Wet Season (2020)
Where one might have certain aspirations in life, the world has a funny way of complicating itself and denying individuals the seemingly obvious path to happiness. This is the situation that a teacher named Ling (Yann Yann Yeo) finds herself in at the center of Anthony Chen's Wet Season which has been submitted as Singapore's official selection for the Best International Feature category for the 2021 Academy Awards. Ling wants to start a family but slowly loses her path as she deals not just with infertility but also her responsibility to care for her father-in-law. Ling slowly starts to spiral but eventually finds a connection with one of her students named Kok Wei Lun (Koh Jia Ler).
Ultimately when looking at Wet Season the film can be broken into two parts. The first two-thirds of the film paints a moving exposé of pain and sorrow. Ling is instantly a character the audience will connect to and feel empathy for both due to the subtle screenplay also by Anthony Chen but also due to the performance behind her. Yann Yann Yeo is nothing short of stunning within the film. Where the character is seen through her pain, she is defined by her dreams. Ling doesn't want something extravagant or special, she wants the normal happy life that nearly everyone strives for in one way or another immediately allowing the audience to relate to the character which makes her struggles all the more painful. For this section of the film, Wet Season truly feels like it is capturing a true piece of the human experience in a skillful manner. Painted on the backdrop of nearly consistent rain, the atmosphere and tone of the film is undeniable and really helps the audience connect to the mood of the story through a visual representation of its sorrow. These elements come together to create a moving character study that unfortunately is largely devalued by the closing stretch of the film.
As Ling reaches her lowest of lows she finds herself more and more open to Kok Wei Lun's advances with the two ending up in a sexual relationship with each other. Obviously with this being a relationship between an adult teacher and student, there are immediate red flags that pop up. Both in age and power dynamics, on paper this relationship is clearly unhealthy and off putting. The film easily could have twisted this plot development to show Ling going too far in her downward spiral and having to come to terms with it as she slowly picks herself up but the film doesn't come close to that level of message or nuance. The film instead treats this love as being the answer itself which stands not just as problematic but deeply thematically unfulfilling. The thesis the film ends up coming to regarding love and life feels hollow and lacking a real purpose. Even past the clear problematic core of this relationship, it wasn't even built well enough throughout the film to be rewarding even from a plot perspective. If the film was all around underwritten and bland it would be at least serviceable to the quality of the film up to that point, but the fact that it is concluding something of real value makes it all the more frustrating.
Where Wet Season starts as a powerful character study that will hit audiences in a deeply personal sense, the ending stretch is near disaster. It completely derails the thesis and purpose of the film up to that point in favor of an off putting and problematic relationship. It is as empty as it is gross causing the rest of the film to be immediately devalued due to the lack of a follow through.
Ultimately when looking at Wet Season the film can be broken into two parts. The first two-thirds of the film paints a moving exposé of pain and sorrow. Ling is instantly a character the audience will connect to and feel empathy for both due to the subtle screenplay also by Anthony Chen but also due to the performance behind her. Yann Yann Yeo is nothing short of stunning within the film. Where the character is seen through her pain, she is defined by her dreams. Ling doesn't want something extravagant or special, she wants the normal happy life that nearly everyone strives for in one way or another immediately allowing the audience to relate to the character which makes her struggles all the more painful. For this section of the film, Wet Season truly feels like it is capturing a true piece of the human experience in a skillful manner. Painted on the backdrop of nearly consistent rain, the atmosphere and tone of the film is undeniable and really helps the audience connect to the mood of the story through a visual representation of its sorrow. These elements come together to create a moving character study that unfortunately is largely devalued by the closing stretch of the film.
As Ling reaches her lowest of lows she finds herself more and more open to Kok Wei Lun's advances with the two ending up in a sexual relationship with each other. Obviously with this being a relationship between an adult teacher and student, there are immediate red flags that pop up. Both in age and power dynamics, on paper this relationship is clearly unhealthy and off putting. The film easily could have twisted this plot development to show Ling going too far in her downward spiral and having to come to terms with it as she slowly picks herself up but the film doesn't come close to that level of message or nuance. The film instead treats this love as being the answer itself which stands not just as problematic but deeply thematically unfulfilling. The thesis the film ends up coming to regarding love and life feels hollow and lacking a real purpose. Even past the clear problematic core of this relationship, it wasn't even built well enough throughout the film to be rewarding even from a plot perspective. If the film was all around underwritten and bland it would be at least serviceable to the quality of the film up to that point, but the fact that it is concluding something of real value makes it all the more frustrating.
Where Wet Season starts as a powerful character study that will hit audiences in a deeply personal sense, the ending stretch is near disaster. It completely derails the thesis and purpose of the film up to that point in favor of an off putting and problematic relationship. It is as empty as it is gross causing the rest of the film to be immediately devalued due to the lack of a follow through.