Ray Yeung[1] (Chinese: 楊曜愷) is a Hong Kong screenwriter and independent film director. After graduating with a law degree and practicing law for two years, Yeung found his job tedious and decided to switch career paths to become a director. Yeung's films frequently center around gay stories. He made his feature film debut with Cut Sleeve Boys (2006) in Britain and later shifted his focus back to Hong Kong, directing Suk Suk (2020) and All Shall Be Well (2024). Yeung is also the Chairman of the Hong Kong Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, the longest running LGBT film festival in Asia. He revived the festival in 2000.[2]
Early life
Yeung grew up in Hong Kong. At the age 13, he was sent to an English boarding school outside of London.[1][3] He was the only Asian student at school and faced severe bullying.[4] Upon his family's request, he went on to read law at the University of Canterbury.[4][5] After graduating with a Bachelor of Laws, he began his career as a lawyer.[1] He practiced law in the United Kingdom for two years before realizing that the profession was too tedious for him.[5] He decided to switch career paths and become an advertising director.[4] He enrolled at Columbia University School of the Arts to study filmmaking in 2008,[4] and obtained a Master of Fine Arts in 2013.[6]
Career
Yeung wrote the plays Banana Skin and The Third Sex.[6][7] He made several shorts prior to his feature film debut.[1]
Yeung made his feature film debut with Cut Sleeve Boys, a gay love story between two Chinese-British men,[1] in 2005 at the International Film Festival Rotterdam.[6] The film won Best Feature at the Outfest Fusion Festival in Los Angeles and Best Actor for Chowee Leow at the Madrid Lesbian and Gay Film Festival.
His second feature film Front Cover premiered at the 2015 Seattle International Film Festival.[6] The story follows Ryan Fu, a gay Chinese American fashion stylist (Jake Choi), who rejects his ethnic heritage, and is assigned to style Ning (James Chen), an ostensibly heterosexual patriotic actor from Beijing. Front Cover won Best Screenplay at the FilmOut San Diego LGBT Film Festival, Jury Award for Best Domestic Feature at the Outflix Film Festival in Memphis and Audience Award at the Boston Asian American Film Festival.
Yeung had expressed interest in doing a Cantonese-language film set in Hong Kong, having grown up there until age 13.[8]Twilight's Kiss, or Suk Suk, is a film about a gay relationship between two elderly men in Hong Kong and was inspired by the book “Oral Histories of Older Gay Men in Hong Kong” by Hong Kong University Professor Travis S.K. Kong.[8][9] The film premiered at the Busan International Film Festival in 2019.[6] The film had its European Premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival 2020.[10]Suk Suk is his first Chinese-language film. It was awarded Best Film at the 2019 Hong Kong Film Critics Society Award[11] and numerous other awards and nominations from 2019- 2022. He was also presented with the Artist of the Year for Film award from the Hong Kong Arts Development Council in 2021.[12]
^"Archived copy"(PDF). Archived(PDF) from the original on 2 January 2023. Retrieved 2 January 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
^"Authors". Tongzhi Literary Group. Archived from the original on 2 January 2023. Retrieved 2 January 2023.
^Yeung, Ray (20 June 1998), Yellow Fever (Short, Comedy, Drama), Sankofa Film Productions, archived from the original on 2 January 2023, retrieved 2 January 2023
^Yeung, Ray (20 July 2006), Cut Sleeve Boys (Comedy, Romance), Rice Is Nice Productions, archived from the original on 2 January 2023, retrieved 2 January 2023
^Yeung, Ray (11 February 2011), Doggy... Doggy (Short), archived from the original on 2 January 2023, retrieved 2 January 2023
^Yeung, Ray, Derek & Lucas (Short, Drama), NewVoice Production, archived from the original on 2 January 2023, retrieved 2 January 2023
^Yeung, Ray, Entwine (Short, Drama), NewVoice Production, archived from the original on 2 January 2023, retrieved 2 January 2023
^Yeung, Ray (14 April 2015), Paper Wrap Fire (Short, Drama), NewVoice Production, archived from the original on 2 January 2023, retrieved 2 January 2023
^Yeung, Ray (5 August 2016), Front Cover (Comedy, Drama, Romance), NewVoice Production, archived from the original on 2 January 2023, retrieved 2 January 2023
^Yeung, Ray (10 February 2021), Suk suk (Drama), New Voice Film Productions, archived from the original on 2 January 2023, retrieved 2 January 2023
^ ab陳穎思 (1 October 2019). "【金馬獎2019】袁富華升呢挑戰影帝 僅三部港產片入圍". 香港01 (in Chinese (Hong Kong)). Archived from the original on 2 January 2023. Retrieved 2 January 2023.
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