PR Girls

Director: Matt Chow
Year: 1998
Rating: 5.0

There are times when I am in the mood for a trashy pointless film with lots of eye candy. This was one of those times and this film hit all those needs easily. Not that it was any good mind you, but it held my attention until the absolute vapidity of the film almost overwhelmed me. They can’t all be classics.

If you didn’t already know, PR girls are hostesses in nightclubs who are only too willing to do overtime work off the premises. It is amazing how many HK films cover this territory. It seems to be a subject of endless fascination to the movie industry and I suppose to the HK audiences. It strikes me as such a peculiarly Asian concept. A man goes to these establishment and pays large amounts of money to sit around with very young women (albeit very lovely), sing along with them, play games and have them laugh at your jokes. It seems so incredibly boring – as much for the guys as for the women – and that’s usually how it comes across in most films.

This film follows the lives of a few of these women over a period of a year or so and tracks their relationships with men. Much of it is lighthearted – in a “girls just wanna have fun” way - though at times it attempts to get serious. Of course when it does, the film becomes even more ludicrous. For example at one point – in an unusual moment of thoughtfulness – the girls ponder life when they will no longer be young and beautiful. For a moment their lovely faces cloud up – and then they lighten up – "we will just have to marry a rich man!". No problem.


Now this film is really not as painful as I make it sound because it is full of attractive women and I can put up with a fairly crummy movie when that is the case! It is also an opportunity to see some of the up and coming actresses. The next Maggie Cheung or Brigitte Lin has to start somewhere. And Maggie did her duty as a PR girl in "Sun Moon and Stars". It is a portal many actresses have passed through. There is not really a huge opportunity for acting here, but there is a glimpse of some talent that makes me want to catch some of these women in better roles.

Grace Lam (Baby) is the main character as she decides one day to start making real money. The only way is of course to become a PR girl. So she walks into a club and on the floor openly displays her wares. Let’s just say they are in fact impressive and get her hired immediately. Sleeping with the clients is fun for a while, but later she has a moral quandary when she basically screws a customer to death. To continue being a dangerous weapon or get out of the game is her dilemma. This film is not afraid to tackle these weighty issues!


Liz Kong (Julie) was in the film Sex and Love Among the Ruins and I was quite impressed with her performance. With very little material, she still manages to stand out in this film with a good modulated grown up performance. She plays the mamasan to the girls and tries to get them through the tough times while her own character is dealing with issues of love. She comes across as smart and cool.
 

Sherming Yiu plays one of the girls and she loses her appetite for sex after being with a gwielo. She does a decent job of creating a sweet sympathetic character. I just saw her recently in Fourteen Days from Suicide in which she was all right.

Near the end, the film gets unnecessarily unpleasant but by then it doesn’t really matter. You have lost interest long ago. No one in the film seems to learn any lessons in life or become any wiser – life just goes on.


Sadly, looking at this review about 20 years later none of the actresses became Maggie or Brigitte. Also, it occurred to me that films about PR girls are a dying genre. Which is a shame.