Although Elyse Dinh has sung about Spider-Man, her latest vocal flex deserves more notice. She can be heard in the opening moments of Corey Deshon’s shot-on-16mm directorial debut, performing one of the most well-known Vietnamese lullabies in its original wording (generally referred to as “แบฆu ฦก dรญ dแบงu”). It’s an elegant and fitting inclusion, especially since Daughter’s foundation consists of the grimmer shades of family dynamics. As if reflective of that, the closer we get to the end of the opening credits, the shakier Dinh’s voice becomes. The vocals create this twisted parallel to the visuals of Father (Casper Van Dien) and Brother (Ian Alexander) in the process of abducting a young woman (Vivien Ngรด) to be their Daughter/Sister, and the feeling that this singing is a form of grieving rather than comforting grows more valid.
“It was actually pulled from a different scene that didn’t make it into the final version, so the intention when I did that on camera first was slightly different than how it ended up being used,” said Dinh, who plays Mother in the film. “I said [to Corey], ‘What if I sing, you know, this song?’ And I sang a little bit of it, and he said, ‘Love it, yep, we can put it in.’ And there’s no copyright that we need to worry about.”
Besides the lullaby, two other major in-culture aspects Dinh gets to bring to Deshon’s film are Vietnamese dialogueโfor example, “Nรณ sแบฝ dแป hฦกn nแบฟu con lร m nhฦฐ รดng muแปn” (subtitled as “It’s easier to give him what he wants”)โand many Vietnamese creatives’ drive to disrupt typecasting as war-related figures. Ngรด, who plays Daughter, is also similar to Dinh; her character converses in Vietnamese at times, and she is the film’s lead.
Touching upon the upgrading of roles has Dinh feeling emotional. Not only is it every actor’s dream, it’s also a statement that those of Vietnamese descent can be more. She shared there were past productions where people, by default, would assume she was a background actor when she was, in fact, a principal. At one point, Dinh thought maybe she had the word “background” printed on her forehead.
As she said, “It was very recently that the lightbulb went on where I said, ‘Oh, my God, it’s not me personallyโit’s my ethnicity.’ It’s because people have a hard time thinking we could be the lead in something, actually have lines in something. To be on this set, where so many POCs are fellow Vietnamese, getting in line and nobody saying, ‘Go over there.'”
Of course, Daughter is the focus of Daughter, but Mother is probably the more visible reason for viewers to form questions and conclusions about the “family” members, the facts regarding their dynamics and the trajectory of this multi-chapter story. The costumes designed by Angelique Rousset-Johnson offer additional details. Go ahead and theorize how the colors and patterns are in sync with Mother’s moods and thought processes. That Buddha necklace sure looks out of place for someone who’s part of a very disturbing system. The code-switching she executes around Daughterโare they moments where truths get shared or refined exhibits of complicity?
“I loved playing mother because she’s so mysterious,” Dinh says. “She’s like a duck where she makes it look smooth up here, but it’s all crazy underneath.”
In a sense, Mother is the kind of character Dinh always welcomes into her repertoire. It lets her be unpredictable, a personality not typically seen. A character that allows Dinh to get in touch with the complexity that makes a human precisely so, or a melody with the ability to haunt.
Daughter is in select theaters and on demand. Home media release is set for May 9, 2023.
