Monsoon (2019 film)

Monsoon is a 2019 British drama film, written and directed by Hong Khaou and produced by Tracey O'Riordan. It stars Henry Golding, Parker Sawyers, David Tran and Molly Harris.

Monsoon
Official poster
Directed byHong Khaou
Produced byTracey O'Riordan
Written byHong Khaou
Starring
Music byJohn Cummings
CinematographyBenjamin Kracun
Edited byMark Towns
Production
companies
Distributed by
Release date
  • 29 June 2019 (2019-06-29) (KVIFF)
  • 25 September 2020 (2020-09-25) (United Kingdom)
Running time
85 minutes
Country
  • United Kingdom
  • Vietnam
Language
  • English
  • Vietnamese

Monsoon had its world premiere at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival on 29 June 2019. It is scheduled to be released on 25 September 2020, by Peccadillo Pictures.

Synopsis

Kit (Henry Golding), a young British Vietnamese man, returns to his birth country for the first time in over 30 years. He was just eight years old when he and his family escaped Saigon as 'boat refugees' after the Vietnam War. No longer familiar with this country and unable to speak his native language, Kit embarks on a personal journey from Saigon to Hanoi in search of a place to scatter his parents’ ashes. Along the way he meets his estranged family through Lee (David Tran) and falls for Lewis (Parker Sawyers), an American whose father had fought in the war.

During his travels, Kit finally starts to connect to the memories of his parents and his own roots.

Cast
  • Henry Golding as Kit
  • Parker Sawyers as Lewis
  • David Tran as Lee
  • Molly Harris as Linh
  • Lâm Vissay as Henry
  • Edouard Leo as Stephane
  • Myan Nguyen as Pharmacist

Production

Monsoon was awarded the Sundance Institute/Mahindra Global Filmmaking Award in 2014.[1] The feature was also among the BFI's top ten Film Fund recipients, receiving £800,000.[2]

In March 2018, it was announced Henry Golding had joined the cast of the film, with Hong Khaou directing from a screenplay he wrote. Tracey O'Riordan would serve as a producer on the film, with BBC Films and British Film Institute producing.[3]

When director Hong Khaou's Lilting played at Sundance Film Festival, the prestigious Sundance Screenwriter's Lab suggested Khaou pitch them an idea for his next project. In the four years that followed, with the support of the BFI and BBC Films, the film underwent “various incarnations,” Khaou says. The project started out as a two hander between Kit and the character who ended up as Lewis, an African American, in the finished film, but started out as Hank, a Caucasian American. “Along the way, through the various notes that came from the execs and financiers, it was felt that the Hank character’s voice – the dominant white American, in terms of the subtext of the war – had been heard before,” Khaou says.

There are similarities between Khaou's experience and Kit's – like Kit's family, Khaou's parents fled South-East Asia when he was young – in their case from Cambodia – and he too grew up in Britain, but he wanted to distance himself a little from the film. “I didn’t want to make it so much about me, although I guess it is inevitable it always comes out,” he says. “I wanted to hide behind this Vietnamese character, so to speak, and talk about these feeling and issues I’ve always had about having to flee a war-torn country… and the struggle for a sense of cultural identity,” Khaou says.

While Kit's initial focus is on his search for traces of his family's past in Vietnam – thanks to the influence of Lewis and Linh – he becomes immersed in the emerging modern, cosmopolitan Vietnam, fighting to free itself from its past. This provides a backdrop to the film, one which has rarely been shown in Western cinema. “Vietnam is changing so quickly. It wants to be this exciting new capitalist country, and everything is possible there,” Khaou says. “I wanted for Kit to have this sense that when he arrives in Vietnam it is this foreign place, and he has to slowly forge a relationship with it.”[4]

Release

Monsoon had its world premiere at the 54th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in competition on 29 June 2019.[5][6] In April 2020, Strand Releasing acquired U.S. distribution rights to the film.[7] It is scheduled to be released in the United Kingdom on 25 September 2020.[8]

Critical reception

Monsoon has received very positive reviews from critics out of Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 91% of 11 film critics have given the film a positive review, with a rating average of 7 out of 10.[9]

Demetrios Matheou, in his review for Screen Daily, said that "it’s a touching, thoughtful and gorgeously shot piece of work, which both examines its protagonist’s experience of displacement and tenderly evokes a country moving energetically forwards while some are still tied painfully to the past."[10] Jessica Kiang, in her review for Variety, called it "A graceful and truthfully irresolute investigation into the strange, often poignantly unreciprocated relationship that many first- and second-generation emigrants have with the far-off foreign country of the past."[11] Giving the film a 'B-' score, Gregory Ellwood writing for The Playlist said "for a naturalistically told story about a man finding his place in the world, slightly more emotion wouldn’t have necessarily been a bad thing".[12] Boyd van Hoeij of The Hollywood Reporter praised the film, calling it "an intimate drama of surprising depth"[13]

At Film London's new-look London Screenings, which took place at Picturehouse Central in London's West End from June 24–27, Monsoon was described by one distributor in London as “absolutely charming”.[14]

References
  1. "World Premiere of Monsoon at Karlovy Vary International Film Festival". United Agents. June 29, 2019. Retrieved June 29, 2019.
  2. Wiseman, Andreas (December 21, 2018). "The BFI's Ten Biggest Production Awards Of 2018: New Movies With Keira Knightley, Henry Golding & Liam Neeson". Deadline. Retrieved July 4, 2019.
  3. Ford, Rebecca (March 7, 2018). "'Crazy Rich Asians' Actor Henry Golding to Star in 'Monsoon' (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved May 31, 2019.
  4. Barraclough, Leo (June 28, 2019). "Crazy Rich Asians' Star Henry Golding Plunges into Modern Vietnam in 'Monsoon". Variety. Retrieved June 29, 2019.
  5. "Monsoon". Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. Retrieved May 31, 2019.
  6. Holdsworth, Nick (May 28, 2019). "Karlovy Vary Film Festival Reveals 2019 Lineup". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved May 31, 2019.
  7. Keslassy, Elsa (April 9, 2020). "Henry Golding's 'Monsoon' Sells North American Rights to Strand Releasing (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Retrieved April 12, 2020.
  8. "Peccadillo Pictures Announces Theatrical And Digital Release Date For Hong Khaou's MONSOON For September 25". The Fan Carpet. 17 July 2020. Retrieved 21 July 2020.
  9. "Monsoon (2019)". Rotten Tomatoes. Flixster. Retrieved 13 July 2019.
  10. Matheou, Demetrios (June 30, 2019). "Monsoon': Karlovy Vary Review". Screen Daily. Retrieved June 30, 2019.
  11. Kiang, Jessica (June 30, 2019). "Karlovy Vary Film Review: 'Monsoon'". Variety. Retrieved June 30, 2019.
  12. Ellwood, Gregory (June 30, 2019). "Henry Golding Finds Himself A Stranger In A Modern Vietnam In 'Monsoon' [Review]". The Playlist. Retrieved July 1, 2019.
  13. van Hoeij, Boyd (July 2, 2019). "'Monsoon': Film Review Karlovy Vary 2019". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved July 3, 2019.
  14. Macnab, Geoffrey (July 2, 2019). "International attendees give their verdict on London Screenings 2019". Screen Daily. Retrieved July 2, 2019.
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