Interview with Soundless Wind Chime writer/director/producer Kit Hung

Filmmaker Kit Hung was born and raised in Hong Kong, studied film at the Art Institute of Chicago and now lives with his partner in Switzerland. He’s no stranger to immersing himself in different cultures and it certainly shows in his first feature Soundless Wind Chime – an emotional, kaleidoscopic study of love, death, grief and the search for solace.

Blending fantasy and reality in a non-linear structure, the film follows Ricky on his journey from Hong Kong to Switzerland in search of his deceased Swiss lover Pascal’s past. Through memories and flashbacks, we’re given an intimate view of their culturally diverse relationship.

It is easily one of the most challenging and experimental feature length films in the gay film festival circuit at the moment and has been receiving rave reviews as it screens around the world.

Writer/director/producer Kit Hung took time out of his busy schedule to speak with Homopop about Soundless Wind Chime.

RO: You’ve stated that this film is partly autobiographical. What aspects of the film reflect your own life?

KH: Soundless Wind Chime is a reflection of my first experience with death. A few years ago, my lover's parents passed away within a few weeks of one another. The feeling of suddenly having someone you love pass away had been haunting me and this became the motivation behind Soundless Wind Chime.

RO: Do you feel that making this film has helped you in dealing with those feelings of grief and loss?

KH: This film is like a rehearsal and therapy for me. I was rehearsing the impossibilities (to find someone that looks identical to your dead-lover, for example) and expressing my grief for the lost.

The film was shot in the Swiss village where my lover and I live. The scene where the sister plays the violin was filmed in the place where my boyfriend's parents are buried. I didn't attend the funeral of my lover's mother - where they invited a violin player to perform, per her wishes. Her mother wanted to be a violin player but, since they are from a poor family, they couldn't afford a violin. Instead, I made the sister's character play the violin, to pay my respect to my lover's parents.

RO: During the earlier sex scenes in the film, the camera is angled away from the actors as they’re turned toward the wall. Did you film from this angle to avoid explicit sexuality or was it an artistic choice?

It is, mainly, an artistic choice. I consciously used wide shots to film the sex scenes - as I found out that a lot of sex scenes in mainstream movies only focus on body parts, which, visually, makes the stimulation more intense and arousing. Instead of pleasure, the sex scenes in my film are more about the limited privacy and space in Hong Kong - the masturbation scene, in particular - and the stress and fears shared between the two European men living there - the “rape" scenes. I wanted to use wide shots to provide the audience with a sense of space and sound as well as the actual emotions of the actors.

RO: Was the non-linear structure of the film entirely pre-planned? How much of the structure was scripted and how much was decided in the editing room?

KH: The non-linear structure was all pre-planned. That is what made financing the film so difficult. The “script reader" is, generally, not used to non-linear story telling.

RO: The film is shot in three different locations – Hong Kong, Beijing and Switzerland. You use different forms of cinematography which seem to correlate to each setting. How did you decide which techniques to use for each location and how do you feel it relates to the characters?

All the aesthetic decisions about camera angles were a result of my discussions with the Director of Photography (Alex Shi Yue) and the emotions that I have for each place. A lot of people see Switzerland as a land of fairy-tale. It is, indeed, very beautiful on the outside but, after living in Switzerland for several years, I find, beside the beauty, there is a very dark and cold side of the people and their mentality when compared to the Chinese and American citizens. Hong Kong is where I grew up. I use fast cuts, lots of tight shots and fast motion to suggest the limited spaces and the speed of the city, yet a lot of warm light to suggest the inner feelings between people. Beijing is where we move after Switzerland. It is the changing point of the whole non-linear structure. It is, comparatively, more realistic and static. The three places are, visually, very distinctive. Most of the aesthetic decisions were put on how to attach the inner emotions of the characters in each shot – for example, uses of close ups, back lighting faces or body parts.

RO: Much of the film has a visceral, observational quality, but there are fantastic and, sometimes, fable-like scenes interspersed throughout. How do you feel the more surreal elements serve the film as a whole?

KH: Imagine a camera is put inside Ricky’s head and his boyfriend has just died. He is going to Switzerland - the home of his deceased boyfriend – to find relief. The things he sees would be the reality and, sometimes, he can’t help remembering all the events that have happened in Hong Kong. At the same time, he would also imagine “what if” his boyfriend is still alive, in a different place, in a different time. Soundless Wind Chime follows the logic of how memories exist in parallel to reality. Everything that Ricky sees in Switzerland somehow recalls all of his memories of Pascal in Hong Kong. The more surreal elements are just part of Ricky's imagination. The surreal elements are part of the belief in rebirth and a second life that are immersed throughout the whole movie. And, talking from a cinematic point of view, I think the surreal elements create moments of climax and draw the audience’s attention more to Ricky's point of view.

RO: Both Bernhard Bulling and Ruth Schwegler play multiple characters in the film. Bernhard plays Pascal and Ueli, Ruth plays the "Mother" and the "Fairy Lady". What connections do their characters have to one another and to Ricky? Are they really identical or is their similarity a product of Ricky’s grief?

KH: A lot of Chinese films from the ‘80s examined reincarnation and the belief in life after death and rebirth. The way they presented this concept, in the form of film, was to present a "turn back time" sequence - where the soul of a dead person enters a pregnant woman's body and the woman gives birth to the baby. The baby will forget all of the memories of the dead person they once were, but will have recognizable marks left on their body, so others know it's the same person. The film repeatedly presents this concept of rebirth in Switzerland and Hong Kong. Using a European character in the opening and an Asian character in the end, the soul of the dancing woman sings the last songs about the moon – similar to a story told by a old Swiss woman in the opening - and carries the soul of Pascal away. The dual characters played by Bernhard are another presentation of rebirth. While Ricky is trying to release his grief in Switzerland, looking for hints of the return of Pascal's soul – maybe in the form of a moth or a bird – it turns out that someone who looks identical is living there.

RO: While Ricky and Pascal are boyfriends, it seems that love and death – the driving forces behind Soundless Wind Chime - transcend sexuality. Have you noticed any differences in how the film affects gay and straight viewers?

KH: To me, there are three types of gay films…

Type “A” is mainly for the straight audience who are new to homo culture. It might have a political message. Type “B” is for the gay audience. Type “C” encompasses those campy movies which don't necessarily have a gay character, but that gays can identify with. Type “A” stresses the differences between gay and straight people – how a homosexual character exists in a largely heterosexual world. It’s usually a coming out story – a teenage boy will stand on the stage and announce his sexuality. So, the straight audience will think, "We should accept the homos!" It has a political message. One great example is Beautiful Thing by Hettie Macdonald. Type “B” is one of those movies which doesn’t mention the difference between gay people and straight people. It assumes everyone is already comfortable with the topic and presents ordinary homosexual characters as they are. Soundless Wind Chime is type “B.”

When I wrote the screenplay, I didn't intend to draw the line between gay and straight, but to present a love story about life and death. And I notice that straight audiences can also identify with the characters as well because they have had similar experiences with people passing away. Soundless Wind Chime is a gay film as far as its market and commercial value. And, the fact that it is gay makes the story a lot more meaningful because it actually blurs the boundaries between gay and straight love. Indeed, it is a love story everybody can identify with.

RO: What do you hope that the audience will take away from this film? A lot of people come up to me after the screenings, telling me that they can attach their personal story to the film - no matter if they are Asian or European or American.

I remember an Italian lady came to me after the screening in Berlin, telling me that a few days after her mother died, she opened her mother's closet and a big moth flew out from inside and she called her sisters to tell them that their mother had become a moth. I hope this film can give people a moment to remember their loved ones who have passed away and give them some relief. The reason why we are sad when someone passes away is because of the disconnection – which leads to worries and sadness. We want to know they are feeling good and not suffering from pain anymore in the hospital.

Chinese people have stories about how the dead return home to say their last good-bye in the form of bird or a bug - which gives the person who is still alive a lot of relief. What is better than knowing that your dead grandmother is living, happily, in heaven? A lot of people in the world have experienced the same things as the Chinese have, but didn't associate it with a "last good bye".

RO: In addition to writing and directing, you also served as a producer on the film. Was it difficult juggling so many responsibilities?

KH: I have learned a lot during the process of making Soundless Wind Chime. I graduated from the Film, Video and New Media Department of the Art Institute of Chicago, where they do not put their students into any specific discipline - i.e. directing/producing/cinematography – so I studied everything, which actually helped me to understand and have a full picture of the production from different point of views. From the financial aspect, nowadays, a lot of investors would like to meet the film director in person - instead of sending the producer. I am always pairing with Jacqueline (Liu, producer) when we go for meetings with the investor. I think this gives a lot more confidence to the investors with both questions of aesthetic and budgeting aspects.

We have a small crew. It is very important for the director to understand each position and resolve the problem by the balancing aesthetic decisions with budgeting.

Aside from producing and directing, I was also the tour guide, assistant director, caterer - for the Swiss shooting, at least!

RO: How long would you say the film took to complete from conception to final cut?

5 years, continuously. What can we look forward to seeing from you in the future? I will continue to make short films with a strong experimental value. For me, it is very important to experiment and push the boundary between different forms of narratives and how audio visual elements work with the human mind.