Utopians (film)

Utopians is a coming-of-age story about a young student, Hins Gao (Adonis He Fei), who unexpectedly finds himself deeply attracted to his male professor, Antonio Ming (Jackie Chow). Despite having had a conservative upbringing, Hins wants to get close enough to Ming to understand him. The experience transforms his life and comes to define his adult identity.[1][2] The story is described as a "visually stunning paean to open love and pan-sexuality freely blending straightforward narrative and fantasy elements".[6]

The film's director, Scud, says that he drew inspiration for the film from the writings of Plato and the culture of Ancient Greece, which he describes as the "best era of mankind" when being gay was mainstream, and that "the dream of a utopian life" is one where education "serves to enhance love instead of forbid it", and that this became clear to him ever since he was aware of the sexual alternatives available.[1]

Scud says that he fell into depression after making his fifth film, Voyage, and was considering ending his career. But one day a 19-year-old boy came to him and talked about his story of having fallen in love with a policeman, and about a Japanese writer whose work Scud had read extensively when he was younger. He felt his next film should pay tribute to the period of enlightenment brought about by great philosophers and artists.[1]

Scud says that Utopians took only weeks to write and shoot. He also experimented with a more "democratic" method of film-making by consulting the cast on the roles they most preferred to take and encouraging them to resolve matters among themselves, much like the situation in ancient times.[1]

Casting was conducted openly in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore, with over 300 attending in Hong Kong on a particularly stormy day. The film's leading man, Adonis He Fei, is an actor from mainland China. His agent provided a resume so that He could fit Utopians into his busy filming schedule.[1]

• Adonis He Fei ... Hins Gao
• Jackie Chow ... Professor Antonio Ming
• Ching-Man Chin ... Swan (credited as 'Moe Chin')
• Fiona Wang ... Joey
• Jie Shui ... Mother
• Ben Fu Wai Bun... Dean
• William Lo ... Boy on boat trip / Bonfire Boy
• Jung Jen Pao ... Boy on boat trip / Bonfire Boy
• Eric Cheng ... Father
• Yeung Man Lok ... Baby Hins

In the movie a four languages are spoken: Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese and English. Even though much of the film is centered around Hong Kong, the main characters speak Mandarin-Chinese among each other, e.g. Hins, his mother, his girlfriend and Ming. The other languages are spoken in much shorter segments. This multitude of languages is also reflected in the transcription of the Chinese characters of the title (Chinese: 同流合烏) given by the producer which is Cantonese and reads tung lau hap woo, whereas one would expect a transcription in Mandarin pinyin for such a mostly Mandarin spoken movie which would be tóng liú hé wū.

• List of Hong Kong films of 2015
• List of lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender-related films
• List of lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender-related films by storyline
• Nudity in film (East Asian cinema since 1929)

• Utopians on IMDb
• Utopians at Rotten Tomatoes