Fruit Chan is one of Hong Kong's most avant-garde directors. He likes to take on subjects that are both controversial and close to heart; his films are about people, ordinary living people but who live extraordinary lives. He likes you to share moments of sadness and joy with his characters; the very sort of people you would probably despise in real life. He makes them out as just your average next door Joe Public, but trying to make their living in a cruel world. Yet, in Fruit Chan's films, his world is not at all cruel, only a darker shade of grey where possibilities are endless; stopped only by their own conscience of morality.

In Durian Durian, he tells the tale of two girls, both from mainland China, travelling to Hong Kong to make their own lives. Fan, a pre-teen, lives with her mother and younger brother in Shenzhen. Her father is from Hong Kong, and luckily for them, they manage to obtain travelling visas to Hong Kong for three months only. When they arrive in Hong Kong, Fan's mother gets a job washing dishes (which is illegal since she is a tourist), and both Fan and her brother help out in the back of an alleyway - washing dishes. From time to time, Fan would notice an older girl walk through the alley with a man in tow, but because the alley leads to nowhere, Fan is confused as to where the girl and man are going.

We then switch stories and focus on the girl, another mainlander who had travelled to Hong Kong on a tourist visa. However, this girl, called Yan, had come to Hong Kong to make lots of money during her three-month stay, and the only way to do that is to sell her body. Of course, one cannot just come to Hong Kong and work as a prostitute just like that. You need connections, and Yan is looked after by a pimp, a local Triad who provides prostitutes to his customers. Yan works as part of this group, and she gets a percentage of what she earns; the rest goes to the pimp.

After Yan's visa expires she returns to the mainland, and goes back to her family home in North-eastern China, and starts thinking about what to do with the money she had earned so hard for. Her parents are proud of her, unbeknownst that she had sold her body for it, and even encourages Yan to take her 18 year old cousin back to Shenzhen with her. Yan is reluctant to do so, afraid that she would lead her cousin down the same path she walked. Yan spends some time with her old schoolfriends, and in the end, starts a business of her own.

Now what had happened to little Fan and her family? In the latter part of the film, Fan writes a letter to Yan, explaining that the Hong Kong police had found out that Fan, her mother and her brother were all staying illegally in Hong Kong (their visas had already expired), and were all deported back to Shenzhen. In a way, Fan says she found life better back in Shenzhen because that is her home.

Although Durian Durian is not based on a true story of any sort, it still reflects on a lot of what is happening in Hong Kong right now. Many female mainlanders do come to Hong Kong on travelling visas, then work as prostitutes, and go home when their visas expire. But many don't leave, preferring to stay and work illegally in Hong Kong, until they are found out and deported. Many of them take dozens of customers every day, often more, for only a small percentage of what the customers give them.

It is true that some of these prostitutes are forced to work like mules for twenty-four hours a day without rest by their pimps. Quite often, they are injected with drugs to make them more durable and sedated. When addicted to drugs, there is no way out, and a lot of the time, they work for the drugs and not for the money. This is the life they have to face, and in a way, Fruit Chan has toned down the way prostitutes are treated in Durian Durian. To most, they are no more than sex slaves; used by men, scorned by women, and despised by society.

In Durian Durian, we follow Yan around as she works her way around the bustling town of Mongkok, going from one seedy hotel to another. She feels no guilt in what she does, and takes no enjoyment out of it. Her only salvation is thinking about the money she can make. Her record was taking in 38 customers in one day, and even a quickie in her last hour of stay in Hong Kong. If you calculate that, even if she only spends half an hour with each customer, she would still have to spend nineteen hours having sex on that day. Ouch.

After she leaves Hong Kong, complaining that she didn't even have time to go sightseeing, she returns home. Life in rural China is not good. Times are poor, and everyone is headed for the cities like Shenzhen to make money. But she had made enough, and it is her time to enjoy her money, to do what she always wanted to do.

Durian Durian is a fascinating film into the life of a mainland prostitute. Although the story focuses on both Yan and Fan, it ultimately steers to Yan's fate because her life was the hardest, and the most interesting. And we do see how hard she works for her money. It is ever so disheartening because we know that this is exactly what is going on in Hong Kong right now, that there are girls like Yan who are willing to sell their bodies for a better life tomorrow. It is difficult to discriminate against these people, because after all, prostitution is only a job, although an immoral one, and it is the oldest profession of all. You could argue that if it weren't for the sexual needs of men, then there would be no profession such as prostitution. So who is right?

Durian Durian is a well made film, but the latter part dragged enormously. Maybe this is Fruit Chan's idea of contrasting the hustle and bustle of a modern metropolis like Hong Kong with the tranquillity of rural China. In this case, it works tremendously, but still drags, and I found that I preferred Yan in Hong Kong. At least she had character then. Back in China, I felt she just looked like another peasant girl, totally without the independence and strong will she had shown earlier. But full marks have to be given to Qin Hai-lu for her splendid debut as Yan. She fully deserved the Best Newcomer award in the Hong Kong Film Awards 2001.

Overall, a thoughtful, image provoking film. One to watch when you are in the mood. Not one to watch when your brain has been turned off. By the way, durian is a fruit which looks like a large pineapple, hard to break open, and smells terrible.