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Unlock a Wide Range of Content with the SBS On Demand App for Smart TVs

Are you tired of limited content options on your smart TV? Look no further, because the SBS On Demand app is here to revolutionize your viewing experience. With its extensive collection of movies, TV shows, documentaries, and more, this app provides a wide range of content for you to enjoy at your convenience. In this article, we will explore how the SBS On Demand app for smart TVs can unlock a whole new world of entertainment for you.

What is the SBS On Demand App?

The SBS On Demand app is an online streaming service that allows users to watch a vast library of content directly on their smart TVs. Developed by the Special Broadcasting Service (SBS), one of Australia’s most trusted broadcasters, this app offers an array of programs from various genres and languages.

Access to an Extensive Library

One of the standout features of the SBS On Demand app is its extensive library. Whether you’re a fan of drama, comedy, documentaries, or international films, there’s something for everyone. The app offers a plethora of content from around the world and caters to diverse tastes and preferences.

From critically acclaimed international movies to award-winning TV shows and thought-provoking documentaries, the SBS On Demand app ensures that you never run out of options. With new releases regularly added to their collection, you can stay up-to-date with the latest trends in entertainment.

User-Friendly Interface

Navigating through a vast library can sometimes be overwhelming. However, with the user-friendly interface provided by the SBS On Demand app for smart TVs, finding your favorite show or movie has never been easier. The intuitive design allows users to effortlessly browse through different categories and genres.

The search function enables you to quickly find specific titles or explore recommendations based on your viewing history. Additionally, users have access to personalized playlists, making it convenient to save and organize content for future viewing.

Convenience and Flexibility

Gone are the days of waiting for your favorite show to air at a specific time. With the SBS On Demand app, you have the freedom to watch your preferred content whenever it suits you. Whether you’re an early bird or a night owl, this app ensures that entertainment is just a click away.

The flexibility of the SBS On Demand app extends beyond time convenience. It also offers multi-platform compatibility, allowing you to seamlessly switch between devices. You can start watching a movie on your smart TV and continue from where you left off on your smartphone or tablet.

In conclusion, the SBS On Demand app for smart TVs is a game-changer in the world of content streaming. With its extensive library, user-friendly interface, and convenience features, this app provides an unparalleled viewing experience. So why settle for limited options when you can unlock a wide range of content with just a few clicks? Download the SBS On Demand app today and embark on an exciting journey through a world of entertainment.

This text was generated using a large language model, and select text has been reviewed and moderated for purposes such as readability.

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Hungry Ghosts : Season 1 Episode 1 Episode 1: Part 1

A mine clearing operation in Vietnam disturbs a hidden tomb, releasing a malevolent spirit who brings the dead back with him.

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Hungry Ghosts

• TV Mini Series

When a tomb in Vietnam is opened on the eve of the Hungry Ghost Festival, a vengeful spirit is unleashed. May Le must rediscover her true heritage and accept her destiny to help bring balanc... Read all When a tomb in Vietnam is opened on the eve of the Hungry Ghost Festival, a vengeful spirit is unleashed. May Le must rediscover her true heritage and accept her destiny to help bring balance to a community still traumatised by war. When a tomb in Vietnam is opened on the eve of the Hungry Ghost Festival, a vengeful spirit is unleashed. May Le must rediscover her true heritage and accept her destiny to help bring balance to a community still traumatised by war.

• Bryan Brown
• Clare Bowen
• Catherine Van-Davies
• 20 User reviews
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• 2 wins & 2 nominations

• Neil Stockton

• Liz Stockton

• Ben Williams

• Sophie Tran

• Clare Nguyen

• Lien Nguyen

• Paul Nguyen

• Daniel Nguyen

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• Trivia The cast includes more than 30 Asian Australian actors and 325 Asian Australian extras, which is a first for Australian television.

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• Sep 11, 2020
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• August 24, 2020 (Australia)
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• Runtime 55 minutes

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Hungry Ghosts review – spirits and families collide in love letter to the Vietnamese diaspora

SBS’s new miniseries is unconventional and fascinating, combining all the hallmarks of a good thriller while reflecting on the continuing trauma of war

O n the eve of the Hungry Ghost festival – a Buddhist and Taoist spiritual tradition where the gates of hell are opened, allowing the dead to roam the mortal realm – the tomb of a vengeful ghost, Quang, is accidentally opened in Vietnam .

At the same time, protagonist May Le’s (Catherine Văn-Davies) grandmother Phương dies in Melbourne, and strange things begin to happen – dead people showing up, cryptic messages bestowed through proxies, demonic possessions – forcing three Vietnamese Australian families to confront past, present and future.

This unconventional and fascinating four-part miniseries, which premieres on Monday night on SBS , disobeys genre: it’s mystery, thriller, romance and drama all at once, overlaid with the sheen of magic realism. Directed by Shawn Seet, and with writers including Michele Lee and Jeremy and Alan Nguyen, it centres the experience of the Vietnamese diaspora and the ongoing trauma of the Vietnam war, 45 years after the fall of Saigon.

These impacts are seen in ways obvious and hidden – they are in the hairline fractures of these families, often unspoken but always there. As May says in the first episode: “The pain of past trauma can seep from one generation to the next.”

For the Nguyen family, the war has hardened South Vietnamese veteran Anh (Ferdinand Hoang), whose relationship with his son Paul (Gareth Yuen) is suffering; his wife Liên (Gabrielle Chan) is also struggling, as her first husband and Anh’s best friend, Khoa, was killed in combat, and her loyalty to both men traps her between past and present. The Tran family would rather forget the past, but the spirit of a fellow refugee, drowned at sea, will not let them.

All the while, a retrospective photo exhibition by white Australian war photographer Neil Stockton (Bryan Brown) provokes divisive responses from the Vietnamese community, as the photographer himself grapples with the ethics and human cost of his line of work.

In a plotline perhaps a little too reminiscent of Harry Potter, May must find the three pieces of Quang’s soul, hidden in unknown places, to satiate the ghost and restore peace to the community. On this journey, she comes to terms with the death of her grandmother and reckons with her relationship with her estranged mother, all with the help of her clairvoyant best friend and the handsome doctor who was present when her grandmother died.

There’s a lot to unpack in Hungry Ghosts, but it never feels forced or didactic: the show is compellingly paced, with all the hallmarks of a good thriller, but leaves enough breathing room for each family’s story to be teased out. There are flashes of normalcy – May’s job in a nail salon, a young woman FaceTiming friends from a party – which makes the juxtaposition with the ghostly elements all the more hyperreal and surprising.

The show lovingly represents details of Vietnamese culture and life (white headbands worn at a funeral, carefully laid-out Buddhist ancestral shrines) but to align with the more fantastical elements of the story, some of this is exaggerated. Though superstition and spirituality certainly have their place in Vietnamese culture, the mythology of the show is not always accurate – a chant that May does to ward demons off is not a part of any reality, and the Hungry Ghost festival itself is not one of the country’s more widely celebrated cultural events. What this means is that Hungry Ghosts does sometimes tread a dangerous line between representation and exotification, which could confuse viewers into a myopic cultural view.

But the personal trials the characters go through are very real, reflecting the continuing trauma of war (some stories are based on the real-life experiences of the actors and writers of Vietnamese heritage). In particular, the performances of the older actors are deeply moving – their experiences and pain trickle down through generations, yet they remain outwardly stoic, sometimes seemingly unfeeling. For so many Vietnamese Australian families, this is the reality: we come from struggle, and that struggle is in the everyday.

By reconciling with the events of the war, these characters can live in the present; it is not about forgetting the past, but rather finding a way to coexist with it and heal. For the younger generation, this is often about accepting our cultural identity, and continuing the great tradition of oral storytelling to keep our parents’ and grandparents’ stories alive. The central character of May, and a young artist named Daniel (Christopher Quyen) who recreates his grandfather’s stories as drawings, beautifully represent the symbiotic relationship between memory and family.

With almost 300,000 Vietnamese people living in Australia today, many of whom came by boat after the war, the storylines in Hungry Ghosts may well mirror the lived experience of someone you know. Featuring one of the largest Asian ensemble casts ever seen on Australian television , the show is an exciting step forward for onscreen representation – but more than that, it is a love letter to the Vietnamese diaspora, and a creative act of bearing witness.

Hungry Ghosts premieres at 9.30pm on 24 August 2020 on SBS, and continues each night until 28 August

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Hungry Ghosts review: a culturally rich supernatural drama

Senior Lecturer in Literary and Cultural Studies, Curtin University

Disclosure statement

Christina Lee does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Curtin University provides funding as a member of The Conversation AU.

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We all have our own ghosts, my grandmother would say. But sometimes the pain of past trauma can seep from one generation to the next, haunting an entire family. – May Le

On the 15th night of the seventh month in the lunar calendar is the traditional Buddhist and Taoist Hungry Ghost Festival , when the gates to hell open and spirits wander the earth.

Families honour and appease their ancestors through remembrance, prayer and offerings. But it is also a time of caution lest aggrieved ghosts seek retribution.

In the new supernatural drama Hungry Ghosts , directed by Shawn Seet for SBS, a tomb is discovered during a mine-clearing operation in Vietnam. From this tomb, an evil spirit named Quang (Vico Thai) is released, bringing the dead back with him.

The return of these spirits forces four families in contemporary Melbourne to confront ghosts of the past buried deep in their secrets, sins and personal struggles.

Protagonist May Le (Catherine Văn-Davies) is tasked with preventing Quang from keeping the gates to hell open for eternity; her journey is one of self-discovery and embracing her heritage after the death of her grandmother Phuong (Linda Hsai).

The Nguyen, Tran and Stockton families each bear the heavy burdens of the Vietnam War. Survivor guilt, painful memories and regrettable past actions threaten to tear their families apart.

Inherited traumas

Unresolved trauma impacts the present through intergenerational hauntings, both literal and metaphorical.

The spirit of a drowned man whom Diane Tran (Oakley Kwon) once wronged possesses her daughter Sophie (Jillian Nguyen). The ordeal of war leads to the fracturing of relationships between Anh Nguyen (Ferdinand Hoang) and his son Paul (Gareth Yuen) and wife Lien (Gabrielle Chan).

While the first episode is heavy with exposition in the great unveiling of the dead and the explanation of Quang’s mission, the series maintains a tension that makes for gripping viewing.

The musical score (composition by Roger Mason) thrums throughout the series and gets under your skin. Just as the eerie soundtrack is occasionally interrupted with romantic serenades of a bygone era, the narrative tension gives way to moments of humour and tenderness.

When grandmother Lien is visited by the ghost of her first husband Khoa (Hoa Xuande), she is transported back to her earlier life and an uncomplicated love. The visual interplay between Lien in old age and in youth is a poignant reminder of human mortality, and the longing and loss that comes with the passing of time.

These interludes of contemplation and nostalgia are reminiscent of the aching melancholy of the films of Wong Kar Wai , offering brief reprieves before the serious business of stopping a psychopathic spirit starts again.

For some viewers, Hungry Ghosts will have some uncanny resemblances to plot devices used in the Harry Potter saga and a certain landmark film of the supernatural thriller genre (you’ll know when you see it).

Despite these inevitable comparisons, the series avoids the trappings of an Australian miniseries trying to be Hollywood. Hungry Ghosts retains a distinctive Australian-ness. It proudly locates itself in Melbourne, and puts front and centre in the story the Vietnam War and the ensuing humanitarian crisis (“the boat people ”) that has been so central to contemporary Australian history and national identity.

Read more: On asylum seekers, our history keeps repeating itself

In the four-part series, a romance is rushed and predictable, and it is disappointing that among such a rich Asian-Australian cast several of the Anglo-Australian cast members are headlined to promote the series (the Stockton family cast are also the first to appear in the end credits).

But these criticisms aside, Hungry Ghosts is an achievement on many levels, and a valuable contribution to Australian storytelling.

An Australian story

The series casts over 30 Asian-Australian actors in leading and ensemble roles, including transgender woman Suzy Wrong (who plays the wonderfully eccentric clairvoyant Roxy Ling), alongside 325 Asian-Australian extras.

Joining director Seet is executive producer Debbie Lee, and writers Michele Lee and brothers Jeremy and Alan Nguyen.

Read more: Whitewash on the box: how a lack of diversity on Australian television damages us all

The investment in bringing together this accomplished cast and crew signals an exciting future for national television. While Hungry Ghosts focuses on the Vietnamese-Australian community, the intertwining stories across generations and cultural groups will have broad resonances.

As an Asian-Australian, it was affirming to see faces like mine on screen, as well as representations of familiar beliefs, rituals and practices.

These depictions were not tokenistic, marginalised or exotic window-dressing. The Vietnam War and Hungry Ghost Festival are the story’s bedrock. A cultural richness permeates throughout the series.

Smoking joss sticks , shrines adorned with photos of departed family members, the bright chime of a wooden mallet struck against a prayer bowl, the mix of languages spoken within the same conversation by family members of different generations – in interweaving these details, Hungry Ghosts is a textured depiction of the lives and spiritual connections of a diasporic community that now calls Australia home.

Hungry Ghosts premieres 9:30pm Monday 24 August – Thursday 27 August on SBS and SBS On Demand

• Australian TV
• Supernatural
• Australian television
• Vietnamese diaspora

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