I Miss You When I See You

Hong Kong filmmaker Simon Chung has made an interesting, insightful film about the pain of suppressing personal authenticity for the sake of conventional mores. Kevin (Jun Li) and Jamie (Bryant Mak) are first seen as schoolboys, inseparable despite Jamie’s self-protecting unwillingness to stand up for his friend when Kevin is bullied. When Kevin’s mother decides to relocate the family, the boys give in to longtime sexual desire for one another but are traumatized by the police, who find them together, after which Jamie distances himself from Kevin. Cut to a decade later: Kevin has returned to Hong Kong, suffering from depression, and is now living in a group home. A reunion with Jamie proves stilted, and the two navigate through a daily awkwardness that includes other people and separate obligations. As each man moves forward toward a false destiny, privately wrestling with a gay identity and unfulfilled longing for one another, the hollowness of their choices becomes painfully glaring. Chung nails the precise details of each character’s world, including Jamie’s ties to a girlfriend (Candy Cheung) who is awaiting a marriage proposal, and Kevin’s ill-fitting job as an English-language teacher and his even more unsuitable relationship with a young oddball. When those worlds collide during something as simple as a dinner, Chung captures the unspoken tensions and crossed wires with a keen eye for the humiliation and humor in such moments. A compelling story about people circling the truth of a love that goes unacknowledged, this is recommended. (T. Keogh)