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Daughter from Danang (2002)
Tragic example of American cultural ethnocentrism.
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.