Lost Souls (Mou Tun-fei, Hong Kong, 1980)

https://notesonfilm1.com/2022/02/05/thinking-aloud-about-film-lost-souls-mou-tun-fei-hong-kong-1980/ Mou Tun-Fei goes from the New Wave-y neo-realistic aesthetic of I Didn't Dare Tell You and the End of the Track and into exploitation territory. Lost Souls is pulpy, dynamic, exciting and exploitative. Women have their clothes taken off, the camera lingers on their bodies, on their degradation, on the sale of these women to whorehouses. The audience, which we assume to be men, is meant to get off on all of this. Mou Tun-fei is an equal opportunity exploiter and there is also torture and rape of men. The film is clearly highly influenced by Pier Paolo Pasolini's 1975 film, 120 Days of Sodom and we discuss their differences and similarities. We also discuss how Lost Souls is unquestionably an exploitation film but not all exploitation films are as effective and as political as Lost Souls; and our discussion lingers on the opening sequence of the boat people and the arrival of one of the escapees onto Hong Kong's Diamond Hill, and the crushing disappointment that accompanies the realisation that streets are not paved with gold there and that it is in fact one big, fragile ghetto. A fascinating film.