Berlinale 2026 Review: WE ARE ALL STRANGERS, Winning Generational Drama Set in Singapore

Customers are dwindling at the food stand Lim Boon Kiat (Andi Lim) runs on a Singapore shopping street. Younger kids, like his son Junyang (Koh Jia Ler), prefer more upscale places like the Malt House Bar.

That's where Junyang brings his girlfriend Lydia (Regen Lim), an honor student at a private girls' school. Lydia's mother Tracy disapproves of Junyang, who has no plans for work or anything else after he finishes his mandatory military service.

Lim isn't that happy with Junyang either. His son refuses to help at the restaurant, preferring to sleep late and then party with his friends. Lim also has to deal with Lee Bee Hwa (Yeo Yann Yann), a waitress currently living in a cramped apartment with her brother and his family. When Bee Hwa drinks too much, it's Lim who walks her home.

Viewers learn that Lydia is pregnant in an offhand comment. Her grades drop, and she fails to finish performing during her piano exam. "How can you trust a boy you met at a BTS concert?" her mother asks angrily, before negotiating an expensive wedding with Lim.

We Are All Strangers marks the final entry in director Anthony Chen's informal "growing up" trilogy, after Ilo Ilo and Wet Season. Koh Jia Ler has appeared in all three entries, playing variants of the same malcontent. It's hard to warm up to his Junyang, at least until he decides to get his act together. Despite hustling, he still fails at one job after another.

The gifted Yeo Yann Yann also starred in all three entries. Her Bee Hwa is a heartbreaking role, a woman who recognizes she is past her prime but has no other skills than to flirt with her drunken customers. Yeo plays intimate scenes perfectly, and can command the screen in the story's larger set pieces.

Chen, who also wrote the script, aims for the same kind of sweeping narratives found in Edward Yang's Taiwan films. Relationships form and break, weddings are followed by births and funerals.

Chen's Singapore is a changing world where the skyline is dotted with overpriced high rises while the poor struggle for a foothold. His vision is ambitious, and in individual scenes his skills are formidable. Lim and Bee Hwa fall in love during a bus ride, Chen using adroit cuts to mark their growing attachment. It is a bravura sequence, as is a deathbed scene inside a hospital room.

Not everything in We Are All Strangers works so successfully. A third act in which Junyang experiments with online marketing becomes too far-fetched, although it does lead to a spectacular take of Bee Hwa walking her ring light through her apartment.

Chen's last film was an exceptional drama called The Breaking Ice. There is no question about his talent as a director. Throughout its almost three-hour run time, We Are All Strangers operates on a level few filmmakers can achieve.

Screened in competition at this year's Berlinale. Photo © Giraffe Pictures