I Sell
Love (販賣．愛) is
a Hong Kong film that is directed by Kevin Chu and released on 4th
December,2014. It is adapted from a theater and fiction which is produced and
written by Judy Chu. The story is about the concept of selling include one’s
body, love, lands and political idea. The main actress, Tiffany (Rose Chan), was
an illegitimate daughter and the economic pillar of the single-parent family.
However, due to her irregular school timetable, she hardly found a part-time job
that can accommodate with her timetable. In order to earn the university tuition fee, she chose to have sex with a
stranger named ‘heaven prince’ and continued the life of sex trade. Later, she met
a ‘long-term meal ticket’ (長期飯票),
Zhang (Liu Kai Chi) through a manager (Judy Chu) and their contract was within six
months. In this time, she met a boy called Rex (Pakho Chau) and was infected by
his enthusiasm and fell in love with him which motivated
her to quit and start renew.
The
genre of this film is romance but it is not a very typical romance film as the
main theme of the movie is enjo. The film described in detail the process and
struggle of Tiffany participating in the sex industry. At the beginning, she
disgusted the sex trade and later on she became a materialism and sold her body
for a substantial income. The film is a bit different from other similar theme films.
The relationship between her and the long-term client tend to be a father-daughter-like
relationship rather than sex relationship. Their relationship is changing and
more than money. They support and infect each other. It shows the positive
side of the relationship between prostitutes and customers.
The iconography in this movie consist of the lavish mansion, mobile phone (received
dating messages from customers), cash, cheque, brand products (clothes, bags)
and a notebook (marked down the clients’ information). These are the representative props of an enjo theme film. However,
it is still different from a typical enjo movie as there is no pornography, no
gangs and no bloody and violent scenes. The enjo girls are used to be stereotyped
as pitiful and ignorant who have poor academic result, smoke and take drugs. But
Tiffany is not the stereotype enjo
girl. She is a university student with good academic result who major in
business which is considered as a mainstream and promising subject. Besides,
she neither smoke nor take drugs. The gender stereotype can also be found in
this movie. Men is the authority who pay money to women and buy their body. Women
is the one who sell their body and serve men and can easily be abandoned by
men. They are labeled as “goods” which have a price. Those who have higher
educational level or have talent may worth the higher price.
The
main actor, Rex is a positive role who fight for social justice and guide Tiffany
back to the right track. He represents the righteous while the wealthy represent
the badness. The social problems such as the collusion between developers and
government, property hegemony and core value has been depicted. From an
interview, the auteur mentioned that the participation in the protest of
anti-estate hegemony is to enrich character’s background and highlight the
values and attitude towards life of Rex in order to stimulate Tiffany to have
reflection on her life.
Tiffany’s mother has told Tiffany that “it doesn't matter if you start on the wrong foot, what’s important is you don’t keep on
like that”. The choice of being a prostitute denote the wrong foot and to quit
the job should be the solution and the right track. What Rex has told Tiffany
is the key for her to start renew—“If you are afraid of darkness, you’ll never
find what you have lost”, which can be explained as we have to face squarely
the problem so as to really solve the problem. At the beginning, a man have
asked a question to Zhang—“Have you listen to people’s voices?”. It may
be illustrated as the voices of those prostitutes who has been marginalized by
the society. Since the society usually choose to ignore the voices from the minorities
so they easily get lost in this materialistic society. They need love and care
and most importantly, listening. Since people would always criticize the ‘wrong’
thing they did rather than listening to them.
There
is always a cost for every behavior and the female protagonist has paid for it
at last due to her choice at the beginning. Also, there is something that we can’t
chase back so treasure what we have is the most important in present. Most of
the people must have gone astray and experience struggled in the growth, therefore it is
much easier for audience to understand the text. However, the social problem
mentioned in the film may only allow someone who know about Hong Kong political
situation or have experienced to have
resonance.
Law Ho Yan (10488310/21427778)
Reference:
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