Daughter of Danang Media Review PDF

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Zaynah Zaman Intl 321 10/06/2017 Daughter of Danang Media Review Daughter of Danang is a documentary about a woman named Heidi Bub (Hiep) who was sent to the US by her mother during the Vietnam War and adopted by a Southern woman. The documentary centers around Heidi trying to find her birth mother. The documentary portrays Heidi’s excitement turning into frustration over time as she realized that maybe the reunion with her birth family isn’t the picture perfect scenario she expected it to be. Heidi struggles through cultural shock and seems very closed off towards the Vietnamese culture, and soon it all becomes too much for her when she ends up leaving and never contacting her birth family again. Globalization is portrayed in Daughter of Danang in many ways throughout the film. At first when these Americans were going to Vietnam to convince the Vietnamese people to give up their children for adoption was an example of globalization. Americans living in the states and adopting Vietnamese children were also examples of globalization. Heidi herself has faced globalization when she first moved from Vietnam to the US. It is mentioned in the documentary that how her adoptive family made a southerner out of her quickly. Identity seems to play a key role in the documentary as well. Throughout the documentary we see Heidi struggling with her identity. While she is excited to see her birth family in Vietnam and she tries to integrate herself to be more Vietnamese over time it all becomes too much for Heidi as, as far as Heidi was concerned she was just an all American girl. Heidi’s struggle with her identity, and her denial to accept Vietnamese culture becomes apparent when she mentions how she didn’t particularly like her mother constantly being in close contact with her, she also didn’t seem to understand that in Vietnam it is customary for children to help their parents and she took this as an attack almost. While Heidi had a hard time coping and accepting that she is a Vietnamese, her family treated her like a Vietnamese which created a line of miscommunication.

Zaynah Zaman Intl 321 10/06/2017 Overall throughout the documentary I felt that the main characters did depict their experiences very clearly, especially Heidi as she was always very open about how she felt, and how she couldn’t really relate with her birth family, she felt out of place and she felt strongly within herself that she was an American. The film achieves its purpose through narration, as well as visuals as the film basically followed Heidi around her journey which gave the viewers the sense that they were present during her encounter. A certain bias that I felt present through this documentary is that it was almost portrayed as if being American meant luxury and that American’s were far more superior. This is especially clear when American’s were trying to convince the Vietnamese to give up their children. Also when Heidi kept mentioning “how American” she was or how she didn’t like certain things about Vietnam. While culture shock could be a part of Heidi’s reaction she did have a negative attitude towards Vietnam. Throughout the film a lot of emotional appeal is used to persuade the audience of the message being conveyed. At the being we see Heidi’s excitement and hope to find her mother, she mentions how she wants to find someone who will actually love her. We also see Heidi becoming frustrated with her family, and crying before leaving Vietnam. We see Heidi’s mother breaking into tears after she is reunited with her daughter. Emotional appeal seems to me one of the strongest persuasion tool used repetitively throughout the film. Overall I think the film did a good job of persuading the audience while still maintaining the integrity of the content....