serendippy

A quiet and understated film about a British guy looking for a place to honour his parents ashes in their home county of Vietnam. Along the way he makes new connections with his estranged relatives, finds new friends and a surprise love interest. The film uses a local cast for the minor parts to highlight the diversity available. I really like it when big-budget actors do proper character pieces to show their range and give something new.

The film follows a westernised character and how he interacts with the surroundings. Therefore, the lives of ordinary people is lacking apart from an aside about him connecting more with the poorer areas of his memories than the tourist spots. Further exploration would have made it a very different and equally interesting story. As would continuing the debate about exploitation of cheap labour. It felt too sanitised for the audience. His formal interactions show uncertainty to great effect. My favourite scene is at the lotus flower tea farm. A beautiful setting.

It was a surprise that the lead character is gay - only because I've seen Golding in firmly hetero roles previously and knew nothing of the director's other work beforehand. There was some very steamy kissing between the two men. Now I know why it was on tele so late. It is unclear what the family decide to do for the ashes as the primary plot. But the mystery is part of the melancholy appeal. Sometimes it's nice to slow it down. I really enjoyed it.

I really struggled with this, almost walking out partway through. It wasn't what I expected and I did not engage well with the story on offer. Their lives are so far removed from mine that I have little in common with the characters. It's almost a soft porn version of Go (1999) without the likeable people. I stayed to the end only because I found the presentation interesting where both narrators are equally unreliable so the audience can never be sure which account is closer to reality in this highly fictionalised account. A Twitter thread and Reddit rebuttal are not the most obvious premise for a hit movie. Some of the incidents are so ridiculous the final narrative had to be a black comedy. We know from the background material that both women survive to tell their perspectives, with guns waving at many junctures. In some places, the story makes for uncomfortable viewing to increase awareness of the ease with which marginalised populations can be trafficked no matter how street-smart the individual. Of course, much is exaggerated for dramatic effect.

In a fine example of international branding recognition, the pink ribbon hidden in the logo is a giveaway to the cathartic nature of this piece for the Director/Writer, a metaphor for his feelings of loss. It's clever how the world blooms with their love and that each of the girls is the merged opposite of the parents. It is very moving with a more optimistic cut-scene ending after many production credits. A master class in how to make non-speaking characters cute.