COURTESY HIFF"Holly" brings together a card shark and a young prostitute.
'Holly' captures the darkest corners of Cambodia's sex trade without being lurid
Review by Gene Park
gpark@starbulletin.com
Star Bulletin (Honolulu, Hawaii)
Filmed on location in Cambodia and precariously balanced between documentary and drama, "Holly" tells the story of two people hopelessly unhappy with their lives.
The film is intended to shed light on the darkest corners of the sex trade in that country, where 4-year-old girls ask to "yum yum" so their owners don't hit them. Refreshingly chaste (not a single shot of nudity or sex), "Holly" puts humanity behind a phrase so often repeated in street slang, fraternity parties and hip hop -- "Me love you long time."
Ron Livingston's Patrick is a card shark, hired by local mobster Freddie (Chris Penn) to traffic stolen goods across the border. For 15 years he has searched for something that resembles contentment. He finds it in helping Holly, a 12-year-old prostitute played by Thuy Nguyen with enough innocence and character to spark hope in Patrick.
Patrick is determined to take her out of what she considers her karma for being a bad person in the last life. "This life I punish," she utters. "Next life I princess."
Understanding Patrick's quest is understanding Ethan Edwards in "The Searchers" or Travis Bickle in "Taxi Driver." It's less about freeing the girl, and more about tearing her away from her fate, or her "reservation for hell," as one customer puts it.
That isn't easy, as social worker Marie (Virginie Ledoyen) explains. Buying out 37,000 of these girls only means that 60,000 will be on the market at a higher price. And buying Holly would only encourage a trade that preys on poor families who sell their daughters for money.
But Patrick isn't out to save 60,000 girls, just one, he says. How he does it results in a dramatic conclusion Hollywood wouldn't buy. Is it a happy ending? Marie sums it up, "As long as it's not tragic, it's happy."
'Holly'
In English, Khmer and Vietnamese, with subtitles
Screens: 10:30 p.m., Friday and 12:30 p.m. Saturday
Place: Dole Cannery (Hawaii)
gpark@starbulletin.com
Star Bulletin (Honolulu, Hawaii)
Filmed on location in Cambodia and precariously balanced between documentary and drama, "Holly" tells the story of two people hopelessly unhappy with their lives.
The film is intended to shed light on the darkest corners of the sex trade in that country, where 4-year-old girls ask to "yum yum" so their owners don't hit them. Refreshingly chaste (not a single shot of nudity or sex), "Holly" puts humanity behind a phrase so often repeated in street slang, fraternity parties and hip hop -- "Me love you long time."
Ron Livingston's Patrick is a card shark, hired by local mobster Freddie (Chris Penn) to traffic stolen goods across the border. For 15 years he has searched for something that resembles contentment. He finds it in helping Holly, a 12-year-old prostitute played by Thuy Nguyen with enough innocence and character to spark hope in Patrick.
Patrick is determined to take her out of what she considers her karma for being a bad person in the last life. "This life I punish," she utters. "Next life I princess."
Understanding Patrick's quest is understanding Ethan Edwards in "The Searchers" or Travis Bickle in "Taxi Driver." It's less about freeing the girl, and more about tearing her away from her fate, or her "reservation for hell," as one customer puts it.
That isn't easy, as social worker Marie (Virginie Ledoyen) explains. Buying out 37,000 of these girls only means that 60,000 will be on the market at a higher price. And buying Holly would only encourage a trade that preys on poor families who sell their daughters for money.
But Patrick isn't out to save 60,000 girls, just one, he says. How he does it results in a dramatic conclusion Hollywood wouldn't buy. Is it a happy ending? Marie sums it up, "As long as it's not tragic, it's happy."
1 comment:
I don't understand and why focus so much on the victims? Why not focus on corrupted stupid Cambodian government that produce all these illnesses in Cambodian society?
This is my solution to the problem!
Why not buy one of the sex slave victim and cut her heart out and sell it to a very rich person who has a bad heart and send the picture of the death body with some money and explain to the victim parent! This would make a good example to all those stupid parent for selling their daughter in the first place!
But then again, most people like to see other people suffer which the prolong the dying process and they get certain high or gratification from it! I say just end the fucken misery! Most of these sexual slaves will die from AIDS, abuse, and hoplessness anyway!
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