Tracey 翠絲

Hong Kong’s representation of transvestites slightly misses mark but provides a mildly engaging affair.

Directed by Jun Li

Starring Philip Keung, Kara Hui, Jennifer Yu, River Huang, Ng Siu-hin

Hong Kong, 2018

Tracey should have been a great film, while watching the film there are moments that could and should have been majestic and beautiful but the handling is something to be desired. With director Jun Li handling things in a pedestrian manner and not allowing emotions to fester long enough to make any significant emotional impact.

Tung Tai-hung is a husband to Opera singer Anne (Kara Hui) and father of two, son Vincent (Ng Siu-hin) and daughter Brigette (Jennifer Yu). Vincent is a hot head son with a sense of “justice” and is at odds with his mother who is discriminatory to almost everything. While Brigette is wedded to a successful lawyer but there is trouble brewing in their marriage and soon Brigette moves back to live with the parents. Tung is timid and abides by a basic routine but something is missing in Tung’s life, he feels empty and not himself. One day news of his good friend Ching has passed away and the arrival of Ching’s husband Bond (River Huang) greatly changes Tung’s life. Soon Tung’s uncontrollable desire to don woman’s clothes come to light thanks to the encouragement of Bond and his other lifelong friend Jun (Eric Kot). As Tung slowly embraces his life choice and finds the real person he wishes to be he soon has to confront his family and make his ultimate decision.

Hong Kong rarely deals with transvestites as a subject matter and it’s a revelation for such a film to be made but sadly it’s not as powerful or poignant as it likes to be. The film tries hard to juggle between subtlety and contrivance but the end results seem conflicting. There are so many instances where the conversations that play out feels like exposition for the audience opposed a legitimate thing the character would say at that point in time and it is these moments that greatly pull the audience out of the film. Take for example Vincent whose been dating his girlfirend for a few months but decides to ask her why she loves tattoos at such a random moment or when one of Tung’s staff randomly informs his colleague how nice there boss is.

Then we have some filler content that doesn’t really go anywhere, Vincent’s random tantrum and going off to live with his girlfriend or Brigette’s broken marriage. It helps paint a dysfunctional family but its contribution to Tung’s plight is not nearly as important as it should have been. While this should have made his struggle all the more conflicting the film never really addresses this. Then we have the surrogate figure Brother Darling (Ben Yuen) that was the catalyst for making Tung realise his true nature there ultimate reunion is random and adds very little to the overall plot.

All the issues mentioned above would have been well and good if the performances were up to scratch but it is all over the place with some questionable casting choices. Underrated side cast actor Philip Keung is given his first leading role and he does a phenomenal job as the lead, he handles a meek and calm fatherly figure with conviction and his transition to tortured and conflicted is remarkably handled. When we see the sheer joy emanating from his eyes it is a powerful performance. The usually remarkable Kara Hui seems to be having a conflicted performance with her characters obsessive and calculating demeanor occasionally coming off as cold but thankfully she does soon settle in the role more comfortably during the latter half of the film. Sadly the rest of the cast don’t help the proceedings; Ng Siu-hin’s performance is lackluster and seems to be reciting lines with an oddly shouty performance to get his point across, River Huang should be shouldering a lot of baggage but his pain is never really convincing nor is his spewing of encouragement and then we have the horrendously miscast Eric Kot that seems to belong to another film entirely. Kot constantly face pulls and has the need to do this wide mouth gawk all the time and it can be painful to watch. Despite Ng Siu-hin’s poor performance he is given a very significant moment where his moral sense of social justice is disturbed when he realise his father is a transvestite, his girlfriend rightly questions him that it is fare for others to be who they wish to be but when it is his own family then that moral justice does not apply.

The performance is not helped by some stilted camera movements and framing which don’t always allow the performance to take centre frame. Character screen direction can feel oddly staged which is another thing that takes away from the performance. Any real emotional impact is also removed when the film maker never allows it to settle in and opting to cut to the next segment a bit too early.

Despite all the negatives that is tossed at the film it’s still a mildly engaging film. Hong Kong does need to tackle subject matters such as these it’s just a shame that its handled in such a way that fails to elevate to something great. Jun Li should be commended for the effort.