Artificial Rain: Control, Precision and Reality in Anthony Chen's 'Wet Season'

The follow-up to his acclaimed debut Ilo Ilo, Singaporean filmmaker Anthony Chen's second feature reflects many of the same thematic concerns about family relationships, domestic responsibility, and the gulf between his homeland's self-representation and less glamorous on-the-ground realities. As Kenta McGrath contends, however, Wet Season's comparatively rigid aesthetic and often heavy-handed symbolism come at the expense of the realism that flows through the earlier work.

Additional keywords:
Asian financial crisis, Singapore, IVF, monsoon, wushu, wuxia, teacher–student relationship