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. 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
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