Christmas at the Royal Hotel

Putting together a period piece war drama on a micro budget is no easy task, but that's exactly what Craig McCourry and his crew pulled off.

A small, intimate story set against the backdrop of the biggest war the world would ever know. The production values are a big win for this film. I was amazed at how they were able to put together the world of these people's lives, circa 1941, with costumes and sets to match, on the kind of budget that often would only result in a running through the woods in modern day type of film. When you consider much of the movie was filmed in just a living room, repurposed to be different parts of a historic hotel, then you really have to admire how an indie crew could create from the bottom up what I would expect to see from a bigger budget History Channel production.

Story wise, it's not often that we see the lens focused on the regular people just trying to live their lives when suddenly thrown into such an overwhelming and precarious vet instanced beyond their control. We've all seen the kinds of war movies with epic battles on the beaches or the plucky gang of misfits storming the stronghold. I give a lot of credit to this movie showing us a bit of what it must have been like to try to keep a sense of normalcy while disaster looms just over the horizon. Nice performances from the whole ensemble cast of up and coming, Hong Kong based actors and actresses. I really hope this movie makes onto screens around the world.