I Sell My Womb|我賣子宮|我卖子宫

Dec 4th, 08 South China Morning Post

Also showing: Race Wong    

Vivian Chen 

Dec 04, 2008           

Race Wong Yuen-ling says the best thing about being an actress is that it allows her to become somebody else. Wong's CV is littered with a string of grungy, unpleasant roles, which contrast sharply with the girl-next-door image she cultivated as part of Canto-pop duo 2R. 

Her role in Herman Yau Lai-to's new film True Women for Sale is a case in point. She plays Wong Lin-fa, a mainland widow pregnant with a Hong Kong man's baby - a role that most teeny-bop idols wouldn't touch with a bargepole for fear of putting their squeaky clean images at risk. 

"Image wasn't an issue for me. I was only worried about whether I could do a good job in the film," says the 26-year-old (pictured). "I can be the sweet and pretty Race in my music videos." She certainly doesn't look appealing in the film: no makeup and a body suit she wears to appear pregnant. 

Wong's most daunting challenge, however, was doing the scenes in which Lin-fa mistreats her three-year-old daughter. "In one scene, I was supposed to yell at her and spank her," she says. "When I grabbed her arm and she started crying, I was so afraid I might hurt her that I held back. [Co-star Anthony Wong Chau-sang] told me that I had to be true to the character regardless of what I felt about her actions, even if it meant spanking a baby. I had no other choice but to go all out - but with the child's safety a priority of course." 

Wong admits it was difficult for her to get into the head of Lin-fa. "This character is totally different from who I really am. She is simple-minded, loud and straightforward, says whatever comes to her mind and is fearless when she's fighting for her own rights," the star says. 

"People like Lin-fa have to sell themselves in exchange for things I already have, so who am I to judge them? Instead of looking down on them, we should respect their choices." 

And they are tough choices. In Yau's piece of low-budget realist drama, Lin-fa sells her womb in Hong Kong, just as her neighbour, the drug-addled sex worker Lai Chung-chung (played by Prudence Liew Mei-kwan), trades her body for cash.

Such lifestyles are worlds away from Wong's own. Growing up in what she describes as a "happy traditional family" in Singapore, Wong - who performs alongside elder sister Rosanne Wong Yuen-kwun in 2R - says she has "the most wonderful mother" in the world. "I wish I could be half as good as she is," Wong says. "We are just so connected that she always knows what is on my mind and what's bugging me." 

Wong made her screen debut in 2003 with a small role in Joe Ma Wai-ho's Sound of Colours, but it was her turn in 2004's Abnormal Beauty - in which she played a student whose obsession with photography has dire consequences - that propelled her beyond the limits of her pop music career and landed her a best new performer nomination at the Hong Kong Film Awards. 

"I didn't know until one journalist asked for my comment about the nomination," she says. "I never thought I would be nominated at film awards, so just to be part of it was a great honour."

After Abnormal Beauty, Wong starred in several dramatic comedies aimed at teens, such as The Unusual Youth, Moments in Love and Cocktail. But other, more demanding roles were thrown into the mix as well, such as in the horror film Black Night and Carol Lai Miu-suet's psychological thriller The Third Eye. 

Race and Rosanne - who, bizarrely, plays a secret admirer of Race's character in Abnormal Beauty - are learning martial arts for a thriller which will begin shooting next year. The sisters have also collaborated with Canadian comic-book artist Pat Lee on a science-fiction trilogy called Orius, in which the pair will be transformed into robot-killing assassins. The first book will be launched later this month and available for sale in the US next year.

"Both of us are portrayed as being in perfect shape, having superpowers and equipped with fancy hi-tech gadgets," says Wong. "Isn't it exciting?"True Women for Sale opens today

Movie review: True Women for Sale 

Paul Fonoroff 

Dec 04, 2008           

Starring: Anthony Wong Chau-sang, Prudence Liew Mei-kwan, Race Wong Yuen-ling, Sammy Leung Chi-kin 

Director: Herman Yau Lai-to 

Category: IIB ***

The Chinese title of True Women for Sale - "I don't sell my body, I sell my womb" - is perhaps the most provocative aspect of this entertaining but uneven look at the local sex trade. Herman Yau's loose sequel to Whisper and Moans, one of last year's underrated treasures, shares thematic and stylistic similarities to its predecessor. But the scrīpt, again co-authored by the director and Elsa Yang Yee-shan, is so unfocused and rife with extraneous incidents that its more fun and meaningful aspects almost get lost in the process.

That they don't is a tribute to Yau's usual lack of pretensions, a fine feel for Hong Kong, and Anthony Wong. Although best known for his grizzly, over-the-top performances, Wong ranks among the screen's most versatile actors, and it's a pleasure to watch his low-key manoeuvrings as the kindhearted but not altogether altruistic insurance agent Lau Fu-yi. One of the film's cleverest bits is projecting Lau's calculator-like assessment of each new acquaintance's value in terms of estimated premiums. But there's more to him than a calculating heart, as evidenced by his interaction with Lin-fa (Race Wong), the young mainland widow of a middle-aged Lau client who she married as a way of immigrating to Hong Kong.

Now a single mother and pregnant with twins, Lin-fa lives in a Sham Shui Po tenement that is home to dozens of one-woman brothels. It's not exactly the best environment to bring up children, particularly with neighbours such as Lai Chung-chung (Prudence Liew, pictured). Lai is the movie's oddest character, a drug-addicted prostitute whose greatest shame is her rotten teeth and who raises chickens as an almost sacred duty (chicken, after all, is Cantonese slang for prostitute).

The two women illustrate the central issue alluded to in the Chinese title: whether being a whore is any less honourable than marrying and having babies for financial security. Like many Yau features, True Women for Sale is refreshing in that it doesn't shy away from social topics that are usually anathema to commercial releases. As well as its gender politics, the movie touches on residency rights for people from the mainland and the injustices facing new immigrants - subjects that fit naturally within the context.

Less germane is a major subplot involving photojournalist Chi (Sammy Leung) who is intent on getting to the roots of Lai's personal saga. Her saga is, indeed, interesting, and provides Susan Shaw Yin-yin with a poignant cameo as Lai's estranged mother. But spending so much time on Chi's professional life is superfluous and adds little to the proceedings. Equally irrelevant is the depiction of Lau's unrequited flirtations in his office, which jarringly takes him out of the movie's main milieu without adding depth to our understanding of the quirky workaholic.

The film's 90 minutes go by quickly, but the picture's real women would have been more saleable, cinematically speaking, if afforded less plot detours and more pertinent whispers and moans. | 2008年12月4日，《南華早報》

特別介紹: 黃婉伶   

Vivian Chen 

Dec 04, 2008

          Race 黃婉伶說做演員最好的地方, 就是可以透過演技去飾演為另一個人. 看她的履歷, 她的確演過了不少厭惡性的角色, 與她在 2R 組合中建立的鄰家女孩形象, 有很大的對比.

她在邱禮濤的新作《我不賣身我賣子宮》演譯的角色就是其中之一. 她飾演為黃蓮花, 是一位內地來港, 懷有一位香港人骨肉的寡婦 - 一個大部份年青偶像避之則吉, 碰也不敢碰的角色, 怕影響她們的天真清純形象.

"形象對我不是問題. 我擔心的只是能不能夠演好這一個角色," 這廿六歲的女孩說 (圖). "要做親切又美麗的 Race, 在我的 MV 裡就可以啦." 她在這電影裡的造型的確很不動人: 沒有化妝, 又要穿著道具裝扮孕婦.

面對最大的挑戰, 卻是拍蓮花妄待她的三歲女兒的時候. "有一幕我要向她大喝, 打她屁股, 我抓著她的手臂, 她就哭了, 我當時很害怕會傷害到她, 就縮了手. [主演 黃秋生] 要我無論覺得她的行為如何, 就算要打寶寶, 都要忠於我的角色. 我唯有豁出去了 - 但當然仍要顧及她的安全."

Race 自認她很難捉摸蓮花的想法. "這個角色與我的性格完全不同. 她很單純, 喧囂和坦率, 說話直接, 不轉彎抹角, 爭取自己的權益時大膽無懼."

"有很多像蓮花一樣的人要出賣自己, 去換來我已有的各種東西, 我有權質疑她們嗎? 我們不應該看低, 歧視她們, 而是要尊重她們的決擇."

作出這些決擇, 都頗艱難的. 在邱導演這個低成本寫實電影的故事中, 蓮花賣出了她的子宮, 就如她染上毒癮的妓女鄰居黎鐘鐘 (劉美君 飾演) 賣身求財一樣.

這些生活, 離 Race 千萬丈遠. 在新加坡一個她形容是一個 "快樂的傳統家庭" 成長, 與姐姐黃婉君一同組成 2R 的她, 說她有一個 "最美妙的母親". "我有她一半的好都很好了, 我們就像心連心一樣, 她總是會知道我在想甚麼, 知道我有甚麼煩惱."

她於 2003 年在馬偉豪的《地下鐵》初現大銀幕, 當時只是飾演一個小角色, 但於 2004 年的《死亡寫真》, 她演活了一個因過度迷上攝影而帶來可怕結局的學生, 推動了她的音樂事業超越高峰, 並帶了她入圍香港電影金像獎最佳新演員獎.

"不是有記者問我對被提名的看法的時候, 我都不知道我入圍. 我從未想過會在電影頒獎禮中被提名, 能夠在當中參與, 已經是一個榮幸."

《死亡寫真》之後, Race 參演了多個偶像喜劇作品, 例如《非常青春期》, 《擁抱每一刻花火》, 《半醉人間》. 此外, 亦參演了一些更考究演技的作品, 例如驚慄片《黑夜》, 和黎妙雪出品的心理恐佈片《小心眼》.

Race 和在《死亡寫真》中破格飾演暗戀 Race 角色的 Rosanne 現在正學習武術, 為一套明年開拍的動作驚險故事作準備. 她們亦與加拿大籍漫畫家 Pat Lee 合作推出分三部份推出名為 Orius 的漫畫, 這姊妹會在當中成為專殺機械人的殺手. 第一部份將於本月內推出, 於明年在美國發售.

"我們兩個在內的身材都被描繪得很完美, 又擁有超能力和各種異想天開的高科技裝備," Race 說. "不令人振奮嗎?"《我不賣身，我賣子宮》 今日上映

影評：《我不賣身，我賣子宮》

Paul Fonoroff 

Dec 04, 2008           主演: 黃秋生, 劉美君, 黃婉伶, 森美

導演: 邱禮濤

級別: IIB ***

這電影的中文名 "我不賣身我賣子宮" 應該是這套有趣但參差地描述本地性行業的作品中, 最刺激的一部份了.邱出品的這個尤如《性工作者十日談》(昨年被輕視的一齣佳作) 外傳的續集, 無論主題和風格都與前傳有不少相似.但是再次由導演和楊漪珊合篇的這齣劇本, 毫無焦點, 充斥著無關痛癢的事件, 蓋過了電影中深一層更有趣, 更有意思的部份.

這應該是因為邱導演一貫的作風, 對香港的美好感覺, 和黃秋生吧. 出名演技超班的黃秋生, 是大銀幕中最多材多藝的演員,看他的演技帶出的一位愛助人更愛助自己的保險經紀劉富意 (阿意), 樂事也. 這電影巧妙處之一, 就是以像計算機一樣的他用酬金推斷新客人的價值,顯出他唯利是圖的性格. 但這不僅是他只會的事, 從他與一位中年顧客的老婆, 現為寡婦, 靠婚姻來移居香港的蓮花 (Race)的交流之中可以看得出.

成為了單親媽媽, 懷有雙胞胎的蓮花, 住在充斥著一樓一鳳的深水步板間房. 這不是一個養孩子的最佳地方, 尤其是當黎鐘鐘 (劉美君飾, 圖)是你鄰居的時候. 黎鐘鐘是這電影中最奇特的角色, 她是一個染上毒癮的妓女, 以她的爛牙為辱, 養雞, 對她來說大概是最鄭重的工作了. ("雞"在廣東話俚語中解作性工作者)

這兩位女人顯示了中文片名間接提到的問題: 做妓女賣淫是不是比為求財政安穩而去結婚產子更低俗? 就像不少邱導演的出品一樣,《我不賣身我賣子宮》別致在於 它不會刻意迴避普遍不受商業製作歡迎的社會題材. 除了男女地位之外,這電影亦輕描了內地來港婦人的居留權問題和對新移民的各種不公平行為 - 通通都符合上文下理的題材.

不太合題的分支故事中, 佔大部份的是攝影記者志仔 (森美飾) 希望深入探討黎鐘鐘個人經歷的故事. 她的經歷, 的確頗有趣,而且給了邵音音一個深刻地客串成她疏離的媽媽的機會. 但戲中志仔的事業, 花了太多不必要的時間去描述, 亦對劇情沒有太大影響力. 同樣不對題的,就是阿意在辦公室中多次失敗的賣俏技倆, 不但對了解他身位工作狂的性格沒有幫助, 更討厭地帶離了電影的主題.

九十分鐘很快就過去. 電影裡的女人, 以看電影的立場來說, 花少些時間被帶離題, 花更多時間在貼切的細語和嗚咽的話, 就更好 "賣" 了. | 2008年12月4日，《南华早报》

特别介绍: 黄婉伶  

Vivian Chen 

Dec 04, 2008           

Race 黄婉伶说做演员最好的地方, 就是可以透过演技去饰演为另一个人. 看她的履历, 她的确演过了不少厌恶性的角色, 与她在 2R 组合中建立的邻家女孩形象, 有很大的对比.

她在邱礼涛的新作《我不卖身我卖子宫》演译的角色就是其中之一. 她饰演为黄莲花, 是一位内地来港, 怀有一位香港人骨肉的寡妇 - 一个大部份年青偶像避之则吉, 碰也不敢碰的角色, 怕影响她们的天真清纯形象.

"形象对我不是问题. 我担心的只是能不能够演好这一个角色," 这廿六岁的女孩说 (图). "要做亲切又美丽的 Race, 在我的 MV 裡就可以啦." 她在这电影裡的造型的确很不动人: 没有化妆, 又要穿着道具装扮孕妇.

面对最大的挑战, 却是拍莲花妄待她的三岁女儿的时候. "有一幕我要向她大喝, 打她屁股, 我抓着她的手臂, 她就哭了, 我当时很害怕会伤害到她, 就缩了手. [主演 黄秋生] 要我无论觉得她的行为如何, 就算要打宝宝, 都要忠于我的角色. 我唯有豁出去了 - 但当然仍要顾及她的安全."

Race 自认她很难捉摸莲花的想法. "这个角色与我的性格完全不同. 她很单纯, 喧嚣和坦率, 说话直接, 不转弯抹角, 争取自己的权益时大胆无惧."

"有很多像莲花一样的人要出卖自己, 去换来我已有的各种东西, 我有权质疑她们吗? 我们不应该看低, 歧视她们, 而是要尊重她们的决择."

作出这些决择, 都颇艰难的. 在邱导演这个低成本写实电影的故事中, 莲花卖出了她的子宫, 就如她染上毒瘾的妓女邻居黎钟钟 (刘美君 饰演) 卖身求财一样.

这些生活, 离 Race 千万丈远. 在新加坡一个她形容是一个 "快乐的传统家庭" 成长, 与姐姐黄婉君一同组成 2R 的她, 说她有一个 "最美妙的母亲". "我有她一半的好都很好了, 我们就像心连心一样, 她总是会知道我在想甚么, 知道我有甚么烦恼."

她于 2003 年在马伟豪的《地下铁》初现大银幕, 当时只是饰演一个小角色, 但于 2004 年的《死亡写真》, 她演活了一个因过度迷上摄影而带来可怕结局的学生, 推动了她的音乐事业超越高峰, 并带了她入围香港电影金像奖最佳新演员奖.

"不是有记者问我对被提名的看法的时候, 我都不知道我入围. 我从未想过会在电影颁奖礼中被提名, 能够在当中参与, 已经是一个荣幸."

《死亡写真》之后, Race 参演了多个偶像喜剧作品, 例如《非常青春期》, 《拥抱每一刻花火》, 《半醉人间》. 此外, 亦参演了一些更考究演技的作品, 例如惊慄片《黑夜》, 和黎妙雪出品的心理恐佈片《小心眼》.

Race 和在《死亡写真》中破格饰演暗恋 Race 角色的 Rosanne 现在正学习武术, 为一套明年开拍的动作惊险故事作准备.她们亦与加拿大籍漫画家 Pat Lee 合作推出分三部份推出名为 Orius 的漫画, 这姊妹会在当中成为专杀机械人的杀手. 第一部份将于本月内推出, 于明年在美国发售.

"我们两个在内的身材都被描绘得很完美, 又拥有超能力和各种异想天开的高科技装备," Race 说. "不令人振奋吗?"《我不卖身，我卖子宫》 今日上映

影评：《我不卖身，我卖子宫》Paul Fonoroff 

Dec 04, 2008           

主演: 黄秋生, 刘美君, 黄婉伶, 森美

导演: 邱礼涛

级别: IIB ***

这电影的中文名 "我不卖身我卖子宫" 应该是这套有趣但参差地描述本地性行业的作品中, 最刺激的一部份了.邱出品的这个尤如《性工作者十日谈》(昨年被轻视的一齣佳作) 外传的续集, 无论主题和风格都与前传有不少相似.但是再次由导演和杨漪珊合篇的这齣剧本, 毫无焦点, 充斥着无关痛痒的事件, 盖过了电影中深一层更有趣, 更有意思的部份.

这应该是因为邱导演一贯的作风, 对香港的美好感觉, 和黄秋生吧. 出名演技超班的黄秋生, 是大银幕中最多材多艺的演员,看他的演技带出的一位爱助人更爱助自己的保险经纪刘富意 (阿意), 乐事也. 这电影巧妙处之一, 就是以像计算机一样的他用酬金推断新客人的价值,显出他唯利是图的性格. 但这不仅是他只会的事, 从他与一位中年顾客的老婆, 现为寡妇, 靠婚姻来移居香港的莲花 (Race)的交流之中可以看得出.

成为了单亲妈妈, 怀有双胞胎的莲花, 住在充斥着一楼一凤的深水步板间房. 这不是一个养孩子的最佳地方, 尤其是当黎钟钟 (刘美君饰, 图)是你邻居的时候. 黎钟钟是这电影中最奇特的角色, 她是一个染上毒瘾的妓女, 以她的烂牙为辱, 养鸡, 对她来说大概是最郑重的工作了. ("鸡"在广东话俚语中解作性工作者)

这两位女人显示了中文片名间接提到的问题: 做妓女卖淫是不是比为求财政安稳而去结婚产子更低俗? 就像不少邱导演的出品一样,《我不卖身我卖子宫》别致在于 它不会刻意迴避普遍不受商业製作欢迎的社会题材. 除了男女地位之外,这电影亦轻描了内地来港妇人的居留权问题和对新移民的各种不公平行为 - 通通都符合上文下理的题材.

不太合题的分支故事中, 佔大部份的是摄影记者志仔 (森美饰) 希望深入探讨黎钟钟个人经历的故事. 她的经历, 的确颇有趣,而且给了邵音音一个深刻地客串成她疏离的妈妈的机会. 但戏中志仔的事业, 花了太多不必要的时间去描述, 亦对剧情没有太大影响力. 同样不对题的,就是阿意在办公室中多次失败的卖俏技俩, 不但对了解他身位工作狂的性格没有帮助, 更讨厌地带离了电影的主题.

九十分钟很快就过去. 电影裡的女人, 以看电影的立场来说, 花少些时间被带离题, 花更多时间在贴切的细语和呜咽的话, 就更好 "卖" 了。