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Review
by Kozo: |
Last
Christmas, Sandra Ng scored at the box-office with Golden
Chicken, a well-produced comedy-drama from producer
Peter Chan and director Samson Chiu. Ng is Kum, a life-long
prostitute (or "chicken" in Cantonese slang) whose
storied career is a series of embarrassing events and raunchy
escapades. We first meet her in present day, when a mugger
(Eric Tsang) holds her up at the ATM. Sadly, she has only
98 Hong Kong dollars in the bank, and then a power outage
traps them for the night.
Since they have nothing to do,
Kum begins to relate her wild and wacky career to her new
friend, which not too coincidentally mirrors Hong Kong's
recent turblulent history. She started as a high school
hooker in 1980 and worked her way up to an upscale club
girl. Sadly, she was not the greatest looking PR girl around,
so she compensated with her bubbly personality and overdone
good cheer. While other girls got tips with their good looks
or exposed cleavage, Kum garned cash by doing Jackie Chan
impressions and being the butt of jokes. Despite her (relative)
unattractiveness, Kum was able to make a substantial living,
and life was good.
Ah, but rain clouds appear.
Literally. Kum is impregnated by an unknown client, and
even though she wants to get an abortion, it seems the heavens
won't let her. Every time she tries to hit the doctor's,
she's stopped by a sudden deluge. If she tries to go anyway,
the heavy rain turns to hail. For some reason, the gods
don't want Kum to give up her child. So she decides to bear
the child, but needs to find a suitable father. Fortuitiously,
a nice guy named Richard (Felix Wong) shows up, who Kum
tricks into believing that he's the real dad. He agrees
to keep the child, and even agrees to Kum's condition: she
never wants to see the child.
Kum's aversion to parental
duties is not proof of her selfishness. Though she
seems to enjoy her work (Prostitution, yay!), and
worries that having a child would prevent her ability
to make a living, Kum in fact is afraid that seeing
the child will tempt her to keep it. Richard and her
doctor (Alfred Cheung) follow her wishes, and she
continues her life as a prostitute, weathering two
stock market crashes, Tiananmen Square, the handover
and more star cameos than you can shake a stick at.
Tony Leung Ka-Fai shows up in a hilarious supporting
role as Dr. Chan, a horny mathematician, and Eason
Chan and Andy Lau show up too. Mainland actor Hu Jun
(of Lan Yu fame) shows up as a too-cool triad
dude who Kun lusts after. He also borrows a huge sum
of cash from her, and promises to return it on the
fifteenth. He never does, but Kum continues to hit
the ATM every month on the fifteenth in hopes that
her money has been returned. She also squeezes a worthy
life out of constant selling of her body, be the customer
old, fat, young, physically or mentally challenged,
or just plain weird. It's all quite uplifting.
Or is it? It's hard to say
how we're supposed to view Kum's life. Posited as a parallel
to Hong Kong's rising and falling fortunes, Kum's ascension
to "Golden Chicken" (Kum is Cantonese for gold,
and chicken is slang for hooker. End Chinese lesson.) is
far from appropriate. Her go-getter attitude and general
likability may be positive character traits, but does that
make her story fitting for the working masses? Besides being
a nice person, Kum is not someone necessarily worth admiring.
She doesn't dare to dream, accepts a rather sordid lot in
life, and is content never to better herself. Her ultimate
reward is that people do value her—karmic payback,
perhaps, for being such a genuinely good person. That's
a good lesson, but not enough for all the constant historical
signifers thrown in the audience's face.
The above argument does start
a new discussion, which is about the societal value of prostitutes
and whether or not that profession is deserving of our respect,
scorn or neither. Well...a film review is really not the
appropriate forum for such a discussion, and I wouldn't
dare to make a statement on the subject. Suffice it to say
that Kum herself is too simple to be a fully rounded character.
The loss of her child does create sympathy, but that device
seems to be in place simply for that purpose. It doesn't
really add anything to the film, and really could have been
cut out. For that matter, much of the film could have been
left on the cutting room floor. Aside from a few creative
narrative sequences, the whole film plays as an episodic
series of humorous and/or off-color vignettes.
That said, the main reason
Kum's character is successful is who happens to portray
her. Sandra Ng is a very skilled and interesting actress,
and is one of the few Hong Kong actresses who can actually
carry a film. Her range of emotions is admirable, as is
her bravery in taking on such a role. The part of Kum requires
an actress to put it all out there, both physically and
emotionally, and Ng is game. Likewise, Tony Leung Ka-Fai,
Eason Chan and even Andy Lau turn in self-effacing work,
and fine support is given by Chapman To (as the club owner)
and Crystal Tin (as Kum's mamasan). The production is also
very sound, boasting fine cinematography, terrific costumes,
and a very enjoyable tone. For entertainment value, Golden
Chicken does its job well. It doesn't really add up
to more, as its "panorama" of Hong Kong history
seems more perfunctory than anything else, but that's a
high-level quibble. For those familiar with recent Hong
Kong history and culture, Golden Chicken has enough
minor joys to make it a worthwhile pasttime. (Kozo 2003)
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