| The call girl or hostess movie was practically its own genre in Hong Kong cinema, offering up relatively little room for riveting stories but here Andy Chin (Changing Partner, Why Wild Girls) takes expected stories and injects character and life into them in an unexpectedly well-honed manner (plus synch sound adds much). Not dealing with whether or not the profession is bad for you but instead the men and issues in their lives proves to be an engaging choice, much more so in Cecilia Yip and Veronica Yip's cases. Carrie Ng and Cheung Man have less interesting beats to work from, even being subjected to a rather undeveloped lesbian subplot that seems to cater more to the exploitation crowd. A decision that doesn't feel at home in what turns out to be a respectful drama but as the Yip's take more center stage, the depth and emotions do as well to a very compelling degree. Definitely a neglected movie and one of Andy Chin's best. Vincent Wan brings excellent supporting acting chops while Kenneth Chan, Ha Ping, Jamie Luk and Jackie Lui also appear.
The movie playing in the cinema scene is Andy Chin's own "Sisters In Law". |
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