Ever get the feeling you’ve seen a film already? I got that feeling five times over with A Girl Out of the Country, a fairly standard tale (if a little tame) about big dreams and little payoff. Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: a small-town girl with several obvious assets going for her decides to go to the big city a conquer it … only to find her vision trampled within a matter of days.
You’ve seen that, haven’t you? Well, here’s the Taiwanese version, FWIW.
Feng (Jean Kao) has a beautiful face, body, and voice to match and wants to leave her rural home, hence becoming A Girl Out of the Country. It takes about five minutes, real-time-not-screen-time, for her to become a prostitute. In fact, it happens so quickly, one wonders if that wasn’t part of the plan. But she still sings, so I was hoping for The Best Little Whorehouse in Taipei.
Well, this one of those films in which willful girls get locked in a kennel by the madam. The madam takes umbrage at the cops showing up. Geez, lady, you took a 16-year-old, locked her in a kennel and raped her repeatedly; you’re really lucky you’re not in jail.
On that note, this film is among the least sexy sex films I’ve ever seen. Don’t know if I’ve ever seen a film with quite the volume of sex and so little enjoyment for players or audience. This is a film that wants to be pro-prostitute. We see that when Feng’s now-grown up brother, a cop, shows up to see how his famous sister has gotten along.
He, of course, is horrified by the results, but the film wants us to see no shame in the actions Feng has taken. Yes, there’s a stigma of prostitution, but does it apply? Should it apply?
These are great questions until the film decides it wasn’t really pro-prostitute at all. Well, that was an unfun waste of two hours. A Girl Out of the Country isn’t a bad film, and makes for a decent cautionary tale, but it left me feeling unsatisfied and like I’d seen it all before.
There once was a diva named Feng
Who left home on a prayer and a wing
But her dreams were shattered
When everything that mattered
Could be sold for a cup of ginseng
Not Rated, 100 Minutes
Director: Bruce Chiu
Writer: ??
Genre: You’ve probably seen this
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Cautionary tale tellers
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: Ingenues
