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CATFISH
IN BLACK BEAN SAUCE IS NOMINATED AS BEST FILM EXPOSÉ
Catfish
in Black Bean Sauce is directed, written, and acted
by Sino-Vietnamese Chi Moui Lo, who left Vietnam at the age
of six, was sponsored by the Jewish League of America and
grew up with his nine brothers and three sisters in Philadelphia
before demonstrating his many talents in Hollywood. The tagline
of the film is "A Vietnamese brother and sister, raised by
an African American couple, are reunited with their birth
mother after twenty-two years." The film centers on a brother
Sap, renamed Dwayne (played by Chi Moui Lo), and his sister
Mai (played by Lauren Tom) who were separated from their parents
during the fall of Saigon and then adopted by an African-American
couple, Harold and Dolores Williams (played by Paul Winfield
and Mary Alice). Harold, deeply loved by both refugees, is
employed at an adoption agency operated by the U.S. government.
Mai, however, never accepted her adoptive mother Dolores and
searched for her birthmother Thanh (played by Khieu Chinh)
for twenty-two years before finding her. Central to the story
is an engagement between Dwayne, who is branch manager at
a bank that caters to African-Americans, and Nina (played
by Sanaa Lathan), an attractive African American college graduate
who is awaiting word about job prospects. A second romance
is between Dwayne's male Caucasian roommate Michael (played
by Tyler Christopher) and Samantha, a fellow Vietnamese refugee
(played by Wing Chen), unaware that his "girlfriend" is in
drag. The
third romance involves Mai, who has married Vinh (played by
Tzi Ma), another refugee from Vietnam. When Thanh arrives
from Vietnam, Mai has no room for her, so she is housed with
Dwayne and Michael, bringing a doting mother together with
an assimilated refugee who at first does not want to be bossed
around by his birthmother as if he were still a child.
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Thanh's assertiveness causes several relationships to go
ballistic, especially when she raises questions about the
propriety of the impending marriage of her son, whom she
insists should be called Sap again. At one point Dolores
and Thanh come to blows; but, after everyone cools down,
reconciliation is ultimately achieved. With much humor,
the point of the story lurks behind the human conflicts.
To be allowed into the United States, for example, refugees
must have sponsors, but the refugees have no say in who
their foster parents are. Moreover, the task of adopting
children from a troubled land is no picnic. Older refugees
want to impose the values of the old country onto their
children, who in turn are eager to become Americanized.
The most poignant incident involves a very young brother
and a sister who are told at the adoption agency that they
are to be split up despite a tearful plea by the older sister.
As a window into the human difficulties faced by many refugees
from Vietnam, the film has a more optimistic outlook than
last year's Political Film Society nominee Bastards,
but the social problems identified in Catfish in Black
Bean Sauce are clearly worthy of a Political Film
Society nomination for best film exposé of the year 2000.
MH
CALL
FOR PAPERS
Following up a successful panel
at the Western Political Science Association convention
at San Jose in March, the Political Film Society invites
members to present papers on a panel at the annual convention
of the Western Political Science Association, to be held
in Las Vegas March 15-17, 2001. Proposals should be forwarded
to Michael Haas at POB 461267, Hollywood, CA 90046.
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