“Domino” (1995): Identity and Cultural Isolation Essay (Movie Review)

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The paper is an examination of the movie Domino produced by Slva Basmajian and Shanti Thakur in 1995. The movie generally makes the viewers understand the stories about six individuals who are from different racial origins.

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It explores the major issues of identity, cultural isolation as well as searching for community. Despite the fact that there is one major ‘race’, the individuals from interracial origin seem to undergo a number of serious experiences as they are categorized, bringing a challenge to them while trying to embrace the cultures of their parents.

In the video Domino, the theme comes out clearly through the personal accounts of the actors. Each among them Hamilton recount the manner with which their identity was affected by what their parents went through, politics within the family as well as hierarchies issues relating to race, gender as well as social class.

Social structures are patterned social arrangements that form a society which differently determines the kinds of actions persons take within a socialized setting. One major social structure that dictated the situation in which Hamilton was in while he was a child was the family social economic status.

It is worth noting that such social stratification played a major role on how he was interacting with others. Hamilton in most cases had a rough time interacting with children of pure Chinese or black decent only because he was interracial. Being from a mixed racial origin, this factor was used to classify his family. It was only those individuals that were deemed ‘pure’ to hold the upper social class hence a stronger economic status (Video Domino).

Additionally, it is worth noting that being of a Chinese and an African decent he was often in pain of deciding what culture to follow while carrying on with his day to day activities. There are instances that he felt like taking an action driven by cultures and norms from the Chinese background.

Similarly his skin colour played a major part in his life especially during interaction with others. He was neither black nor Chinese and this worked against his abilities to easily interact with other children without being prejudiced.

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More importantly, family dynamism as well as religion shaped the social life of Hamilton in terms of who he was able to interact with. Hamilton noted that there are a number of children who will adopt one racial background over the other despite the fact that they are interracial and work hard to be strong with regards to such a racial background. However whatever it is done in the outside nothing happens inside such individuals.

Although am not from an interracial background, I happened to have a close friend while I was in elementary school whom parents were of Korea and Africa origin. Being her close friend I noted with concern the sad experiences she was going through.

Some students used to scold her based on her racial background. There were incidences where she was not allowed to play with other students; this made her sad. As her friend I played a bigger role in making others stop to a certain degree from scolding her. She used to confide to me how she was being torn between following her mother’s or father’s norms and beliefs. From the review of the film Domino it has been established that individual from interracial background undergo painful and mixed experiences. A social structure dictates realms of individual possibilities.

Work Cited

Domino: Interracial People and the Search for Identity. Dir. Shanti Thakur. Prod. Slva Basmajian and Shanti Thakur. DVD. Films for the Humanities and Sciences, 1995.

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""Domino" (1995): Identity and Cultural Isolation." IvyPanda, 15 June 2022, ivypanda.com/essays/leith-hamilton/.

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IvyPanda. (2022) '"Domino" (1995): Identity and Cultural Isolation'. 15 June.

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IvyPanda. 2022. ""Domino" (1995): Identity and Cultural Isolation." June 15, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/leith-hamilton/.

1. IvyPanda. ""Domino" (1995): Identity and Cultural Isolation." June 15, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/leith-hamilton/.


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IvyPanda. ""Domino" (1995): Identity and Cultural Isolation." June 15, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/leith-hamilton/.

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