This curious feature relies for its dramatic impact on the difficulties faced by Vietnamese orphans of multi-racial origin, mostly the children of American soldiers and Vietnamese women. The onus against these children is particularly strong when the American father was black. In this melodrama, Lai (Viet Trinh) is such a boy, living in rural Vietnam, who goes to great lengths to overcompensate for his visible non-Vietnamese origins. Even though he is almost (but not quite) a social pariah, he wins the attentions of a pretty local girl. They have a romance which results in her becoming pregnant, but her mother will not allow her to marry him. Lai, despondent, goes to Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon) to try and find out who his father was, and is not aware that he has become the father of a child.
by Clarke Fountain
synopsis
