Soundless Wind Chime is controversial for two reasons: it is a movie that explores a homosexual relationship, and the two men involved, Ricky (Yulai Lu) and the Swiss Pascal (Bernhard Bulling), happen to be of different ethnicities.

This art-house movie is not dialogue-driven even though it is laden with languages: Ricky speaks Cantonese, Mandarin and English, while Pascal speaks English and Swiss German. Instead, Director Wing Kit Hung manages to convey the dysfunctional love story between the two characters mainly through his cinematography and the action.

The movie revolves around the life of Ricky, a Mainlander working as a delivery boy at a restaurant in Hong Kong. His life changes when he meets Pascal, a gweilo, after he runs away from his con-artist boyfriend. The movie explores the ups and downs of their relationship and paints it to be like any other, with mood swings, arguments and make-ups. The second half of the film shifts to Ricky’s experience in Switzerland, where he subsequently begins another relationship with Ueli, a Swiss man (also played by Bulling) who bears a striking resemblance to Pascal.

As the story unfolds, it becomes apparent that Soundless Wind Chime also explores the concept of death: Ricky loses his loved ones throughout his journey. However, this is not made clear from the beginning and becomes a nice revelation at the end of the film.

Although 110 minutes long, the movie still manages to oversimplify some of the more intricate details of the relationship. It does not explain, for instance, how the romance blossoms from the moment Pascal and Ricky meet, and that leaves the audience with a big gap to fill -– the void gives the impression, intentionally or not, that their romance is superficial.

The movie also does not address the obvious problems that might arise for such a relationship in a relatively traditional society like that of Hong Kong. The couple never faces any violent objections, even from the older Chinese ladies who work at the restaurant with Ricky. Such issues, without necessarily changing the focus of the film, should not have been pushed completely aside. They are an important and realistic part of gay interracial relationships in Hong Kong. Instead, the movie seems to portray the illusion that living a gay life in Hong Kong is widely acceptable.

These issues could have been easily represented in the movie by cutting down on some of the overdrawn silent scenes in which a lack of dialogue makes it difficult to understand what is going on. Still, Soundless Wind Chime is a refreshing take on an alternative lifestyle currently under-represented in Hong Kong’s movie scene. It is definitely worth your while to see, but pay attention or you’ll probably get lost in the silences. Irma Widjojo