Italian Premiere | In Competition
Hong Kong, 2025, 132’, Cantonese, Hong Kong sign language
Directed by: Adam Wong
Screenplay: SeeKing, Adam Wong, 1000springs, Ho Hong
Cinematography (color): Leung Ming-kai
Editing: Adam Wong, Jason Yiu, 1000springs, Eko Po
Production Design: Cheung Siu-hong
Music: Day Tai
Producers: Jacqueline Liu, Ho Hong, Adam Wong
Cast: Neo Yau (Wolf Yip), Chung Suet-ying (Sophie Fong), Marco Ng (Alan Ng), Nathan Cheng (young Wolf), Jesse Wong (young Alan), Hathy Law (young Sophie), Adam Wong (photographer), Kate Reilly (job interviewer), Panther Chan (rocker)
Date of First Release in Territory: February 20th, 2025
Moviegoers just getting started on The Way We Talk may suspect something’s off with the sound system. But, no, it’s not malfunctioning. Instead, director Adam Wong is using muffled and distorted audio to help give a sense of how kids experience class in a school for the deaf. It’s just one of many opportunities Wong gives for viewers to get inside the heads of characters in this story of three young deaf people navigating language, careers and community.
That opening scene, set in 2005, introduces Wolf and Alan, close buddies at a school where sign language is banned – an oralism policy aimed at integrating the deaf into society. Wolf is militantly pro-sign language, and Alan promises he’ll keep using it even after getting a cochlear implant.
Next it’s 2024, when Wolf (Neo Yau) and Alan (Marco Ng) meet fresh university graduate Sophie (Chung Suet-ying). Her background is different: she attended mainstream schools and her mum forbade her from learning sign language. Like Alan she’s an ambassador promoting cochlear implants, but her relationship with Wolf starts off stormy when she uses the term “normal” to describe people with hearing. As Sophie sees his reaction (“I’m proud to be deaf,” he exclaims) and gets to understand his attachment to sign language, the moment is life-changing for her.
While Sophie digs into learning to sign, Adam Wong investigates challenges and support within Hong Kong’s deaf community. The diligent Sophie is keen to become an actuary, but once hired by a top firm she’s given menial work and appears as a “disability inclusion” item on the company website. Wolf is a sea-diving fanatic but getting an instructor licence will involve surmounting roadblocks. Alan finds himself offering reality checks as Sophie gets swept up learning sign language and risks dropping her already hard-earned communication skills. And all along there’s a debate occurring over using cochlear implants or sign language. The material is thought-provoking, and there’s a lot of it; to lighten the load Wong wisely inserts breathing space, including poetic interludes courtesy of cinematographer Leung Ming-kai.
The Way We Talk reached Hong Kong cinemas with Golden Horse Awards accolades behind it, including a Best Actress win for Chung Suet-ying and a nomination for Neo Yau as Best Actor. Rising star Chung captures the humanity of Wong’s work with a soulful performance, while Yau had to pick up fluent signing for his part as the headstrong Wolf. Deaf actor Marco Ng has a pleasing presence as the all-smiles and wise Alan, and for his efforts he nabbed a Hong Kong Film Awards nomination for Best New Performer (one of seven nominations, including Best Film, Best Director and lead acting nods).
There’s plenty to unpack in The Way We Talk on the Hong Kong experience for deaf people, and some may feel certain situations are behind the times. But with Hong Kong having lagged in terms of understanding and inclusion for people with disabilities, Wong’s efforts to build empathy and roll everything into a watchable package could at least help boost discussion. Covered too are prominent topics of identity and protecting threatened language. (“Sign language is my mother tongue,” says Wolf. “Why distort who we are?”) And viewers may also pick up parallels in other areas, like the neurodiversity movement’s celebration of difference. Once Sophie begins to identify herself as a deaf person, and as she starts to see sign language as something special, The Way We Talk takes on a resonance extending deep into society.
Adam Wong
Adam Wong, born in 1975, graduated from the fine arts department of the Chinese University of Hong Kong. His short films Fish (1997), Ah Wai & Murphy (1999) and Glowing (2000) won prizes at Hong Kong’s Independent Short Film and Video Awards, and his first feature film was the shot-on-DV movie When Beckham Met Owen (2004). Magic Boy (2007) was Wong’s first film to receive mainstream theatrical release. Wong has also lectured for creative media courses at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University and the HKICC Lee Shau Kee School of Creativity.
FILMOGRAPHY
2004 – When Beckham Met Owen
2007 – Magic Boy
2013 – The Way We Dance
2015 – She Remembers, He Forgets
2021 – The Way We Keep Dancing
2025 – The Way We Talk