Celebrating its Golden Jubilee, the Hong Kong International Film Festival 2026 opened with Anthony Chen’s We Are All Strangers. Spending over ten years, Chen wrapped up the “Growing Up” Trilogy after Ilo Ilo (2013) and Wet Season (2019), with these films determined to reflect on the revolving cityscape of Singapore alongside the growth of the three boys played by the same actor, Koh Jia Ler.

While the English title is We Are All Strangers, the Chinese title expresses the exact opposite: we are not strangers (我們不是陌生人). The contradiction captures the theme of the film – the transformation from strangers to non-strangers, to family within a reconstructed family. The film portrays the catalysts of this transformation as marriage, crises, birth, and death. Lydia (Regene Lim) marries Junyang (Koh Jia Ler) after she becomes pregnant before finishing secondary education. Junyang’s father remarries Bee Hwa (Yeo Yann Yann), an immigrant from Malaysia who works alongside him at a hawker centre. The working-class Lim family welcomes new women into their HDB flat, but things don’t go well after the family is brought back together.

As a coming-of-age film, the narrative is not solely centred on the main character, Junyang; instead, supporting characters receive almost equal screen time. The film struggles to convincingly portray Junyang’s development from a reckless teenager into a responsible husband and father through his own efforts. When crises pile up, they are largely resolved by his father and stepmother – and more troublingly, he often contributes to the family’s suffering.

The rapid growth of this manchild comes at the cost of his father’s death, his stepmother’s imprisonment, and his wife’s promising future. Junyang’s passive and irresponsible nature makes it difficult for the audience to sympathise, as the female characters are repeatedly dragged down by his actions. The melodramatic plot development results in moments of family bonding that feel unconvincing, as others must suffer simply to grant Junyang the realisation needed to grow up.The film runs for over two and a half hours. A gradually developing film of this length is expected to

deliver a strong and meaningful emotional connection with the characters and the situations they inhabit. Yet the long running time does not translate into richer characterisation. Some inconsistencies, such as Lydia’s mother disappearing halfway through, are also noticeable. Chen’s ambition to balance a two-generation family drama with a coming-of-age story is not quite achieved. Chen himself has explained that this was his first time making a film of this length.

Bee Hwa, played by Yeo Yann Yann, is one of the more fully developed and convincing characters, moving from a beer saleswoman who enjoys brief moments of happiness as a married woman to a widow who shoulders responsibility for the family. She expresses the sense of displacement she feels as an immigrant, gradually developing a stronger sense of belonging as she adapts to the new household.

In attempting to present a metropolitan Singapore, Chen intercuts shots of cityscapes and MRT trains in motion, while also touching on a range of social issues, including immigration, property, gang activity, religion, and trends such as livestream shopping and short-form videos. If Chen intended to critique the social class structure and the challenges of living under the shadow of an economically flourishing society, the film instead seems to reflect that rigidity, as even after repeated trials and errors, the characters’ lives do not improve and, in some cases, even appear to worsen.

Written by Jade Wong

Featued image courtesy of Hong Kong International Film Festival

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