‘I like Silent Love very much. Ching-wan wasn't a star yet, but I thought he was good. Casting him in the lead was great!'—Sammo Hung

Like Derek Yee's The Lunatics (1986), released in the same year, John Chiang's Silent Love turns to the subject of the marginalised and the disenfranchised in society. Both take a realist approach to their subject, exploring the viewpoint of their characters while at the same time exposing social prejudices and institutional discrimination. The film revolves around the friendship between a gang of pickpockets—all hard of hearing and speaking—and the ex-convict Kee (Sean Lau Ching-wan). Will their shared experience of disenfranchisement connect them despite the challenge of communication? Avoiding didacticism, Chiang instead invites us to reflect on the nature of the community, the difficulty of personal relationships, under the unforgiving social reality. This screen debut of Lau gives us a glimpse of a star actor in the making.

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