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