THROWING the spotlight on the social escort scene in Hong Kong meant taking on several challenges for director Kenneth Bi.
The floppy-haired Hong Kong film-maker, whose previous works include the set-in-Singapore comedy Rice Rhapsody (2005) and philsophical drama The Drummer (2007), did not want his new flick, Girl$, to be a run-of-the-mill depiction of youth prostitution.
The film, rated R21, traces the journey of four girl friends who decide to put their bodies up for hire.
The protagonists are rich, bored Ronnie (newcomer Bonnie Xian), in the trade simply to inject some thrill into her life, and street-smart Icy (actress Michelle Wai), who wants money to buy her geeky boyfriend a new computer.
The film opens here tomorrow.
Bi, who is in his late 30s, told reporters in a phone interview from Hong Kong: "So many films about prostitution portray the girls as victims. In the past, yes, many of the girls who go into this line are forced by circumstances.
"But the girls of today are so different! They go into the social escort business willingly because they know that by using their sexuality, they can easily get money from men. They are unafraid and don't ever feel victimised."
The last thing Bi wanted was to put himself on a moral pedestal and paint social escorts as villified sex objects.
"In reality, a lot of girls in this trade choose their sex partners, they enjoy being paid for sex and, at the end of the day, they are happy," he said. "Who am I to judge them?"
Bi said his crew poured time and effort into interacting with real escorts to gather as much information as possible about these girls' work.
"Our script writers went online and chatted with several escorts. We found out...how much they were paid, at times even right down to the details.
"For example, we realised the 'middleman' (or agent) for these girls often get a huge cut from their pay.
"For every 'job', the agent collects as much as HK$1,600 (S$280), while the social escort only pockets HK$1,000.".
Another massive challenge Bi faced was convincing his young cast they were in safe hands during the film's many sex scenes.
"Naturally, in the beginning, they had plenty of reservations," he said with a laugh. "I reassured them many, many times that although Girl$ is a racy Category 3 (Hong Kong's equivalent of R21) film, it's not pornography."
Her most daring film
Lead actress Wai, 25, told The New Paper that Girl$ was "the most daring film" she has done to date.
Unlike her previous good-girl roles in teen flick Happily Ever After and romance drama Ex, her role as Icy gave her a chance to "play the rebel".
"What drew me to the film was how 'rough' my character was...She swore and smoked. I've never done all that on screen before," said Wai.
There were also the love scenes.
While both she and co-star Xian did not strip (only suppporting actress Una Lin appears in the buff), she was in a number of scenes featuring physical intimacy, as well as one that had her in handcuffs.
"It was an extremely difficult scene for me," confessed Wai.
The shoot was deliberately done in a love hotel, to keep it close to reality.
"Before filming started, I felt really down and uncomfortable. Thankfully, I think my male co-star and I eventually managed to get into the shoes of our characters quite well."
Before filming, Wai geared herself up for her role by visiting social escort websites.
"I attempted to chat up some real-life escorts, so that I could find out what goes on in their minds. But somehow, they were all very alert.
"The minute it hit them that I'm not a potential client, they just ignored me!"
