On August 1st afternoon, I finally watched the Hong Kong film "The Way We Talk" (看我今天怎麼說) in the cinema.
"The Way We Talk" was a film I had been wanting to see for months. I had heard of the film since the late 2024, including the news about the leading actress, Chung Suet Ying, won Best Leading Actress in the 61st Golden Horse Awards (the Chinese-language films' equivalent to the Oscars) for her role, and I got interested in the film after reading good reviews praising the film's portrayal of the deaf community. Although I am not deaf or heard-of-hearing, I am disabled myself (specifically autistic and visually impaired), not to mention Hong Kong films about the disabled community is indeed rare, thus I am curious to see a Hong Kong film with such unusual subject like "The Way We Talk".
Due to "The Way We Talk" having a niche subject, I was worried that it would never be screened here in Malaysian cinemas. Therefore, I was excited to learn that the film would finally be screened in Malaysian cinemas starting from July 31, through reading news about two of the film's leading actors, Neo Yau and Macro Ng, came to visit Malaysia to promote the film. Therefore, I decided to seize the opportunity almost immediately to watch "The Way We Talk" on the next day, August 1 afternoon, in the cinema to support the film.
It is worth noting that July is also Disability Pride Month, while Neo Yau's character, Wolf, is a deaf person who is proud of being deaf and who embraces sign languages as his mother tongue.
After finally getting for an opportunity to see "The Way We Talk" upon waiting for months, the film did not disappoint.
"The Way We Talk" went into great lengths in exploring the deaf community's culture, as well as their struggles and growth in understanding their own identity, through the perspectives of different kinds of deaf or hard-of-hearing people, like those who prefer to use sign languages, those who prefer medical devices, such as cochlear implants (CI), for hearing, those who proudly embrace the deaf culture, and those who wish to assimilate with hearing people and be regarded as "normal".
The film is clever for utilising sound effects to depict the deaf characters' point of view, including moments of soundless and when a cochlear implant malfunctions, as well as indicating speakers in subtitles. The cast performance is stellar, through expressive facial and body languages without speech.
"The Way We Talk" is an unusual Hong Kong film, and is not a film general audience would typically associate with Hong Kong cinema, but that is exactly why a rare gem like a film that focuses on the deaf community is worth supporting. If you have the opportunity to watch "The Way We Talk", I cannot recommend it enough.