Saturday, December 21, 2019

Wet Season (2019)– The Coldness, Unspeakable & Silence


Wet Season by Anthony Chen is poetic, and yet you can sense a tint of oppressiveness experienced by the protagonist Ling (Yeo Yann Yann). While the film seems to highlight the suffering of a woman with stress and obligations from the different aspects of life, the struggle of an urban being is portrayed. Weilun (Koh Jia Ler), though just a “kid”, battles with life too— expectations of the society for him to excel in his studies; in his Wushu practice, with absent parents.

Wetness. Water. Rain. Coldness. Unspeakable. Silence. These make the movie hypnotizing and mesmerizing. We walk into the secret inner worlds of the characters. With a gaze, with a smile, they reveal. The sounds of water are also shown through the domestic life of cooking and washing. Ling is trapped in the coldness and dampness of her domestic life. She has to face her distant husband Andrew (Christopher Lee) who is hardly home and rejects intimacy with her despite her desire to get pregnant, her failed IVF attempts and the endless household chores that she has to handle despite having a full-time job as a secondary school Chinese teacher. Perhaps, her only warmth in the household is her nonverbal communication with her paralysed father-in-law (Yang Shi Bin).

Does the coldness of Ling’s surrounding, as well as her husband’s extramarital affair drive her to the forbidden affair between her and her student Weilun? What is seen to be wrong in a societal context receives sympathy from the audience. My tears shed during the “breakup” scene when Weilun tells Ling, “My heart aches. It really aches” and Ling replies, “It’s just so. You will get used to it in the future.” Perhaps, it is the sincere, “no frills” love affair that touches our hearts, though logically, it could be wrong.

The relationship between Ling, her father-in-law and Weilun resembles that of a closely knitted family though they are not related by blood. While Andrew has often neglected his father, his father seems to have found his son in Weilun. He looks at Weilun with the eyes of compassion. Ling and her father-in-law celebrate the victory of Weilun who wins the Wushu Championship while Weilun’s parents are not around to cheer for him in the competition. While Ling does not have a child, the way she takes care of her father-in-law resembles that of tending to a child. She wipes the stains of diarrhea from his butt, bathes him, and changes diapers for him.


The irony of the state of Chinese Language is also portrayed through the depiction of how the students constantly use Hanyu Pinyin to replace the Chinese characters in their essays, a practice which is permitted by the Ministry of Education (MOE). Ling says to her students, “Though the MOE allows you to use Hanyu Pinyin in your writing, I still hope that you don’t fill your essays with ABCDs. Can you please respect the Chinese Language?”


The film depicts the spoken languages in a very realistic manner. Weilun speaks in 60% English and 40% Mandarin to Ling most of the time. Ling, who is from Malaysia, does code-switching all the time too. She speaks in fluent Mandarin to her students. However, she speaks Mandarin with a Malaysian accent with her brother, and she uses a mix of English and Mandarin when she speaks to her husband.

The soundscape of the film is highly sensual and yet uncomfortable at the same time. The choice of not having much underscoring music leaves the film with ambience and spot sound effects most of the time. The sounds of licking and sucking on the succulent durians from Ling and Weilun suggest the lure of the forbidden fruit which further drives and establishes the relationship of the two. And yet, the running water and sounds of the rain intensify the isolation of each character. The silent interactions with a look or a gesture between Ling and Weilun; Ling and her father-in-law communicate deep underlying emotions. The actors handle such subtly in the portrayal of their feelings with delicacy and precision.

When all the characters may not be able to address their emotions with a rational mind, the father-in-law seems to be the one who witnesses all the events around him with a lucid mind. While he seems to be helpless, he could still help others, illustrated through how he helps Weilun to correctly write the Chinese character “help (帮)” in his essay. He has also aided Weilun to complete his needs for a family life.

I only got to catch Wet Season in December, on a rainy day. It has been raining for days continuously in December. This adds to the heightened realism of how I am connected to the film. I left the cinema in a daze, not being able to differentiate between the reality of life and that which is portrayed…


中文影评

都市冷冷的压迫—淡谈《热带雨》

陈哲艺执导的《热带雨》是一部充满诗意的作品。然而,观众可以感受到女主角阿玲(杨雁雁饰)面对家庭、婚姻、情欲与事业的种种压抑。虽然这部电影似乎显示出一个女性在生活的各个方面所承受的压力和义务,但它描绘的更是都市人的挣扎。伟伦(许家乐饰)尽管只是个“孩子”(中学生),也得与生活战斗;他面临学业和课外活动(武术)的压力,也因为父母时常出国公干,天天回到一个空巢的家庭,生活在没有父母陪伴的孤独与寂寞当中。

潮湿。水。雨。寒冷。无言。沉默。电影里每一景都以细腻的手法处理,深深地紧扣观众的心弦。水的声音也通过繁琐的家务事如烹饪和洗涤展现出来。阿玲被困在家庭生活的寒冷和潮湿中。她的丈夫 Andrew(李铭顺饰)早出迟归,对她非常冷落。尽管她想怀孕,丈夫也不配合;尝试打排卵针人工受孕却失败。虽然她是一名全职的中学华文教师,回到家里还得处理无尽的家务活。也许,她在家庭中唯一的温暖就是与瘫痪的家翁(杨世彬饰)非言语的交流。人物的一个眼神,一个微笑,把我们带进他们内心的感情世界。

阿玲周围的冷酷以及她丈夫的婚外恋是否导致她与学生伟伦之间的暧昧关系?在社会眼里是反道德的行为,却引起了观众的同情。当他们“分手”时,伟伦告诉阿玲:“我的心很痛。真的很痛。”阿玲回答,“就是这样的。以后你就会习惯了。”此刻听到旁边观众一边强抑制着又控制不了的流泪声。

阿玲,她的家翁和伟伦虽然没有血缘的关系,但他们就像一个紧密联系的家庭。Andrew与父亲疏远了,但他的父亲似乎在伟伦身上找到了自己的儿子,时常用慈悲的眼神看着伟伦。伟伦参加校际武术比赛,阿玲和她的家翁去为他打气,也为他庆祝夺冠胜利。阿玲虽然没有孩子,但她照顾家翁的方式类似于抚养一个婴孩—她从他的屁股上擦去腹泻的污渍,为他洗澡,并为他换尿布。

影片也通过描述学生如何在作文中使用汉语拼音来代替汉字,带有讽刺意味地反映本地华文的困境。阿玲对她的学生说:“虽然教育部让你们用汉语拼音,我还是希望作文不要有一堆 ABCD。尊重一下中文可以吗?”

影片非常真实地描绘了语言与对话。伟伦大部分时间都以华语掺杂英语与阿玲对话。来自马来西亚的阿玲也一直在进行语码转换。她对学生们说的是一口流利的华话。但是,她与弟弟说的华语是带有一点马来西亚腔的;与丈夫说话时则掺杂着华语和英语。

电影的音效非常感性,但同时又让人感觉不自在。影片多数时候都是没有配乐的。影片强调的是背景音和拟音音效。其中令人难忘的一幕是阿玲和伟伦吃榴莲时发出舔与吸吮榴莲的声音。这隐喻着两人受到禁果的诱惑,私尝禁果。戏里的水和雨声也强化了每个角色的孤立感。阿玲与伟伦之间,以及阿玲与家翁之间的一个表情或手势的无声交流传达了深层的内在情感。演员们以精致而精确的表演方式巧妙地演绎他们的角色。

当所有角色可能无法用理智来解决自己的情绪时,阿玲瘫痪的家翁似乎是一个以清醒的头脑目睹他周围所有事物,并贯穿周围事件的人。虽然他看似很无助,但他仍然可以帮助其他人。他在伟伦的手上写下“帮”字,帮助他正确书写汉字。他还帮助伟伦实现了想拥有家庭温暖的渴望。

我是在十二月中一个雨天观看《热带雨》的。该月份连续几天下雨。这增加了影片的真实感。我呆呆地坐在电影院里,无法区分现实生活和影中撼动人心的故事...