True Women for Sale

Plot

The story revolves around two women in the grassroots of Hong Kong society, struggling to survive and haunted by demons in their respective pasts. The literal translation of the Chinese film title is "I do not sell my body, I sell my uterus". In fact, it deals with one woman who does sells her body but strives to improve herself, and one woman who views herself to be of higher status than the street walkers, but in reality is also selling herself by marrying someone and becoming pregnant just to become a Hong Kong citizen. The two women live in the same apartment building and share some interactions on screen; however, their stories do not necessarily intermix. The film takes place in the Sham Shui Po area of Kowloon, Hong Kong circa 2000.

Lai Chung-Chung (Prudence Liew) is a crack cocaine-addicted yet good-natured street walker who is fast approaching a "destiny call" made by a fortune teller advising her that in the year 2000, she would finally repent all her sins from her previous life and will turn over a new leaf. To prepare herself for the life-changing event, she works hard to save up for a dentistry process to clean her badly decaying teeth and gums from years of crack cocaine use. After witnessing Lai heroically save a child from being hit by a van, freelance photographer Chi (Sammy Leung) thought that Lai would make a good human interest story for a magazine and starts to photograph Lai while having his girlfriend, journalist Elaine (Toby Leung) interview her. During Elaine's interview with Lai, it is revealed that Lai has had a troubled past with her mother and younger sister.

The other subject is Wong Lin-Fa (Race Wong), a woman from Mainland China who married Kin: a middle-aged, construction-working Hong Konger, in hopes of attaining a better life by gaining Hong Kong residency. Upon hearing Kin died in a work accident, Wong travels to Hong Kong, pregnant with Kin's child in hopes of collecting an abundance of condolence money from Kin's family. However, she only receives HK$5000 and is kicked out by the family, who labels Wong as a golddigger. She then moves into Kin's apartment in a building that many prostitutes inhabit, including Lai. Insurance broker Lau Fu-Yi (Anthony Wong Chau-Sang) notifies Wong that Kin had bought life insurance with her as the sole beneficiary. Lau later begins an unlikely friendship with Wong, helping her with her quest to give birth and gain residency in Hong Kong, all the while trying to sell her insurance. Lau has a way of classifying people in his head by calculating their potential insurance coverage. He does this for Lai and Chi and quickly dismisses them as having a potential of $0 while evaluating Wong at US$2 million.

Cast

Cameos

Awards & nominations

The film was selected as the opening film in the 2008 Hong Kong Asian Film Festival and was nominated for several awards.