Twilight's Kiss

By: Amos Lassen

"TWILIGHT'S KISS" ("SUK SUK")

Love Between Two Elders

Amos Lassen

We do not get many films about elderly LGBTQ+ lives and loves, Now director Ray Yeung's new film Suk Suk (Uncle·Uncle) brings us a love story between two elderly men. One is 70, and the other is 65 and they have been hiding their sexuality for decades and respectively leading model family lives. Their story is heart-felt and tender yet it is a struggle over the cowardice and shame it caused within traditional family dynamics in Hong Kong. We see elderly gay men's sexual desires and tender sex scenes and we see them cruising in bathhouses and gay nursing homes. It is the fear and neglect with which we face old-age and that makes getting older feel so harrowing. We also see that ageing is natural, beautiful, and to be embraced.

Pak (Tai Bo), a 70-year-old taxi driver who refuses to retire and leads a double life. When away from his wife (Patra Au), he cruises the men's toilets in Hong Kong. He meets Hoi (Ben Yuen), a 65-year-old retired father in a park and they begin a clandestine romance. Both men are connected to their families for different reasons but they think about a future together that will not hurt the ones that they love.

'Suk Suk' is a gorgeous portrait of two gay men in Hong Kong who true love as they near the end of their "dutiful" lives. The two men exercise caution and concern about how their families will probably react and we see the cultural and societal pressures that both men feel and holds them back from total commitment. Pak is married to a wife from whom he no longer feels passion and Hoi's born-again Christian son continually reminds him of the virtuous way to raise a family.

Unlike other closeted gay romances (where the main characters dare not reveal their feelings, we, together with Pak and Hoi how their lives could be together. Beautifully pulling other nuanced strands like, 'Suk Suk' is a true gem that delivers both With candor and compassion, the film looks at retirement, gay rights and faith as-opposed-to religion. The performances from Tai Bo as the initially indifferent cruiser Pak, and Ben Yuen as the more soulful romantic Hoi are beautiful.

The two men attempt some form of happiness late in life as they deal with self-acceptance, companionship and isolation. Director Yeung hasa keen eye for the social dynamics and their impact us and how they are responded to them and he also looks at simple pleasures, basic generosity and the safety net that is family.

After washing his taxi, nearly retired Pak walks to a nearby park and goes into its public bathroom. He has recently decided to start cruising and acknowledging, at least to himself, that he's gay for the first time in his life. Finding no one there for him, he walks into the park where he sees Hoi sitting on a bench. He tries an aggressive pickup, but Hoi shuts him down and tells him that they get to know each other. They eventually begin a friendship and then a romance but because they are both closeted, it is secret.

Yeung never harps and we see that the supporting characters and events provide a context for the men's relationship. Pak's pregnant daughter Fong (Wong Hiu-yee) has a struggling fiancée and Pak helps out by lending out his cab rent-free. Hoi's biggest fear is his Christian fundamentalist son Wan (Lo Chun-yip) finding out about the relationship and losing his family for it. Both men are adoring grandfathers who constantly have to to balance living authentically and living alone. Yeung fills the film with little details that add to the story in understated ways and make it easy to empathize with Pak and Hoi.

The best moments are the quiet ones- Pak and Hoi sitting by the harbor; Fong's admission that she was sure she was the less favored child; and Pak's expression during his first visit to a gay sauna. The movie is beautifully honest in its small tragedies and very sharp in its criticism of ongoing discrimination.