There have been countless films about Vietnam, most of which deal with the war. I was more interested in telling a personal story about the destruction of family and the difficult journey towards healing in the aftermath of war,” said Victor Vu, director and writer of First Morning.
Therein lie both the potential and the problem with this 90-minute film.
But first –– about the story. It’s unquestionably told from the perspective of a Vietnamese boat person. Tuan, played by Tri Johnny Nguyen, is the narrator. His family did not leave Vietnam when the Communists took over in 1975, but after a few years of hardship, including a “re-education” experience of the uncle. As with many boat people, families split up. Thus the 9-year-old Tuan and his father Minh, played by Dang Hung Son, left first and were resettled in Texas in 1978.
The father –– again as sometimes happened –– neglected to bring the rest of his family over and instead dallied with a younger fellow refugee woman. Tuan’s mother, uncle and sister made their own way to America, and were eventually resettled in Orange County where the mother rose to own a restaurant that supported the three of them.
Without giving away the crucial incident in the story that defined the relationships within this family, all were eventually reunited in Southern California, but each lived in her or his own world.
Linh, the sister, played by Kathleen Luong, carried within her the devastation of a life ruined by circumstances, both initially and by the inadequate response from her parents.
The premises are good, the circumstances are authentic to many V-A families, and the family dynamics ring true to the majority of the under-30 set.
Yet, the ambition of trying to tell the whole story of the refugee experience in one film proves to be the unraveling of First Morning. There are simply too many angles to squeeze into 90 minutes: From the escape, the betrayal, the neglect, the lack of communication, to the suppression of feelings, the Confucian oppression of women, and the soul of the sister destroyed by circumstances and her own parent’s head in the sand.
Another weakness may also be the narrow range of life experience among the key people behind this film. Vu was born and raised in Los Angeles. He received his film degree from Loyola Marymount University in 1997, and surrounded himself with people literally from the same school: Both Executive Producer Philip Silverman and Director of Photography Peter Soto hail from Marymount.
As with any good food, good stories and good films also need seasoning. First Morning is a promising first step in this young director’s career that’s well worth watching in the years ahead.
Vu-Duc Vuong is a teacher and writer in the Bay Area. His email is vuduc.vuong@gmail.com.