Why Wild Girls
Director: Andy Chin Wing-keung
Year: 1994
Rating: 7.0
Actually, why not
wilder is the question? Though I found this film to be very charming and
quite pleasing to the eye (from a male perspective admittedly) – it does
feel as if the film falls short of its promise to be a story about wild girls
in the city. Though the three girls certainly know how to have a good time
and are definitely not averse to hopping into bed with someone on occasion,
these are not tales of debauchery and libidinous activities. At heart these
are sweet girls looking for a little bit of romance and some fun along the
way.
The real pleasure of this film – and it really does fall into the “guilty
pleasure” category - is watching the interaction and expressions of these
three high spirited and totally adorable girls. All three live together in
an apartment, have been friends for years and are trying to make a living
as best as they can. Loletta Lee is applying for jobs as a secretary, but
has zero skills, Ellen Chan is a film actress only able to get roles as a
non-speaking prostitute and Ivy Leung does dubbing for the sex scenes in
Category III films.
There really isn’t very much that happens in this film – it’s almost just
a slice of life shot of these girls and some of the men they get involved
with. The main focus much to my horror is the romance between Loletta and
Ekin Cheng. I didn’t know Ekin was going to be in this film and on first
sighting I wasn’t sure that was him – long wavy hair and all – but if it
looks and acts like wood – it must be Ekin. Unfortunately, Ekin bares more
skin than the girls do – with the exception of a few fleeting shots.
The story is kind of cute though as Loletta sees him one day and becomes
determined to land him even if he does have a serious girlfriend. So she
sets up surveillance on him and bugs his apartment – and figures out what
he likes and doesn’t like and acts accordingly – it’s like shooting fish
in a barrel – though Loletta taking her clothes off and getting into the
shower would have worked for me!
Of course there are a few lessons learned – and a few hearts broken – but
in the end nothing much changes. The ending in fact is very odd – it’s almost
as if the director ran out of film at the 80-minute mark and I was completely
surprised when the credits began running. Stick around for the end credits
though because the girls and guys put on a nice little splashy dance number.
DVD Information:
Distributor - Ocean Shores
Somehow I didn't notice that the distributor was
Ocean Shores who I have been warned to stay away from. For good reason as
I quickly learned - no menu, no additions and a great deal of speckling. The
speckling does improve as the film goes on - but it still is amazing that
they could not locate a better print. Otherwise, the colors are fine and
the film is certainly watchable - especially with these three actresses!
Letterbox - but just barely so.
Subs - burnt on English and Chinese.