"Wet Season" (Wet Season) is Singaporean director Anthony Chen (Anthony Chen), the second feature film after "Parents Are Not Home" (Ilo Ilo). At the same time, the male and female protagonists of "Tropical Rain" happen to be mothers and children who play "Parents Are Not Home". This film is also the first "International Film and Television Production Investment Plan" promoted by the Cultural Affairs Bureau of the Chinese Taipei City Government and the Chinese Taipei Film Commission. One of five selected works. The plot of
focuses on A Ling (played by Yang Yanyan), a Chinese teacher who immigrated to Singapore from Malaysia. She has been married for eight years. During this period, artificial insemination has continued to fail, and the relationship between husband and wife has also become flat. In the face of the neglected marriage, the only support in a foreign family is the half-paralyzed father-in-law (played by Yang Shibin).
She, alone in carrying the pain of artificial childbirth and caring for her family with limited mobility, is also facing a career crisis. The school’s contempt for Chinese teaching made her loneliness all revealed, and the non-stop rainy season in South Asia also made A Ling and The line between the male student Wei Lun (played by Xu Jiale) gradually blurred, and desire and loneliness fell on both of them.
Chen Zheyi, who won the best director of the Golden Horse in 2013, mentioned that the "Taiwan New Film" that influenced him the most on the road of creation when receiving the award, including Hou Xiaoxian, Yang Dechang, Li An and many other well-known directors have provided him with many works Create nutrients. After winning numerous awards for "Parents Are Not Home" and dormant for six years, Giraffe Pictures, a film studio on Changjing Road, was established and turned into a film producer role. And it took three years to write the script of "Tropical Rain", which has brewed a unique lens language, a more delicate perseverance in performance, and extremely high-level scene scheduling, which has repeatedly demonstrated more mature director skills. Director Chen Zheyi from "Grandma", "Going Home for the New Year", "Parents Are Not Home", "Tropical Rain" and other works are constantly inquiring about what "home" is? And what exactly is "family"? Is it blood or emotional connection?
His works are always inseparable from the subject of "home", and he has his own unique observation of the current situation in Singapore and Malaysia. From "family" as the classics and "relationship" as the latitude, we deeply analyze the various responsibilities that middle-aged women bear in their lives, and at the same time face the pain in the hearts of the issue of "identification" among nations, families, and gender. And contradictions, emotions are more delicately conveyed through the breath, and it also rubs many current social issues in Singapore and Malaysia: the phenomenon of aphasia in Chinese, the decline of traditional family functions, the indifferent relationship under capitalism, etc., fundamentally Refers to the imagery of "home" and "relationship."
"Tropical Rain" uses the image of "water" throughout the film, which is a metaphor for women's struggles and depression under the identity issues of family and society. The rainy season in tropical climates highlights the damp heat. However, the ignited hope of survival is hot and lustful. At this moment, in response to the elemental poetics proposed by the French philosopher Bachera, the imagery of fire and water is born in contrast!
Therefore, when all natural elements such as rain and flame are constantly changing, it also means the dynamic process of being. At the same time, it more clearly refers to the deep meaning of people in the life world. As the latitude shifts, climate has unique levels and changes. It has more influence on the way of human existence, and has become the exhibition space and terroir of our existence.
The image between the sound of rain and the blank space
rain, showing the dynamic course of "water". Is it possible for the climate to express the inner feelings of a certain person, but in this film I realize my childhood naive imagination. The gray-cold hue makes the loneliness of the existence of raindrops even more apparent; the sound of rain falls, lingering in my heart like an empty single tone. In the rainy season in South Asia, people move in a corresponding rhythm with dark clouds, drizzle, drizzle, rain, and clear rain, and they never stop looking for shielding and hiding spaces. At this moment, the audience can breathe through the actor's breath. Between the pause and the deep feeling of the characters' introverted emotions, the duality of dynamic/static complementation and completeness are more deeply reflected.
Incidentally, the film does not have a soundtrack and does not use too much music. It is director Chen Zheyi's insistence to guide the audience's abundance of emotions, and uses a simpler and natural rain to outline the rhythm of the film, while interspersed with actors. Our vocals, "sounds" are visual blanks, giving more space and vision, allowing the audience to imagine the meaning of the plot sound, and more indirectly reveal the emotions and hearts of each character.
When tidying up the items in the toilet, I found an unused pregnancy test stick, the camera slowlyThe ground gradually pulled out from the toilet, and finally only heard A Ling's dumbfounding voice. Whether she was pregnant or not was the foreshadowing of the director. Through the visual blank, it left the audience more imagination.
The lust
hiding in a lonely relationship is a human instinct. Through the heavy rain, it repeatedly pushes the fragile side of human nature to a higher level of inappearance-looking for shielding and hiding places. The space in the car has become the only place for A Ling, even an extension of her own space.
Faced with the blow of breathless life, there is only a space for people to breathe. It is not a classroom or office, or a family with a half-paralyzed father-in-law and an affair husband. There is a car that seems to have nothing in front of him, which appears vaguely. Her imagination and expectation of family, and sincere family relationship.
To be more precise, Wei Lun, a middle school boy who can let her entrust her lust, and her father-in-law who can treat her in a foreign home, all three of them have an absent space in their hearts-"the pain in a lonely relationship"-never feel it again The wife of a husband and wife, a child who has never felt the parent-child relationship again, and a father who has never felt the father-son relationship again. Therefore, the relationship between the three is simple and complex at the same time. Faced with the injuries under the complex social relationship, relying on their lonely wounds, they find a pure human-self relationship to hide and rely on.
Hot lust, there are two durian scenes in the film. The first time A Ling’s brother gave her some durians by the way; the second time, to celebrate Wei Lun’s victory in the martial arts competition, A Ling, father-in-law and Wei The three of Lun chatted by the pier. Some authors treat durian as a forbidden fruit, but I prefer to interpret it as a projection of homesickness and longing.
For A Ling, in the Lion City where durian is not produced, this is even more homesickness and a kind of comfort from home. In the lifeless family, Wei Lun who accidentally broke into it, as if infused with living water, re-enables A Ling to see the dawn of hope, igniting each other's inner love and loneliness under the deep structure. The red pen and ink in the trance, or the sudden nosebleed in the car, all reflect the most honest things in the heart.
When the meaning of "home" embodied in traditional values continues to decline, the ritual activities of "going home" only have the opportunity to be reunited because of death. Burning paper money is one of the few scenes that no longer rains. The only use of fire/flame imagery. Perhaps facing the death of father-in-law, we all have Peter Chan’s ignorance and offensive questions. Transmutation is a dynamic process, but we may not be able to. Understand that the continuation of A Ling will open a new chapter in his life. Is this kind of death still terrible?
"Tropical Rain" is centered on the middle-aged woman A Ling. The director also cleverly uses the career and family crises she faces to bring out a broader vision and identity issues, including nationality, family and gender. It even asks more essential questions: Are women allowed to be "self"?
opens with three different languages-English, Chinese and Hokkien, presenting Singaporeans and Malaysians of different nationalities and generations, reflecting the identity within the language. More detailed engraving of the language use in English and Chinese shows the differences and classes that are difficult to cross between nationalities.
At the same time, it points to the "self-identity" of Ling. Even though Ling, who has been married to Singapore for eight years, has not changed her nationality for a long time. Perhaps she has never identified with the various things in a foreign country in her heart. What is more essential is the family, which has never been accepted by foreign family members. The indifference and alienation between husband and wife and relatives keeps her choosing to go back to the starting point of everything, "Peace"! (Note: Taiping is a rainy city from Malaysia, but it was sunny on the day of filming!) The inheritance anxiety of
in the Chinese world descended in the women’s womb. For Ah Ling, she was never recognized as A member of the family, even if the responsibility of caring for the father-in-law is almost borne by her, but at the funeral, she cannot be at the same table, and her father's property is liquidated by relatives. At this moment, the father listens to the irony in Ah Ling's heart. I caught a glimpse of the news of the turmoil in my hometown while taking care of my father-in-law, but worried about my mother in Malaysia. Who can understand Ah Ling's feelings?
For women, what are the roles we play in different fields? During this, can we still keep ourselves? Interestingly, when Aling was resting in the car, the principal asked Aling’s title, Mr.s or Miss, and transferred the identity of women in the workplace to whether he had children. No children represented. Without a family, even if you are married, it reflects social expectations,Women's self-identity in the workplace originates from their families, and again presents the fragility and pain of middle-aged women, which are depressed and humid!
"Death is a kind of invisible birth; birth is a kind of apparent death!"
What is interesting is that the film uses a baby girl, echoing the film based on "female". Perhaps, at birth, certain possibilities of being us will appear to die, which is a result of traditional values and the structure of social expectations. But at the same time, death will also bring about a certain kind of birth and transformation, which requires courage and needs to discover the sunlight behind the dark clouds. As a young fan of director Chen Zheyi,
was deeply moved by "Parents Are Not Home" (2013) in high school, and during this period he continued to pay attention to his many works and past short films. His work has never been a mainstream sensational movie. There are no majestic scenes, but it resonates inside the heart. There is no pretentious sensational drama, but it is constantly exploring the most fundamental things of being a person: "What is home?"
" Movies are actually made of people. I hope to live a very simple and humble life forever, and see people from the humblest angle." — Director Chen Zheyi
inherited the new wave of Taiwanese films in China, and meticulously reflects each master’s Fine follow. At the same time, he is also one of the few male directors who can fully master female subjects. From his perspective, he portrays the delicate emotions and the pain of sacrifice that are unique to middle-aged women. There is no chauvinistic depreciation, but full of personal private experience and generalization. The unique charm of the world.
Most viewers, while watching the movie, may be unfamiliar with the social issues of the Singapore-Malaysia region, but they can discover a certain cultural similarity, the universality under the issue of "identification", and the issue of identity The diversity of the above has also become the difficulties and contradictions we are currently facing.
On the whole, this is a short film that discusses the various issues that middle-aged women face in life. In the process of watching the movie, they will inevitably feel depressed emotions, and even empathize and project the encounters of Ah Ling, but in Finally, there is a warm sun shining to the heart! Director Chen Zheyi's performance is very outstanding. His overall mastery of the movie, on-site scheduling, lens composition, etc. are impressive, and his handling is very delicate. Continue to look forward to his next works and look forward to him becoming a master of the next generation!
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