The film Daughter from Danang tells the story of Heip who’s mother is a Vietnamese woman and her father is an American soldier. The story takes place during the Vietnam War when everyone is saying that communism will kill all the racially mixed children. As a result, Heip was sent by her mother to America by an organization called Operation Babylift. She was then adopted by her foster mother who did all she can to make Heip as American as possible. After Heip grew older, she returned to Vietnam and meet her birth mother. However, their joy of reunion quickly turned into strong cultural conflict and the story ended with tragedy.
After watching this film, I immediately recalled the book the leavers we read. There are many similarities between Deming and Heip’s experiences. They are all adopted by American families and be Americanized. Heip may experience less of an identity struggling as she was small when adopted and never stay in a Vietnamese community until she returned to Vietnam. She also forgot how to speak Vietnamese and almost completely identified herself as an American instead of struggling between the American identity and the Vietnamese identity. But this intensified the cultural conflict when she reunites with her birth mother who identifies herself completely as Vietnamese.
When Heip returned to Vietnam, she was surprised by the differences in people’s habits. One example is when she noticed that in Vietnam, people often cook on the street. She cannot handle the relationship between her and her family in Vietnam. Her sister kept asking her for money and treat her as the one who will help the entire family and her mother treated her as the mental support. Heip also cannot get used to the environment and said that this is not what she is expecting. She ended up missing her life in American and is eager to leave. Her decision is similar to Deming who also ends up returning to the community in which he is most familiar and comfortable. What influences Heip and Deming’s decision is their identity.
I think the idea that the author is trying to convey is how our self-identity is influenced by the environment we grow up in and the type of people around us. The author also shows the significant impact of self-identity on people’s decisions and sense of belonging. This film uses a true story, showing audiences that there are still many children who are facing this type of problem. The author encourages the audience to discuss the formation and impact of self-identity and think about will the ending in the film be the only outcome.