Cover “Cyclone” stands as the sole Hong Kong feature nominated for the Big Screen Competition at the 55th International Film Festival Rotterdam. (Photo: Word by Word Limited)
“Cyclone” stands as the sole Hong Kong feature nominated for the Big Screen Competition at the 55th International Film Festival Rotterdam. (Photo: Word by Word Limited)
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From echoes of wuxia to the raw realities of trauma among the transgender community, Philip Yung’s feature film ‘Cyclone’ refuses to look away from the desires, wounds and uncomfortable truths society routinely ignores
Hong Kong director Philip Yung’s latest independent feature Cyclone has earned international acclaim, with official selections at the International Film Festival Rotterdam, the Bangkok International Film Festival and the New York Asian Film Festival.
The film’s title—Chiu Fung in Cantonese and Chaofeng in Mandarin—is a deliberate literary nod to Mei Chaofeng, one of the most tragic antiheroines in Jin Yong’s classic wuxia epic, The Legend of the Condor Heroes (1957-1959). Grounded in this mythic framework, Yung crafts a contemporary narrative that confronts a corner of society that is routinely ignored.
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Above A wanderer caught between survival and selfhood
Like her literary namesake, Chiu Fung, played by Shanxi actress Liu Yuqiao in a star-making turn, is a doomed wanderer. Crossing from mainland China to Hong Kong to save up for gender-affirming surgery, she initially works in a cramped restaurant before being fired for waacking instead of waitressing. On her way out, she meets Bian (Edwynn Li), a fragile young man whose affection is complicated by addiction and gambling.
Trapped at the intersection of three “outsider” identities—migrant, trans woman and sex worker—Chiu Fung’s search for physical transformations is swallowed by back-alley parlour shifts and Bian’s mounting debts. Co-scripted by Yung alongside trans activist Annabelle Lee Ka-yee, Thomas Leung and Carmen Hau, the story is anchored in the physical grit of Hong Kong—a world of cramped rented rooms, border checkpoints and cash-in-hand underground parlours.
Above Yuqiao Liu delivers a star-making performance as Chiu Fung, a character study exploring identity, desire and survival on Hong Kong’s margins. (Photo: Word by Word Limited)
Yuqiao Liu delivers a star-making performance as Chiu Fung, a character study exploring identity, desire and survival on Hong Kong’s margins. (Photo: Word by Word Limited)
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The film premiered in Hong Kong on October 2; but what ignited public discourse was an unexpected video message from the notoriously reticent screen titan Tony Leung Chiu-wai, who confessed that the film’s raw honesty kept him awake long into the night.
“I felt a profound sense of sadness … that was my immediate reaction,” Leung said in the video posted to Facebook. He said he had recently been reading existential philosophy, and the film forced him to revisit its core premise: “Existence precedes essence—meaning we have the power to fashion our own purpose … But if a [divine] Creator exists, why does it remain so profoundly silent when someone suffers such a tragedy?”
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Above Edwynn Li stars alongside Yuqiao Liu as Bian, whose fragile connection with Chiu Fung reflects the unexpressed longings and vulnerabilities of life on the periphery. (Photo: Word by Word Limited)
Edwynn Li stars alongside Yuqiao Liu as Bian, whose fragile connection with Chiu Fung reflects the unexpressed longings and vulnerabilities of life on the periphery. (Photo: Word by Word Limited)
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Known for sweeping crime sagas like Where the Wind Blows (2022), Yung exchanges linear realism here for an impressionistic collage. Childhood martial arts memories, dance beats and dreamlike reveries reflect the fragmented nature of memory and grief. Enhanced by Leung Yau-cheung and Woon Lam-tong’s cinematography, Jojo Shek’s intuitive editing, and Tu Duu-chih’s tactile sound design, the film masterfully contrasts abstract emotion against gritty urban survival.
Above Cinematographers Leung Yau-cheung and Woon Lam-tong capture Hong Kong’s transient spaces with a blend of documentary-like grit and luminous, atmospheric beauty. (Photo: Word by Word Limited)
Cinematographers Leung Yau-cheung and Woon Lam-tong capture Hong Kong’s transient spaces with a blend of documentary-like grit and luminous, atmospheric beauty. (Photo: Word by Word Limited)
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Yet what gives Cyclone its lingering weight is its foundation in authentic lived experience. Liu carries the lead role with searing emotional restraint, while much of the screenplay stems directly from co-writer Lee’s trans activism.
In the film, the protagonist’s dying father grants her acceptance; in real life, Lee was denied that closure: “When Annabelle’s father passed away, he still refused to see her,” Liu said in an interview with the YouTube film channel A Hui Bing Shi. “Watching that scene remains unbearable for her.”
Cyclone uses explicit sex scenes to explore unexpressed desire with remarkable nuance, supported by delicate performances from Li as Bian. In presenting a necessary discomfort by shining a light onto these guarded, marginalised lives without sensationalising them, the film conveys a disarmingly simple closing message: stop pretending you cannot see them.
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Cyril Ip is the Features Editor at Tatler Hong Kong, where he shapes digital strategy, curates long-form features and drives trending cultural coverage across multi-platform digital experiences. He writes about culture, society and self-development. Having lived and worked across Hong Kong, mainland China and the UK, he brings a multifaceted background that spans media, music and publicity—including a four-year tenure as a culture and diplomacy journalist at the South China Morning Post.
