Call me a cynic (you'll have to get in a rather long line in order to be able to do that), but I have to wonder if the sudden
appearance of Girl$ on Blu-ray might have something to do with a little Lena Dunham series that has become a
pop culture phenomenon and one of HBO's most talked about series in years. Dunham's creation has been both lauded
and
derided for its frank dealings with sexuality, including copious nudity, so anyone who stumbles onto this release by
mistake will have at least those two things to cling to since they're both featured rather prominently, even if they wish
that this Girl$ had at least a little of
Dunham's wit and intelligence. This 2010 feature might have been one of those perfect Lifetime made for television
movies, where a bunch of more or less innocent teenagers get swept into a life of prostitution, though Lifetime probably
would have tended to disapprove of the film's pretty kinky depictions of sex which are fairly liberally sprinkled through an
otherwise turgid and overly melodramatic story. Girl$ is both intentionally provocative as well as really strangely
cutesy in its approach to a rather serious subject. The first element comes courtesy of both the basic storyline as well as
needlessly over the top aspects like a gruesome murder seen in the first few minutes (which turns out to be at best a
tangential piece of an already overcrowded plot), while the second comes courtesy of things like the film's title turning out
to be a quasi-acronym for several of the main characters.
That acronym includes Gucci (Minyi Wang, who has evidently subsequently taken the name of Venus Wong), a young
girl who finds herself deeply in debt due to her penchant for online
bidding on designer handbags; Icy (Michelle Wai), another young girl who brings in some extra moolah by arranging so-
called "Paid Dates" with a coterie of women she knows; Ronnie (Bonnie Xian), a well to do girl out for some kicks on the
seedy side of life; and Lin (Una Lin), a promiscuous girl who has been plying her quasi-prostitution trade for some time.
As
in any good Lifetime-esque movie, this "odd quartet" of sorts become friends and the film follows their intersecting
stories,
even as the inherent danger in their lifestyles lurks menacingly in the background.
Girl$ boasts (if that's the right word) four credited writers, and one begins to wonder if the quartet ever were in
the same room with each other or instead communicated as the girls in the film often do, in Twitter-esque brief bursts of
online chatter. This film is a pretty haphazard assortment of ideas. On the one hand it purports to be the melodramatic
tale of four young girls living a hedonistic lifestyle that can only bring them pain, while on the other it almost has
elements of a slasher film, especially due to the killer seen briefly in the opening sequence whose existence looms like a
shadow in the background every time one of the girls arranges a new assignation. But then posited against that are
just smarmy scenes like copious sex sequences between Ivy and her slacker boyfriend, not to mention the unsettling
discovery by one of the other girls that her online date is actually her brother.
The film is awash in "jiggly cam" verité style filming techniques, putatively to give Girl$ a "you are there"
ambience. But the storylines here are so preposterously stupid a lot of the time that any suspension of disbelief
becomes next to impossible. There are copious shots of the bustling life of Hong Kong sprinkled rather liberally
throughout the film, many with hordes of people passing by, and my hunch is many viewers will ultimately be hoping
that the camera ends up following one of those folks rather than the quartet at the core of the film.
Unfortunately, that never happens.
Girl$ is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of the rather unlikely FUNimation Entertainment (a label which tends to
specialize in anime rather than live action outings, let alone one of this dubious quality), with an AVC encoded 1080p
transfer in 1.78:1. This is one bafflingly schizophrenic looking high definition presentation, especially confounding since the
film is of fairly recent vintage and was shot digitally. At one point things pop really well, with excellent fine detail, good color
and pleasing contrast, while at another point, suddenly things get really ugly, with an unexpected softness, milky
contrast and even artifacts like mosquito noise cropping up. My assumption is this film was done on a relatively paltry
budget and there may have been little attempt to correct any perceived deficiencies in post production. As it stands this is
a glass half full, glass half empty situation with regard to video quality, but considering how listless the actual film is, I
seriously doubt few are going to care very much.
Girl$ features a Dolby TrueHD 5.1 mix in Cantonese which is quite well done, at least in dribs and drabs. The urban
scenes in crowded Hong Kong locations really bristle with sonic activity, much of which is splayed around the surround
channels to offer pleasing immersion. The dialogue is almost resolutely anchored front and center and rarely if ever even
shows much wide stereo separation. There are some interesting audio effects scattered through this enterprise which up
the aural enjoyment significantly. Fidelity is excellent and dynamic range is relatively wide, though never extremely
boisterous.
The Making of Girl$ is split into seven very short featurettes, all of which offer interviews, behind
the scenes footage
and snippets from the film. The breakdown is as follows:
Not to put too fine a point on it, but Girl$ just kind of lies there waiting for something to happen. Unfortunately, not
very much ever does. This film is pretty ineptly written with a lot of risible dialogue spouted by a "not ready for prime time"
cast (some of whom have never acted before, and it shows), as well as too many cutesy video effects for its
own good and a really inconsistent tone and focus that make it a pretty dull watch, despite copious nudity and lots
of simulated sex. (You know you're in trouble when even the sex scenes come off as boring.) FUNimation Entertainment
followers who are aficionados of what anime lovers call "fan service" may want to check this out, though what's here is
actually closer to hentai. All others should stick with Lena Dunham and HBO.
Giant Ape Media, a division of FUNimation Entertainment, will release a combo pack edition of director Kenneth Bi's Girl$ (2010), starring Bonnie Sin Sik-La, Michelle Wai, Venus Wong Man-Yik, and Una Lin Yu-Hsuan. The release will be available for purchase on ...
