Review | Film review: Lazy Hazy Crazy - girls go wild in Pang Ho-cheung production
Story of three classmates who work part-time as prostitutes is more about emotion than plot
The writing is lazy, the plot is hazy, and the young actresses must be attention-crazy to strip for this mildly erotic but largely forgettable coming-of-age drama. Making her directorial debut under the production of frequent collaborator Pang Ho-cheung, screenwriter Luk Yee-sum might have mistaken the murky characterisation of her morally dubious leads for a non-judgmental ode to youthful abandon.
It revolves around three high-school classmates – Alice (Doomsday Party’s Fish Liew Ziyu), Chloe (Koyi Mak Tsz-yi) and Tracy (Ashina Kwok Yik-sum) – who feel as ambivalently about their romantic crushes and sexual orientations as they do about their work as part-time prostitutes. Neglected by family and disoriented by adolescent ennui, the girls are more amused than disgusted by their exertions.
Preferring ambience over narrative intrigue, Lazy Hazy Crazy loosely connects its raunchy moments through its characters’ confused and often conflicted interests: in the school jock Andrew (Tse Sit-chun), in a puppy they raise together, and in a spacious apartment – rented by Alice – that they momentarily share. Ultimately, it’s the intensity of their capricious friendship that leaves the strongest impression.
As the emotionally feverish story settles down, it becomes clear that its heart resides with the virginal Tracy, who feels at once inferior to her elder sister (Dada Chan Ching) and unloved by her strict grandmother (Susan Siu Yam-yam). It is easy to feel for the girl as she engages in a paid affair with a courteous playboy (Gregory Wong Chung-yiu), while seeking revenge on her unrequited love elsewhere.
While artfully packaged, Lazy Hazy Crazy will likely remain a curiosity item that sets out to go against Hong Kong cinema’s tendency to dismiss any onscreen nudity as mere titillation. But Luk doesn’t exactly help her own case, either: a scene in which Tracy goes bare-naked just to show grandma she isn’t tattooed is so ironically awkward, it would feel right at home in any softcore yarn.
Lazy Hazy Crazy opens on October 29
