We were delighted to interview director Ray Yeung, whose feature All Shall Be Well, premiering in the Panorama strand, offers a glimpse into the personal relationships of LGBTQ couples.
Dressed in soft sky-blue sweater, director Ray Yeung arrives promptly on time at the Berlinale Palast lounge; it is the beginning of another lot of interviews after the World premiere of his film All Shall Be Well in the Panorama section at 74th Berlin International Film Festival.
An advocate of LGBTQ rights and dilemmas faced, Ray, a Columbia University MFA graduate, new feature highlights the unexpected and unanticipated issues of inheritance among a long-time committed relationship couples when one of them is dead.
It was in the year 2020, that Ray went to a talk at the Hong Kong LGBT inheritance rights. During that talk the speaker called upon a few cases that he had encountered long term couples, where surviving partner lost everything. “I met up with a few who agreed to meet with me, and I found that there was a common theme that they all seemed to have a kind of too optimistic way of thinking, did not really plan anything for their future as they didn’t get married overseas and in Hong Kong there is no same sex marriage and they never planned on having a will,” said Ray.
“These couples rely on their feeling for the family members understanding, as they shared a long relationship with the families, simply based on the naïve belief that they will be taken care of and that there was not much to go the legal way, hence the title All Shall Be Well,” he added.
For Ray, it was these series of interviews which lay the premise to his story, to show the naïve, trusting way of life between 30-year long term relationships who have been living together in society as good friends while their families knew of their relationship.
The film also deals with how human relations change when it comes to inheritance and real estate. Ray, tries to bring in the effects of the society on these often ‘invisible’ older same sex couples and how a sudden death affects all the relationships with the extended families.
It gauges the tolerance and acceptance levels when Ray tells us the tales of how some of these relations change overnight. All Shall Be Well is his first Cantonese movie, and he wanted to showcase the cultural history of the same sex relationships and present stories on the Hong Kong film scene. His earlier film Suk Suk (TWILIGHT’S KISS) World Premiered at the Busan International Film Festival 2019 and had its European Premiere in Panorama at the Berlin International Film Festival 2020.
This film also talks about family bonding, a universal trait that most of the people relate to, but here in terms of the same sex relationships, Ray wanted to bring to the screen more three dimensional family members who will also sympathetic or empathic with them, where the audience will start questions and look morally towards the surviving member of the relationship, which would be more interesting to look at from the audience perspective.
Ray met six couples during his initial meetings and then met with a university lecturer who was researching and doing an oral documentation, helped him get their stories. “The older couples, particularly women are less outgoing, they have a very closed network and often ‘hidden’. They live almost as if they are friends where you can’t tell if they are a couple,” said Ray.
“I hope that this movie […] will stir up the conversations and hopefully push for the issue (of same sex marriage in Hong Kong) forward.”
The actors made the film stand out, and Ray has brought back some of his actors from his earlier films, with lead actress Patra Au Ga Man (played the role of wife in Suk Suk) who was keen on playing Angie’s role, but Ray had difficulties finding an actress playing Pat, for there are very less actress in this age group. Ray did not really want an actress from Television, but he always admired Maggie Li Lin Lin who retired 30 years ago but approached her husband and then after reading the script, she was ready to act for this role, as she loved the character who was individual gay person she had never played before.
Ray also plays a tribute in a way to the self-made, individually strong women in Hong Kong of the 1980’s and 90’s when the economic stand changed to a more developed city, particular in garment factory. This changed the dynamic of the city and can be seen distinctly in his film.
Another aspect which Ray showcases in the film, which is also the crux of the film is the problem of housing. “Hong Kong is unique in this sense for ordinary class people with ordinary income will never be able to buy their own property especially for the younger people when they first graduate because of the prices, therefore the young characters in the movie feel helpless and they are in a situation where for them the house of their aunt Pat is a dream come true, kind of a fairy tale,” said Ray.
Ray also stressed upon the need for legal framework for same sex marriage in Hong Kong. “Two years is a very long time, and nothing has been done, so I hope that this movie comes out, that it will stir up the conversations and hopefully push for the issue forward and make sure the government will do something about it. I think people should really think about connecting with their loved ones in a practical one and not just rely on them, protect their relationship.”
