The Beautiful Country
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Movie Reviews of The Beautiful Country
Movie Review: A journey of hardship from Vietnam to search for his American father
Summary: 5 Stars
This 2004 Norwegian film begins in Vietnam in 1990. Here, we meet Binh, the gangly 20-year old son of a Vietnamese mother and American G.I. father. He looks different from his Vietnamese relatives who are raising him, and he has been taunted all his life for his awkward tallness and mixed race features. Cast out of his childhood home, he goes to the city where his mother works as a housemaid for cruel wealthy people. His American father has disappeared long ago but his mother has a marriage license that lists his father's home as Houston, Texas. His mother gets him a job at the same household where she works where both of them are treated quite badly. Because of a freak accident that will surely be blamed on Binh, he must leave Vietnam. His mother gives him her life savings and he and his young half-brother who is about 5 years old leave on a long and unpleasant trek to America.
The trip to America exposes the realities of the global traffic in human beings. After a harrowing voyage on an open boat, they finally get to a refugee camp in Malaysia which is a virtual prison. Here, he meets a beautiful young Chinese woman named Ling who sells her body for food and money. She befriends him and helps him care for his young brother. Later, she uses the money she has saved to get Binh, his brother and herself on a boat that smuggles people to America where Binh is forced to sign an agreement that will put him into virtual slavery. The voyage is awful and there is little food or water. People die. All of this is shown in excruciating detail. It is absolutely horrible and very very sad.
In America, Binh is forced to work in a Chinese restaurant, living in a barracks where he sleeps on his bed for only a limited time and then must give it up to the next man who will also use it for only a few hours of sleep. During one very moving scene, he learns from his fellow workers that since his father is an American, he is actually an American citizen and didn't have to sneak into America the way he did. He could have made an application in Vietnam and been flown here on a jet plane. I must say that I shared his joy when he learned that. Now he was free. He could leave the slavery of the kitchens.
It's a long way from New York to Texas but he is determined to find his father. He hitches rides. He does odd jobs and we all get a glimpse of America through his eyes along the way. Eventually, near the very end of the film he does find his father, played by Nick Nolte. This meeting is not what I expected and includes its own kind of pathos that pulled at my heartstrings. The film ends on a bleak but positive note. It was a satisfactory journey for both Binh and the audience.
The part of Binh is played by a young actor named Damien Nguyen, who came to America from Vietnam at the age of three and grew up in California. This is his first film which must have been a huge challenge. He is in every single scene of the movie and had to show a tremendous range of emotions. I applaud his performance as I applaud this film. It was real and serious and thought provoking. I loved it.
Movie Review: The Pity of War: Another View
Summary: 5 Stars
While we are engaged in yet another intrusive ill-advised war, the time is right for the release of a story that reminds us of the lingering malignant consequences of the equally intrusive war in Vietnam. For those who falsely believe that a war is over with the signing of a declaration and the evacuation of troops this magnificently poignant film will be an eye opener. And for those who are aware of the broken families and bitter scars of war marking those who fought on both sides, the story will find a different response - one of memory of pain, regret, and wonder at the tale of just one survivor.
Binh (Damien Nguyen) is a half-breed, his mother a Vietnamese and his father an American soldier, and as such is has no country: he doesn't belong and lives as an outcast. His struggle for life leads to his departing his village in Vietnam for Saigon where he reconnects with his estranged mother Mai (Thi Kim Xuan Chau), and his very young half brother Tam (Dang Quoc Thinh Tran), who works as a servant in an abusive wealthy Vietnamese household. The reunion is touching and Binh joins his mother on the staff as a servant. An unfortunate accident occurs forcing Binh to flee to America, his young brother Tam accompanying him at Mai's insistence: Mai sees America as the beautiful country where her sons will find their father in Houston, Texas and have a new life.
The bulk of the film is the treacherous journey of Binh and Tam along with Ling (Ling Bai), a Chinese girl who befriends them. They survive a detention camp in Malaysia, a doomed boat trip, and a long journey aboard a filthy human trafficking ship whose Captain Oh (Tim Roth) monitors their survival (except for Tam who succumbs to fever) and ultimately releases them into the waters along New York. Binh and Ling survive in Chinatown in New York in the most menial of jobs, again surviving abuse in the land of promise. Eventually Binh travels to Texas for a reunion with his biological father (Nick Nolte) and even that reunion is marked by the permanent scars the war has left on the survivors.
Through all of the incomprehensible hardships Binh is marked with a spirit of survival that pays homage to the human soul's ability to sustain life through hope. The message is powerful and for once is not cosmetically altered by the writers or the director or the fine cast. Damien Nguyen and Ling Bai are outstanding and the cameo roles are all superb. This is an epic film, not a pretty one, but a film about the pity of war, one that pleads the case against war in simply recalling the disastrous after effects that many choose to forget. And it is a story of the triumph of the human spirit. If we are to ever understand the pity of war and the inhumanity of war, we must be aware of the sequelae. Highly recommended on every level. Grady Harp, December 05
Movie Review: What is in the heart
Summary: 5 Stars
There is much sadness in this drama. It is a story of an outsider--in this case, a bui doi, or "less than dust". This is someone of mixed parentage, specifically, Vietnamese and American, but living in Vietnam. His name is Binh and as the film begins, we see him in search of both his parents, neither of whom he knows.
He finds his mother locally, but also finds out his father is back in America, after marrying his mother in Vietnam. The reasons for his father's abrupt departure are mysterious, which drives the story, as does Binh's meeting Ling, a Chinese woman in search of a better life who, like Binh, also travels to America.
The sadness here penetrates directly to the heart. Ling has feelings for Binh but at the same time wants a life Binh can never give her. Binh has a very young brother, Tam, who accompanies him on his journey to America, during which deep sadness overtakes the two brothers. And when Binh finally does find his father in America, it is a sad reunion for several reasons.
The soul of this story is its simplicity, which is communicated expertly by Hans Molland (director of "Zero Kelvin" and "Aberdeen") and screenwriter Sabina Murray, who supplies an interview for the DVD. The acting is straightforward and effective; included in the cast is Tim Roth and Nick Nolte, as well as a number of unknown Asian actors, and Bai Ling as Ling. Molland is an interesting director who effectively fuses man, nature, and deep emotions. In "Zero Kelvin", this combination had the frigid setting of a polar region; in "The Beautiful Country", it is the hardships of life at sea--the journey from Asia to America via freighter.
This is a great piece of cinematic work that should not be overlooked. Very highly recommended.
Movie Review: Gorgeously Filmed and Strangely Unpredictable
Summary: 5 Stars
THE BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY employs a Norwegian director, a half-Filipino writer, and a primarily Chinese and Vietnamese cast to paint its picture of a man's search for self-resolve and his father. As the offspring of a G.I. and a Vietnamese beauty, Binh (exquisitely portrayed by first-timer Damien Nguyen) is oversized and ostracized in his native land.
The plot of this movie is like a Chinese dhow tacking into a wind that keeps changing direction; if you have the patience to watch, its progress is both slow and unpredictable. As Binh progresses on his path, he graduates from fatalistic survival mode to self confidence. And along the way, Binh makes the acquaintance of Tim Roth as the memorable and morally devoid captain of a rusting scow filled with human cargo. (Where has Roth been? This film is a reminder that he's been MIA too long.)
SIDELIGHT: Screenwriter Sabina Murray worked with auteur Terrence Malick (THE THIN RED LINE) on the script preparation. His contributions was to work in memorable visual scenes (of which this movie has many) and the casting of Nick Nolte playing the magnificent wreck of a man. (In other words, playing himself.)
Movie Review: an original approach
Summary: 5 Stars
This film was very well made and cast-the direction,screenplay,acting,cinematography,and location shooting all blended harmoniously.Nick Nolte's role was small in total screen time,but not in importance.Damien Nguyen was highly effective and believeable as the protagonist even though this is apparently his first film performance.Ling Bai and Temuera Morrison are strong in supporting roles.Ling Bai is an experienced and well-known actress,but Morrison may not be a household name to most in the US-he plays the role of a menacing "snakehead" smuggler to perfection-if anyone has seen him in "Once Were Warriors"made in New Zealand it's apparent that he can play the kind of people you wouldn't want to know real well.The depiction of the alien smuggling operation and its aftermath in the USA is solid-I know from my professional experience of over 20 years as an INS agent.The film has a surprise in it-you think you know the story,but you don't.I don't put spoilers in my reviews.It's truly worth seeing.