Eden

I realize this subject carries gravitas, and I also realize that the intentions behind the film are good, but this is presented as a dramatic piece and not a documentary, so, to speak of it only in terms of the merits of its subject matter is not particularly helpful if the object of a review is to also address film-craft. Understandably, this movie deals with "white-slavery" and is not purporting to be about inner city black teen prostitution, but I couldn't help notice that the film makers walk an ambiguous aesthetic line when it comes to portraying exceedingly beautiful girls in detention whose hair and makeup is rather inexplicably ready for prime-time whenever the camera cuts to a close-up to show them rolling out of bed in their underwear. No effort is given to show the day to day crafting of that beauty image if that is supposed to be the point; rather, we are left to wonder how much of our own voyeuristic sentiments are being teased by this somewhat glamorous dramatization. Characters are not well defined in this film and their dialogs are piling up the missed opportunities to deepen our understanding of their merging predicaments. Though much attention seems to be given to the protagonist, little is in fact discovered about her transformation. The "Eden" script often feels like it resulted from a weekend course in screen writing, after the author learned to plug-up emotional holes with convenient tricks, like losing a high school ring that is supposed to symbolize the link to family, etc. The henchmen and orderlies in the "prison facility" where she is held are cut out of cardboard and resemble the comical beefy sidekicks in low brow action flicks. It is wholly unclear what they get out of this deal, or why they stay at all. If indeed their motives and rewards are sexual, we would never know it, because the picture dances around its main horror-show: forced sex. I know that in America, sex is and will always be a problem to be skirted, however, since this is a film about forced prostitution, and it is implied that the main character might be a virgin at the onset of her ordeal, it boggles the mind that the story is presented so as to avoid direct confrontation with its own most pressing crisis: violence and rape. Understandably, portraying those in the correct measures is challenging but that is precisely what determines the measure of quality, and craft, in a film which is supposed to tackle such a hard and mature subject - on the other hand, it seems inconceivable to me to deal with sex-trafficking as a dramatic piece by prudishly dancing around the reality (I am tempted to write Reality with a capital "R") of sex being forced on young women as their lives are being destroyed. Whitewashing is the word that comes to mind. Even if we agree that some things cannot be shown, Eden's own dialog persistently avoids confrontation with her own sexual experience and discovery. Clearly, good intentions went into this picture, and actors Jamie Chung, Bo Bridges, and Matt O'Leary give it their best shot, despite having little to work with most of the time; still, after viewing the movie, I listened to a 20 minute pod-cast interview of Chong Kim, the woman whose ordeal this film purports to be based on, and discovered that her (real) story is in effect a much stronger dramatic piece. Incidentally, when I first watched the movie Taxi Driver in the 70s, I was still a teenager, and the portrayal of the fictional teen prostitute played by Jodi Foster affected me deeply - one reason is that her character's plight is distinct, and strong. She is not the protagonist in the film, but so much was accomplished with so little, because the picture as a whole was so well crafted that its impact reverberates on and on. Film is craft.

Human trafficking is such an antiseptic term. It intellectualizes and softens something that is absolutely horrific. It's the type of term that lives in the world of academia and statistics. There's no emotional impact, no default outrage, no real teeth to it. I prefer to call it what it is, slavery. At this moment it is estimated that up to 4 million people internationally and up to 50,000 people domestically are held by human trafficking rings.

To put a finer point on it… there are, at this moment, 50,000 people owned as slaves in the United States. Not historically, not descendants of freed slaves, but actual living breathing human beings living as slaves right now. This is not just a forced labor situation either; we are talking about forced prostitution.

Some are sold by their parents, some are recruited into domestic service jobs only to find out when they are in another country with no ability to leave what the job really is, and other are taken right off the streets in the US and forced into it.

A majority are women and almost all are under 18.

These numbers are jarring, alarming, and disgusting and nowhere near enough people are aware of them.

Eden is the true story of Chong Kim, a Korean American woman who, at the age of 19, went to a bar with a fake ID, had a drink with a very nice fireman who offered her a ride home. He pulled over to make a phone call and by the time she realized that something was wrong… it was too late. She woke up in the trunk of a car and began a harrowing two year long nightmare of isolation, forced prostitution, and every type of abuse and degradation you can imagine. This is not an easy or comfortable film to watch, but it is about something so very important that I believe it needs to be seen. Much like Damian Harris's "Gardens of the Night," which follows the younger spectrum of this abhorrent practice, it sheds light on a world so blackly dark and hidden from view that most people don't know that it exists.

Unlike "Gardens," which shows a world so vile and reprehensible that it exists entirely behind the curtains and closed doors, "Eden," shows a normalized and, in some ways, accepted trade. It's in the shadows, yes, but it is still in the light. The people who trade in it are somewhat open about it. There are parties with men in suits, fraternity parties, and underground S&M clubs where this type of traffic is a normal part of business. It's an entirely corrupt world where even the law cannot be trusted.

Director Megan Griffiths does an outstanding job of finding the small pieces of humanity in a dehumanized world and contrasts them with the inherent brutality of the situation. Her direction is unflinching but not exploitative, honest but never preachy, and powerful without being manipulative.

The performances are phenomenal across the board but the film is moored by two standouts. Jamie Chung creates a heartbreakingly real woman whose sweetness and innocence are stripped away. Matt O'Leary gives an amazingly nuanced performance as Eden's crack smoking handler. He is hateful and repellent, but is also very real.

This is a rare film in that it has changed the way I look at certain things. You hear terms like "human trafficking," and "forced prostitution," and are justifiably horrified, but they are just abstract concepts. Seeing the reality of women forced to live in dark storage lockers, four to a room on bunk beds, and knowing that it is happening now, in my country both horrified and sickened me. Suddenly, these concepts were no longer concepts, but living breathing facts.

In a world where millionaire athletes and musicians throw the world slave around it is fairly sobering to have the reality of it shown so plainly.

I rarely use the term "important," to describe films as even the most "important" films rarely are. Usually it really means "self important." This film however deals with an issue most of us would rather pretend doesn't exist, but that is far more important than can be expressed.

"Eden" shows evil in its truest form. The evil that allows people to profit from suffering, the evil that exists when good people don't stand up for what is decent, the evil that exists in a world where girls (and let's be clear they are GIRLS) can be treated as disposable property.

Related Films:

Very Young Girls- Documentary about teenage girls forced into prostitution.

Gardens of the Nigh- Fiction film about a girl kidnapped into the world of child sex trade.

More at www.thefilmthugs.com

As you've probably surmised, EDEN is not entirely "fun" to watch, but it's no more disturbing than it has to be. It's also rewarding in its revelation of an often-ignored problem in this country via a well-detailed and riveting story-line. Director Megan Griffiths did an outstanding job of treading a very thin line, making the film as tasteful as possible considering the subject matter--i.e., no gratuitous nudity--without sugar-coating the story. The level of empathy the audience attains with these poor girls is most acute. EDEN is quite convincing despite several stretches and unlikelihoods. While the plot of this film may appear predictable at first glance, there are some truly unexpected developments here.

Though a bit larger-than-life in places, Jamie Chung is just hypnotic as victim-heroine "Eden." The script is similarly believable and carries a lot of weight in developing Eden and the other characters. The mistrustful alliance she builds with one of her abductors (well-played by Matt O'Leary) is as immediate as everything else in this film and is one of its realest aspects. The supporting cast who play characters we never get to know that well, particularly Tantoo Cardinal as "The Nurse," also contribute a great deal to EDEN's success.

The "Behind the Scenes" Special Feature should not be missed after watching the film itself.

Some viewers would say the film was weak on portraying how the human sex traffic trade takes full advantage of unsuspecting teenagers (boys as well as girls) by scooping them off the street due to these teenagers own ignorance to the extent of the sex traffic trade, and/or more likely by raising these teenagers self worth, albeit temporarily, until the pimps have full control of them.

Whether or not this film is loosely based on a true story of a young South Korean girl named Chong Kim should not be what the majority of the films audience should be focused on, nor the disappointment that a movie that is based on the illegal sex trafficking lacks any gratuitous x-rated sex scenes. Instead what the viewers like myself absorbed from Miss Chong Kim's ordeal is we need to do a better job as a nation in realizing how extensive the sex trafficking trade really is, and what we all can do to stop it.

Firstly, there would be no sex trafficking in North America if there was no demand for the supply of teenage girls (and boys). In this film actor Beau Bridges does more than an adequate job as the corrupt law enforcement officer Bob Gault. Some of the other reviews commented that this is not realistic that a law enforcement officer would be a leader in the sex trafficking ring, but every year law enforcement officers across North America are found guilty of many criminal offences and the important "breach of trust" crime.

Actress Jamie Chung who plays the young teenage female victim Eden (with braces on her teeth), who was easily duped by a young man in uniform to foolishly feel safe enough to take a ride in his car and then she was quickly moved into the sex trade is a wake up call for all teenagers. The key message being there are many wolves in sheep's clothing and we as a nation have to be more engaged in stopping this corrupt criminal behaviour. Of course the actress Jamie Chung was taller, thinner, with a buff body than the shorter and heavier real life Chong Kim. I felt Jamie Chung did a great job in portraying the real life Chong Kim and how the victim had to adjust to a life in the sex traffic trade over the years she was imprisoned.

I would also suggest to those critical viewers who scoffed that the dozens of teenage girls who were imprisoned under lock and behind gates in a storage locker as being unrealistic, lets be clear, regardless of where these teenage girls were being housed when they were not working on their backs or knees lets just agree that they were not living the life of a socialite like Paris Hilton, or as a madam like Heidi Fleiss. No I am quite sure that the teenage girls who are really imprisoned by pimps and actively (today and tomorrow) engaged in the sex traffic trade are living in squalor, eating poorly, and have absolutely no life or ambition to speak of.

I thought the director/co-writer Megan Griffiths did an admirable job of finely balancing the need to NOT over sensationalize the graphic sexual plight of these young teenage girls, but instead emphasize how young women need to appreciate how easily it is to find themselves victims if they do not pay a lot more attention to the wrong type of people who could easily over power them if they are not a lot more careful as to who they choose to socialize or even be in the wrong place (like a bar, a public park late at night, or a pool hall) at the wrong time.

This is a clean enough film that I would suggest parents of all young teenage girls as well as teenage boys should watch as a learning tool. This is real life sex trafficking that we should not ignore, but we should be doing a lot more to prevent. I give the film a fair 6 out of 10 rating for "lessons learned".

It's difficult to say you enjoyed a movie about human slavery, especially the sex trade industry which does exist. To think that people like this walk the streets in our communities is disturbing and very troubling, but sticking our collective heads in the sand and pretending it doesn't happen or won't happen is being unrealistic. This movie is based on a true story, one girls journey into a living hell. The movie has all the elements of a top notch production including suburb acting, direction, and story development. This movie is not what most would call entertainment, but the story is compelling and needs to be told, and this cast of characters does a truly remarkable job in delivering a riveting, emotionally draining story of depravity and human survival. While this movie is not overly sexually graphic, it delivers the message loud and clear. Bravo to the entire production staff for making a movie that will leave you thinking about this one for a long time to come.