The Beautiful Country
by Hans Petter Moland
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Bai Ling, Damien Nguyen, Dang Quoc Thinh Tran, Nick Nolte, Thi Hoa MaiDirector: Hans Petter Moland
Brand: COL
Producer: Callum Greene
Producer: Edward R. Pressman
Producer: Gregory G. Woertz
Producer: Jan Økern
Producer: Jon Katz
Writer: Lingard Jervey
Writer: Sabina Murray
DVD: Region Code 99
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 5.1; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Portuguese (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; Vietnamese (Original Language)
Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen, 2.35:1
Running Time: 125 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-12-13
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Movie Reviews of The Beautiful Country
Movie Review: Less than dust
Summary: 5 Stars
THE BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY opens in rural Vietnam in 1990. A young man, Binh (Damien Nguyen), is obviously unlike his fellows. He's tall and large-boned. In fact, he's the offspring of a marriage between a Vietnamese woman and an American serviceman back during the war years. The natives have a derogatory term for such children: Bui Doi, or "Less Than Dust". Indeed, Binh is ostracized even among the relatives with whom he lives - he must eat his meals outside rather than around the dining table. And, when another man marries into the family, Binh is forced from the house. Subsequently, he goes to Saigon to find his mother, Mai (Thi Kim Xuan), who works as a housekeeper in the home of an arrogantly rich family, the son of which has fathered a young boy by Mai, Tam (Dang Quoc Thinh Tran).
For a brief period, Binh works for his mother's employer. Then, a tragic accident forces Mai to compel her son to flee aboard a refugee boat with all her savings, Tam, and the Texas address (from their marriage license) of her American husband, Steve, whom she hasn't seen since he abruptly disappeared decades before. The two eventually end up in a well-intentioned, but grim, Malaysian refugee camp/prison. Here, Binh meets, and falls in love with, Ling (Ling Bai), a young singer wannabe from China. The two combine their money to escape to an offshore freighter, a veritable rust bucket, that'll ferry them (and a multitude of other unfortunates) on the final leg to the United States for a steep price up front and a signed contract for indentured servitude upon arrival. The voyage proves to be a nightmare that many don't survive. But, Binh does, and after a period working as a fast food delivery boy in the Big Apple, he sets out for the Lone Star State to find his father armed only with the address and a time-worn picture of Steve, Mai and himself taken when he was a baby.
The viewer may be forgiven for believing that THE BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY is a Vietnamese production. In fact, it's Norwegian, with English-subtitled Vietnamese dialogue evolving to pidgin-English, then American English, as Binh's language skills steadily improve.
The lead actors are undeniably Damien Nguyen and Ling Bai, though, because of their greater familiarity to American audiences, or because it was written into their contracts, Tim Roth and Nick Nolte, both of whom have crucial but relatively small parts, will probably receive billing in the movie adverts way out of proportion to their actual on-screen time. Roth plays the coldy practical, but not completely unsympathetic, captain of the New York bound freighter with its cargo of misery, while Nolte appears as Steve.
The ending of this visually eloquent and poignant film is bittersweet almost to the point of being tragic. Yet, the viewer is sustained by the knowledge that Binh is ultimately in a better place. Indeed, because THE BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY is a convergence of three tragedies, i.e., the plight of the outcast Bui Doi, that of illegal aliens smuggled into the U.S., and the terrible cost of the Vietnam War on some of the American military who served in that conflict, it would be a gratuitous cop-out if the conclusion was more warm and fuzzy.
Finally, if you think "The Beautiful Country" necessarily refers to the United States, then think again. For the characters, it's a matter of personal perspective.
Summary of The Beautiful Country
Synopsis: Nick NolteItem Type: Unknown Type
Item Rating: R
Street Date: 12/13/05
Wide Screen: yes
Director Cut: no
Special Edition: no
LanguageENGLISH
Foreign Film: no
Subtitlesno
Dubbed: no
Full Frame: no
Re-Release: no
Packaging: Sleeve Please note: This supplier will be closed on 11/24, 11/25, 12/26, 1/2 for the holidays. The shipping cut off is 12/10 to try and have the products delivered by Christmas.
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