WET SEASON (2019)
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| Critic - No.176 |
Producer: Anthony Chen, Huang Wenhong, Tan Si En
Casts: Yeo Yann Yann, Koh Jia Ler, Christopher Lee, Yang Shi Bin
Language: Mandarin, English, Hokkien
Genre: Drama
SYNOPSIS:
A secondary school teacher, Ling, shares a special, self-affirming bond with her student Wei Lun that develops into a thorny, complex entanglement.
REVIEW:
Premiered in Toronto International Film Festival earlier this year, Wet Season has already garnered the attention of festival circuits with a whopping 6 nominations at the Golden Horse Awards 2019. Anthony Chen makes a striking comeback after his stunning debut with Ilo Ilo (2013) that garnered the Cannes Camera d’Or. Chen continues to show his strength in handling women’s emotions realistically and maturely through the lead character Ling, a secondary school teacher in mid-thirties who is going through rough patch in her marriage.
After failing to conceive after 8 years into the marriage, Ling undergoes IVF treatment while she gets silent hints that her husband might be involved in extra-marital affairs. Chen awkwardly sets an irony where Ling who yearns for a baby taking care of her paralysed father-in-law whom she feeds and cleans. Wei Lun enters Ling’s life during her lowest point, setting a spark of friendship, love and care that she has been ripped off for a long time. Even if Ilo Ilo felt more accessible, with Wet Season, Chen increases the character stakes higher and grasps the film language even more intensely.
As complex as it sounds, Chen’s razor sharp directing offers us some solid, intense performances from the lead pair Yeo Yann Yann (Best Actress, Golden Horse Awards 2019) and Koh Jia Ler who are stuck in their unfortunate situations that makes the audience feel empathetic than judgemental. Be it the symbolic undertones he paints about Ling’s psychological catastrophe through the rain, dreams and sombre colour palette, Chen also injects occasional humour through Wei Lun at the most inappropriate moments, further emphasizing the innocence the bigger picture actually possess. Beyond the sexual tension between them, the film has beautifully constructed scenes of the lead pair sitting at the classroom, savouring durians and Ling going for Wei Lun’s Wushu performance with her father-in-law who loves martial arts as well. They gradually cling into each other due to the fact that both are neglected by their families to a certain extent. She corrects his mistakes while he builds her confidence to love herself again.
The meditative pace of the film and long takes gives us the opportunity to reflect on the frames as much as the characters reflect on their own decisions. The casting of the film is definitely awkward (the lead pair played mother and son in Chen’s debut film, Ilo Ilo) but we get through that quite quickly when the conflict sets in. Sam Care’s intimately composed shots bring us closer to the characters as they connect. To further immerse us into the story, Chen mainly uses diegetic sounds to fill the silences and elevate the sombre mood he sets.
Similar to how the film thematically underlines the importance of decisions, Chen lets the audience write their own ending in their heads with a metaphorically powerful end frame. As Wei Lun wails through the pain of bitter sorrow, Ling says, “That’s how it is. You will get used to it” a painfully positive statement that will certainly relate to all of us who have went through a fair share of Wet Season in our own lives.
VERDICT:
Anthony Chen proves yet again that he can masterfully present complex relationships with utmost delicacy and beauty.
CELLULOID METER- 4/5:
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