Hong Kong writer-director Simon Chung addresses the relationship between men loving other men and strives to speak on behalf of the gay community through his films.
Premiering at the 26th London Gay and Lesbian Film Festival (since renamed BFI Flare: London LGBT Film Festival), on March 28, 2012, 'Speechless' (Chinese: 無言; pinyin: Wu yan), its fifth film, between short films and feature films, after filming 'Stanley Beloved' (1998), 'First Love and Other Pains (1999), 'Innocent' (2005) and 'End of Love' (2009), is a homosexual drama about a mysterious young Frenchman who is found naked on the banks of a river in a remote border city in southern China, precisely in Wuhan.
On this occasion, Chung joined forces with fellow writer and director Claudia Priscilla ('Look at Me Again') to take the protagonists on a journey in which destiny transcends differences in gender and culture.
In this film, the director continues to represent the violence of queers, but the film not only focuses on homosexuality, but also on the frustration of love.
The stranger (Pierre-Matthieu Vital), is arrested by the local police. Apparently he doesn't want to or can't talk (hence the title of the film), so he is sent to a hospital to find out what's wrong with him.
During his convalescence in the health center he remains mute, plagued by nightmares and scenes from the past. Despite having lost the ability to speak, the mysterious character is still able to create an emotional bond with the cute and kind Xiao Jiang, a nurse, who decides to help him when he is about to be transferred to an asylum, taking him clandestinely to his uncle's remote house in a distant village.
As Jiang connects with his new, silent friend, he discovers the secrets of his past and the reason for his silence. Jealousy, homosexuality and cultural differences caused the young Frenchman great harm from which he has not yet recovered.
The discovery leads to the retelling of a secondary love story between exchange student from France, Luke, who is eventually revealed to be the patient's identity, and a fellow college student named Han Dong. Unfortunately, Han has a girlfriend, Xiao Ning, who proves to be dangerously jealous.
Screened at major LGBT film festivals in London, Vancouver, Toronto and Turin, the interracial romance easily appeals to people of all sexual orientations as it reveals the true nature of love: that it is transcendent, but can also fade like dew.
Although the film is slow and somewhat confusing, it conveys this sad reality about the differences between the acceptance of homosexuality by different cultures. The drama gives way to a thriller that addresses themes such as betrayal, jealousy, revenge, and investigation, while showing scenes of frontal male nudity and sexual content, and viewers discover the truth step by step.
"Speechless" has quite a few flaws, notably the use of flashbacks to tell everything, completely interrupting the narrative, but it is a beautiful song against homophobia and for friendship and acceptance of those who are different.
'Speechless' is a surprisingly intriguing film that unfolds slowly and reveals what happened to Luke to render him mute. In the first half of the film, we glimpse Luke's memory as he attempts to piece together his own backstory, including scenes in which he has sex with another man. Once Luke leaves the hospital and joins Jiang, he disappears, leaving Jiang to investigate to find out how he ended up in the hospital. What follows is a series of twists and turns as Jiang tries to uncover the truth about his mysterious friend.
Following the personality of the main protagonist easily leads to falling in love with him, and that is what will happen to the viewer who is able to convince that any act is justified if it is out of love.
On the other hand, being faced with a story based on memory loss gives rise to a certain intrigue and a development to reconstruct the forgotten personality.
Simon Chung makes sure you are immersed in Luke's story as you, as Jiang, try to discover what really happened. From the opening scene of the film, where we see Luke swimming naked before he is arrested, you are intrigued to know what happened and if he is really crazy. Of course, things aren't that clear cut, but the film's many twists and turns eventually reveal the events leading up to that moment.
The handsome Han Dong is played by mainland Chinese model, actor and magician Jian Jiang, while actress Yung Yung Yu plays Xiao Ning.
Chung also gets strong but sensitive performances from his young cast members.
One of the difficulties Chung encountered during filming is that the actor who plays Luke does not speak fluent Mandarin Chinese, so he had to offer him help to train him to deliver his lines.
Filmed in the small town of Shantou, on the east coast of Guangdong Province, and in the northern countryside of this province located in southern China, and at Shantou University, 'Speechless' is a solid mystery drama and It hooked us from the opening scene.
Of course, it helps that Pierre-Matthieu Vital is very pretty, so seeing him naked from the beginning definitely helps the film win you over. This young actor's performance is very good and he has to be expressive through other means, since his character barely utters a word.
Simon Chung has created an intriguing film that explores not only homosexuality, but tells the story of a young man whose innocent relationship with another man had such traumatic consequences.
As the director noted, the inspiration for the film came from a real-life case known as the "Piano Man", in which a man appeared on the east coast of England several years before filming began.
'Speechless' reminds me of 'Soundless Wind Chime', another 2009 Chinese film with a gay theme and a similar atmosphere, which also has as its main theme a romance between two young people, one Chinese and the other Western. Unlike 'Speechless', the dialogue in the aforementioned film is mainly in English.
Chi-Lap Chan's beautiful cinematography and Sebastian Seidel's music introduce us to the fascinating romance between Han and Luke, who was still speaking at the time. However, it is the more subtle growth of love and understanding between the silent Luke and Jiang that has stayed with me.