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Rating: Returning from the Cannes festival (which year after year is increasingly revealing its purely mundane side), I am about to review one of the films in the program that pleasantly surprised me: it is called "Pleasure Factory," directed by Ekachai Uekrongtham (already the author of the beautiful "Beautiful Boxer") and featured in the "Un Certain Regard" section.
The film is constructed around the weaving and evolution of various stories set against the backdrop of a Singapore masterfully portrayed in its nightlife, its myriad colors, flavors, and its inherent dichotomy of poverty/riches. A distinct dichotomy also characterizes the protagonists of the various stories: those who desperately seek pleasure and those who offer it; over the course of a night so similar to others, we witness the loss of virginity of a boy enlisted in the army thanks to the complicity of his companion while, elsewhere, a young girl is forced by her mother to lose her innocence to satisfy a wealthy businessman. Finally, another boy will experience the emotion of his first time with a young prostitute, with whom he will fall hopelessly in love...
The film (shot with non-professional actors, most of whom actually work in the city's red-light district) flows throughout its duration with a tight, frenetic rhythm like the streets of Singapore, leaving no room for reflection except in some sporadic moments; the shots are incredibly bold for Eastern standards (since even in the most explicit hardcore films, genitals are usually not shown) and leave nothing to the imagination. The fundamental theme permeating the film is sex, linked to the body and the pursuit of pleasure, in a claustrophobic, dark, joyful, and vibrant atmosphere at the same time. And it is precisely sex that is represented both as a raw and morbid carnal act and as a sublimation of love and emotion. The director deliberately alternates scenes with a strong visual and emotional impact (the scene in which the wealthy businessman rapes the young girl under the eyes of a mother concerned only with the money she will receive is chilling) with others having a light and poetic touch, all accompanied by a soundtrack that magnificently amplifies the viewer's visual sensations.
What remains at the end of the viewing is the portrait of the human being completely subjected to the pursuit of pleasure in all its forms and through all means: a routine that prevents him from being perfectly connected to his rationality, and that turns him into a product of the "pleasure factory" mentioned in the title of this film, which will certainly not hit our screens, but absolutely deserves a careful viewing.
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