Monsoon

After 2014's Lilting, director Hong Khaou returns with another beguiling and understated tale of cultural dislocation. Henry Golding (Crazy Rich Asians) stars as Kit, a man who fled Vietnam with his family as a child, escaping the horrors of the war to grow up in England. In the wake of his mother's death, Kit arrives in Saigon for the first time since he immigrated, intending to scatter her ashes and reconnect with a country he barely remembers. But his stay conjures mixed emotions, particularly when he meets an American man (Parker Sawyers) who is haunted by his own association with the Vietnam War. Recalling the ethereal cinema of So Yong Kim (Treeless Mountain, In Between Days), Monsoon is a subdued, searching film steeped in longing. For Khaou, a Cambodian who found refuge in Vietnam during the terrible reign of the Khmer Rouge, this is an unwaveringly personal story, and he fosters a hushed, hypnotic mood to explore notions of identity and loss. The delicate result is both humorous and vibrantly sensual, making for a solid second feature from a director on the rise.