Un lugar maravilloso

Damien Nguyen is incredible in his first film role as a child with a Vietnamese mother and American father, who is trying to find out where he fits in the world. As a mixed race child, he is shunned by the Vietnamese and cannot even hide in a small village with his grandmother.

He sets out on a journey to find his mother and, ultimately, his father in America. It is a long and hazardous trip. Along the way he is befriended by the incredibly beautiful Bail Ling and by Tim Roth. He eventually finds his father; played tenderly by Nick Nolte.

It is a film for drama lovers. It moves slow, but that is necessary to develop the story. There is never a dead spot as the tapestry of his life is carefully woven. Loss, hardship, fear, embarrassment, love, sacrifice - they are all there and critically important to the story.

The ending is surprising, tender, and fitting. It is a movie that will not disappoint.

To be honest, I only got this movie because Bai Ling was in it. She was a secondary character, however, and the main story was about this half Vietnamese, half American boy who searches for his parents.

The film is soul wrenching at times, showing this quiet and calm boy going through hell just to survive and go on, but most of the time it just slowly builds up empathy and outrage. There is a timeless quality about the feel of the movie (I honestly thought it was an 80's film) and the acting is top notch. The first half of it is in Vietnamese, the other in English, after the main character crosses the ocean.

Bottom line: quite good, however really slow paced. There are not many scenes to make the blood boil, so you need to be in the mood for a slow drama. It is worth it, though. It makes people understand that there are misfortunes, and then there are misfortunes.

This was a great movie. It was a sincere and a true movie. Compared to legally blond which is a moral about being blond, stupid and kindhearted is not how the world works like. This movie shows the cruelty and the sadness which is out there in the real world, and it was made in such a good way that i was about crying many times in the movie. This young man who has rejected by his own people, is seeking his destiny in going to America. He brings his much younger brother along with him, and this movies shows the struggle poor people from area with out hopes have to go through in fighting their rights for a better life. People takes advantages of their hopelessness and he and many others end up in this boat with some cynical people smugglers who want to use them as cheap labor and take advantage of the girls for prostitution to make a nice profit for them self. This movie is about hopes, sadness, exploitation of people, cynicism. This movie had also good names like Tim Roth, Bai Ling and Nick Nolte, who delivers a good job like always. I recommend you people to drop the plans of seeing some stupid love comedy for a change, and watch this movie which is very emotional and sad in a very artistic way.

This movie is not specifically about the Vietnam war, but it gives a good perspective that is not biased in any way. It proves that justice and freedom are not present for all people, only the "lucky" ones. The people that are born in the western world. We take it all for granted what 70% of the population can just envy. It is usually said that if you work hard you will always become something significant. But after watching this movie, I understand that no matter how hard you work, if you are born poor you WILL most likely stay poor. The story follows Binh, a half Vietnamese and half American man. He isnt accepted in society in Vietnam just becasue of this hard fact "he is the enemy" and therefore he is worthless. This has become a major issue in Vietnam after the Vietnam war, but it has never been taken this seriously before. This is a very good movie! I would reccomend everyone to watch this, it gives everyone a humanitarian lesson about how we are all humanbeings no matter where we come from.

My son, Tam, and I were reunited on July 24, 2003, after a separation of 36 years. His mother, Huong, tried to flee Vietnam in May, 1975, but due to circumstances beyond her control, she missed the boat which was to take her and Tam to freedom. The communists caught the boat on the Saigon River, and sank it, killing all aboard. Huong finally decided to stick it out and worked hard to raise the money to come to the US. After arriving with Tam in 1994, she died of a stroke later that year. By a stroke of fortune, Tam, in 2003 found someone (an American) who could access my name in the Navy records. Within a few days of locating my name, the navy received a request to forward a letter from Tam. Needless to say, as I never knew if Tam or his mother had survived the war, I was stunned when I opened the large manila envelope from the Navy Department. The rest is history, and we are together. Tam lives and works near Los Angeles, and I recently retired and moved to a close-by state.

The movie, "The Beautiful Country", which I first viewed last night (3/12/07) really struck home. I feel like "I'm one in a million".