The Golden Girls DVD Region All

A perfect example of High School's Crown Prince, Joe Ma's, movie-making chops, this is the ultraluxe story of three actresses May (Pauline Suen), Lulu (Ada Choi), and Mei-Ball (Anita Yuen) and the scriptwriter (Lau Ching-wan) who falls in love with one or two of them. Mei-Ball is an on-set klutz, a wannabe method clown who keeps asking what her motivation is despite the fact that she's just another girl in the chorus. Lulu and May are better looking, but less talented, and the three treat the Shaw Brothers lot like an endless summer camp: getting into scrapes, dancing with boys, and avoiding the wrath of dragon lady, Sister Sen.

Eventually, they find success, but love comes and goes, and the years try their commitment to each other (but never to moviemaking). There is a spot-on parody of the Canto films of the period one doesn't need to be a film historian to get the jokes, including Francis Ng's poisonous send-up of Jimmy Wang-Yu. Taking the time to luxuriate in its production design, The Golden Girls feels more like a TV miniseries than a fast n' scrappy Hong Kong romance, but despite the glitz, it's surprisingly frank about what it entails for a woman to get ahead in the only growth industry open to her in the 1960s. It's a comedy, but what the movies, and these actresses, are selling is sex. Near-rape, physical abuse and the relentlessly probing, porky fingers of a pack of lascivious directors are all treated as par for the course, since what goes unspoken is that it's either this or a job as an office tea lady.

Although The Golden Girls may meander at times, it still winds up on the side of the forces of good, largely due to its message. Because what it's saying is that while we may marry the wrong people, say the wrong things, lose our friends and family, grow old and stiff, and forget all our ideals, we'll always have the movies.

by Grady Hendrix