Voyage (2013 film)

Voyage

Poster
Directed by Scud
Produced by Annie Lau
Leni Speidel
Written by Scud
Starring Ryo van Kooten
Sebastian Castro
Adrian Ron Heung
Leon Hill
Haze Leung
Byron Pang Koon Kei
Jason Poon
Debra Baker
Susan Siu
Linda So
Leni Speidel
Cinematography Charlie Lam
Edited by Andrew Chan
Matthew Hui
Production
company
ArtWalker Productions
Distributed by Golden Scene
Release dates
  • 20 October 2013 (CIFF)
  • 20 December 2013 (Taiwan)
Running time
100 minutes
Country Hong Kong
Language English and Cantonese

Voyage (Chinese: ), is a 2013 film by the acclaimed Hong Kong film-maker Scud, the production crediting name of Danny Cheng Wan-Cheung. It is described as "a tragic story about love, fate and the struggle of losing loved ones",[1] and received its world premiere on 20 October 2013 at the Chicago International Film Festival.[2] It was filmed in Hong Kong, Mongolia, Malaysia, Australia, Germany and Holland, and is the director's first film partially made outside Asia, and also his first to be filmed mostly in the English language.[1] It explores several themes traditionally regarded as 'taboo' in Hong Kong society in an unusually open, convention-defying way, and features full-frontal male nudity in several scenes.[3] It is the fifth of Scud's five publicly-released films. The four earlier films by Scud are: City Without Baseball, released in 2008, Permanent Residence in 2009, Amphetamine in 2010 and Love Actually... Sucks! in 2011. Two more films, one named Utopians, and the other, Naked Nation, are currently in production.[4]

Plot

Voyage centres on a young psychiatrist (played by Ryo van Kooten) who leaves Hong Kong to embark on a long lone voyage from Hong Kong along the coast of South-East Asia to try to overcome the emotional turmoil he has experienced in his relationships with former clients. While travelling, he tries to come to terms with his experiences by making a detailed record of their stories, and decides to visit those places himself.

The film's director, Scud, explained that the idea for the film "originated from my own thoughts about suicide. One time, I had thought about walking into the central Australian desert until I am exhausted and die in a miserable way. These thoughts caused me to think about similar people in this situation." He continued that "All of the episodes are independent of each other and the stories are based on real experiences which some of the actors appearing in the film have gone through. Having an international cast and locations around the world is appropriate because depression and suicide are universal themes".[1][2]

Main cast

Making of Voyage

Filming of Voyage began in September 2011 in the city of Hanover in Germany, and was Scud's first film set outside Asia. It stars the Peruvian-Japanese American actor, singer and visual artist Sebastian Castro, very popular in Asia, who was also commissioned to produce some original art for the film.

Voyage features many of Scud’s colleagues from previous films, such as the actors Byron Pang, Haze Leung, Adrian "Ron" Heung, and Linda So, as well as several technical staff, such as the Director of Photography, Charlie Lam, who worked on Scud’s 2010 film Amphetamine. During filming, Scud said, "I am really enjoying shooting in Europe because people are so film-friendly.. I can see myself coming back to film again in Europe". The German episode includes appearances by the UK actress Debra Baker (Junkhearts) and the German actress Leni Speidel, who was also the Production Manager for filming in Europe.[1]

DVD

A two-disc Sky Digi Entertainment (Taiwan) edition of Voyage was released internationally on DVD on 29 September 2014.

Films by the same director/producer

See also

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Scud makes Voyage to Europe. Author: Martin Blaney. Publisher: Screen Daily. Published: 20 April 2012. Retrieved: 17 March 2014.
  2. 2.0 2.1 The Chicago International Film Festival - Voyage Publisher: Chicago International Film Festival. Retrieved: 17 March 2014.
  3. Voyage (2013) www.imdb.com Retrieved: 17 March 2014.
  4. "Open Auditions for Artwalker's new films - 'Open Auditions' notice". Artwalker (production company). Retrieved 24 October 2014.

External links