Cover Hong Kong film director Sasha Chuk wears a Ferragamo dress (Photo: Tatler Hong Kong/Zed Leets)
Hong Kong film director Sasha Chuk wears a Ferragamo dress (Photo: Tatler Hong Kong/Zed Leets)
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Hong Kong filmmaker Sasha Chuk sat down with Tatler to explain why actor Wu Kang-ren said ‘yes’ right away to play in her touching movie that spotlights outsiders
On a Sunday afternoon in early May, Hong Kong film director Sasha Chuk got off a plane from Udine in Italy and caught a cab to the Tatler studio for her photo shoot. The previous day, her debut feature film Fly Me to the Moon had its European premiere at the Far East Film Festival. The previous week, she had attended the Singapore Chinese Film Festival, where her feature was chosen as the opening film.
Sitting in the make-up chair, the first-time director showed no signs of the exhaustion she was surely experiencing; she lit up as she talked about the process, every step of which—from ideation and casting to post-production and winning awards—has been something of a dream.
Above Sasha Chuk wears an Alice
& Olivia dress from Lane Crawford (Photo: Tatler Hong Kong/Zed Leets)
Sasha Chuk wears an Alice & Olivia dress from Lane Crawford (Photo: Tatler Hong Kong/Zed Leets)
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This coming-of-age story is a semi-autobiographical tale of Yuen and Kuet, two sisters who migrate from Hunan in southern China to Hong Kong, and their complicated relationship with their drug addict father (Taiwanese actor Wu Kang-ren) as they adapt to life in the city. Chuk plays Yuen, while Yoyo Tse plays a younger version of her, and Angela Yuen and Natalie Hsu portray the older and younger Kuet respectively. The film has been widely praised for its moving and elaborate portrayal of the father-daughter relationship and for touching on immigrant livelihood and identity crises. It won numerous awards including three Golden Horses and three Hong Kong Film Critic Awards, one of them for best screenplay.
The 32-year-old wasn’t expecting much interest in what she describes as “a film about outsiders”, especially when 70 per cent of the dialogue is in the Hunan dialect. But this feeling of “otherness” is exactly what appeals: outside Hong Kong, where she has screened Fly, it has attracted immigrants. Two-thirds of her audience at the film’s world premiere at Tokyo International Film Festival were people from Hong Kong, Taiwan and mainland China based in the country; and Hongkongers based in Rome and London went to Udine to watch her film. “While it is a story specifically about a Hunan family in Hong Kong, it turns out that we can all resonate with the universal feeling of being an outsider, especially for those who are studying or living in places different from where they were born. Perhaps we all need a movie to talk about this subject,” she says.
Read more: 9 Hong Kong movies that spotlight the city’s social issues
Fly was adapted from Chuk’s own novella inspired by her background. In 1997, when she was six, she moved with her parents from Hunan to Hong Kong in 1997 and lived in a tenement building in Mong Kok; the actual building is featured in the movie, where her family shared a kitchen and bathroom with neighbours. “We lived in very humble conditions, but I loved the rapport and how we took care of each other,” she says. The director recreated more of these childhood experiences and memories in the movie: enjoying a McDonald’s kids’ meal, which was a luxury; learning Cantonese at school and switching back to the Hunan dialect at home; and cherishing abandoned dolls gifted by an “uncle”, a fellow immigrant who couldn’t afford to buy them new toys.
Despite her history, Chuk has never seen herself as an immigrant. She quickly picked up Cantonese at school, and has now lived here long enough to be an “outsider” in her Hunan hometown, a sentiment that is also presented in the movie.
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Above Sasha Chuk wears a Ferragamo dress (Photo: Tatler Hong Kong/Zed Leets)
Above Sasha Chuk wears a Sandro dress (Photo: Tatler Hong Kong/Zed Leets)
Sasha Chuk wears a Ferragamo dress (Photo: Tatler Hong Kong/Zed Leets)
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The director adds that the pandemic intensified discussions of “choosing sides, as if there’s no middle ground between being a Hongkonger and a person from Hunan or anywhere else in mainland China”. She was recently asked by a journalist if she was concerned about releasing Fly during this political climate. “But that’s exactly why I made this film now,” she says. “There weren’t a lot of local movies that shed light on the immigrant identity crisis and their experiences before Fly. I don’t think we should avoid talking about it. If there’s one thing that I’ve learnt from making this film, it’s how your place of birth doesn’t fully define your identity, and you don’t have to pick [one place to define where you’re from]. Hunan is my root, and it’s a fact, but I’m also a Hongkonger."
Above Sasha Chuk wears a Sandro dress (Photo: Tatler Hong Kong/Zed Leets)
Above Sasha Chuk wears a Sandro dress (Photo: Tatler Hong Kong/Zed Leets)
Sasha Chuk wears a Sandro dress (Photo: Tatler Hong Kong/Zed Leets)
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Fly has made her more determined to continue her career in film, a medium through which she can present issues that matter to her and to society. She has three scripts in development and plans to start shooting one of them later this year; all of them focus on themes of coming of age, female experiences and family relationships.
“Every project is different. After one movie, you have to move on to a different story and work with a different crew,” she says, as if as a metaphor for her life. “It’s exciting but full of challenges—which is what makes me want to continue to be a filmmaker.”
Credits
Editor Zabrina Lo
Creative Direction Zoe Yau
Styling Cherry Mui
Photographer Zed Leets
Photo Assistant Carlos Hui
Grooming Kit Li
Wardrobe Sandro, Ferragamo, Ming Ma at Lane Crawford, Alice & Olivia
Zabrina is the Senior Editor, Arts and Culture of Tatler Hong Kong. She specialises in performing arts, visual art and film. Her wanderlust was first fuelled by the Mighty Rovers Antarctica Expedition 2010. Over the years, she has interviewed A-list artists and filmmakers, including Oscar winners Chlóe Zhao and Tim Yip, Golden Horse winner Sylvia Chang, In the Mood for Love cinematographer Christopher Doyle, Pachinko author Min Jin Lee, and Coachella’s first Chinese solo singer Jackson Wang. She won gold at the WAN-IFRA Asian Media Awards for her 2021 feature on the waves of hate crimes targeting Asian Americans.
