Girls Without Tomorrow: Quick Takes

Quick Takes Quick Takes:
Girls Without Tomorrow
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First there was Girls Without Tomorrow (aka Call Girl 88) and now this in name only revisit with David Lam still at the helm examines the doomed women in the hostess genre once more (and by the way, a Call Girl 92 was made the same year...just to make easily things comfortable and clear for us). Largely more of the same but not as extremely distressing as the 1988 movie, Lam's co-director Wong Chi also writes some fairly typical melodrama and arcs here. He centers events around Mama Hung (Petrina Fung) in Temple Street whose biggest concern is her daughter the aspiring actress (Vivian Chow) feeling shame, putting blame and hiding her past from the media. A veteran turning authoritarian on the scene (an engaging Carina Lau) acts as support while also being the object of desire of Onn (Ekin Cheng), one she liberated from virgin status. Pauline Chan plays the one prostitute that goes downhill the fastest, trying to support her friends and family back home in the Mainland but also taking part in the more depraved acts in her strife for more money. Finally, virgin character played by May Lo gets shown the ropes by slightly wimpy pimp essayed by Andy Hui and she grows into the role fast...

Pretty much episodic journeys, all detailing familiarity as it touches upon family relations, feeble future aspirations (considering they're whores only in people's eyes), depravity (in particular in men), the clashes you have with the triad world and some inevitable crushing emotional defeats along the way. It's not a flattering picture directors Lam and Wong paints of the populous and what prostitutes put up with. If clients aren't fat, old or Arabs, they're suave with a penchant for pouring alcohol, chili sauce, milk or what have you over Pauline Chan's body (and some whipping to cap it off too). But while there's no really above average drama coming out of Girls Without Tomorrow 1992, the fact that the casting generates an attractive frame and the director's actually do inject some slight hope into the character fates means it's a fairly smooth ride that is far, far from genre material that should be ashamed of itself. Some unexplored sub-tangents involving the characters of Waise Lee and Ekin Cheng represents sloppiness however and is evidence of just a few tads too much of a crowded movie.

-So Good... - Hong Kong DVD Movie Reviews (see my profile)
http://www.sogoodreviews.com

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