Honest cinema about bending gender roles
With Tracey, emerging Hong Kong filmmaker Jun Li, along with veteran writers Shu Kei and Erica Li, obviously had no intention of either mincing words for sensitive Hong Kong feelings or confusing the issues at the heart of the film with any fancy imagery or allegory. No, Tracey — about middle-aged Hong Kong optometrist Tung Tai-hung (Philip Keung) finally embracing his true identity as a woman — is a straight ahead narrative drama that very nearly spells out its message. The film is a fairly large step for mainstream Hong Kong cinema, which to this point has reduced LGBTQ characters to comic relief, laid the tragedy on thick, or played it so safe that the characters’ humanity was completely lost. Think of Shu’s own A Queer Story, Peter Chan’s farcical He’s a Woman, She’s a Man (admittedly a stretch), or Yonfan’s gauzy tragic romance Bishonen. Tracey, for all its imperfections, is aggressively forging a new path.
In many ways Tracey does a great job with little details. When an old friend of Tai-hung’s, one of three teen pals, dies, his Singaporean husband Bond (Taiwan actor River Huang) carries his ashes back to his Hong Kong home. A short scene with Bond furiously demanding how the SAR can “be so backward” after getting hassled at customs over the “homo’s ashes” resonates loudly. An elderly trans woman still living as a man, Cantonese opera singer Brother Darling, quite elegantly, but in no uncertain terms, demonstrates that transgender people have always been here and that they’re not some new millennial lifestyle cooked up by entitled kids. Tai-hung’s wife, Anne (Kara Wai), is so casually racist and homophobic that she’s instantly recognizable. Li, Shu and Li make it clear that Hong Kong people have no right to be smug in their own identity as Asia’s World City.
But as a film, Tracey is far from flawless. Anne and Tai-hung’s children Vincent and Brigitte (Ng Siuhung and Jennifer Yu) are painfully underwritten — though their disappearance halfway through the film suggests they’re on the proverbial cutting room floor somewhere — even as the film can feel overstuffed. There’s more going on than just Tracey’s awakening. And the remarkable speed with which the kids, the third teen pal (Eric Kot) and his mother accept Tracey very nearly negates the emotional quagmires that came before.
The film frequently rises above its clunkier bits thanks to its cast. Popular veteran Wai (Mrs K) playing against type as the intolerant Anne makes her all the more effective, and freshly minted Golden Horse winner Ben Yuen steals almost every scene he’s in for his sweet, heartbreaking, and ultimately cathartic Brother Darling. Keung, of course, is one of Hong Kong’s most recognizable faces, and here he drops his familiar tough guy persona for his first lead role, one most actors wouldn’t even consider (trans casting issues aside). He proves up to the responsibility. The moment Keung defiantly exposes himself as a she — as opposed to the closing sequences when Tracey is fully realized — is one of the most honest moments in Hong Kong cinema this year.