Reviews

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.

This film has some good actors, location is gorgeous and (briefly) touches on some important issues and viewpoints...

However, it is let down by a several issues.

The pacing is really slow and the run time is far longer than it needed to be, it could easily be twenty minutes shorter and still tell the same story (perhaps better).

The story is very generic and you can see pretty much everything coming. I liked the inclusion of the refugee storyline but it could have been used better.

They become friends very quickly and then lovers - they somehow just know that each other is gay which is a little unrealistic. The romantic scenes were a little stretched out too which, whilst helping to develop the lust and emotional development, felt tidious and there to pad the runtime.

There is also issues with the editing and quality - one shot of the lake is the same shot mashed together with the water suddenely flowing backwards!! Another scene clearly shows the boom mic and another early on shows the mic taped to the actors chest below his shirt. These could easily have been spotted and rectified and therefore were an unwelcome distraction pulling me out of the story.

Overall, it's a nice film and worth a watch but it isn't anything new or groundbreaking. Try Gods Own Country if you want something top drawer.