Difficulty: Summiteer (Level 3)
As Sasha Chuk Tsz-yin and her friends sat in a taxi in Hong Kong, switching between Cantonese and the Hunan dialect, she remembered the driver asking: “You speak both languages fluently. Where are you from?”
The 33-year-old didn’t answer. “It was troublesome to explain my background – that I was born in Hunan and moved to Hong Kong when I was little,” said Chuk, who came to the city in 1997.
This experience was featured in a scene from the first film she directed, Fly Me to the Moon, which was released in April. Drawing from Chuk’s life, the semi-autobiographical film follows two sisters moving from Hunan province to Hong Kong in 1997. They struggle to figure out who they are as they deal with poverty and their father’s drug addiction.
Chuk sets the movie in three acts – 1997, 2007 and 2017 – capturing not only the sisters’ growth but also the city’s changes. The film won two awards at the prestigious Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival last year.
“I have always aspired to create a coming-of-age film,” the screenwriter said.
“I believe our childhood shaped who we are today.”
While Hong Kong is no stranger to newcomers from mainland China, Chuk noted the importance of having more representation of the group on the silver screen.
“A large population like me came to Hong Kong in the 1990s ... I remember many of my primary school classmates were also from the mainland,” she recalled. “Therefore, I wanted to make a movie to record this generation.”
Chuk faced problems when she moved to the city at the age of six: at first, she could not speak Cantonese and struggled to fit in.
“I was eager to learn the language and picked it up quickly ... Not only did I want to communicate with my classmates, but I also wanted to connect with this place and live here,” she said.
Still, she didn’t want to give up her background. “Growing up, I didn’t [struggle with my identity] because I am transparent – being honest with yourself is key,” the director reflected.
Chuk said that not every mainland migrant was as open as she was: “I wondered why they would choose to conceal where they are from.”
While the movie focuses on the lives of mainland Chinese people in Hong Kong, the director believes its themes can also resonate with others.
“Everyone could be a minority in different circumstances or feel like an outcast ... I think this sense of not belonging is universal, and we don’t have to agree with it but learn to live with it.”
Sample answers
Stop and think: Director Chuk used the film to shine a light on the experiences of migrants from the mainland.
Think about it: The film was a partially true story of the director Chuk’s life after moving to Hong Kong from mainland China in 1997.
Consider: Chuk noted that she had trouble fitting in because she could not speak Cantonese.
