Happy landing with Banana Skin
Writing a play which parodied his friends did not, surprisingly, land film-maker Raymond Yeung in hot water. In fact, it made him even more popular.
Raymond wrote, directed and produced his first play, Banana Skin back in 1993, about three rich Hong Kong youths sent overseas to study.
'After my friends saw Banana Skin, they told me that it was understated and it was more dramatic in real life. They kept telling me I should have put more gossip into it.' Raymond, a solicitor by training, went on to write and direct several more plays based on the same genre and also branched into film, making short features which explored the generation gap.
His latest, a 26-minute film Yellow Fever, took only eight days to shoot and will be shown on February 25 at the City Hall as part of the Hong Kong Independent Film Festival.
It will also be screened during the Hong Kong International Film Festival in April.
After abandoning a short-lived career as a solicitor, he studied film at Kent University. 'I base my plays on what I see around me. I think most people who write also observe and get cynical.
'They see something they want to put right - and they do so in whatever medium they think is most powerful, be it in a drama, comedy or thriller.' Raymond says in this jet-set age the new generation faces a different set of problems.
Many of his group had been 'educated overseas at a young age'.
'Add to this the 1997 transition from British rule to Chinese sovereignty and some people of my age face a cultural dilemma. These problems are fundamental to my generation.'
