Working again with Yee Shan Yeun who wrote Whispers and Moans, Herman Yau returned a year after his exploration of the lives of PR Girls in a karaoke club with this one that goes down a few rungs on the prostitute ladder to street girls. A much bleaker place to be and looked down upon by even the club girls. But these girls only take up a part of this film. Next to them are three parallel stories that intersect with each other at times as they all take place in a lower class neighborhood filled with tiny shops, sidewalk restaurants of a few tables, ramshackle broken down apartment buildings and girls out doing business. The stories didn't really make a good fit - ok on their own but clumsy in relating to one another. But Yau does succeed in painting a very uniquely Hong Kong neighborhood. This could not be anywhere else.



The film begins with a prostitute Lai (Prudence Liew Mai-kwan who deservedly picked up a Best Actress for this) in the middle of her business when she realizes it is pouring rain outside. She interrupts her work and tells the customer she needs to go home and take her chickens out of the rain. He isn't pleased but what can you do. Lai is a middle aged woman whose best earning years are behind her but on the streets of Kowloon she still has some value. As do her friends Yau Guen (Sherming Yiu) and Pink Pink (Apple Chow). They are all addicts and willing to take on any customer.

This is the main story but around her is Lau (Anthony Wong) an obsessed insurance salesman who sees the calculated value of a premium in every person he meets. He is a good guy but he sees everything through the prism of selling insurance. Wong gives a funny performance here but it is hard to figure out why he is in the film. Of course Wong and Yau have an actor/director relationship that goes back to Untold Story, Taxi Driver and Ebola Syndrome. So maybe Yau just likes having Wong around.



The third story involves a Mainland woman (Race Wong) whose Hong Kong husband has died in an accident (of course Lau had sold him life insurance). She has one child and two on the way and is trying to maneuver through the Hong Kong bureaucracy to get her rights as a Hong Kong citizen. Lau is trying to help her in order to sell her a policy! And another slight story is a photographer (Sammy Leung) who follows Lai, the prostitute, around to take pictures of her. Not really sure the point of his character. It just doesn't mesh together that well but at the same time the pieces are fairly engaging. And to my surprise it has an upbeat ending that seems to speak to the resiliency of the Hong Kong people. We may be down but we never give up. Wong's character at one point flirts with the idea of moving to China for the Chinese insurance market - but in the end decides he belongs in Hong Kong - very much like the actor who has refused to kowtow to the Mainland.