Tung baan tung hok

So, as I watched this, I was trying to figure out how it started. It jumps right in the middle with three high school girls doing the usual high school thing, taking selfies, fawning over a jock, the usual peer pressure but two of the girls are what I assume is high end prostitutes. They befriend the third girl out of osmosis. Somewhere in this mix is some confusion to the story line because most Asian films have convoluted stories where either the hero dies most often and the hero doesn't get the girl in the end or they just don't have the atypical happy ending. These girls are problematic. While they all seek boyfriends, they can't seem to reconcile the fact that they are hookers and nobody will find out. And also, I don't know if they are minors but the sex that they are having with older men seems to push the boundaries with having sex with minors. This is just glossed over without a mention. The girls talk about having sex with older men but not about the legality of it which is probably right because their world is limited to selfies and the latest fashion. In the end, one of the girl takes a boyfriend from one of the other girl and that ends disastrously. They make amends and they frolic along the shoreline with naked abandon. Yeah, see, that don't make much sense.

I typically don't watch "coming of age" movies but this 2015 movie is unusual.

It takes place in modern day Hong Kong and is beautifully photographed and scored. It tells the story of three 18 year old girls who spend the summer together following school. They do ordinary things -- argue, pursue boys, share deep conversations about life, battle with caregivers, argue about taking out the dog, are jealous, complain about racial discrimination, ruminate about missing parents, worry about money, etc., etc.

The twist is that all three are part time prostitutes who advertise their services via social media.

They careen back and forth between seemingly normal day to day angst and turning tricks. The movie is supposedly "based on true events." Who knows how seriously to take such a statement.

What's so unusual is how natural the three girls are and how frank they are about sex and what they do to earn money. If you look at this from a parent's perspective you'll naturally be horrified given the dangers the girls are exposing themselves to. While some scenes involving nudity are of the harmless softcore variety, others are surprisingly explicit. Yet, the movie has a veneer of reality that comes from natural acting and possibly because the director is female and may have some personal insight into what the girls are going through as she attempts -- often successfully -- to shock the viewer.

Anyway, this movie is not for everyone. Some of the situations are outlandish. Men definitely do not generally come across as alway being trustworthy. The girls seem to know that or at least learn along the way. While they seem at times to be wise beyond their years, though, you can be forgiven if you want to occasionally yell at the screen and say, "Don't do that!"

I have mixed feelings about the film. Part if it has to come from a cultural mismatch. Are the roles as young as I think they are, yet their obsession with sex and the prices of some specifics is a puzzle. (They are not the age the film would have them be.) They come across at times as naive, and other times as quite knowledgeable. Of course, they are not all on the same plane. They are a mix of experience and naivety. Some of them are clearly no different from hookers, and others want romance. There is a lot of nudity, but nothing that would push it beyond very soft 'porn', if it could even be called that. In some ways their approach to sex is very breezy, and for some, they need the money to pay the rent and provide for groceries. It is billed as a coming of age film, but the target audience probably wouldn't be allowed to buy tickets for it. But it is done from the female perspective which may be a plus. In some ways it is idyllic.