Voyage (Chinese: 遊) is a 2013 film by the acclaimed Hong Kong filmmaker 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", and received its world premiere on 20 October 2013 at the Chicago International Film Festival. Voyage was filmed in Hong Kong, Mongolia, Malaysia, Australia, Germany and the Netherlands, and is the director's first film partially made outside Asia, and also his first to be filmed mostly in the English language. 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.
Voyage is the fifth of eleven publicly released films by Scud. The other films include: City Without Baseball (2008), Permanent Residence (2009), Amphetamine (2010), Love Actually... Sucks! (2011), Utopians (2015) and Thirty Years of Adonis (2017). His eighth film, Apostles, was made in 2022, as was the ninth, Bodyshop. Scud's tenth and eleventh films (his final projects prior to retirement), Naked Nations: Hong Kong Tribe and Ghosts Just Wanna Have Fun, were produced in 2024.
Contents
Plot
Voyage centers 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 traveling, 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".
Main cast
Ryo van Kooten ... Ryo
Sebastian Castro ... Sebastian
Adrian Ron Heung ... Adrian
Leon Hill ... Ryo's Father
Haze Leung ... Ming
Byron Pang ... Yuan
Jason Poon ... Jip
Debra Baker ... Suzanna Schwaering
Siu Yam-yam ... Lady Red
Linda So ... Linda So
Leni Speidel ... Leni
Production
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 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.
Home media
A two-disc Sky Digi Entertainment (Taiwan) edition of Voyage was released internationally on DVD on 29 September 2014.