How to normalise free sex?

Anora (2024)
Director: Sean Baker

https://thefutureoftheforce.com/2024/10/31/review-anora-2024/

I was nearly knocked off my socks when I heard that 'Anora' won five Academy Awards, including Best Film, Best Actress, and Best Director. However, receiving the Best Film award is beyond any rational justification.  

My first impression of it when I viewed it was that it seemed like rubbish. It reminded me of the numerous B-grade films that excited teenagers in the 1980s when they gathered around their friends' VHS players to watch Koo Stark in 'Emily'.

The plot is thin and predictable, and the storytelling fails to present anything new. The storyline has been told and retold in numerous other films, though it serves more as a subplot. For context, this narrative follows a pole dancer who also works as a prostitute and finds herself infatuated with the debauched son of a Russian oligarch. According to her, the correct job title is exotic dancer. They dive into a whirlwind of romance filled with plenty of sex, drink, and other intoxicants. The allure of a grand mansion, a yacht lifestyle, and casino living proves too tempting. So, what is the next logical step? Get married in Vegas, of course, where the chapel can wed anyone 24/7.

This astonished his bodyguard, who was unaware of what was unfolding despite being in charge of his safety. His guardian was notified, and the oligarch parents arrived, eager to resolve the commotion. Next came the amusing part, as they dashed about attempting to annul the wedding. 

The film prides itself on not depicting Russians as mere mobs but rather imbuing them with personalities and emotions, particularly the henchmen, who are not shown as bumbling Russian nincompoops (albeit slightly).

I believe the entire premise of the film is to normalise prostitution as a profession. It is entirely acceptable to be high three-quarters of the time. One can still function normally after perpetually drowning oneself in casual sex, cocaine, and alcohol. Sex workers are portrayed as having their own agency, leaving their 'professions' whenever they choose. Perhaps they neglect to mention the pimps and human trafficking associated with the sex trade. Or is it women empowerment to choose to be a sex worker?

It is an award not for acting, but for how much drapery one can shed and how convincingly one can simulate coital activity. Nothing more, nothing less!

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Paedophilic Ring - Fact or Fiction?

 Sound of Freedom (2022)
 Director: Alejandro Monteverde

This movie drew a lot of flak from either side of the spectrum. People over the subject matter put forward in the movie cry foul over the lack of publicity about this movie. On the other end, those who stand by the belief that the whole talk of the existence of secret pedophilic prostitution is bunkum are up in arms. They cannot believe that Tinseltown is pandering to conspiracy theorists. It does not help that it is the third highest-grossing film in the US after Barbie and Oppenheimer. 

On one end, big studios had malaise, like Fox and later Disney, which bought Fox to get off the ground. It had to be purchased by a small independent studio funded by crowdsourcing and the excellent work of Mel Gibson and the movie star Jim Caviezel, who played the protagonist Tom Ballard.

For a long time, during Trump's tenure, a strong lobbyist swore to the presence of an entity called QAnon. Nobody could pinpoint who QAnon actually was, but rumours were rife that it could be someone entrenched deep within the Administration, or it could be Mr Donald Trump himself. QAnon was supposed to be prophetic, a seer who could foresee events yet to happen and would whisper cryptic messages to the general public. 

One of the most damaging rumours that went around then was the existence of Pizzagate. Pizzagate became a code word for the proof of the existence of Satanistic, hedonistic, cannibalistic child abusers with a big pedophilic ring within the Democratic Party of the USA. They allegedly drank tortured children's blood to reap the benefit of adrenochrome, an elixir of youth. The ring later involved a more comprehensive web, including moguls of the cinema industry, royalties and public figures. Nobody has been convicted thus far for such crimes, but it will not die soon. The latest victim is Hunter Biden, the son of POTUS Joe Biden. 

Slavery never really died. It just got rebranded. The hunt for wealth will continue as long as the economic divide grows exponentially worldwide and fiat money is used to gauge an individual's success. With wealth, decadence becomes a well-deserved fringe benefit. The march to the wild side becomes a dare. The market for sex for hire and appetite for experimental experiences grows exponentially, too.

Despite the numerous laws enacted worldwide by governments and world bodies, children are abducted and trafficked over borders for multiple reasons, including child labour, adoption, begging, working as child soldiers and serving as sex slaves.

This film is based on the real-life experiences of Tim Ballard, a Homeland Security Agent who left his job at the agency to start a non-profit organisation called Operation Underground Railroad (OUR), credited for rescuing thousands of children from sex trafficking rings. In this movie, he travels to Columbia to rescue a preteen Honduran girl from one of these rings.

Detractors to the successes of OUR insist that their laurels were highly exaggerated. They insist that all the trafficked children were abducted and kept outside the USA. What they forget is that there is a market for it, and their customers are Americans who frequent them outside American shores.

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Convenient partnership?

Mandi (Market Place, Hindi; 1983)
Directed by: Shyam Benegal

It was a time when Bollywood could not go wrong. With their vast array of capable actors, there controlled the narrative. Even though initially, Bollywood catered for the masses. It tried to put forward the leftists' agenda, and the rest of the population would just feed off their hands.

So when Bollywood made a movie out of a classic satirical novel with prolific and talented actors of that era, the likes of Shabana Azmi, Naseeruddin Shah, Smita Patil, Om Puri and Amrish Puri, it became an instantaneous national and international hit. It has a string of accolades under its belt to boast.

Things have turned 180 degrees since OTT platforms democratized movie releases. It seems that the Bollywood mafias are struggling to produce even a single hit. All their recent releases have tanked repeatedly. Conversely, unknown newcomers often shine at the top.

This movie takes a sarcastic look at the unholy alliance between the madame of a house of disrepute with the police and people in power. Members of an NGO are up in arms against a brothel in the middle of a town. They want it closed. The politicians are looking at its real estate value. In the midst of it all, two of the brothel girls perform at the landlord's son's engagement ceremony. The potential groom is all smitten with the performer and is lovestruck, wanting to elope with the callgirl! 

An interesting movie that takes a swipe at the convenient coalition between the oldest and the second oldest profession in the world.

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Poverty amongst the seniors!

The Bacchus Lady (2016)
Director: E J-Yong

Bacchus was a new word to me. It actually refers to the Greek god of wine, sometimes associated with Dionysus. Following the 1997 Asian financial crisis, many elderly people found themselves needing to fend themselves. The Miracle at Han River, following years of economic boom following the Korean War, left a country so entwined in the material chase that the traditional Confucian values had lost their appeal. Many young Koreans had emigrated, leaving their elders at home. South Korea is said to be having one of the worst social safety nets amongst OECD countries for its senior citizens. OECD (Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development) countries comprise intergovernmental economic organisations with 38 nations founded in 1961 to stimulate world trade and stimulate economic progress. Its precursor, OEEC, was started in 1948 following the implementation of the Marshall Plan to develop post-WW2 Europe.

The poverty rate of elderly people in South Korea
is the highest among the OECD countries

In 2015, the local police arrested 33 ladies, including an 84-year-old woman, in a park in Jongno district in Seoul for soliciting customers for prostitution. Sociologists determined that the poor retirement benefits put the elderly, especially single ladies, below the poverty line and fend for themselves. Many turn to prostitution to survive. These ladies make a living by selling bottles of Bacchus-F, a popular energy drink, hence their nickname 'Bacchus Ladies'. The packaging suggests that it is sold as 'Livita' here in Malaysia. The Bacchus ladies' clientele is usually lonely old men. Transitioning to sexual services is optional.

The film starts with a postmenopausal lady, So-Young (sic), getting treatment for gonorrhoea. Just she exits the doctor's room, a ruckus begins. A Filipino lady barges in to demand from the doctor paternity support for their kid. In confusion, the kid left outside scoots off only to miss a major accident and be saved by So-Young. 

Slowly the movie shifts to the day-to-day of So-Young. She lives in a house with a transgender lady and a leg-amputee artiste. Like So-Young, these people are considered fringes of society, scorned for not conforming to the perfect mould to make money. We follow her through her clientele seeking exercise, the fights for customers, the bad-mouthing colleagues, the escape from police busts, and meeting old friends/clients.

So-Young discovers that an old acquaintance, called Saville Row Song for his immaculate haberdashery perfection, is now unwell with stroke. A visit to his nursing home revealed a dispirited Song, all ashamed for his condition, incontinence, immobility and all, begging to die. After a few visits, she actually helps him to die. 

All through, she introspects on the appropriateness of her action. She once sees a cardboard collecting lady by the roadside and ponders who had sunken lower in society - the lady dealing with dirty discards or herself for prostituting?

A good movie with a positive social message. A good watch.

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