Monsoon

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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This could have been a very personal topic for the filmmakers, but to the casual viewer it is quite a bore. This could have been a poignant film about self discovery in the against the aftermath of the Vietnam War and the refugee crisis in the 1980's and 1990's. However, the film focuses on Kit's sexual conquests way more than the reason he is in Vietnam. The ending is just puzzling and not very satisfying either.

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.

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.

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.