aGLIFF Review: Twilight's Kiss

When asked about how his film, Twilight's Kiss (Suk Suk, meaning Uncle, in his native Cantonese), or Twilight’s Kiss in its English title, would resonate with Western audiences, director Ray Yeung described what he felt was the difference between what it meant to be gay in Hong Kong as opposed to the West.

While LGBT culture here in the States focuses hard on being honest with your identity and “having no regrets” when it comes to how you lived your life, Yeung says this attitude isn’t always reflected in older gay Asian culture - something he tackles through the characters of Hoi (Ben Yeun) and Pak (Tai-Bo).

They meet each other as old men and their love is built on the full knowledge that they’ve both lived entire lives separate from the type of experiences they desire, from the love that they create in secret. Both Yuen and Bo play their characters with great nuance, the subtle changes in their facial expressions displaying momentary regret only to be patched over before anyone can tell they’re upset. They don’t (or, rather, they simply can’t) view their pasts as moments lost just because they weren’t out-and-proud gay men - after all, they have successful sons and food on the table, so they must’ve done something right.

For both Hoi and Pak, family stands as the pinnacle of what they’ve achieved; coming out and being together, at least within the film’s runtime, doesn’t outweigh what might be lost if their families fracture as a result.

The scenes where the two men separate paint an even more detailed picture of what many older LGBTQIA people face as their lives lengthen. While Yeung is right to say that the West takes a different attitude when it comes to overall queer culture, the upcoming gay elder care crisis, a subplot in Twilight’s Kiss, is happening in queer communities across the world. The men’s group Hoi and several other gay men (in various degrees of closetedness) are approached to testify in order to gain funding for gay nursing home project. Dior (Wai-Keung Chu), Hoi’s friend and the most “out” member of the group, spells out the reasons for a gay nursing home plainly - don’t you want to be cared for by people who understand you in a way that straight people cannot? Yet most of the men refuse to speak, worried (justifiably so) that they will be ridiculed for their sexuality and, even more troubling, outed to their families.

There is always the presence of societal shame haunting every character, even those not underneath the gay umbrella like Pak’s daughter Fong (Hiu Yee Wong), judged by her mother for marrying a younger man who struggles financially.

But there are moments, many of them, where this shame is chased away by the acts of caring between characters. Private instances, such as Hoi having Pak over to his home while his family is away so he can cook him a warm, luxurious meal, bring a quiet but important light into the character’s secretive shadows. It is care, shown to us through Yeun and Bo’s gentle body language around each other, that is the true joy of gay life - however sparing it might be.

Twilight’s Kiss, although billed as a romance first on every film listing, delves much deeper than just a simple love story between two older leads. This film, bruising yet respectful in its honesty, portrays the still existing divide between the personal and public experience of being gay. And while its resonance as a Hong Kong film gives an interesting, fresh perspective on this divide, the characters carry a longing for acceptance that is all too familiar to any queer audience.

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All Genders, Lifestyles, and Identities Film Festival presents aGLIFF 33: Prism streaming festival, Aug. 6-16. www.agliff.org/agliff-33.