(M) Daughter From Danang (2002, Documentary) Grade: B
This was rather interesting. A vietnamese womans husband leaves her with her children and to fend for herself while he joins the communist side of the vietnamese soilders during the Vietnam war. The abandoned mother gets a job at a U.S. Military base and has sex with an officer in exchange for her to be able to feed her family. The woman becomes pregnant and 4 months into her pregnancy the U.S. soilder leaves. The mother who is considered a "whore" for sleeping with an American raises her family with this "half-breed". With public opinion of the U.S. involvement in the vietnam war very negative, the U.S. says they are bringing back a bunch of vietnamese orphans to provide a better life for them. Many of the children however are not orphans but are considered to be "attractive" vietnamese children and the parents are told there will be an open line of communication with their children and that they will return (parents of "half-breeds" give up their children because the Viet-Kong will kill any "half-breed" child). Of course, the U.S. doesn't hold up their claim

One child (the main woman of this documentary) decides to return to visit her Vietnamese family. She is married with children in the U.S. and though she has memories of her life in Vietnam she has been raised in America. The rest of the documentary documents this re-union and with cultural differences (especially in american perspective versus vietnamese perspective involving money and supporting your parents) the woman begins to regret ever coming to Vietnam.

It's really interesting and you do see the differences in lifestyles of Vietnamese verses Americans in lifestyle, living circumstances, perspectives on family and money values.

I personally really respected the way the Vietnamese who have little put so much on family and close ties with all their relatives who all live within proximety to each other and support each other, where as here in America sadly it's a country of personal isolation and a fend for yourself mentality. I'd recommend watching this documentary.