Rape For Profit (2012)

Rape For Profit: Women and children are helpless victims and it's all men's fault.

At a glance:

Narrow and naive, to say the least.

Backed by executive producer Jada Pinkett Smith and her NGO Don't Sell Bodies, Eric Esau and Jason Pamer's Rape For Profit (2012) is a Mew Films documentary the Huffington Post apparently calls "disturbing and provocative", though of course the writer behind this randy movie review blog will dismiss as little more than a narrow and naive worldview of the world's oldest profession, based on a few prostitutes in downtown Seattle, or to use a more sympathetic term as advocated by the film's extremely one-sided take on the trade, "prostituted women". Culled from hundreds of hours of ridealong footage with Sea-Tac street crimes unit and the Seattle high-risk victims unit, this 86-minute film purports to take the audience undercover for an up-close look at the true nature of the sex trade. Hmm... surely a movie review on a documentary that is against the objectification of women does not belong on a blog that verily celebrates it such as mine?

Bad news on the doorstep:

Hmm... I wish I had a therapist who looks like this.

The only thing powerful about this documentary is how the supercharged cops shame and shout at pimps, not to mention how the filmmakers see fit to drive around ambushin customers in some sort of vigilante effort to administer guilt, to the extent of causin an accident. You see the pigs in made-for-camera Batman-type roles, brandishin their brand of law with healthy doses of morality lectures. Even more gung-ho are the filmmakers, who directly confront the johns and ask them how they could do it to their wives, why porn ain't enough and why they had to come out and act on it, with no intention of procurin a meaningful answer. Far from bein an insightful tell-all exposé, this is the moral catharsis of several well-intentioned individuals and their respective organisations whose hearts are no doubt in the right places, however the total demonisation of the johns and the total vindication of the girls reflect a painfully mainstream point of view. Footage of interviews with mayors, councillors, district attorneys and even industry experts who all endorse the same position seal this for me as a missed opportunity. If you truly believe people who say "very few women end up around the world in what we call prostitution without a history of prior sexual harm" and that porn is a dress rehearsal for men who look for hookers, then go ahead and watch it.

Kiddie porn?

Perennial wonderment:

Did you know that whores ask would-be customers to whip their dicks out so that they can filter out cops? Just about the only genuinely interestin thing I learned from this movie. Oh wait, I also learned that cops surf backpage.com and escort sites lookin for a lack of hip and waist development in under-aged girls that are advertised as barely legal. Haha!

Reminds me of:

All those we've lost along the way.

I can't remember if I cried:

Rape victim with a pretty sad general history of abuse.

Some of the horror stories shared by the victims are truly heartbreakin but the filmmakers' forceful handlin of the pimps and also the whores are so laughably didactic and deluded that I find the effort almost difficult to believe as an unstaged documentary. Among the include "Don't say sorry to me, say sorry to her", "Do you think she wanted to grow up to be in some alley to suck dick?" "You are happier here now! This is much better for you!" and "You're precious, you're a princess and you have value and worth and I'm sorry you didn't grow up hearing that." Bah.

Johns can't seem to spell right, can they?

Amacam joker, berapa bintang lu mau kasi?

The mention of Green River killer Gary Ridgway (a necrophiliac with a penchant for whores) and various other unhelpful content serve only to cloud the issue further, though I'm glad that cop did manage to get the 24-hour drop-in help centre open after so many years of tryin. Check out the official website and Facebook fan page for more info. However, if I were you, check out American Courtesans (2013), Whores' Glory (2011) or even I Am A Sex Addict (2005) for a less naive viewpoint, if not a more entertainin and fascinatin one.★★
Bonus material:

"It has been said that prostitution and rape are two sides of the same coin."

I saw this witty review on IMDb written by an American user called timlin-4. My sentiments on this film seem closest to this fella, so I'll publish it below verbatim, since I cannot better it.

About Cherry (2012)

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Whores' Glory (2011)

Santa Muerte is the most basic tattoo for every protection-seeking whore in Mexico.
(Photo credit: Maya Goded)

At a glance:

Just another day in the fish tank.
(Photo credit: Vinai Dithajohn)

The ugliest and most absorbin facets of world labour cinéma vérité comes full circle with Austrian filmmaker Michael Glawogger's clumsily titled Whores' Glory (2011), the third and final piece in a so-labelled globalisation trilogy. I've not seen Megacities (1998) nor Workingman’s Death (2005) but if this effort is anythin to go by, the three movies definitely deserve a combo release. The level of access in this documentary is fantastic and anecdotes on his exploits make good readin on their own, as evident in interviews with the director, who was even confident enough to discount lesser, similar works like Born Into Brothels: Calcutta's Red Light Kids (2004), somethin which I've seen and am ready to commend. The sellin point of Whores' Glory is indeed its privileged look-in, a laborious setup at three different fuck shops - a fishbowl in Thailand, a red light district in Bangladesh and a bordertown complex a little north of Mexico. You get to see all the infrastructural m.o. in great proximity, festered within each festive locale and drawin from them rich visuals. The narrative comes complete with punch clocks, street food and even the religious worship of different deities that underpin business superstitions.

Bad news on the doorstep:

Soliciting in City Of Joy, a massive brothel in Bangladesh's Faridpur district.
(Photo credit: GMB Akash)

The Indian leg in this triptych is easily the most borin and in fact, most annoyin, so it's a good thing they cleverly sandwiched it between the other two stories. Runnin 110 long minutes, it could've done with more editin, as some of the scenes can grow rather tedious with one too many naggy whores. Maybe it's just me bein a Southeast Asian native who ain't unfamiliar with the seedier aspects of urban life but Glawogger's sequences, impressive as they are, don't really offer anythin truly groundbreakin, as confirmed when the last story ends rather abruptly. Well, I guess that's the very point of cinéma vérité, some say.

Perennial wonderment:

O Death, save me from violent, diseased gangbangers.

"How on earth did he get permission?" will be your constant refrain throughout the picture. Many customers seem happy to be filmed (and paid) so don't be surprised with the last bit in La Zona where you even get a full sex scene, unless you count the pariah dog orgy that was opportunely filmed outside the Siamese bordello. I also liked findin out that the director has shown the end product to the girls who appeared on his film, save the ones from the Thai aquarium who already disappeared and reassembled elsewhere like all good organised crime do.

I can't remember if I cried:

I don't cry. I'm from the Third World.

Most memorable line:

Getting high on your own supply?

"I'm a virgin because they say after 90 days, the vagina closes up again if you don't have sex. The last time I had cock in me was three years ago. I'm retired from cocks but for 25 years, I was number one. I used to have 40 johns a day. I sucked and fucked. How? I showed my tits. Chocolate and vanilla. Come here, daddy. These, like this. I showed my tits and said: 'Come and get it!' Chocolate and vanilla for a titfuck. But blowjobs were my specialty. I have rim jobs and frozen blowjobs. What are those? A blowjob with an ice cube. You put a piece of ice in your mouth ,then you suck on the head of his cock with your tongue and the ice. You run your lips over his veins and balls with the ice cube still in your mouth. You manoeuvre the ice cube over his head and nibble on it. Then you jerk him off and rim him, sticking the ice cube up his ass. Riming is the best because it makes them moan. If his asshole is dirty, prepare a bowl of chlorine. Wipe it clean with a towel. If it's still not clean, bleach it! If it doesn't stink anymore, you can put ice in his hole. Once the ice is in there, they bleat like goats. They roll their eyes and bleat. Baa! Works on everyone. Like a vibrator. Job done! Generally, when a man comes here, he is only interested in coming. The woman doesn't matter. They come here like animals. They want you ready. 100 pesos for normal sex. Normal means they spread your legs, they climb on top and fuck. Many want to kiss but it's disgusting. Their breath can smell like they ate a lion. Or they take off their socks and it stinks like toe cheese. But you just bear it. 100 pesos is money. Now every time you change positions, it costs another 50 pesos. We did everything for 100 in my day, back when I was still working as a whore. When I worked, I wasn't just any whore. I was THE whore."

Amacam joker, berapa bintang lu mau kasi?

I won't go as far as to call it intimate braggadocio but the clarity of its lightin and the edgy soundtrack almost makes it romantic. The daily grind, pardon the pun, goes well beyond economic enslavement and this is certainly not the work of one of those glory-hungry Westerners who are out to exploit the White Man's Burden by shootin Third World toil. Check out its Facebook page and for more compellin Michael Glawogger fare, do visit his official website here.★★★

Michael Glawogger.

"I had to first convince them that I wasn't a journalist who would yet again put out a notion about them they wouldn't necessarily care for or who would victimize them. You know, journalists come and go. If they come twice, it's a lot. But I come 10 times and hang out with them and share stuff. If you connect with someone just once, that's something. But if you can connect twice, that's something else. As a filmmaker I cannot make anything beautiful. I'm Platonic in that sense. I think beauty is the splendor of truth, so if the people I portray think they're beautiful, they're beautiful. I don't make them that way. I don't aestheticize anything. I don't even use lights. The working girls do one thing all day: They make themselves pretty. That's their job and their money. In a way, I had the best makeup artists, hairdressers and art designers in the world." (Interview by Jeremy Lybarger on Mother Jones)
Bonus material:

Chop (2011)

"Work it out. Let's work it the fuck out."

At a glance:

Low-budget indie slasher with oddball humour, a directorial debut by accomplished C-movie actor Trent Haaga (Jessicka Rabid, 2009). We follow the afflicted Lance Reed (multi-hyphenate self-starter Will Keenan a.k.a Billy Bakshi, Tromeo & Juliet, 1996) as he hitchhikes with the wrong psycho (Timothy Muskatell) and is taken on a Saw (2004)-like nightmare to confront his duplicitous past. Is his Indian wife (Tanisha Mukerji) havin extramarital anal sex with his half-brother Bobby (Chad Ferrin) behind his errr... back? Is there an unlikely followup to the skanky whore he shortchanged for a ten-dollar blowjob in the car a long time ago? Doesn't really matter. Lance is bein systematically dismembered bit by bit. With two police detectives (Tamil T. Rhee and the movie's scriptwriter Adam Minarovich) closin in on him, he must figure out what exactly is his captor's game before he loses it all.

Bad news on the doorstep:

For a movie with such determination, it surprisingly fizzles out in the last third and culminates in a completely anti-climactic payoff. Will Keenan carries the show but his comic timin gets no help from the weary screenplay. I think maybe they should've gone all the way OTT instead of recoilin tongue-in-cheek every time they set things up. The tension was missin half the time.

"You are a cheap ass motherfucker who only pays 10 fuckin dollars
for a blowjob in the goddamn parking lot!"

I can't remember if I cried:

Like I said, the endin. I believe maybe even no endin was better than that endin.
Watch out for:

Riskin life & limb.

Would've liked to see more of newcomer Malaya Manson and a trashy Elina Madison (Someone's Knocking At The Door, 2009) who plays a crack ho in this movie. However, the one everyone wants to see catch a glimpse of is undoubtedly Camille Keaton from I Spit On Your Grave (1978) who seems to be makin a comeback with a couple of cameos here and there. Mike Long at DVD Sleuth notes there is a four-minute deleted scene featurin the scream queen on the DVD and that it was actually interestin, not that would have saved the movie but interestin nonetheless. They should've left it in and cut out some of the more redundant parts because I still can't find the damned scene, even after gettin some helpful directions from the people who run the Facebook fan page for the movie.

Malaya Manson & Timothy Muskatell

Amacam joker, berapa bintang lu mau kasi?
Brett Gallman over at Oh, The Horror! appreciated it bein "gruesome and short, two things that are mightily appealing whenever you’re dealing with something that’s basically an extended joke with a bad punch line." It's a peculiar movie that now invokes a strange curiosity in me towards amputee porn. Watch at your own risk.★★
Bonus material:

Director Trent Haaga framin Will Keenan with Elina Madison.

Check out Chop The Movie today on Facebook.

Chloe (2010)

"What kind of pressure, for how long, when to stop. I can become your first kiss... or a torn out image from a Playboy magazine that you found when you were 9 years old."

At a glance:
A revisit of French erotic thriller Nathalie...(2003) with European cinema greats Emmanuelle Beart as the irresistible whore while Fanny Ardant and Gerard Depardieu play the embattled married couple, Chloe (2010) is a low-intensity Hollywood addition that will benefit from its array of A-listers and the intrigue of its decorated director Atom Egoyan (who has been shooting dark dramas since Sweet Hereafter in 1997) but ultimately falters because it cannot replicate the controlled explosiveness and the European sophistication in the original, leadin us to question its character arcs. Just like the Anne Fontaine source flick, we have a woman (Julianne Moore) who suspects her husband (Liam Neeson) of cheating, so she hires a mysterious escort (Amanda Seyfried in the titular role) to seduce him and report on her findings. It’s a twist-based plot, so we’ll spare you of further details but its safe to disclose that it’s a sexual deceit thing, the stuff that erotic thrillers are made of.

"Some men hate to hear certain terms. They can't stand specific moves and then they can't live without others. It's part of my job to know where to place my hand, my lips, my tongue, my leg and even my thoughts."

Liam Neeson taken.

Bad news on the doorstep:

A cinematic letdown despite the cast actually havin done their earnest best. We know Julianne Moore does “angry but fragile woman” effortlessly well. We know they wrote Liam Neeson out of some scenes when he left the set to attend to his dyin wife during the shoot but he returned in time despite the odds. We know that Amanda Seyfried does have the charisma to pull off an antagonist who needs to command great screen presence. However, this screenplay by Erin Cressida Wilson (Secretary 2002, Fur: An Imaginary Portrait Of Diane Arbus 2006) lacks the power and the polish to engage, leavin audiences little to look forward to, other than a particularly frontal encounter between the two lead women.

Perennial wonderment:

"I guess I've always been pretty good with words.
In my line of business. It's as important to be able to
describe what I'm doing as it is to do what I'm doing.
When to say what. What words to select."

Isn't Julianne Moore more desirable than Amanda Seyfried? She even made incest look hot in Savage Grace (2007). Gets my vote.

Reminds me of:

Derailed (2005) and of course The Hand That Rocks The Cradle (1992).

Amacam joker, berapa bintang lu mau kasi?

Look away now if you don’t want to read a spoiler - Anne Fontaine (writer and director of the 2003 original) reportedly said she was interested in this take because Ardant and Beart objected to Fontaine's original intention for a lesbian relationship to develop between their characters. Well folks, Julianne Moore and Amanda Seyfried sure obliged! Anyway, let Chloe be a good movie to get you started on finding out more about the French original.★★★

Bonus material:

Tipping the velvet...

Chow Kit (2012)

Lana Nordin: "Kemaruk dengan tetek aku ni ada lah..."
Airis Yasmin: "Susah cakap dengan perempuan macam kamu ni lah."

What about the rest of the cast?

At a glance:

Remember Chloë Sevigny bein HIV-fucked on a livin room couch in Larry Clark's seminal Kids (1995)? A lot of dispute as to the creative origins behind this piecemeal Primeworks film, so you'd think this was a movie to really boast about. Immediately recallin the urban grime from the awesome Songlap (2011), I thought Chow Kit (2012) would be a respectable addition to the canon of new crime films from Malaysia - you know, those featurin cash-strapped anti-heroes who are poised to die sad, unpopular endings. On that count, Chow Kit succeeds twice - it's actually two flimsily related stories, bridged only by a disconnected token character or two. The first half, a second directorial run-out for Hooperz (2010) helmer Rosihan Zain a.k.a Dhojee, is about a group of Malay kids whose parents are either drug addicts or prostitutes. The second half, by Brando Lee, is about a strugglin Chinese ex-con whose newfound girlfriend's virginity is about to be auctioned off to the highest bidder by her uneducated ex-whore mum.

Bad news on the doorstep:

Malaysia's answer to Larry Clark's Kids (1995)?

Remember Sudirman's Chow Kit Road lyrics:
"Ada yang cuti mata..."

The concept's coherence really is superficial and the two-part idea comes off more like a desperate damage control manouevre, written in to save both movies rather than a layered crime drama that was intentionally halved. Although this isn't the case, the final product is dodgy at best. Nevertheless, the Malay first half had more goin for it than the Chinese second, simply because the children were easier to root for, despite both halves havin their fair share of bad actors with lousy lines, not to mention puzzlin character arcs. Truth be told, besides the erroneous approach in coachin them, the kids are unfortunately poor actors, even pack leader Izzam Syafiq who tried the hardest. Superfluous roles in Chow Kit include Yasmin Hani as a seller of krim pengetat faraj and various cure-all batin medicine, Beto Qusyairy as a pointless sidekick gangster, Hairie Othman as an unexplained, pencil-pushin welfare officer and Dira Abu Zahar as a sympathetic retired whore far too removed from the main story. Too many loose ends, too little real emotion. There were plenty of chances in the movie to make a strong connection between the characters and the interestin, nasty, slummy things they do but none were taken. Perhaps, only Namron, playin a druggie dad who gets his kids to steal shoes from the mosque, made a difference with his role. For the Chinese story, it's simply too generic to be memorable, although lead actor Mers Sia managed some presence.

Chen Puie Heng & Dira Abu Zahar

Perennial wonderment:

How many Malaysians today actually know that Chow Kit - Kuala Lumpur's seediest spot in bygone days - is named after the tin miner and municipality councillor Loke Chow Kit? T'was a stampin ground where the characters played by Razib Salimin and Chen Puie Heng (the only credible ones next to Namron) could believably call home.

Lana Nordin downblouse. Thank you, Sarawak.

Reminds me of:

When I see aimless Malay kids who aren't the menacin type, I always think of the kid with Sudirman in Kami (1982).

Watch out for:

Lana Nordin's monster tits. When I first heard about her bein cast in Chow Kit, I tweeted about how they should put them to good cinematic use. How odd to watch this movie a few years later, and to see the filmmakers obligin, with a full downblouse close-up on beads of sweat drippin down the sweet, swollen breasts of the endowed Kuching-born actress often dubbed Malaysia's Pamela Anderson. For the record, she actually acted well. Her most compellin, self-affirmin line was: "Kau ingat kita tinggal di mana? Taman Melawati? Taman Tun? Kalau dia tak tengok tetek saya, dia tengok tetek betina lain." Real classy. Catch her next in Ponti V Omi and Lagenda Budak Setan 2.

Mers Sia & Beto Qusyairy

Amacam joker, berapa bintang lu mau kasi?
Like thatmoviebloggerfella, I too commend Chow Kit (2012) for havin its "heart in the right place", despite an abundance of bum notes that contributed to the ignominy of it postin less than half a million ringgit across 71 screens. How can a movie with two rape scenes be so underhit? I'm certainly not among the kindly few who call it better than Anak Halal (2008), let alone Malaysia's own City Of God (2002). A definitive Malaysian streets movie remains unmade.★★
Bonus material:

Yasmin Hani pretends she doesn't use bedroom boosters in Chow Kit (2012).

X: Night Of Vengeance (2011)

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Long Arm Of The Law (1984) @ 省港旗兵

Lam Wai 林威 stars in Long Arm Of The Law (1984) 省港旗兵

At a glance:

An obviously dated but important Chinese film that predates all the John Woo gun movies from Hong Kong that we celebrate. Director Johnny Mak Tong Hung 麥當雄 gets some cold-blooded actin out of exploitation flick staple Lam Wai 林威 (pic) in a movie where everyone's a bad guy. It's about how a bunch of Mainland ex-soldiers travel to Hong Kong hopin to pull off some heists and make the kind of money that they can never make in 100 years workin in China (referenced in the film). Hooray for Capitalism. Hooray for exploitation cinema.

Bad news on the doorstep:

Might be difficult to find this film in its entirety (not those episodic YouTube uploads). Might be more difficult to find out why it's good cinema if you're just a regular movie buff. This was one of the earliest films for villain staples like Chan Ging and Shum Wai.

Watch out for:

A climactic gunfight through the mazy, squalid squatters in what was once the lawless Kowloon Walled City. Fuicho. Some really OTT executions, too.

Most memorable line:

"I am a Mainland boy. I don't know my ABCDs. I do things without any love or interest. Don't try to be funny with me. What are you, whore? You're a rotten tomato. You're a chicken biscuit. Now, strip!"

Amacam joker, berapa bintang lu mau kasi?

Eye-openin crime flick about how it used to be durin the days of givin your brother a Dupont lighter to show him how you've made it big. Long Arm Of The Law (1984) was ranked #6 on the list of Best 100 Chinese Motion Pictures durin the 24th Hong Kong Film Awards ceremony on 27 March 2005.★★★
Trailer for the curious: