First Daughter

I'm not entirely sure that I thinking about the right movie here, but I saw a short film entitled "First Daughter" at the Heartland Film Festival last year. There can't be too many of them around.

What I saw was a very thoughtful, engaging story. It was definitely the best short film at Heartland that year. It was the story of a young Vietnamese girl, and how she copes with the death of her father and grandmother. Although the film was made on a very small budget, it has a great deal of fantasy, including one scene where paper puppets seem to come to life. The movie's plot involves the grandmother explaining the Vietnamese legends and custom's involving death to the young girl, who is still trying to cope with her father's death. (She does this by obsessing about the heart, for her father died of a heart attack. The film opens while she reads her brother's pulse and records it, making sure that he is OK).

The film is very intuitive about how a child deals with death. It may not be easier as an adult to deal with the death of a loved one, but children cannot yet fully understand how to deal with it. This film demonstrates that beautifully.

Rating: ***1/2 out of four

I can't wait to see more from this director/writer. She has a great visual sense and story-telling style. The characters were deep and interesting. Each one of them offered a complete story. I wanted to see more of this story. It was a lot to tell in thirty minutes and the director deftly accomplishes this task. It left me wanting to know them all more deeply. The performances were excellent. Especially, Michael Paul Chan as the deeply hurting and sympathetic, drunken uncle. The production design, especially in the puppet scenes, were top rate. I can't say enough about the visual look here. These scenes alone are reason to see the stunning debut. Truly a beautiful piece both in heart and look. Superb! Superb! Superb! Superb!!!!!!!