{"id":435935,"date":"2026-02-20T10:30:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T10:30:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/435935\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T10:30:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T10:30:12","slug":"we-are-all-strangers-review-two-weddings-and-a-baby-in-marvellously-addictive-family-drama-movies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/435935\/","title":{"rendered":"We Are All Strangers review \u2013 two weddings and a baby in marvellously addictive family drama | Movies"},"content":{"rendered":"

The warmth, richness and approachability of this lovely film from Singaporean director Anthony Chen, a graduate of Britain\u2019s National Film and Television School, returns him to the family drama style of his 2013 debut Ilo Ilo<\/a>; with care and connoisseurship, he again draws on the influences of Edward Yang and Tsai Ming-liang, but Chen\u2019s instincts are less oblique. He dots the I\u2019s and crosses the T\u2019s; the film-making is forthright and wholehearted though not unsubtle.<\/p>\n

The film is set in Singapore<\/a>, criticising the city-state\u2019s conformism and infatuation with the rich and western prestige, and satirically showing the high-wire dangers of its entrepreneurialism, as attempted by the poor. Koh Jia Ler plays Junyang, a goofy, good-natured but shiftless twentysomething guy who lives with his widowed father Boon Kiat (Andi Lim) in a cramped rented flat. Junyang is about to finish his military service and now needs to figure out what to do with his life \u2013 but he certainly doesn\u2019t to work on his dad\u2019s noodle stall, that humble business that puts food on their table. His girlfriend Lydia (Regene Lim) is far more aspirational, a gifted pianist with her sights set on university. Lydia\u2019s stern, churchgoing single mother \u2013 hardened by her own husband walking out on them both \u2013 does not approve of Junyang one bit.<\/p>\n

Chen shows us a romantic crisis in the lives of father and son happening in parallel. Junyang and Lydia opt to lose their virginity in a massively expensive one-night stay at Singapore\u2019s mega luxurious Marina Bay Sands hotel, the icon and centre of its international prestige. That results in pregnancy for Lydia, and her mother grimly insists Junyang does the right thing and marries her. At the same time, shy, decent-minded Boon Kiat falls in love with one of his drinks waitresses or \u201cbeer aunties\u201d \u2013 the smart, kindly, seen-it-all Bee Hwa (Yeo Yann Yann). I was reminded of a maxim from film-maker and critic Mark Cousins: if you want your film to be a success, include a wedding scene. Chen exuberantly gives us two, for father and son.<\/p>\n

So now the two couples, one with a baby, have to live together in the tiny flat \u2013 a far cry from Marina Bay Sands and the glitzy beachfront apartments that Junyang is now selling in his new job as flashy estate agent. (He has the western name of \u201cSteve\u201d, after Steve Jobs.) Tellingly, Junyang\/Steve gets drunk while celebrating a supposed sale to a smooth buyer whose promised deposit hasn\u2019t yet come though \u2013 and bizarrely tries to use the bathroom in the show apartment, only to discover the water doesn\u2019t work. Similarly illusory is the promise of easy money by selling medicines via social media.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s some addictively brash storytelling here from Chen, with a page-turning novelistic energy and a marvellous sympathy for the whole cast.<\/p>\n

We Are All Strangers screened at the Berlin film festival<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The warmth, richness and approachability of this lovely film from Singaporean director Anthony Chen, a graduate of Britain\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":435936,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[96,2839,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-435935","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-movies","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=435935"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435935\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/435936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=435935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=435935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=435935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}