Hong Kong director Tam Wai-ching and her two in-demand actors, Fish Liew and Carlos Chan, brought their remarkable new film, Someone Like Me, to the 38th Tokyo International Film Festival on October 31, where it world premiered in the Women’s Empowerment section to an electric reaction from the crowd.
 
Although its title has the charming zing of a romcom, the film has something far more important on its mind than a romantic hookup (although there’s that, too). The Me of the title is Mui (Liew), a lovely young woman who was born with mild cerebral palsy. A talented artist, she hasn’t allowed her disability to prevent her from enjoying life. But when her mother insists that she get a hysterectomy so that she no longer menstruates, Mui realizes she may never have a chance to be a “real woman.” She’s never fallen in love, let alone put on makeup and dressed up for a date.
 
And so she visits an organization that provides sexual services for the disabled. At first, she wonders how the men who volunteer for the organization are any different from gigolos, but she’s assured it’s not about the sex, it’s about body autonomy. Her first date is with Ken (Chan), who arrives with mysterious bruises and an all-business attitude that he continues to maintain. “Don’t waste your time,” he tells Mui, “I won’t fall for you.” But Ken is just what the doctor ordered. What ensues is a story of burgeoning love and mutual healing, and it is neither unbelievable nor predictable.
 
During a post-screening Q&A session, the director, who is also an accomplished novelist, told the audience, “I’m so honored and thrilled to be here with my team taking part in TIFF. This is my second film, but it’s the first time I’ve been to Tokyo.”
 
Said Chan, “This is the first time I’ve been to TIFF. I consider it my mission to bring Hong Kong movies to audiences around the world, so I’m really delighted to have this opportunity today.”
 
The director was asked what had prompted her to write the script around such an unusual theme.
 
“I’ve been getting the same question from every media outlet and reporter for the past few weeks,” she laughed. “To be honest, I never thought I would be making a movie about this theme. How it started was back in 2019, I had finished work on a TV drama series, and the scriptwriter I’d worked with and I were talking, and I learned that there was actually an NPO that provided volunteer services related to sex.”
 
“I also had a friend who actually had done work for that type of organization. He told me that he volunteered with a woman who was in her 40s and was assisting her in taking a bath. And as she was in the bathtub, the woman asked if he would touch her in her private parts. The woman was already in her 40s and she really had no idea about her feminine sexuality. She had never been in love. She had never had a sexual experience.”
 
“So when I heard this, I was very surprised, because the disabled are also human. I didn’t want to portray this as a grand theme. Rather, for me, it was a love story, and through this movie, I felt that people like us should take a greater interest in people with disabilities and also recognize their rights.”
 
Liew, who was at TIFF in 2024 with the Malaysian film Pavane for an Infant, was asked how she prepared for the challenging role of Mui, who is confined to a wheelchair (although she often treats it like a racecar).
 
“It was a really, really difficult role to play,” she admitted. “I didn’t know how to act using my limbs, using my heart. I never experienced that before. So in order to prepare for the role, I told myself that I was being reborn. The director had me meet with people who have cerebral palsy, and the crew were kind enough to take note of how they live their daily lives, and they would help me get prepared. I learned how to speak like [those with the disease], with their gestures, how they talk, how they breathe, and how they bring out their energy when they’re nervous, for example.”
 
“But what I really wanted to feel was how they are emotionally, and that’s what I felt was the most difficult part of the role. For me, even though Mui is disabled, she actually is very positive and proactive in trying to do a lot of things. So I want to thank the director for giving me this great opportunity to bring her to life.”
 
Chan was asked what brought him to the film. Said the actor, “I’ve always been interested in this theme. Actually, I think maybe six to seven years ago, I saw a news piece about this—that there were NPOs out there with volunteers who provided sexual services for people with disabilities. And I was very interested because I felt that people with disabilities had the same rights as we had, and that included sexual rights. So I was immediately drawn to the script.”
 
“I wanted to understand how these two individuals would meet, how they would develop feelings for each other, and I immediately accepted the role from the director. I’d always wanted to work with Tam Wai-ching, having seen her previous work. I’d never done any romantic roles before, and that was another reason why I was intent on playing Ken.”
 
Chan was asked how he had prepared for the role, since “from a male perspective, it must have also been a very difficult role.”
 
The actor responded, “He has a very healthy body, but he actually carries an emotional weight inside, whereas Mui, even though she has disabilities, is actually a very positive person on the inside.”
 
“So I really wanted to understand how these two characters, who are the exact opposite of each other, would become close. And with the director, I wanted to understand what turned him into the type of person he is. Ken has these internal struggles [related to his sister’s suicide], and I wanted to feel closer to him.”
 
“The director gave me a lot of instructions, including going on a diet and losing weight, because the role isn’t supposed to be somebody who is rich and healthy, but rather is on the thin side. He never seems really happy, and that’s because he’s carrying that huge weight inside. So I definitely had to work on that.”
 
Q&A Session: Women’s Empowerment
Someone Like Me
Guests: Tam Wai-ching (Director), Fish Liew (Actor), Carlos Chan (Actor)