Landship review – soldiers yearn for tinned pies in muddy first world war drama that stays inside the tank

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It’s too murky to distinguish one stiff upper lip from another in Callum Burn’s drama about a real-life mission that came unstuck Based loosely on a true story, this British first world war drama deploys a few cunning stratagems to keep the budget down – starting with setting almost the entire story inside a tank; this one is nicknamed the Fray Bentos after the popular tinned pie. In addition, whenever the British soldier characters venture outside this extremely confined space, it’s almost always night-time, or exactly the moment when a miasma of smoke and fog is so thick, you can’t see the Germans skulking behind papier-mache hillocks of mud, ready to pounce on our plucky heroes. Unfortunately, all that gloom and grot makes it a little hard to make out what is going on at times. That means the noble chaps become almost indistinguishable from each other – although over time it’s possible to work out that the officers are the ones with tidy, manly moustaches and sound posh, while the n...
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Band Four review – Hong Kong goes indie as musical family get the band back together

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Three generations of a talented family reunite unexpectedly, but there’s little surprising about their subsequent journey, despite its undeniable charms

You’d have to have a heart of brick to take against this earnest musical drama from Hong Kong about a single parent in an indie band dealing with her failed rocker dad suddenly walking back into her life (after leaving 20 years ago when she was little). It’s a warm and watchable valentine to music and starting afresh. But I did find something a bit make-believe and naive in its feelgood message about the power of music to heal old wounds; the idea that a sentimental chord or two could strum away the kind of pain and resentment it can take years of therapy to work through.

Cantopop star Kay Tse plays Cat, lead singer of Band Four, and single mum to pint-sized drumming prodigy Riley (Rondi Chan). Cat nursed her own mum through years of illness, and it’s at the funeral that her dad King makes an appearance – all of five foot nothing, a ponytail, rock star sunglasses and leather jacket. Real-life musician Teddy Robin Kwan plays it beautifully; beneath the swagger there’s an unmistakable air of genuine regret. King is back to make amends to Cat and he’s got a surprise: a teenage daughter, her half-sister. Cat is fuming but King shamelessly ingratiates himself with little Riley, who is delighted by his new grandpa and auntie.

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