by Dawna Fung
Swathes of dark hair fall over her narrow shoulders, as her friend snips with a pair of scissors in small quick strokes. The haircut is blunt without texturizing or thinning out, but that's enough to make her look like a boy with that medium length comb-over. She puts on different boyish styling clothes, but feels like the brown checked shirt buttoned to the neck suits her the most. Now, she's a man.
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Starring Leslie Cheung, Anita Yuen and Carina Lau, the 1994 Hong Kong romantic comedy film ‘He's a Woman, She's a Man' already explains much in the title itself. Co-written and directed by the high-profile filmmaker Peter Chan, the movie reveals the possibility of ambivalent sexuality and gender confusion. Awards including Best Actress at the 14th Hong Kong Film Awards for Anita Yuen and Best Original Song for ‘Chase' by Leslie Cheung attest to how successful this film was in the age of the rigidly conservative Hong Kong.
In the story, Sam is a well-known songwriter and record producer who plans to recruit a male singer. On the interview day, a girl called Wing who idolizes Sam seizes this chance and disguises as a boy performing. She is mousy and talentless, but Sam accepts the challenge to propel the new protégé to stardom, not knowing that Wing is a woman. Later, Sam falls in love with Wing and struggles with the question of whether he is gay or not.
The acting is perfect with Leslie Cheung as Sam, a very tormented and confused man with arrogant thoughts that obstruct him to love anyone. Anita Yuen's acting as Wing is also on a high level that she is able to perform the mixed and disoriented feelings. Especially in the scene where Sam slowly approaches Wing and kisses her, but then he suddenly screams out a big ‘No!' since he thinks Wing is a boy. Anita Yuen's big round eyes stare at Sam, with both fear, sadness and love. That pair of eyes holds up the whole scene.
DP Henry Chan's flexible use of the camera is another impressive aspect. He sets the movie's wild and sometimes playful tone in the opening scene, where the camera slithers on the floor of a house, creating a mysterious atmosphere. Then comes a big close-up of Wing, who lies down on the floor and stares fiercely at something; and another quick close-up of a large cockroach. Different angles are set to tell the story in an exciting way with surprises.
Despite being a comedy, the film actually touches on a daring question on homosexuality, still taboo topic in 1990s Hong Kong. Peter Chan cleverly presents the idea with a twist – Sam does not actually have a crush on a boy, but instead, a girl who is pretending to be a boy. It shows the potentiality of an individual displaying a mixture of character traits belonging to the opposite sex. In the context of patriarchal society, Wing's act allows her to cross from a realm of powerlessness into a realm of power.
‘He's a Woman, She's a Man' also captures the process of changing a person's gender identity like that of a transgender. We see Wing cutting her hair short, binding her breasts with tape, and using an inactivated glow stick in the crotch as a fake penis. Wing's male friend even tells her about the man-spreading. Peter Chan is rather wise to put forward the gender taboo with Wing and her friend's funny clumsy acts.
“He's a Woman, She's a Man” is a comedy experimental, radical, and unorthodox. As Sam falls in love with Wing, who is masquerading as a guy, it might be understood as a same-sex relationship. And yet, it even refutes the idea of the same-sex love in the last scene, when Sam whispers to Wing, ‘A boy or a girl, it doesn't matter. The only thing I know is I love you,' and kisses her with closed eyes. What a heartwarming fairy tale for grown-up kids to understand that true meaning of love, is not bound by gender identity.
