Ray Yeung () is a screenwriter and independent film director. His films often center on gay stories. In 2021, he was presented with the Artist of the Year for Film award from the Hong Kong Arts Development Council. 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.

Early life

Yeung grew up in Hong Kong. At the age 13, he was sent to an English

boarding school A boarding school is a school where pupils live within premises while being given formal instruction. The word "boarding" is used in the sense of "room and board", i.e. lodging and meals. As they have existed for many centuries, and now exten ...

outside of London. Prior to his career in entertainment, Yeung was a lawyer. He graduated from

Columbia University School of the Arts The Columbia University School of the Arts, (also known as School of the Arts or SoA) is the fine arts graduate school of Columbia University in Morningside Heights, New York. It offers Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degrees in Film, Visual Arts, ...

in 2013.

Career

Yeung wrote the plays ''Banana Skin'' and ''The Third Sex.'' He made several shorts prior to his feature film debut. Yeung made his feature film debut with '' Cut Sleeve Boys'', a gay love story between two Chinese-British men, in 2005 at the

International Film Festival Rotterdam The International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) is an annual film festival held at the end of January in various locations in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Since its foundation in 1972, it has maintained a focus on independent and experimental fi ...

. 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 The Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF), held annually in Seattle, Washington since 1976, is among the top film festivals in North America. Audiences have grown steadily; the 2006 festival had 160,000 attendees. The SIFF runs for more th ...

.'''' The story follows Ryan Fu, a gay Chinese American fashion stylist (

Jake Choi Jake Choi (born January 14, 1985) is an American actor. He is best known for his role as Miggy on the ABC comedy ''Single Parents''. He previously starred in '' Front Cover'', an LGBTQ independent film. Choi has also appeared in '' Younger'', ''E ...

), 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. ''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 The University of Hong Kong (HKU) (Chinese: 香港大學) is a public research university in Hong Kong. Founded in 1887 as the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese, it is the oldest tertiary institution in Hong Kong. HKU was also the fir ...

Professor Travis S.K. Kong. The film premiered at the

Busan International Film Festival The Busan International Film Festival (BIFF, previously Pusan International Film Festival, PIFF), held annually in Haeundae-gu, Busan (''also'' Pusan), South Korea, is one of the most significant film festivals in Asia. The first festi ...

in 2019. ''Suk Suk'' is his first Chinese-language film. It was awarded Best Film at the 2019

Hong Kong Film Critics Society Award The Hong Kong Film Critics Society Awards () are the annual awards given by the Hong Kong Film Critics Society in Hong Kong since 1994. The awards are determined by votes cast in three rounds after a substantial discussion session between the mem ...

and numerous other awards and nominations from 2019- 2022.

Style and influences

Yeung cites directors

Yasujirō Ozu was a Japanese film director and screenwriter. He began his career during the era of silent films, and his last films were made in colour in the early 1960s. Ozu first made a number of short comedies, before turning to more serious themes in t ...

and

Stanley Kwan Stanley Kwan (traditional Chinese: 關錦鵬; simplified Chinese: 关锦鹏); born 9 October 1957) is a Hong Kong film director and producer. Kwan landed a job at TVB after receiving a mass communications degree at Hong Kong Baptist College. ...

as his influences.

Filmography

Awards and nominations

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yeung, Ray Year of birth missing (living people) Columbia University School of the Arts alumni Hong Kong film directors Hong Kong screenwriters Hong Kong LGBT screenwriters Hong Kong gay writers LGBT film directors Gay screenwriters Living people