5 great movies to virtually travel in Asia

Hi, how are you doing, today? The weather is cloudy and rainy here in Krabi, so there's not so much to do besides cooking, reading and binge-watching Netflix.

These days I’m enjoying a serie called The Serpent, the true story of a merciless French-Vietnamese assassin & thief targeting travellers on the Hippy trail during the Seventies. The locations shown are fantastic, and I love the way Bangkok of those days is portrayed.
But to open the chapter of Netflix series would be like opening the Pandora's box, and I’m not ready yet: so today I’m just going to write about 5 of my favorite Asian movies, by which I mean movies filmed in an Asian country.
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I’ve been a movie addict since after taking a course called History and Critic of Cinema at University, when I fell in love with the Nouvelle Vague and the Surrealism of Luis Bunuel.
Living abroad without a chance to go to the cinema (here in Krabi there are no foreign movies in English or even with English subtitles except for the occasional Avengers or superhero saga, a genre I despise with all my heart), I mostly rely on Netflix.
I wish I could sign up to all the film streaming platforms on earth, but I’m not rich enough. So I’m going by with Netflix plus a few other websites, the downside effect of such restricted choice being that I have to close about a hundred pop up pages and porn advertising each time I try to watch something.
It’s a gruesome business, keeping up with the movies. 
The list of films I love and I never get tired of watching is very long, but today I’ll focus on 5 great movies set in Asia; movies that might inspire you to travel and discover new countries or itineraries, but that also tell amazing stories and portrait the culture and lifestyle of those places in vivid traits.
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The colourful street life of Rajasthan, India.

• 1. The Darjeeling Limited (Wes Anderson, 2007) Three brothers who barely know (and stand) each other travel by train through Rajasthan in the hope of finding themselves and reconnect their lost bond. This is one of the funniest and most inspiring movies I’ve seen in a long time. I love everything about it: the locations, the plot, the actors. Thank you Wes Anderson for such a gem! If you wish to visit the incredible real settings, most of the movie was shot in the cities of Jodhpur and Udaipur in Rajasthan that I also happened to visit with some friends in 2015. We travelled by car and train, exploring New Delhi, Jaipur, Jodhpur, Agra and one of the craziest cities in the world, Varanasi. We survived eating street food all the time, and a lockdown after ethnic and religious disputes arose between Hindus and Muslims in Varanasi, wondered for hours in markets, fighting monkeys and cows, and had an unforgettable trip. I think that our friendship grew stronger thanks to that adventurous travel. 
• 2. Parasite (Bong Joon-ho, 2019) A black-comedy / thriller about the Kim family, a bunch of weirdos who live in a dark, cockroach-infested basement in Seoul, South Korea. When the son starts working as a tutor for a wealthy family (the Parks), all the others find ways to set foot in the household and become parasites. The movie is claustrophobic and funny at the same time, and I actually ended up sympathizing with that dysfunctional family. You won’t see much of the beautiful city of Seoul, because the story starts inside the below-street level Kims’ house, then develops inside the Parks’ house, which is lavish and spacious, surrounded by trees but still quite isolated from the outside world, then in another basement, more underground than the Kims’ house itself, but you will find Korea in the details, the space and dialogues. This is a movie about human behaviour and social discrimination, however any traces of social realism fade away during the developing of the story, and soon the plot changes into an almost horror movie, with skeletons in the closet and buried secrets. And you’re left wondering who is the real Parasite. The Kims? The Parks? The people living in the subterranean world? Or all of us, the society?

Seoul is a modern, creative city of designer shops and vintage boutiques, but there are a few traditional neighbourhood that are very well preserved.

I still visit Maya Bay in Phi Phi Islands even after Richard left.

• 3. The Beach ( (Danny Boyle, 2000) This dramatic movie tells the story of Di Caprio - Richard, an American outcast who travels to Thailand looking for adventure and a slice of secret paradise-garden. It shows one of Thailand's most stunning places, Maya Bay, in Phi Phi Ley, Krabi Province (here's my most recent video of Phi Phi Islands, taken in January 2021). Yeah, I know, the movie isn't a masterpiece, it’s overrated and it probably contributed to the end of Maya Bay and the Phi Phi Islands as they were before mass tourism. However, first, I really liked the backpacker’s book “The Beach” by Alex Garland, which was the inspiration behind the movie; second, it portraits a feeling, a vision, a dream that many of us travellers experienced at least once in their trips: the desire for the perfect place, the hidden island, the idyllic world in which we could live in peace & love with like-minded people, locking out the rest of the world. Third, the scenery of the movie is simply stunning, and it brings back lots of memories since I was hanging around in Maya Bay with my family just before the shooting started; in a way I can say I had discovered Richard's tropical paradise before him, and I even walked inside his hut.  


• 4. Chungking Express (aka Hong Kong Express, Wong Kar Wai, 1994). I worship this movie, the settings, the actors, the music. Wong Kar Wai is a genius and one of the directors I admire the most, however it’s this romantic/crime film in particular that made me know him. Faye Wong, a Cantonese singer turned actress, is so pretty and charismatic in this film that she reminds me of a Chinese Audrey Hepburn. And Tony Leung is… well, Tony Leung at his best. The film tells the stories of two Hong Kong policemen’s broken relationship and love related issues, but it’s also about the role of space and how it defines social relationships. Abroad, the title of the movie was changed into "Hong Kong Express" for marketing reasons, but the original title refers to Chungking Mansions, a monstrous conglomerate of apartments in Tsim Tsa Tsui where Wong Kar Wai grew up in the Sixties. I once slept in a dusty guesthouse inside the building, which must be one of the largest in the world, dark and labirynthic, a little scary but incredibly fascinating.  "Express" refers to the food stand Midnight Express in Central, a district of Hong Kong. Faye Wong's  cover version of "Dreams" by The Cranberries sung in Cantonese is one of the songs I listen whenever I feel the need of quiet, reflective time. ​​


• 5. Lost in Translation ( Sofia Coppola, 2003) Tokyo is one my favorite cities in the world, an alien space, the quintessential foreign land that makes you wonder around with your mouth and eyes wide open, marvelling at every corner. To me, Tokyo is one of the few cities that look equally beautiful in sunny days as in stormy, foggy days, in summer as in winter (and of course in sakura season and in autumn, too). The movie takes place within the lively, busy districts of Shibuya and Shinjuku, and the 5 star Park Hyatt Tokyo has the central stage. This is actually a movie about Platonic love, about a shared connection between two strangers (Bob and Charlotte) at a time of confusion in their lives. If you ever traveled alone in a foreign land and experienced this kind of connection and unexpected instant friendship with another solo traveller in a short lapse of shared time, then you'll understand and love this movie. It happened to me in Fiji with an Australian guy, and every time I see this movie I can’t avoid thinking about the beginning of our relationship at that time. Another reason why I love the movie is for the way it portraits the city of Tokyo, almost as a third main actor on the scene. The astounding night views from the New York bar of the Park Hyatt are unforgettable. Go up there and see for yourselves, if you travel to Tokyo. 

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The Mano Mo temple in Sheung Wan, Hong Kong, surrounded by several high-rise buildings. Space in Hong Kong is limited.

A view of Tokyo from the Tokyo Tower.

If you haven't seen these movies yet, and you're craving a trip to Asia after having being stuck at home for more than a year, they are a great way to spend a few hours of your time.
​Let me know what you think, if you liked them, or what would be on your list of 5 movies to dream- travel in Asia.