The Call-Girls
Director: Cheng Kang
Year: 1977
Rating: 6.0
Every now and then
a rumor floats into the Hong Kong gossip papers that hints at certain Hong
Kong actresses who are willing to sell their time and bodies to very wealthy
men for large sums of money, but these spicy items never seem to have any
legs and they soon disappear after having thrown mud in someone’s direction.
The film ”Call Girl 1988” portrayed Maggie Cheung as an actress who flew
to locations around Asia to make a little extra spending money on the sly.
The same rumors fly around in Bollywood as well – and recently a south Indian
actress was arrested for such an act. According to the DVD this film is based
on a true incident in which a number of minor actresses were involved in
a sex for money scandal that “rocked” the city. As an episode of Dragnet
might say, “this is their story”.
Not that this film is much of an expose as much as it may pretend to be one
– though exposure it certainly has plenty of. In fact, the film is really
little more than an excuse to show large amounts of naked flesh of very attractive
women. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing – it is just that some may
come to this film in hopes of finding an involving gritty well honed look
into the lives of call girls – but they will find little of that here. The
narrative is a bit of a scattershot affair as it jumps from one girl’s story
to another and never really gives much time to develop their characters or
backgrounds – just enough to pique your curiosity and show their bodies before
moving on to the next victim. Yet there is a certain mild fascination in
these mini-stories due perhaps to the fact that you know there is somewhere
buried within a kernel of truth to it all and let’s face it – there is a
bit of the voyeur in all of us when it comes to seamy scandals involving
show business people.
In an odd choice to begin the film and no doubt to try and give it a faint
touch of documentary verisimilitude, a woman news reporter interviews various
directors and actors from the Shaw Brothers and asks them their opinion of
this scandal – finally turning to the director of this movie, Cheng Kang,
who just says “watch my movie and find out” and so we do. Police Inspector,
Danny Lee in a bad 1970’s haircut, arrests a group of call girls and questions
them about their lives. First up is the lovely Lau Wai (Lau Ar-ling) who
tells him that she was initially a street hooker who was propositioned by
a photographer to become an actress – with a sideline. The deal was they
would get her in films and make her an actress – in return that would push
up her price for customers who got their kick from having sex with an actress
they could see on the big screen. Wai has no issue with this and gladly accepts
her percentage of the fee.
The next girl (Cheng Suk-ying) was not so compliant. With stars in her eyes
she was on cloud nine when she thought she was getting in show business –
and sure she had to show her breasts on film but she was a star – and still
a virgin – so her “employer” (Sze Wei) and her god mom (Lau Wai-ling) arranged
for an older foreigner to take this away from her much to her shame. She
wants to break away but that isn’t an easy thing to do.
Ming (Chen Ping) is a veteran at this business – during shoots at the studio
she conveniently gets tooth aches and has to take an hour break to go to
the dentist – just enough time for him (Ching Miao) to do some private drilling
of his own while his wife/receptionist (Ha Ping) waits patiently out in the
waiting room and the other people wonder why there is so much moaning going
on inside – she must really be in pain one person comments – no – just faking
it like the great actress she is.
Finally there is the story a young prostitute (played by the fleshy and saucy
Shirley Yu) who combs the casinos in search of business and one night lucks
into a film producer who thinks she will be perfect for his next picture
and signs her up. The film becomes a big hit and she becomes a star – but
her background comes back to haunt her as she is blackmailed into sleeping
with men or her secrets will be leaked to the press.
It is not exactly sleazy fun but intriguing all the same and it introduced
me to a number of new actresses I hadn’t come across before. One great scene
that epitomizes the silliness of this 1977 Shaw Brothers film as it tries
to put on airs of drama is when one of the girl’s dies and the others in
a show of rebellious support decide to carry her casket in the nude! Shirley
Yu is the biggest name of these new actresses to me – she had rather a fascinating
life for a short period before it all crashed down around her. She became
a big star for the Shaws in these adult films and over a few years made over
twenty films, lots of money and even more money on the side from admiring
“fans”. At one point she estimates that she had a million dollars in the
bank. Then though she had an accident – fell out of favor – and was soon
out of the business. She is still alive today, but completely broke – to
read more on her check out this article in my biography section.
Thanks to Tim Youngs for identifying the actresses:
Top left: Lau Ar-ling
Top right: Cheng Suk-ying
Middle left: Ching Si
Middle right: Lam Yeung-yeung
Lower left: Wong Jing-jing
Lower right: Lau Wai-ling
