True Women for Sale – Sing kung chok tse yee: Ngor but mai sun, ngor mai chi gung (2008)

Directed by: Herman Yau | 90 minutes | drama | Actors: Anthony Wong Chau-Sang, Mei-Guan Lau, Race Wong, Sammy Leung, Yung Yung Yu

Prostitution is a regular theme in the cinema of China and Hong Kong, from the first film dealing with it ‘The Goddess’ from 1934 to the recent ‘True Women for Sale’, the subject has been used to expose social abuses . The female body is seen in these films as a symbol of the nation and defilement of this body says something about the state of the country. The theme of prostitution is a way of presenting an ethical view of social changes that discontinue and reorder society. This also calls into question existing moral visions. The dangers that threaten society usually have to do with westernization and capitalization of society.

‘True Women for Sale’ talks about an outgrowth of this, namely the importation of young Chinese girls from mainland China who marry men from Hong Kong as a kind of “Russian bride” for payment. This does not always go well and sometimes these women get into trouble due to circumstances, they become second-class citizens and end up in prostitution. ‘True Women for Sale’ is about two women, one is a young woman from China whose husband from Hong Kong has a construction accident. She is left behind with a child and expecting twins, she tries to survive in a world that is not really open to the needy from China. The second storyline is about a Hong Kong prostitute who lives in the first woman’s flat, is on drugs and saving money for new teeth and has to compete with a new crop of prostitutes from the mainland. Their lives are not the same but both women try to survive in their own way.

Hong Kong cinema is currently in the shadow of the South Korean cinema that is successful here, many of which are highly regarded in the Western arthouse circuit. With the exception of the films of a few well-known directors, such as Wong Kar-wai, Hong Kong films lag behind those from South Korea and that is not surprising. The often quiet and contemplatively distant tone of these films is more in line with what we are used to in the West, barring all other idiosyncrasies. The films from Hong Kong are often more difficult to place because different genres are regularly combined with each other to create a typical Hong Kong mix of humor, tension and drama.

For example, ‘True Women for Sale’ deals with a very heavy theme in a fairly light-hearted way with a touch of Hong Kong cosiness. We already notice this in the almost random combination of songs in the soundtrack: from a mystical Eastern opening track to a Chinese pop song and then again dramatic orchestral music. Or, for example, in the funny montage where an insurance agent, played by permanent employee Anthony Wong, looks at everyone he meets in his estimated life insurance premium: the image is stopped and the character separates from the background, his profession appears next to him in text. and estimated value. ‘True Women for Sale’ is a film that, like the hurried life in Hong Kong, is smoothly, sometimes a bit sloppy, put together and gives the viewer an interesting picture of the everyday worries of the underclass of society without becoming overloaded. Unlike Chinese cinema, the heroines in Hong Kong films don’t necessarily end tragically. After the necessary drama, the storylines of the various characters are tied together and we get an ending that is happy enough for the audience from this former British crown colony.