We Are All Strangers

Drama

Already released · Theatrical Aug 20, 2026 (SG)

★ Shortlisted by Mitch Allen

Programme: Centrepiece
Year: 2026
Runtime: 157 min
Country: Singapore
Language: Mandarin / English
Premiere: North American Premiere
In cinemas: Aug 20, 2026 (SG)

A life-altering event forces 21-year-old Junyang and his girlfriend to face reality. At the same time, while Junyang’s father is struggling to hold their modest life together, a woman enters his life and both generations are forced to redefine their family.

From the TIFF programme

Anthony Chen, a Festival favourite and the helmer behind Ilo Ilo, reunites with muses Yeo Yann Yann and Koh Jia Ler in an emotionally charged drama about a constructed family to close his “Growing Up” trilogy.

From the award-winning filmmaker behind Ilo Ilo (TIFF ’13) and Wet Season (TIFF ’19) comes the last instalment of his Growing Up trilogy. Aligned with its predecessors in its overarching themes, Anthony Chen’s final chapter follows the emotional journey and growing pains of a constructed family as they grapple with class divides in a shifting world.

We Are All Strangers follows the parallel romances of a father and a son. Boon Kiat (Andi Lim), a hardworking cook at a kopitiam (a traditional Southeast Asian coffee shop), is drawn to Bee Hwa (Yeo Yann Yann), a “beer auntie.” Meanwhile, Boon Kiat’s good-for-nothing son, Junyang (Koh Jia Ler), is madly in love with Lydia (Regene Lim), a model student. Although Lydia puts in her best efforts to please her strict mother, she soon delivers the ultimate disappointment: an unplanned pregnancy.

The films in the trilogy are standalone stories never intended as a set, but they connect more deeply than imagined. One obvious link is the two leads, appearing in every instalment, shot over the span of 13 years. Over that time, Chen’s characters and their actors have matured, and so have the settings. From the 1990s backdrop of Ilo Ilo to the 2010s of Wet Season, and 2026 in We Are All Strangers, his work is a chronological record of Singaporean history.

The themes threading the films together recur, but they never bore thanks to Chen’s unique touch in adding timely perspectives. The trilogy has come to a close, but this won’t be the end of Chen’s cinema, which keeps on Growing Up.

JUNE KIM