Wan An (2012)

WAN AN
Short | 20 min | 2012 | Indonesia
Dir/Writer: Yandy Laurens

Tji and Ing are an old couple who lives happily together. Until one day, before they go to sleep Ing asks Tji about her fear of death.

Wan An was inspired by the director personal experience when he went back to his hometown for Imlek (Chinese New Year). The film follows an elderly chinese couple whose relationship strained after the wife expressed her fear of death to her husband. The film established the couple routines early on: following the couple in doing their daily chores, playing mahjong with their neighbors, drinking tea, and then sleep at night. It’s very effective to showcase the changes that occurred after the said question disturb their routines and create strain to their relationship. The film better capture their stories through its visual, subtle changes in their dynamics encapsulated through physical distance, gestures, and expressions rather than speech. To be honest the dialog become somewhat a flaw, despite Henky Sulaiman natural delivery. The dialogue is half indonesian half chinese, which emphasized the cultural background of the story and the characters.

The end of this film is kind of unique, it could make you content or make you felt like you got punk’d (I personally fall to the latter category). Although i prefer a bleaker ending, apparently Laurens bravely challenged the audience by giving it an unconventional ending instead. Well played :D

IMDb | Trailer

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Wan An was the winner of 2013 XXI Short Film Festival and now can be watch along with the other winning shorts on XXI Short Films Volume I DVD from EzyMata.