Song Lang

Leon Lê's 2018 Vietnamese film is set in mid-nineties Saigon. Dũng, who collects debts for a moneylender, and Linh Phụng, who performs with a traditional opera troupe, meet one night, and two separate worlds briefly intersect. At the centre is cải lương, Vietnam's musical theatre tradition, used as both subject and form. Rehearsals, costumes and instruments are shown in detail, and the narrative carries the decline of that tradition in the background. The bond between the two men is never named. Rather than give it in a scene of disclosure, the narrative compresses it into a single night spent together. The cinematography and period design stand out. Who it's for: those who like Vietnamese cinema and films about traditional performance. Who it's not for: viewers expecting an explicit romantic narrative; the film keeps the relationship at the level of implication.