Reading the critics' reviews of this self-indulgent sprawl, one cannot help but be struck by their half-hearted special pleading. Osaka-based Malaysian director and, regrettably in this case producer and, equally regrettably, editor, Lim Kah Wai rambles on for well over two and a half hours portraying a series of pan-Asian miserable characters ground down by the urban underbelly. Nominally set in Osaka, it features almost no recognizable part of the city apart from a glimpse of the Umeda Ferris wheel and could be set in almost any impoverished slum. Almost none of the characters go anywhere, remaining underdeveloped to the last (one or two get arrested and the third-rate Malaysian businessman played by JC Chee just goes home after half-rescuing a hapless country girl played by Manami Usamaru). The common theme is the intertwining of sex and greed and an uninteresting murder that adds no mystery or unpredictability to the whole dreary affair.
Our critics seem to think that Lim is some kind of auteur with insights to share about the sad state of exploited immigrants and sexual exploitation, but he has here woven together a story whose banality is matched by its lack of visual appeal or emotional force.
