The Beautiful Country
|
List Price: Our Price: $2.94 You Save: $12.05 (80%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $0.69 (click here) Category: DVD See more DVD releases |
|---|
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
Movie Reviews of The Beautiful Country
Movie Review: Great storytelling
Summary: 4 Stars
Just like the mixed-race offspring of white and black people (especially in the time of slavery), the biracial offspring of whites and Asians have had a lot to deal with in the past and even today.
This movie is rife with tragedy as one thing after another seems to go so bad. And none of it is even Binh's fault - you know the saying, sh** happens. A simple overreaction from the mistress of the manor in Vietnam and a genuine accident lead to her severe injury and apparently death. Binh is then forced to flee with his little half-brother, and the little kid doesn't fare so well on the arduous trip to America after they manage to escape a refugee camp with a pretty young lady. In America he is lied to so people can keep using him as labor because he is a illegal immigrant, until he finds out the truth.
I have to say that I was very disappointed in the ending. What is a blind man doing living by himself (in a trailer on his boss' ranch) and why would he leave the nice house he used to live in, and why was the woman at the house so bitter about him? It felt like a contrived plot device to me. His explanation of disappearing was sound, I'll give him that, but the least he could have done was send for his wife and child so they could be safer and happier in America, the government/army would have helped him with the paperwork. I would have given this movie a perfect five stars if it wasn't for the very disappointing ending as well as the whole 'blind handyman on the ranch' bit because honestly, if I was a rancher, I wouldn't want a blind man around (nothing against blind people, but this wasn't a good situation for a blind person to be in)
Movie Review: "Keep A Good Heart" ~ A Generation In Search Of Identity
Summary: 4 Stars
The film opens with the statement: 'Bui Doi' meaning: "less than dust." The phase is used to describe the children of a Vietnamese mother and an American father. Not an uplifting beginning, but an all to true reality.
Binh (Damien Nguyen), a young man born of a Vietnamese Mother and an American solider decides to go to America in search of his Father. 'The Beautiful Country' chronicles the hardships, disappointments, losses and tragedies that occur along the way.
This is not what I would call a happy movie even though it appears Binh is successful at reaching his ultimate goal in the end. Finding what you are searching for doesn't necessarily mean everything will finally work out as you had hoped. True to its subject matter it shows the situation as it is. Many young adult Vietnamese of mixed origin are still looking for self identity and the Father that left them behind. A story that needs to be told. Ultimately you are left to wonder what 'Beautiful Country' is the title of the film refering to. Vietnam or America?
Wonderful performance by newcomer Damien Nguyen and the exotic Bai Ling, with solid performances by Nick Nolte, Tim Roth and Temuera Morrison.
Movie Review: Emotional, Gentle, Beautiful
Summary: 4 Stars
The plot and the characters are a bit cliché, but I like it that way. The acting and story lines are very well done. The director gets it right in so many ways. The main character, a poor young man of mixed American / Vietnamese parentage, is both shy and strong. His mother is loving and faithful. Her, and later his, employers are haughty, exploitive, and distrustful. This results in an unfortunate accident and his immediate departure to Malaysia with his younger half brother. Enter the Chinese refugee (Bai Ling). Attractive, kind, and practical, she makes her way in life by living off her looks. Then onward to the cargo ship for the ocean voyage. The ruthless snakehead ultimately gets his just reward. The refugees make it to America. The work is menial. The undocumented immigrants fall in love, but to no avail. She hooks up with a white American businessman. He travels to Houston and then Sweetwater, Texas, where he finds his long suffering father (Nick Nolte). The past becomes tangible for both father and son. The story comes to a gentle end. Very cliché, but also very touching.Movie Review: Powerful enough - "The Beautiful Country" (Nguyen)
Summary: 4 Stars
The son of an American soldier and a Vietnamese travles to America in the search of his father. That's the story, his and the one of millions of immigrants looking for a better world.
This story is so potent that even some Hollywoodian clichés cannot ruin it (romantic music when he is with the Chinese girl, for example). What is told is so important that the fact that our hero comes straight out of difficult situations without many problems is a mistake that can be forgiven. The end is so subtle that you wish the little imperfections would be corrected to make this film closer to a classic. My recommendation is to watch it: it helps a little bit to understand the way the world works, even when all the participants involved in the story don't go out of the way to make real problems for our half-American half-Vietnamese boy (after watching it think about all the things that could have gone "really" wrong).
Movie Review: Nicely Done
Summary: 4 Stars
If you like a good story line with above average acting you will enjoy this movie. The movie takes its time to let you get to know the characters and become a part of their suffering. Very well acted and keeps moving.