Plot Summary for
The Beautiful Country (2004) More at IMDbPro »

One of the consequences of America's involvement in the Vietnam war, was the children of GI's by their Vietnamese wives and lovers. For years those women who were involved with Americans were social outcasts, treated as collaborators while their children, even when living with grandparents, endured taunts and abuse. This is the story of one such love child, Binh, being forced from his village at 17, going to Saigon to find his mother, then trying to escape to America with his much younger half brother, Tam, in 1990. The film lingers on the rigors of the voyage: the sampan, the Malaysian detention camps, the illegal refugee ship, and the underground economy with near slavery in New York City. It finally opens up when Binh leaves New York for Houston to find his father. Written by Maple-2

"Bui Doi" (less than dust) is the so called minority of Vietnamese children with American fathers. Binh is a "bui doi", living a sad and lonely existence in the countryside with his family. He's a shy and quiet young man, carrying a complex about his appearance. The only memory about his father is a photograph from his childhood. One day, Binh decides to leave the countryside and look for his mother, who works in Saigon as a maid in a residence. There, Binh will testify his mother's hard existence and discovers that he has a little half brother. A fatal accident will be the beginning of a life full of complications for Binh. He will have to run away with his little brother in a long trip overseas, ending up in a prison for illegal immigrants in Singapur, where he meets a beautiful Chinese girl, Ling, who has to prostitute herself in order to gain some special favors from the guardians. Later, Binh will find himself again overseas, heading to North America, in a boat captained by a kind smuggler (Tim Roth), dedicated to the traffic of illegal immigrants. However, in America, Binh and Ling will have to face a rough reality, illegal immigrant's reality at China Town, in San Francisco, before he finally arrives Houston, Texas, where he believes is living his father. Written by Alejandro Frias

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