05/07/2019 - Writer-director Hong Khaou weaves together a tale of alienation, displacement and love in Vietnam

British director Hong Khaou captures the feelings of groundlessness that come from growing up in a country away from your place of birth (or, indeed, from being born to immigrant parents) in Monsoon [+see also:
trailer
interview: Hong Khaou
film profile], a slow-burning tale of alienation which had its World Premiere in Official Competition at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. The Czech festival also hosted Khaou’s much-admired debut film Lilting [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] in 2014. Fans of slow cinema will find much to admire in the way the pacing of the film captures the emotional turmoil going on inside the head of Kit (a nuanced Henry Golding) as he returns to Vietnam some three decades after his family left the country when he was 6 years old.

The drama benefits from the insights and nuances begotten from the director’s personal experience. Cambodian-Chinese by birth, Khaou’s family fled the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia when he was a baby. He then lived in Vietnam until he was eight when the family fled to England as ‘boat people’ after reunification. Kit arrives in Ho Chi Minh City with the intention of spreading his parents’ ashes, but where should he spread them? To help him find the answer, Kit visits his second cousin Lee (David Tran) who acts as Kit’s guide to both the present and his past.

The quiet expertise of Khaou’s choices in showing Vietnamese history is even prevalent when Kit swipes right on a dating app. He meets Lewis (Parker Sawyers), a fashion designer who explains that he called his brand ‘curve’ “because it’s not straight”; Kit’s reaction upon hearing this is priceless. Lewis is an African American with his own connection to the country, his father having fought in the Vietnam War. This is where the stillness of Monsoon is particularly effective: a counterpoint to the usual depiction of ‘Nam in the movies as a place of death and destruction, with even the all-time classics such as Palme d’Or winner Apocalypse Now and Oscar winner Platoon leaving ears ringing. Here, there is a reflection and a realisation that the history of a country doesn’t start and end when the Americans come and go. Both Kit and Lewis are trying to understand their own past and overcome their own sense of displacement.

Vietnam is changing, too. Kit doesn’t recognise the place he left, and that’s not because he was so young when he got on the boat. It’s a modern city that is looking to the future, whilst tangoing with its traditions. Lewis introduces Kit to art student Linh (Molly Harris), who he then meets up with in Hanoi, where she introduces him to the dying art of unmechanised Lotus tea scenting. Another contradiction for Kit to chew over: is modernisation always heading to a better future? Is this why Khaou has opted for a pacing and style more associated with Yasujirō Ozu than with Francis Ford Coppola? As with the best slow movies, the glacial pacing suggests nothing is happening, when in fact the opposite is true. Monsoon is an acquired taste, out of tune with the editing style and pace of most British films, but for those willing to give in to this cultural mash-up, there are many rewards to be had.

Brewed in the UK by BBC Films and BFI in association with Sharp House and Moonspun Films, Monsoon is sold internationally by Protagonist Pictures.