Movie Brings Home Pain for Vietnamese-American Extras

Movie cameras rolled. And, as could be expected, the making of a TV motion picture on Golden West College’s campus on Friday sparked a lot of student interest.

What might not have been expected, however, was how the movie’s subject matter provoked thoughtful--and sometimes painful--introspection.

“It brings back memories of Vietnam,” said one of the movie extras, Nhut Vuong, 20, of Garden Grove, who is a nursing student at the community college. “It reminds me that I lost my sister when we escaped Vietnam in 1986, trying to come to America.”

Another movie extra, Tom Tran, 19, a business major from Huntington Beach, said: “I was only 5 in 1975 (when South Vietnam was conquered by Communist North Vietnam). But I remember the curfews. I remember the gunshots.”

The students were among about 85 Orange County extras hired for filming scenes Friday for an NBC Movie of the Week. Titled “Face of Love,” the movie--scheduled to be broadcast in early April--is based on a true story about a Vietnam War veteran from California who searched for a daughter conceived during a wartime romance.

The veteran, Barry Huntoon of Chico, thought he recognized his daughter in a photo in Life magazine. The magazine, many years after the war, published photos of children still in Vietnam who were fathered by American servicemen. Huntoon, who had married an American woman after he returned, desperately worked to bring the child to California. He succeeded. But he and his wife, Laura, later found out that the little girl was not his offspring after all. Nonetheless, the Huntoons told the child that they loved her and considered her their own.

The real-life story was published in The Times in several major stories in 1987 and 1988 and also broadcast on the ABC-TV network program, “20/20.” NBC decided it would make a good movie.

“The movie people were looking for a set with a Vietnamese Tet festival,” said Fay Hendry, spokeswoman for Golden West College. “Since we had just had a Tet festival on campus, and since we have so many Vietnamese students, they picked us. We also were told they liked our location because the campus is so beautiful.”

The campus Tet festival took place Jan. 20 and 21. The booths had been stored away but were easily set up again by stagehands, Hendry said.

About 10% of the 14,000 students at Golden West College are Vietnamese-Americans, providing the movie makers with a large pool of potential extras. “But it wasn’t easy getting students to apply to be extras,” said Hendry. “There was much concern on their part that something political would be involved, and they are very strongly anti-Communist.”

Kieu Chinh, a former South Vietnam movie star who now lives in Studio City, served as an adviser for the film.

“This movie is different,” she said. “I’m very proud of this story. It’s not about the war. It’s about what happened to people after the war.” Nonetheless, Chinh said, she had to assure some Golden West students that the movie would not be politically controversial in order to get some to apply as extras.

The scenes being filmed on the campus Friday involved Barry Huntoon (played by actor Anthony John Denison) and Laura Huntoon (portrayed by Cheryl Ladd) as they come to grips with the fact that the Vietnamese child is not his daughter. A key scene shows the couple walking through a Vietnamese-American Tet festival, supposedly in the Chico area. The Huntoons talk about their relationship as they stroll through the colorful festival grounds.

The scores of extras on the set were supposed to act as if they were attending the festival, buying food and souvenirs at booths, playing games and generally enjoying the event. “But remember that you can’t speak, so just mouth your conversation,” said Don Eaton, first assistant director, as he prepared the extras for the shot. “Be happy. It’s a beautiful day. But don’t talk. Now, ready. Background! Action! OK, we’re rolling.”

With that, one of many takes were filmed of Denison and Ladd walking through the milling festival crowd. One take was ruined by the siren of a Huntington Beach police car roaring by on a nearby street. Another take was dumped when Golden West College’s stately clock chimes marked noon--with 12 long clangs of the bells.

Scores of college students circled the outdoor festival set, curiously watching the lights, camera, action.

“Cheryl Ladd is a very all-right lady,” proclaimed one spectator, Chris Byrne, 21, a music major from Westminster.

The Vietnamese-American students were more solemn as they watched the filming. Movie adviser Chinh said the subject matter is very meaningful and personal to Vietnamese. “There are more than 30,000 children of American servicemen still in Vietnam,” she said. “This is the story of one of them.”

Ladd, during a break between filming, said the movie made her admire the courage of Laura and Barry Huntoon.

“It’s a lovely, very human story,” she said. “I admire both of them. What they attempted to, and what this man wanted to do--to make something about the war right in his mind and in his heart, and settle something, and to do the right thing--I think is such an admirable thing.”

“There are so many children all over the world who have nobody who cares about them,” Ladd said. “So for him to want to go back there, and go through all that pain of remembering all that again, and get that child--well, I really admire that.”