It’s a little difficult to tell if this is a Hong Kong film or a China one, but perhaps the point is that these days there is no real difference. It is the debut feature of its director Xiao Bai who is a mainlander but this film is shockingly good at capturing life in Hong Kong. Unfortunately the way it rushes towards an ending that feels at odds with the rest of the film has all of the signs of government interference and suggests that this isn’t the kind of ending the director would have chosen if left to her own devices.

I do so love the premise of Spike Lee’s latest film about a group of black American Vietnam War veterans who return to Vietnam in the present day. But while this film is packed full of references to black causes and culture, and makes some attempt to present events from the Vietnamese perspective, it remains at its heart an action movie whose shallowness and inherent American-ness even is at odds with the seriousness of the themes it wants to explore.

This BBC television series doesn’t have the highest of ratings or a large following but I’d bet plenty of people in Malaysia and elsewhere in Southeast Asia would enjoy it because so much of it takes place in Thailand. It tells the story of a notorious criminal Charles Sobhraj who preyed on tourists in Thailand in the 1970s and how his crimes were uncovered by a Dutch diplomat Herman Knippenberg. The story is so extraordinary and Sobhraj ‘s crimes so audaciously heinous and it really is a case of the truth far outstripping any fiction.

Just as the promotion for Ridley Scott’s latest film is getting underway, we’re watching the director’s debut film from 1977. It tells a rather incredible story of two duellists, adapted from a short story by Joseph Conrad and that was in turn seemingly inspired by real events. I do wish that it goes deeper into why one of them Gabriel Feraud acts as he does, But there is no question that this is a beautifully shot film with an intriguing premise and some amazing fight choreography.

Made from leftover footage of an older documentary and interviews with crewmembers who have survived to the present day, this is a film about the B-17 bomber missions that flew over Europe during the Second World War. Since we’ve all watched war movies, a lot of this feels very familiar but that are some anecdotes and key insights here that may be interesting even to those who have studied the subject. I especially appreciate how filmmaker Erik Nelson does of course acknowledge the crewmembers as war heroes but he also does not shy away from stating the bombing killed hundreds of thousands of civilians in Germany.

Here’s another film by Roberto Rossellini and it is an Italian film despite the leads not being Italian and the dialogue in English. As befits its title, it’s a travelogue, which makes it particularly apt for watching as most of all are still barred from travel. But of course it’s really about the relationship between the couple as their frustration with each other blinds them to the incredible sights around them. This is considered a huge influential film but I don’t think it’ll be one of favorites as the psychologies of the characters involved are a little obvious and the ending feels unearned to me.

It’s sadly all too easy overlook relatively low profile new releases during the pandemic and so I don’t think too many people have watched this. I added this my list because I heard it’s similar in some ways to Inside Out which I loved. This is indeed the case and the film does actually make some bold claims with regards to the metaphysics of how personalities arise. Unfortunately the film builds up to some epiphany about the meaning of life and in the end it just can’t deliver anything particularly original or impactful and so feels truncated as a result.