Sudden Rain

Sudden Rain, co-directed by WANG Yu and Jaro MINNE, offers us a glimpse into another possibility of cinema. An interview brings two Chinese women together in a foreign land in France, under the same roof, where their brief encounter quietly begins. As the conversation unfolds, the roles of interviewer and interviewee begin to shift, to blur. The window and the balcony further dissolve the boundary between the characters and the foreign city beyond—until, with the purple light of dusk, the indoors and outdoors melt softly into one.

Most of the film takes place within the apartment, continuing the spatial intimacy seen in Wang’s earlier work Under One Roof, and already forming a distinctive directorial style. The dialogue and scenes are steeped in everyday texture, grounded in a high-rise apartment in Marseille. The story carries a Rohmer-like lightness, while gently touching on the quiet struggles and emotional knots of those living far from home.

And this dreamlike encounter quietly fades as the film draws to a close. As the two women return to their own lives, how much of it will remain? The directors offer no clear answer—only a lingering, delicate aftertaste. And perhaps that, too, is where the gentle beauty of Sudden Rain lies.

– YANG Linsi