NOOB FILM REVIEW - RAIN TOWN directed by Tunku Mona Riza
Iconic scene from Rashomon
RAIN IN CLASSIC FILMS
A great quote I keep in my mind every time I judge between a movie and cinema is from Robert Altman. He said "It's the visual stimulation that hits the audience. That's the reason for film. Otherwise, we might as well turn the light out and call it radio."
There is plenty of 'radio' now in our film industry. The characters need to say it to validate something and other elements in the frame i.e. lighting, weather, colors, etc are just there doing nothing. Just for a place for things to happen. Hence the quote above by Robert Altman.
Scene from Shawshannk Redemption
The rain scene in the attached picture is from the classic film Rashomon. The characters just sit there doing nothing. Yet it is the scene that is doing the talking. How it conveys and shares their emotions to the audience.
Another famous scene is from Shawshank Redemption when the main protagonist makes it out of prison and embraces the rain as a sign of celebration.
From classic Malay film is P. Ramlee's Sarjan Hassan where the song Tunggu Sekejap (Wait Awhile) uses the rain to show that the couple does not want to be apart.
The great Yasmin Ahmad uses rain to show innocence and acceptance of what life is in the film Mukhsin in the Keroncong Hujan scene.
Show. Do not tell.
RAIN IN RAIN TOWN
This finally brings me to what I think (spoiler alert) of the film Rain Town as a high-budget K-Drama or Wah Lai Toi and not cinema. Sure that is what the market is all about nowadays. But I am taking my own personal take in terms of what I prefer to see, especially if the title is a literal interpretation of the town name where the drama is happening. I do not see the relevance other than that. And for me, it is a lot of huge missed opportunities.
If the title were something else other than Rain Town and it is not in Taiping, it would've been fine. But looking at the example of rain usages I presented earlier I just cannot let it go.
The only way I could see it is the father character Choo (played by Kim War Chew), who is hooked on 'rain-betting' finally gets it in the third act when it 'falls' on him in the shape of the wife getting cancer and one of his sons almost dying of drug addiction after being forced to be a doctor instead of pursuing his love for music. His other son is a pampered one and is free to do anything. But the daughter is also being forced to get a proper husband after losing one because he is not a 'successful' career or a businessman. His wife (played by Susan Lankester) who got into the marriage to fill her emptiness in life with the colors of the Chinese culture ended instead trapped in one man's superstition. A traditional control freak figure of the head of the family and in denial of his own failures, until close to the end, where he finally accepts it all and changes for the betterment of all his family members.
A satisfying character arc written but not photographed and edited well enough. First of all, to me is his in-frame stature. He never appears 'big' except for his high voice and table banging. A good example can be taken from how Foster Kane is mostly shown in Citizen Kane.
The colors are nice in Rain Town. Using that generic Chinese movie palette. But it is too colorful all the time thus flat and to me, colors (and weather) should reflect what the characters are going through whether it is sad or happy. What colors to use is dependent on the context of the film. Such as how the color blue in Avatar is about home but in The Abyss it is about horror.
It can rain in any town in Malaysia. And any family has their rainy days. Yet I couldn't find any reason why it should be Taiping other than being the title direct translation and its metaphorical or poetic translation of hard times. Or maybe that is just it.
Like the film Spilt Gravy is about who the kids will grow up to be depends on how they were raised and does not have to be filmed in Pekan Kuah in Langkawi! A better film talking about fatherhood too!