daughter from danang: the story

let me try to be very objective about the above mentioned documentary that i just saw on central. it was part of the singapore film festival, though not exactly a film by nature. but i guess it got through because of the emotional aspect of the piece, which by the way, got me tearing like a babe.

the piece featured an relatively unknown fact of the vietnam war. when the truce was reached, america proffered a gift request - of vietnamese orphans to be couriered over to america for a chance at a better life. the problem was that some of the supposed orphans, were not orphans at all. they were fathered by american soldiers, but for that, they were to be sent back as well. one of them was this girl called Hiep, whose mother still lives in Vietnam. but Hiep being brought to america, assimilated into the life and culture over there, took on a new name Heidi, and eventually had her own family.

but the memories of her past eventually caught up with her, and she had an overwhelming desire to return to Vietnam, and against the odds, find her mother and reunite with her long lost family of 22 years. the initial meeting was of course emotional. her mother broke down and kissed her over and over again. Heidi was brought back to family's residence where she spent the next few days learning and discovering for herself what she had missed the past 22 years.

Heidi came with her own ideas and perceptions as to how things were going to be. she had expected the meeting to be a beautiful and wondrous process, where finally, she could come to terms with who she was. her mother took her around the village, to the market, to the rice fields, to her family members, to her ancestral home. her mother tried to show her her heritage and assimilate her into her family, and i believe that she tried really hard.

but the first blow came to Heidi and shattered her picture-perfect impression of her family. when Heidi visited her sister, she gave her sister some money. unabashedly, the sister asked her for more so that she could support the education of her children. Heidi was taken aback by the blunt honesty of her sister. unfortunately, that was not all. Heidi grew increasingly discontented and disillusioned with the life in Vietnam, she being city and american bred and all that. she could not see herself adjusting to the life there, nor live with her family.

the final straw came when a few days before Heidi left, they had a family meeting. in that meeting, Heidi's brother asked if Heidi would be willing to bring her mother back to the US so that they could live together to perhaps catch up on times, make up for the time lost, and reignite the love between mother and child. and in the meantimes, since she was better off that all of them, they were wondering if Heidi could send some money back every month to help support their mother. Heidi was affronted by such a blatant demand and she left the meeting.

the next scene showed her crying, and saying that she could not do it. she could not take the ways of her family in Vietnam and that she just wanted to go home. And she wished she had never even dreamt of coming back, because her beautiful memories were now all shattered by the harsh reality.

before she left, she told her family, that she could not fulfill their expectations of her. and though she would "try her best", there were no promises. and her mother kissed her, saying that the kiss would keep Heidi's essence with her. she passed Heidi an envelope with the family's residence address and asked Heidi to keep in touch.

the documentary ended with Heidi back in america with her family, comfortable and not wanting to ever revisit that part of her life again. she received many letters from her family, but according to her, all were requests for financial aid.

she never replied to any of them.