During a graduation celebration, the lives of four Chinese are explored under the societal pressures to move towards prosperity and happy family life. The two boys being celebrated hide their relationship for fear of reprimand and possible shunning from their parents, yet the parents hold their own secrets which show their own human fallacies under oppressive ideals they themselves subscribe to.
“Graduation” review is part of the Submit Your Film Initiative
Tackling the pressures of family and cultural expectations, Robin Wang's six-minute short film explores how these pressures can subvert desires under the semblance of pushing for the greater good of the family unit. Given the short runtime, “Graduation” gets to the point of its message quickly and audiences will easily pick up on the sexual tension between the two young men at the dinner table.
However, this quickfire approach proves to be an effective and very to-the-point way of storytelling, hitting its intended message without much fluff. Simple yet effective, the story of “Graduation” is a familiar one that many viewers will be able to relate to through personal experience or stories from people they know. In this sense, the strength of “Graduation” rests on its ability to connect on a personable level.
On the other hand, the approach may be a bit too on the nose, as there is little value beyond the problematic morality it tackles. Visually, there is nothing impressive and the performances are limited by time constraints while also not alluding to Robin Wang's actual ability to direct a cast. Overall, the presentation is rather generic, from the performances to the visuals and score.
“Graduation” succeeds in constructing a strong message and presenting it with sincerity, but this is its only marked success. Coming away from the film, audiences are bound to not really have anything that they can attach to Robin Wang as a filmmaker, not reflective of a lack of talent necessarily, but a need of having a more defined vision to make him notable. The film feels like it is made for the everyman by the everyman, and even touching on issues of prosecution against homosexuality does little to define who the maker behind the camera is or what he is hoping to achieve. Regardless, at six minutes, the short is certainly worth your time.
