''Soap Girl'' is a 2002 drama film directed by Young Man Kang, a

Korea Korea is a peninsular region in East Asia consisting of the Korean Peninsula, Jeju Island, and smaller islands. Since the end of World War II in 1945, it has been politically Division of Korea, divided at or near the 38th parallel north, 3 ...

n-born filmmaker who made his U.S. directing debut with '' Cupid's Mistake''.

Plot

A seemingly innocent woman becomes involved in the netherworld of

massage parlor A massage parlor (American English), or massage parlour (Canadian/British English), or massage salon is a place where massage services are provided. Some massage parlors are front organizations for prostitution and the term "massage parlor" has ...

s in this drama. Maya (Kerry Liu) is a young East Asian woman who arrives one day at a seedy massage parlor in a run-down neighborhood in Los Angeles. Dressed in shabby clothes and speaking in broken English, she asks Mamasan ( Tomiko Lee), who runs the parlor, for a job, and Mamasan immediately puts the attractive Maya on staff. While obviously new to the world of "shower and massage" - which is about sex rather than physical therapy - Maya soon becomes one of the most popular women working the parlor, and she soon bonds with her co-workers, including the thick-skinned Asia (Gina Hiraizumi), vulnerable Yuko (Mari Tanaka), practical Jenna (Hiromi Nishiyama), and self-centered Sammy (Kate Holliday). Maya also gets to know Harry (Luciano Saber), a freelance writer and would-be poet who at the age of thirty has yet to lose his virginity. As he stops in for the occasional "massage," Maya and the painfully shy Harry find themselves developing a very non-businesslike infatuation for one another, and as she confronts her growing love for Harry, Maya must come to terms with the secret that brought her to the parlor in the first place.

Production and release

The story was pitched to Director Kang, hich wasbasically an intense, disturbing dark comedy about hijinks at a massage parlor involving geeky male virgins, gangsters and immigrants. "So the story evolved away from the "Pretty Woman/Cinderella" story and into one that plays on the audience's expectations of Asian stereotypes. Maya turns out not to be an immigrant, though everyone in the beginning believes that she is. None of the massage girls are naive, innocent lambs with hearts of gold;

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are simply trying to survive."
This film received the Audience Award at the 2002 Big Bear Lake International Film Festival. ''Soap Girl'' had its theatrical release on December 6, 2002 in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

, and critical reaction was mixed and controversial. "Soap Girl" has engendered the most vociferous pro-and-con arguments I've ever seen on the AsianAmericanFilm.com message boards. This film was a big success in the box office at the Wallace Theater in Honolulu, Hawaii February 14, 2003. ''Soap Girl'' DVD released on January 24, 2006.

Awards and honors

;Won *

Big Bear Lake International Film Festival The Big Bear International Film Festival was held in the mountain community of Big Bear Lake, California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. I ...

: *#Audience Award ( Young Man Kang)

References

External links

* 2002 films 2002 drama films American drama films 2000s English-language films Films directed by Young Man Kang 2000s American films English-language drama films {{2000s-drama-film-stub