Kit can’t remember much of his native Vietnam. When he returns to the Land of the Golden Star for the first time in over thirty years, he takes in his local surroundings as any Western tourist would: the environment is as exotic as the language is incomprehensible. The aim of Kit’s travels – to find a place to scatter his parents’ ashes – thus becomes part of a journey back to his roots and to the discovery of his identity, which external circumstances have rendered ambiguous and complex. Hong Khaou’s ability to evocatively express the inner transformation of heroes trying to see the way ahead underpins both his debut Lilting and Monsoon, a subtle film about rootlessness, the process of recollection, and finding new contexts that bring a different sense to one’s existence.