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Hong Kong by night: Prostitution and cinema in herman Yau's Whispers and Moans

2007; Volume: 2007; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.4000/chinaperspectives.1773

2070-3449

Sebastian Veg,

Socioeconomic Development in Asia

Herman Yau's new film, Whispers and Moans, sketches the portrait of a parallel and colourful universe, rarely advertised to foreign visitors (although well known to some): the world of prostitution. While Yau is mainly known for his horror films (The Untold Story, 1993) or Hong Kong-style action movies (recently, On the Edge), he also regularly works with Yang Yeeshan (Elsa Chan), to produce social films in a more documentary vein, such as From the Queen to the Chief Executive (2001) about the detention of juvenile delinquents—conceived as a kind of counterpoint to stories of the handover. Whispers and Moans is also adapted from an investigative study by Yang Yeeshan of prostitution in Hong Kong , published in Chinese under the title Xing gongzuozhe shiri tan (Ten Days of Discussions with Sex Workers).