‘Pleasure Factory’ Struggles to Stay Together

A common theme in several of the films I’ve seen at the Cannes Film Festival deal with prostitution or abortion. Both are depressing issues that need to be addressed, but whether they are discussed well in the films is another thing. “Pleasure Factory,” filmed in documentary style, tells the story of several clients and prostitutes over the course of one evening in Singapore’s red-light district. There are scenes that are funny and scenes that are tragic and disturbing. Unfortunately, the film fails to bring these themes together into a coherent storyline, and I can’t quite recommend it.

There isn’t much dialogue in the film, and you never really know the names or situations of its key players. Several plot threads include a mother and daughter who are prostituting themselves to a revolting man in a hotel room, an American or Canadian (you never know who) who follows the daughter around, perhaps to save her or because he was a former client of hers (you never know which) and a young Army officer who is going to be with a prostitute for the first time thanks to help from his buddy, who deals with his own issues of homosexuality. Another storyline involves a jaded prostitute who invites a guitar street performer into her apartment.

The best scene in the film is between the Army officer and the prostitute. You can tell the young officer is nervous because it’s his first time, and in one amusing scene, he unpackages about 10 different condoms onto the bed, each with specific attributes. This one vibrates, he says to her. This one is lubricated. This one glows in the dark. The woman at the register recommended them to me, he tells her. She just laughs.

But later, after they have had sex, the boy asks why she does this sort of thing for a living, and she tells him that it’s because her father passed away and she wanted to help her family. The young officer starts crying.

It’s a touching scene, but not enough to overshadow a lot of the deficiencies of the film. Overall, the film has interesting elements, but it needs to bring it all together into a coherent narrative.

2 stars
***
Wayne’s star system
1 star –> avoid at all costs
2 stars –> watch on TV when nothing else is on
3 stars –> rent it eventually
4 stars –> must see before you die

“Pleasure Factory” (IMDB)
Photos from “Pleasure Factory”
S’pore sex industry film focuses on pleasure

~ by doscrash on May 25, 2007.