Movies And Whatnot...

[halieknife]

The other day I watched a documentary called Daughter from Danang. It was really interesting and got me thinking about a great many things. If you've never seen the film, its about a woman who returns to Vietnam to be reunited with her birth mother. Her mother had given her up at age six and she was brought to the United States and adopted

Comments

[warrocketajax]

Who we are is solidified somewhere in our early childhood. If at this point we're still wrestling with issues concerning identity and family, we're most likely in for the long haul into adulthood. Sounds like an interesting show. Please tell me it wasn't on Oxygen, because then I'll never get to see it.

[halieknife]

Oh, no...it was a PBS documentary but I rented it from Netflix.

[thedeepgreensea]

In Polanski's version, someone's wife will get knocked off in a psycho cult thing, and the guy will be so grief-stricken that he bones a 17 year old and has to flee the country for LIFE.

I didn't know Oxygen shows soft core porn flicks!

I wonder if you have any adopted people on your list that will read this? I see some searching for birth parents online from time to time. And I've known some who've found birth parents and a bond has formed....

[halieknife]

Doesn't that happen in every version?

I do have adopted people on my list. I'm not saying a bond can't be formed. In fact, I said its sad that the lady in the film refused to form a bond with her birth family.

[thedeepgreensea]

Oh, I'm not saying you said anything wrong...I was just wondering what people would think upon reading it...

[halieknife]

Ah, its hard to say. This post was pretty long so I'm guessing its going to have been skipped by most everyone.

[ex_redrain]

You're not in a void; some of us are just on time delay for commenting. I bookmarked this one so I could come back to it when my head wasn't so full.

I've written two papers on that movie, Daughter from Danang. There are so many ways to talk about it -- the way you did with the mother-daughter relationship, the culture shock. The one I keep coming back to is the emphasis on the racial identity, the which one is she, really? Is she American, is she Vietnamese? The movie can't seem to acknowledge that she is a product of her (American) culture and still allow her her biracial identity. Her culture shock... you have to wonder just how much research she did on Vietnamese culture before going there. You'd think there should have been some other than the language lessons...

[halieknife]

I appreciate you taking the time to come back. :)

I wondered that myself about the amount of research she did before meeting her family. It seems as if she went in knowing nothing. She was pretty surprised about the living conditions and the fact that her family wanted financial support...those seem like things that everyone that's even slightly familiar with the culture would know.

I felt frustrated for reasons I couldn't quite put my finger on while watching this and I think you've just pointed it out to me. The movie did make it seem as though being a Vietnamese American wasn't an option...that she could only identify with one or the other.

[ex_redrain]

In some interviews with the directors the suggestion has been made that it was irresponsible on their part for not encouraging Heidi to get at least some basic education about Vietnamese culture and society. Even reading one book about contemporary Vietnam would have told her about the money thing and the soul debt/responsibility to parents thing and even about the responsibilities of the youngest daughter, too.

It is interesting that Heidi never talked about what it was like or what she expected it to be like, other than the relationship with her mother.

Biracial identity is a tough thing to negotiate. It's easier to be either or or, but not both. It's the both that interests me most.