Hashimuri Aside from the fact that this documentary displays little technical skill, it also seems to possess no real artistic or narrative INTENT. This is supposed to be Grace Quek's chance to tell the REAL story of her alter-ego, porn starlet Annabel Chong. Naturally you expect some in-depth analysis of Quek's unconventional trajectory, with adequate psychological insight and complex discussion. However, you get none.This is an exploitative and disjointed sleazefest - but Quek herself is largely part of the problem. Instead of making sense of her dubious and scandalous career choices, she flounders, displaying faux-confidence and nonchalance at times, emotional instability and fragility at others. Quek is one of those privileged and intelligent people who orchestrate their lives in order to precisely undermine their privilege and intelligence. It is this unrepressed, egocentric, ungrateful display of self-indulgence that makes such people unable to garner sympathy or respect from anybody. Such happens here, and it is rather pointless to have the subject of a documentary be so contemptible.Quek grew up as the only child of well-meaning, middle-class parents in one of the world's wealthiest nations, where she attended some of the top schools before being granted the means to attend university in the UK. Yet amidst this oasis of privilege and opportunity, she was oh so overwhelmed by her existential lack of purpose and identity that she headed for L.A., where she nosedived into the underworld of drugs and pornography.Meanwhile, she rationalizes her choices by claiming there is some sort of higher philosophical quest embedded in what is otherwise blatantly self-destructive behavior. Although it is clear Quek has unresolved issues, and most probably longstanding clinical depression, there is a catch: she is, and always has been, in a position to DEAL and SEEK HELP. That she CHOOSES to destruct beyond repair and delude herself about her motives is the real travesty here, and not all the nonsense some people keep pointing out about the porn industry being sleazy and exploitative and devoid of morals.Most women who get into porn come from working-class, if not downright desolate backgrounds. Their childhoods and adolescenes are best quantified by LACK rather than excess. Many have a history of child abuse, sexual abuse, violence, and early drug and alcohol addiction. That Quek would choose such an exploitative industry as the medium to carry out some of sort of "intellectual exercise" to, in her words, "subvert Western ideals of masculinity" only exposes the fact that her choice had NO SUCH INTENT. Partaking in the infamous "gangbang" was merely indulgence in a high form of self-destruction - hey, with an audience to boot (Quek seems is undeniably a narcissistic sort of masochist). The fact that she doesn't care about never having been paid a cent also compounds this. Name a single porn actress who would work for free! The sad this is, her intent in making this documentary is one and the same as her intent in doing porn: more self-indulgence, more self-absorption and more self-destruction. I am only sorry that she consented to getting her parents involved in it - watching the scenes of her mom is heart-breaking. Many kids fail their parents, but for a kid to be so ungrateful as to FLAUNT their failure, is just unnecessary.

Boggman Annabel Chong gang-banged her way to the top of the porn industry by having sex with 251 guys in 10 hours. Did she do it to make a feminist statement, for the money, or because she simply enjoyed the act itself? The film explores all the possibilities and more.This documentary is more about the person behind the act other than the actual act itself. Annabel is quite an interesting character. At times she comes across as highly intelligent, and other times she appears to be highly sensitive, fragile, and self-destructive.The documentary is presented through a serious of interviews and outtakes, some of which can be pretty disturbing.The parts in which Annabel demonstrates her techniques for self mutilation, as well as her mother in Singapore discovering what her her daughter has been doing in America for a living are particularly gut-wrenching.A very intriguing look at a this multi-faceted / multi-dimensional character and woman.Recommended!

Peter Hayes A documentary about Annabel Chong and her sad, offbeat and occasionally desperate relationship with the US porn industry.I came to this film with mixed feelings. There is a lot of agendas going on here. Chong's, the director's, the producers/distributors (they want money as well, just look at the title!) and the sex industry.Naturally I have my own agenda and ideas about the whole issue and the style of film making that this product involves: At one stage the protagonist does self-harm (although only token) and the camera continues to roll. Why? In a stroke the film makers fall in to line with the pornographers: They want their good footage at any cost. Maybe the event was staged, but that doesn't really matter, they were exposed.My favourite word in the English language is "ambiguous" and Chong is as ambiguous as any woman on the planet. She doesn't see herself as a victim per se, but at the same time plays herself to the audience as a victim of circumstances - which include a slightly sadomasochistic sex drive.I felt cold to her throughout the film. She is a person of choices and the choices she has made may be bad (drug taking cannot be viewed as anything else), but they were her choices. No "evil pimp" is brought forward to take the blame. The two usual excuses: Ignorance and poverty do not apply to her. She is smart and university educated. Maybe she wants to have it all - the fun and freedom of the slut and the respect of the educated. At various stages of this movie she gains both.Naturally I have my own agenda. Not just on Chong, but also on the whole sex industry. You are only a victim if you look and feel like a victim. If you go to a sex club and have yourself tied down and lightly whipped (ALA Madonna) then you not a victim because it is your choice.I personally believe you have the right to sell yourself sexually or have people film you in a sex act (for money or not), but that doesn't mean that is all of a good thing. There may be consequences and repercussions - moral and medical.What we have too much of here is the "I don't care's" and the "lookers of the other way." In truth porn is not what it was in the 1960's and early 1970's. It is everywhere and the Internet has brought it in to the home for keeps. People have adjusted to it - they are even yawning at it. In the struggle of everyday life and the diminishment of the role of the church, other people's morals are not something that the mainstream loses sleep over. Chong is treated politely by all she meets here - the moral castigation, while often mentioned, is off-screen and maybe even imagined.The first problem any documentary maker has to do is get us to care about the central character. To bring us inside their lives and dilemmas. The producers are only fair to middling. There is no real pacing and humour, it is sombre and plodding. Sometimes nothing seems to be happening at all and features scenes that add nothing to my understanding of anything. This film wants to exploit porn. But do so from a different angle. The bosses of the industry are neither devils or fighters for freedom of expression (something they occasionally pretend to be). They are, in the main, quick-buck merchants that cannot really be trusted. But at the same time are very nickel-and-dime. With a video camera and a motel room you can be a director and if you can't hold the camera steady or hold focus then make this in to a feature!Like I am not a buyer of porn, I am not a buyer of this movie. Chong is not really that sexy and can only operate at the lower end of the porn movie biz (and that is the bottom of the show biz barrel to start with!) so let us not speak falsely now. She is the centre of a freak-show, but very willing to be that centrepiece.Her confused sex life would still be a confused sex life if porn was outlawed or didn't exist. If you like rough sex (and Chong says she does) then when you go out looking for it you might well find it!Chong seems vacant and bored for a lot of this film. Maybe she is looking for that other life that many of the lost and the vacant are (secretly) looking for. She has tried sex (doesn't work), she has tried drugs (doesn't work), she has tried education (too early to say). Maybe she just needs a hobby or to try that one last thing that the vacant try in order to change their lives: Religion. Sex has brought Chong some limited fame (if only as a fifteen minute wonder) but even that doesn't seem to suit her. She needs to grow up and find a life and a way of living her life without hurting herself and those around her. I wish her well on her quest.

dell_of_dreams I think the word weird isn't out of place in a review of this particular film, although the film itself is not exactly weird, or wasn't intended to be, the personality of it's subject is more than a little erratic.Her personality and certainly the viewers perception of her does change throughout the documentary, she goes from confidant and intelligent (and you can't help but respect her this) she seems to know what she's doing and what she wants, but as the film progresses she becomes this confused, unstable and quite pathetic individual, who more than anything seeks her mother's respect and approval, but really doesn't want to work for it. The film is definately intriguing, but not as a look at the world of porn, for the industry itself isn't the focus of this film, it focuses mainly on just one of it's members, Grace Quek aka Annabel Chong Recomended viewing