The people you love have different people, sometimes different worlds, in their lives that we don’t necessarily get to know about, though it depends on your loved ones. While most of the time, we would introduce the love of our lives to our families, sometimes, it’s not possible, especially if you’re not out to them yet. Hong Khaou’s debut feature film is centered on that idea, and he handles this topic with the pace it needs, allowing Ben Whishaw and Cheng Pei-pei to carefully forge a gentle, genuine connection between two very different people bridged through Vann’s translations and their love for Kai.
"A thoughtful film whose lilting tones occasionally border on the listless."
— Sophie Ivan
"Thanks to the delicate, multilingual set-up, almost every exchange carries an unpredictable dramatic charge."
— Ashley Clark
A young man of Chinese-Cambodian descent dies, leaving behind his isolated mother and his lover of four years. Though the two don't share a language, they grow close through their grief.
After Kai, his boyfriend of four years, has died, Richard tries to connect with his Cambodian-Chinese mother Junn– both grieving for the same man, but unable to understand each other due to the language barrier.
The characters have different levels of understanding on everything in this film. It’s fun to see Hong Khaou play with these varying levels with regards to Junn and Alan’s relationship, but it definitely is the driving force behind Richard and Junn’s grief over losing Kai. The subtitles are also a nice touch, especially when they disappear when Vann is translating.
It’s acturally crazy how this is a debut feature…
BAFTA
1 nomination
Sundance
1 nomination
