Wet Season 2019

Ling, a Malaysian Chinese teacher in her late 30s, grapples with infertility with her husband Andrew Lim through IVF, while caring for her bedridden father-in-law, who has suffered a stroke and cannot speak. With Andrew often away from home, she navigates the strain of family duties, work, and hopes for a child. A visit to a gynecologist reveals two mature follicles, offering a glimmer of possibility amid mounting pressures.

Outside the clinic, she encounters a student on crutches, Kok Wei Lun, who has become infatuated with her. He is living alone after his parents are overseas for business. Ling offers to drive him home, sparking the start of a complicated connection that begins to blur boundaries between teacher and student.

Back at the school, Ling holds a remedial class for selected students. When she steps out briefly to collect durians from her curbside durian-selling brother, only Wei Lun remains in the classroom. The moment becomes a turning point as they share the durians and their bond deepens. Wei Lun starts to attend more remedial sessions, often visiting Ling’s home where he runs into Ling’s father-in-law. The two eventually attend a national wushu competition together, with Wei Lun winning gold, and the trio celebrating at her brother’s durian shop. The experience helps shape a fragile but growing family-like bond among them.

Tragedy strikes when Ling’s father-in-law passes away in his sleep. At the wake, Ling learns that her husband is entangled in an affair with another woman and her child, who come to pay respects. Feeling isolated, Ling gives Wei Lun a ride to his home. Inside his space, he coerces her into sex, and his influence begins to creep into her life. The relationship becomes unhealthy as he stalks and harasses her on public transport after a car accident she endures. The school’s principal uncovers the affair after catching Wei Lun in a confrontation and after covert photos of Ling surface on his phone; the principal, pursuing a ministry-friendly promotion, suggests Ling take a break to avoid jeopardizing his career.

Before long, Ling confronts Wei Lun in a final car ride and declares that the affair cannot continue. He leaves in the rain, and she tries to reach him as he runs away, a heartbroken moment in the downpour. Ling and Andrew Lim decide to divorce. An additional clause in Andrew’s legal agreement stipulates that he would not be held to paternal responsibilities if Ling became pregnant using his frozen sperm; Ling refuses to use them and wishes him well with his new partner.

Discovering she is pregnant via a home test, Ling experiences a spectrum of emotions as her apartment is emptied and prepared for sale. She returns to her hometown Taiping, Malaysia, to help her mother hang laundry, standing outside as she contemplates a sun that never rose during her Singapore chapter. The story closes on a note of quiet resilience, as she faces an uncertain future with dignity and a renewed sense of self.