Monsoon

For those that felt this film was too slow, too unfocused, too whatever.... Too bad for you. I love small films like this, that unveil themselves by the frame, that tell a simple story about complex circumstances and lives. To me, it was beautiful, understated, mesmerizing. A glimpse of Vietnam today, the toll the war took, the transition to economic advancement, the personal suffering and lives changed, and more. I grew up as a kid with the fake Vietnam body count on the nightly news during supper. I also grew up to be gay, and to watch that aspect of this story slowly develop left me with hope. And yes I would see it again, if only to see even more nuance I might have missed. This film was almost a random choice on a Netflix night.... I'm glad I made that choice.

Movie night with Iris.

Director Hong Khaou draws upon his own experiences with this moving tale of a British-Vietnamese man returning to Saigon for the first time in over thirty years to try to find a fitting place to scatter his parents' ashes.

This opens with a beautiful aerial shot showing a road being devoured by a swarm of scooters before a number of cars attempt to struggle their way through. As well as preparing the viewer for the constant soundtrack of Vietnamese traffic, it is an effective metaphor for the protagonist's own struggles. We are taken along on this journey of discovery for Kit as he deals with the emotional turmoil of bereavement at the same time as exploring his own cultural identity, feeling simultaneously like a tourist and someone with roots in a country foreign to him.

Monsoon is not for those with a preference for plot-driven films with mood and emotion very much driving the narrative.

Monsoon is nicely made and opens the viewer up to a slice of modern Vietnam but ultimately the film offers very little.

The film concludes with no clear conclusion on what he decided to do with his parents ashes. There was no clear resolution about the main character's mixed feelings about being back. Presumably he stays with the guy he briefly gets to know but even that relationship felt flat and with little to no substance beyond a physical one.

The majority of characters seemed rather glum and lifeless - usually wearing a frown or blank expression making their intentions and emotions hard to read.

In the end this isn't really a gay film, nor a film about family and resolution and not even a film about journey.

I wish I knew what the idea was meant to be behind this film - the director's other film, Lilting, is wonderful and so beautifully written, acted and produced. This was a let down for me.

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For every critic afraid to tell the truth about an Asian centric film starring Henry Golding, I'll do it for you. It's a non-existent script where Henry spends 75% of movie wandering around saying and doing nothing. With little character development and zero depth to Henry's acting, there is little left of value to the film. Perhaps this emotional, mostly nonspeaking journey could have been saved by an actor who knew how to act well enough to make us feel something, anything, besides boredom.

Kit (Henry Golding) is a Brit. He goes back to his homeland Vietnam after the death of his mother to return her ashes. He was last there at the age of 6 when he escaped with his family. He reconnects with some family and long-ago friends. The city is completely different. He has a fling with Lewis who is looking to manufacture his gay apparel line.

This is a nice little vacation in present-day Saigon where modernity has taken over. One get a sense of Kit's lost and cultural displacement. The gay romance has a couple of cute poignant moments. Other than those individual moments, the movie fails to push a dramatic story through the entire movie. There is little to no tension. This is really only a mood piece.