Review | Lonely Eighteen movie review: Sisterhood director Tracy Choi’s showbiz drama has reflections of Hong Kong actress Irene Wan’s life and career

Lonely Eighteen charts the contrasting fortunes of a pair of young Hong Kong actresses in a film based partly on the real-life experiences of co-star Irene Wan

The film has little narrative focus – is it a biopic, a celebration of friendship or an expose of show business? – and thus never achieves emotional catharsis

Reading Time:2 minutes

Angel Lam in a still from “Lonely Eighteen” (category IIB, Cantonese), directed by Tracy Choi. Renci Yeung and Irene Wan co-star.

Published: 5:15pm, 27 Sep 2023Updated: 7:30am, 28 Sep 2023

2.5/5 stars

A sentimental women-led drama set around the fickle entertainment industry of 1980s and ’90s Hong Kong, Lonely Eighteen charts the contrasting fortunes of a pair of young actresses to sporadically engaging – if ultimately inconsequential – effect.

Notably, the film is based partly on the real-life experiences of producer and co-star Irene Wan Pik-ha, who grew up impoverished in a refugee village in Tiu Keng Leng in Kowloon before making her acting debut in the 1982 film Lonely Fifteen at age 16.

Wan has since had an uneven career that, at one pivotal moment, saw her take a brave but arguably misguided decision to fully undress for a crime mystery – Herman Yau Lai-to’s All of a Sudden (1996). While undoubtedly famous, the actress has never managed to achieve proper stardom.

All these details are recounted in Lonely Eighteen, which sees childhood friends Elaine (Angel Lam Chin-ting) and Ying (Renci Yeung Sz-wing, The First Girl I Loved) begin their career with a rude awakening on their first film shoot – cue a sleazy producer forcing the latter to strip naked for the cameras.

Ying continues to suffer through the years with both her parasitic boyfriend (Kyle Li Yam-san) and her own status as an erotic-film actress, while Elaine – Wan’s stand-in for this dramatisation – struggles to win over her strict father (Ti Lung, credited as Tommy Tam), a war veteran who cannot let go of the past.

Select Voice

Choose your listening speed

Get through articles 2x faster

1.25x

250 WPM

Slow

Average

Fast

00:0000:00

1.25x