Hong Khaou’s follow-up to LILTING, another tale of love, identity and displacement, is quietly mesmerising. The cinematography of MONSOON is particularly striking, from the opening aerial shot of scuttling columns of Saigon traffic to how the camera frequently seems to momentarily lose Kit (Henry Golding) as he wanders off screen to ascend a flight of stairs, drifting slowly up buildings to reconnect with him higher up as he walks back into frame. This is a film of connection and remembrance but not an overly sentimental one, the rough edges to the story of returning to a country previously fled in terror as an adult are made prominent and the characters are refreshingly imperfect. Golding shows his range and is ably backed up by Parker Sawyers and David Tran whose characters get full and fledged-out arcs just as Kit does. SSP