Hong Kong actor Angela Yuen has urged the local film industry to eradicate sexual harassment and misogynistic behaviour after describing several incidents involving male colleagues, including sexual remarks, sexist jokes and an unwanted kiss during filming.
In an essay shared on Instagram in the early hours of Tuesday, Yuen recounted experiences involving a journalist, a director and other men she encountered professionally. She did not identify most of the individuals involved, but questioned an industry culture in which inappropriate conduct can go unchallenged and women who speak out risk ridicule or public scrutiny.
Her account, titled The Apologies That Will Never Come, argues that sexual harassment should not be treated as a series of isolated incidents. Instead, Yuen called for the film industry to confront the attitudes and practices that allow such behaviour to continue.
The Chinese language essay originally appeared in her City Magazine column in April. Its renewed circulation drew widespread support on social media, with her Instagram post receiving more than 46,000 likes by Tuesday morning.
Journalist apologises after controversial interview
Yuen began her account with an interview connected to Gamer Girls, a 2026 film featuring five female leads.
During the interview, a male journalist used a term associated with hostess clubs to describe interviewing the group, according to Yuen. She challenged the inappropriate remark, but said the journalist continued with the interview without apologising at the time.
The incident illustrated a problem she described throughout her essay: women can find themselves having to decide whether to challenge offensive comments in professional settings, even when the remarks themselves are clearly inappropriate.
Speaking up may interrupt the work, create tension or expose the person objecting to further criticism. Remaining silent, however, can allow the behaviour to pass without accountability.
The journalist, cultural reporter Wong Wing leung, who writes under the pen name Red Eye, issued an apology on Tuesday. In an Instagram post, Wong described his comments during the Gamer Girls cast interview as bad taste jokes and said the interview had taken place late last year.
He acknowledged that he had realised he had misspoken and regretted that the interview had ended only after other interviewees intervened to smooth over the situation.
Wong also admitted that he had handled the incident poorly by failing to apologise immediately to all the interviewees.
His statement followed Yuen's public account, although her essay addressed a wider pattern of experiences beyond the interview.
Sexual remarks and unwanted physical contact
Yuen described several other encounters that she said crossed professional boundaries.
In one incident, a director told her that she was not the type of person others wanted to have sex with, but rather someone they would prefer to remain friends with. The comment placed her in an explicitly sexual conversation about how men perceived her, despite the professional context in which the exchange occurred.
On another occasion, Yuen recalled that a male colleague who was drunk asked her in vulgar Japanese whether she liked his penis.
She eventually gathered the courage to demand an apology from the man over the sexual remark. Although he apologised, Yuen said other people present mocked her attempt to seek accountability.
The response left her facing criticism for challenging conduct that had made her uncomfortable, rather than receiving straightforward support for raising the issue.
Yuen also described repeated jokes by a veteran male actor suggesting that she wanted to kiss him. During filming, she said, the actor eventually kissed her on the cheek without obtaining her consent or discussing the gesture beforehand.
She further recalled comments by male actors suggesting that cinematographers used camera cranes specifically to film female performers' breasts from a high angle.
Such remarks, she argued, contributed to an environment in which women's bodies could become the subject of jokes even during professional work.
Together, the accounts describe different forms of behaviour, from verbal sexual harassment to unwanted physical contact. Yuen's central concern was not simply that these incidents occurred, but that people around them could treat them as ordinary workplace interactions.
How repeated behaviour can undermine women's judgment
Yuen wrote that inappropriate conduct can become difficult to challenge when it happens casually and repeatedly.
When sexist remarks are delivered as jokes, or unwanted contact is treated as harmless, women may begin questioning whether their discomfort is justified. Responding immediately can require considerable effort, particularly when the people involved hold professional influence or when colleagues appear unwilling to intervene.
Yuen said the normalisation of such behaviour can blur a person's moral judgment and make it harder to establish what happened, let alone object in the moment.
Her account also criticised the tendency of men to make excuses for inappropriate behaviour. Such responses can shift attention away from the conduct itself and towards whether the person affected has misunderstood the situation, reacted too strongly or damaged the atmosphere at work.
In an industry where professional relationships and future opportunities may depend on collaboration, challenging a colleague can carry consequences beyond the immediate encounter.
Yuen's essay did not present a formal list of industry-wide incidents or identify every person involved. Instead, it documented her own experiences and used them to question the professional culture in which they occurred.
That distinction matters: the incidents she described are personal accounts, while her wider argument concerns the conditions that can make harassment difficult to challenge.
Fear of speaking out and the cost of seeking accountability
Yuen described the film industry as lacking effective channels through which women can seek accountability for sexual harassment.
She argued that even when someone chooses to publicise an incident on social media, the response can create further difficulties. News reports may remove statements from their original context, while online users may question the person who speaks out or subject them to harsh moral judgments.
The result, she wrote, can be a chilling effect. Women may fear that reporting an experience will expose their privacy, invite ridicule or lead others to dismiss what happened.
For some, the potential cost of speaking publicly may appear greater than the prospect of obtaining an apology or meaningful action.
Yuen also reflected on the behaviour of bystanders and her own response to the incidents. Silence at the scene, a return to business as usual afterwards, and the self-doubt she experienced all formed part of what she described as a system that protects those responsible from consequences.
In her account, the problem extends beyond the person who makes an inappropriate remark or crosses a physical boundary. It also involves the colleagues who remain silent, those who excuse the behaviour and the wider workplace culture that discourages objections.
Her criticism points to the limits of relying on individual courage alone. If the burden falls entirely on women to confront misconduct, explain why it is unacceptable and withstand the reaction that follows, the underlying conditions may remain unchanged.
Yuen calls for systemic change
Yuen urged the industry to stop treating sexual harassment as a collection of unrelated personal disputes.
She called for the complete eradication of the environment that allows misogynistic conduct to persist, arguing that meaningful change requires confronting what she described as systemic denial.
That denial, she wrote, includes refusing to recognise women's subjectivity, failing to take their concerns seriously in professional settings and disregarding their right to define what respect means and when a boundary has been crossed.
Her argument shifts responsibility away from expecting individuals to manage every incident privately. It asks the industry to examine how colleagues respond to complaints, whether women can report misconduct safely and whether inappropriate behaviour carries consequences.
Although Yuen did not set out a detailed policy programme in the essay, her criticism raises practical questions for production companies, directors, journalists and performers. Clear reporting procedures, prompt responses to complaints and professional expectations around consent would provide concrete ways for workplaces to address the concerns she described.
Such measures would also distinguish an effective response from an apology offered only after an incident becomes public.
Wong's apology over the Gamer Girls interview marked a response to one of the incidents discussed in the wider debate. However, Yuen's account made clear that her concerns extended beyond a single journalist or interview.
Public support follows Yuen's statement
Yuen's Instagram post attracted more than 46,000 likes by Tuesday morning, with commenters expressing support and thanking her for speaking publicly about her experiences.
The reaction brought renewed attention to questions about sexism, workplace conduct and accountability in Hong Kong's entertainment industry.
Her decision to recount incidents without naming most of the people involved also kept the focus of the essay on the behaviour she described and the wider culture she wants the industry to confront.
The accounts remain Yuen's personal testimony, and the material provided does not establish independent findings about every incident. Wong, however, publicly acknowledged his inappropriate jokes and apologised for failing to address them during the interview.
For Yuen, the broader issue is whether speaking out can lead to more than a belated expression of regret. She argues that women should not have to endure humiliation, second-guess their own boundaries or risk public ridicule simply to demand professional respect.
The challenge now is for the film industry to turn that criticism into clear standards, safe complaint procedures and meaningful accountability.
What steps should Hong Kong's film industry take to ensure that sexual harassment is reported, addressed and prevented in the workplace?