Due to the sudden epidemic this year, there are no cinema movies to watch, and movie lovers are caught in a "film shortage".
However, recently, a new film that has won multiple awards at major film festivals can be seen on the Internet. Not only has it received a lot of praise, it has even been called "Best Chinese of the Year". With such a high rating, is this movie really affordable?
"Tropical Rain"
This article has spoilers.
1
fits well with the name of the movie. The beginning of the story is a hearty rain. A car is parked in the heavy rain. The middle-aged woman sitting in the car picks up the needle syringe and proficiently faces I got an injection in my stomach.
This middle-aged woman is the heroine of the film, A Ling, a Malaysian who married to Singapore. She has been married to her husband for many years and has no children. She is eager to have children. After eight years of ovulation needles, the first scene appeared.
After many years of marriage, the relationship between A Ling and her husband has become quite weak. The two have almost nothing to talk about. With the pressure of pregnancy, even the intercourse between husband and wife has become complete. The task is no fun at all.
In addition to the estranged relationship between husband and wife, there is another thing that makes Ah Ling exhausted: taking care of the paralyzed father-in-law.
Feeding the father-in-law, changing clothes, and scrubbing have become her daily routine. Even if the incontinent father-in-law soils his clothes because of diarrhea, she will patiently help him scrub.
The lifeless family life made her feel ashamed, and the difficulties in the workplace also made her exhausted.
A Ling is a Chinese teacher in a middle school in Singapore, but from the principal to the students, everyone does not pay much attention to Chinese.
When Ling asked the students why they did not write their Chinese names, the students just smiled and said that they had forgotten.
In A Ling's gloomy life, student Guo Weilun gradually became a beam of light, bringing a little passion to her life. The relationship between the two is also gradual.
The first time I was alone in the hospital, A Ling, who went to the hospital for a routine checkup, happened to meet Guo Weilun. Weilun came to the hospital to bandage because of a training injury.
When leaving the hospital, there was a heavy rainstorm. A Ling, who had a car, took Wei Lun home by the way. It was a simple first time to get along, and the audience could only see that A Ling was only concerned The student's good teacher can't see too many clues to the emotional development of the two.
But the second time we get along alone, we can see Weilun's "unconcerned thinking". In the Chinese tuition class, other students skipped class, and only Weilun stayed. When A Ling was meditating with her back facing Wei Lun by the window, Wei Lun secretly photographed the teacher's back. At this time, he could see that his affection for the teacher was unusual.
Because of the Chinese tuition class, A-ling and Wei Lun have more opportunities to get along alone, and occasionally take care of Grandpa, so A-ling takes Wei Lun to her home to continue tuition.
Gradually, A Ling also had a special feeling for this student. Finally, on a rainstorm day, the two crossed the moral boundaries and had a relationship.
Judging from the main line of the story, this is like a bloody love story, but the topic that this film wants to present is far more than a simple teacher-student relationship.
2
From the experience of director Chen Zheyi, it can be seen that superficial romance films are by no means his level. Although "Tropical Rain" is only Chen Zheyi's second feature film, his debut "Parents Are Not Home" can be described as a blockbuster.
6 years ago, he won the Golden Camera Award in Cannes for his debut "Parents Are Not Home", and he won two awards for the director's debut. In the Golden Horse Awards selection, he won four awards for Best New Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Supporting Actress, and Best Feature Film., Even defeated "The Great Master", defeated Wang Jiawei, Du Qifeng, Jia Zhangke and other seniors, the level should not be underestimated.
Because "Parents Are Not Home" discusses family issues in Chinese society, Chen Zheyi is also known as the "successor" of Ang Lee. The new film "Tropical Rain" also reflects Chen Zheyi's thinking on Chinese family ethics.
First of all, the protagonist Aling’s problem family. Because of years of infertility, the husband and wife are separated, and the relationship is indifferent, even Aling’s husband was absent when he went to the hospital for surgery. The relationship between the two was cold. Think about it.
is not only indifferent to his wife, but Aling's husband is also indifferent to other relatives. My sister’s full moon wine, the husband only sent A Ling downstairs, and left under the pretext of having an appointment with a client to play golf. This kind of alienation between relatives is chilling.
student Guo Weilun’s family is also cold and lonely. Although there is no deliberate description in the film, Weilun's parents never showed up from the beginning to the end. Even at the award ceremony where he won the Changquan Championship, only A Ling and his father-in-law celebrated him.
The "orphan" family with the absence of parents, the widowed family with couples, and the indifferent family with close relatives but strangers. One by one, problematic families make the whole movie immersed. Depressed breath.
This kind of depression comes from the silent narrative of the film. There is no fierce conflict and quarrel in the whole film, but all the details vividly show the cracks under the surface of harmony.
A Ling came home from the hospital after the operation, and wanted her husband to lie down with her on the bed, but the husband sat in the living room with her paralyzed father and was speechless, silent here. In a short period of time, the husband would rather be with his paralyzed father than with his weak wife. Such indifference penetrates into the hearts of the audience.
Sometimes, fierce quarrels are only brief contradictions, and silent estrangement is deep despair.
3
Family issues are what the film wants to discuss, and the film's discussion of women's identity in society is equally brilliant.
As far as personality is concerned, A Ling is a traditional Oriental woman. She is gentle and virtuous, takes care of her husband, and respects her father-in-law. Even if her father-in-law is paralyzed, she has been caring for her without complaint.
In school, she is also a good teacher with due diligence, patience and meticulousness. In order to help students with poor Chinese language improve their grades, she spares her free time to tutor them.
This gentle woman who exudes maternal brilliance, under the seemingly weak outside, also has an unusually tough side. In order to give birth to a child, she has been given egg injections for eight years and went to the hospital regularly to endure I had severe pain for examination, and even fell asleep in the car because of exhaustion and weakness.
However, such a gentle, virtuous and conscientious woman is under pressure from many sources in society.
A Ling is a Malaysian woman who married to Singapore. She is an "outsider" in this city. The most obvious collision is the language. Everyone around her speaks English, only A Ling speaks Chinese.
But the people here do not approve of Chinese and the profession of A Ling Chinese teacher, and even despise it very much.
The family also does not approve of Ah Ling, because she has not fulfilled the traditional duties of women-giving birth to children. Because of the inability to have children, when attending a full moon feast, everyone would whisper about "she never had a baby" behind their backs, as if having a baby was a special honor, and if she hadn't had a baby, she was inferior.
Even strangers who have never met have sexism. Wei Lun wanted to jump off the car because of her temper. A Ling rushed into the car in front of her. When the driver got out of the car and saw a woman driving, she looked like she expected and said, "It turns out to be a female driver."
In such a depressing environment, the only thing A Ling can do is forbearance. There are many restrained shots in the film to show A Ling's forbearance. A tear left on the operating table, the cry from the empty room, the burning paper money at the funeral...
is like the title of "Tropical Rain", sticking in this damp In the greasy season, the dull air is full of restlessness, suggesting A Ling's desire to break through all of this.
Many important scenes in the film took place in a rainstorm. The first time we were alone with Weilun, the two had a relationship and "break up" on the empty lawn... The heavy rain brought a taboo love between teachers and students, and also took away the shackles and hesitation in A Ling's heart.
No matter how difficult life is, after the rainstorm, there will always be a sunny day full of hope.
