. Such little monetary support would mean so much to her family. 100 bucks here and there would really improve their comfort. I realize she is not a wealthy woman and is trying to raise her own family and she has a lifestyle to maintain.

I wish she would reach out with clear boundaries to her Vietnamese family. I just think she got overwhelmed and instead of trying to figure out how to work through it she just decided to ignore it.