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Review
by Kozo: |
Herman
Yau attempts a social message with the prostitute
drama Whispers and Moans. Based on a book of
interviews by Yang Yee-Shan (who also co-wrote the
screenplay), Whispers details a cross-section
of sex industry workers in modern Hong Kong, all facing
difficult change in the rapidly evolving sex trade.
Chief among them is Coco (Athena Chu), a veteran mama-san,
or a supervisor in a hostess club whose girls engage
in a higher-regarded form of prostitution than your
Temple Street-treading streetwalkers. Coco handles
the girls' club assignments and eventual "take
out" orders. While tawdry sounding, this is supposedly
the higher end of the sex trade, though you wouldn't
know it from the way the girls get treated. Work is
hell, and these girls do quite a bit of work.
The hostess club where Coco
and fellow mama-san Jenny (Candy Yu) work is in danger
of closing, meanwhile the girls working for them have
a variety of personal and professional issues to deal
with. Nana (Mandy Chiang) is a dour prostitute with
a loving boyfriend who has no idea what she does for
a living. Meanwhile, Nana's sister Aida (Monie Tung)
is a heroin addict, which destroys her cred at the
club, leading to her eventual fall to drug-addled
streetwalker. Coco has her own problems; both of her
sugardaddies seem to be straying, plus she may have
contracted syphilis from one of them, possibly putting
her young daughter at risk, too. All this plus your
standard work hazards, e.g. lousy customers, lost
opportunities, etc.
Whispers and Moans is an ensemble piece, crisscrossing between its various
interrelated players, each weathering the challenges
of being a whore in today's Hong Kong. Aside from
human relationship and job hazard issues, the girls
must deal with the influx of Mainland prostitutes,
who generally are cheaper and approach the job with
much more enthusiasm than the cynical Hong Kong locals.
The male sex workers have issues too; Tony (Patrick
Tang) is a successful, but self-loathing gigolo who
takes out his frustration by buying the time of his
female colleagues and berating them verbally. He's
in a loving relationship with Jo (Don Li), a transvestite
prostitute who's saving up for a proper sex change
operation, and may have stolen one of Coco's boyfriends.
Jo has the potential to be portrayed
as a cartoon, especially given the disbelief that
must be suspended to buy into Don Li's performance.
However, staying real is one of Herman Yau's strengths.
Yau doesn't sensationalize or overdramatize his subjects - at least from a directorial standpoint. Yau may
not use manufactured style to sell his material, but
the material itself is a little too rough to be easily
digestible. Yan Ng plays Elsie, a crusading social
worker who's trying to get the girls to buy into a
new "Sex Workers Union", the benefit being
they can develop pride in their work, and fight for
more recognition from the public. Elsie gets to deliver
numerous speeches on her crusade, which become didactic
in their long-winded optimism.
Yan plays the character with
less-than-obvious self-assurance, however, meaning
the other characters can jump all over her - which
they do. Much of her talk of paying tribute to Hong
Kong's tireless sex workers gets rebuked, frequently
by the workers themselves, who either become annoyed
at her idealism, or simply talk about how they have
other motives for being prostitutes. That opens up
the film for, unfortunately, even more long-winded
speeches where characters go on and on about how they
love being prostitutes, or are pissed that others
take their jobs, or how they never intended for their
lives to end up this way, etc., etc. There's an appreciable
honesty to the situations, but not everything is introduced
organically. The situations speak volumes, but the
characters speak even more; sometimes, all the audience
can do is listen patiently. After a while, your ears
might get tired.
Yau's attempt at thoughtful
filmmaking partially redeems Whispers and Moans,
which has the tools to be a dark, relevant social
drama. It certainly sets up all the situations, and
gives the actors enough to work with. Unfortunately,
something about the film seems lacking. The weight
of these sex workers' lives seems obvious and real,
but the situations aren't capitalized upon, and when
the sadness-tinged final moments arrive, the film
doesn't seem to affect as much as it could have. The
situations are potent, but the characters feel more
like mouthpieces, and not enough is felt when some
of them meet their fates. Whispers and Moans lacks a power or rawness that would convince us that
its "sex workers need respect" message is
strong enough to carry the whole film. The film feels
real, but it lacks immediacy.
However, the film does
succeed at sustaining interest, as the details can
certainly affect or even enlighten. The actors vary
in effectiveness, with some players (especially Athena
Chu and Candy Yu) lending veteran presence, and others
managing decent supporting turns. The weak link is
Mandy Chiang, whose inner emotions seem more inert
than tortured. As is usual with a Herman Yau production,
the performances are more natural than they are constructed,
and the rough edges manage to lend an air of spontaneous
authenticity. That is, until the personal speeches
start going on far too long, which is when the film
loses the reality its created. Filmmakers need to
seduce an audience into buying in to get them to pay
attention to soul-searching monologues or sociopolitical
pulpit pounding. Whispers and Moans certainly
does interest, but does it seduce? Not really.
Whispers and Moans may also frustrate those enticed by its Category III
rating. The rating is earned thanks to its frank discussion
of adult subject matter - though the application
of said rating is most definitely a local rather than
an international standard. Filmgoers should think
twice if they think Whispers and Moans will
be the second coming of PR Girls. Nobody flashes
a breast here and the most titillating image of Athena
Chu is when she's wearing a bikini right before she
pisses in the pool, possibly infecting someone with
syphilis. If that sounds titillating to you, then
we suggest that you don't share that feeling with
others. From likely a more common standpoint, it's
not titillating at all, and neither is the whole of Whispers and Moans. This is the type of film
where drug use and sleeping with the wrong customers
can lead to bad, bad times, and prostitution is a
real matter and not some idealized fantasy. Basically,
if you're looking for tawdry thrills, check out real
adult movies and not this questionably successful,
but well-intentioned Hong Kong film. (Kozo 2007)
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