Hong Kong Gigolo
Reviewed by YTSL
Among the more unusual of Hong Kong movies
are those whose primary characters are gigolos and/or prostitutes.
Prior to watching this 1990 film which stars pudgy Alex Man and lean but
muscular Mark Cheng along with Simon Yam, this (re)viewer had thought that
offerings chronicling the activities of the former were invariably comedies
as much as those which focused on the lives of the latter tended to be
melodramatic in nature. Imagine my shock then to encounter my first
ever gigolo tragedy in this David Lam production; this especially since
its first seven minutes made me think that the offering was going in the
direction of a sexy as well as frivolous Category III romp (For the record,
it features three sex acts -- including one menage a trois -- plus two
male and female pairs of "two points" each).
One sign of HONG KONG GIGOLO being a work which
differs in tone from such as the frankly amusing "Gigolo and Whore" 1 and
2 -- and instead having a dramatic orientation more similar to "Girls Without
Tomorrow", "Call Girl 92", "Candlelight's Woman" and "Night Club" -- is
the fact of its three main male characters having loved ones (be they in
the form of a child, mother, sister or girlfriend) as well as clients,
colleagues and competition. Even more tellingly is their trying to
hide what their way of making money from those people who care about them
and their lives (Something which happens less often than one might think
in Hong Kong movies about those -- be they female or male -- who are involved
in the sex trade).
Horse (Alex Man plays him as the most pathetic
and oily of the three gigolos who all are part of Petrina Fung Bobo's sympathetic
Mamasan Maria's "stable"), David (Simon Yam is charming as the "star" gigolo
who tells his policewoman sister -- who comes in the form of spunky Meg
Lam -- and traditionalist mother that he is an insurance salesman) and
Joe (Mark Cheng portrays a gigolo who caters to women who like to play
rough sex games) are the men whose lives loosely connect by way of their
choice of "profession". While the two younger men are well able to
serve their clients, the older, more experienced but no longer successful
man can be said to represent their future...if they manage, or end up having,
to stay in the business for as long as him. As Horse -- who was so
nicknamed for his (previously) abundant stamina -- bitterly observes at
one point in this downbeat film: "No gigolo will have a good result".
For much of HONG KONG GIGOLO, the main characters
fight hard to try to ensure that bad (personal and professional) fates
will not befall them. Their battles are made more difficult, and
their stories complicated though, by their encountering certain not very
nice individuals through the course of their work and such. Seemingly
invariably, and definitely adding to the sorry state of affairs is its
being the case that innocents get negatively affected by the actions and
decisions of these not necessarily bad men.
The not very popular Paul Fonoroff started off
his major spoiler-filled -- so do try not to read it! -- review of HONG
KONG GIGOLO by opining that: "This production is so trashy that it
is actually fun to watch" ("At the Hong Kong Movies", 1998:116).
I beg to seriously differ on this -- as with so many others of his -- accounts.
Put another way: My sense is that this is not a work that was meant to
be enjoyed for the most part (Indeed I have to confess to feeling compelled
to fast-forward through some sections of it). Instead, it is an unexpectedly
moralizing piece of work; albeit one with more ample shots of naked bodies
than one would think that something with such a pessimistic as well as
conservative message would have...But then, that's Hong Kong (movies) for
you: Capable of surprising even when you think it's tiredly exploring
an already thoroughly exploited (sub)genre.
My rating for the film: 5.5
DVD Information:
Distributed by Universe
The transfer is extremely mediocre. The print
is not sharp, the colors are dull and often off color and many of the interior
scenes are murky.
Letterboxed
Subtitles: Burnt on Chinese , English
8 Chapters
It does not include it's own trailer, but does
have ones for First Shot and Gigolo and Whore.
The sub-titles are easy enough to read.
There is a star file for Simon Yam.