AV (2005)
Reviewed by: White Dragon on 2005-11-18
Summary: Edmong Pang fumbles the ball
Film studies friends Jason Chan (Wong Yau Nam), Leung Chi On (Lawrence Chou), Ho Bo Wah, aka: Band-aid (Derek Tsang), and Mak Kai Kwong, aka: Fatty (Jeffrey Chow) wind up their year at school by taking a leaf out of classmate Wong Kar Lok’s (Tsui Tin Yau) book. Wong, enamoured of a fellow (female) student, got himself expelled for using his short film subject as a means to seduce her; the four friends take that not as a cursory life lesson, but inspiration to engineer a porno-film under the guise of a student project with themselves as the stars. Requiring HK$200,000 to hire their own AV actress (Manami Amamiya, playing herself) the boys apply for a business loan to make their puerile dream of bedding a Japanese porn star for the cameras a reality. However, once they have the money, their scam begins to grow and veer out of control well beyond their teenage fantasies and the whole exercise becomes the polar opposite of what everyone involved expected.

Edmond Pang’s fourth outing is by far the least of his cinematic works so far. Like its protagonists it operates on a deceit that it can scarcely hope to maintain, and its pretences alluding to student rallies in 1971 quickly give way to a narrative that is best described as “American Pie”-lite…albeit Hong Kong style. Though the primary cast acquit themselves modestly, and the characters as scripted are drawn well, whatever lofty heights of (slight) social commentary the film aims for is lost on the core element of the story. It is simply about four horny teenagers and their efforts to become amateur porn stars, no more, no less. Much like a key moment in the film where, realising they aren’t going to pass as businessmen to the Japanese AV star’s agent the boys ask a shady local pornographer (Jim Chim) to pretend to be their boss, the film overall operates on meaningless allusions towards something deeper, then persistently throws those ideals away without second thought.

When asked, Chim’s character launches into an embarrassingly awful tirade over Hong Kong youth – pauses at conclusion – then agrees without further issue; accordingly, the film itself fails spectacularly on the same grounds. It alludes to higher meaning that simply isn’t there – it hopes to hide its grubby protagonists behind ephemera of a positive reinforcement message. In fact, the whole exercise stings of the Cheung Tat Ming-Asuka Higuchi side story in Pang’s debut “You Shoot I Shoot” drawn out to feature length; therein it worked as there was primary story to support it – herein there is empty-headed moralising coupled with not nearly enough incident to keep the viewer engaged. A gargantuan disappointment from the usually reliable Pang and certainly the black sheep in his cinematic oeuvre thus far.
Reviewer Score: 5