Girls in the Hood (1995) User Reviews

Life in the Streets of Hong Kong

[Uriah43 · 3/10 · 27 April 2019]

This film takes place in Hong Kong with three teenage girls named "Brainless" (Chow Oi-Ling), "Blackgirl" (Hung Siu-Wan) and "Linn" (Chan Hau-Ching) having run away from their respective homes and banded together to survive in the streets from one day to the next. And it's because of their precarious situation that they do whatever it takes to get by-which includes shoplifting and prostitution when necessary. But above all else they retain their independence from anyone outside of their little gang. Then one night they see another young girl named "Joey" (Emana Leung) in the process of attempting suicide and recognizing her plight invite her into their gang. From that point on the four of them become inseperable. Unfortunately, the game of life still has a few lessons for them to learn. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this film, while certainly interesting, wasn't all that enjoyable to watch. For starters, the subtitles were extremely basic and that made it a little difficult to follow at times. Likewise, although the crude language and lewd behavior of these girls might have been necessary to showcase the reality they were facing, it greatly hampered their overall likeability. That being said, I didn't particularly care for this film and for that reason I have rated it accordingly. Below average.

Seedy and gritty

[cryin1985 · 7/10 · 27 June 2006]

This is a wild ride about a group of young street girls in Hong Kong. This is a very dark and graphic film that explores prostitution, drug abuse,sexual abuse, crime on the streets of Hong Kong, among other things. Although this film has few happy moments, it does create a sympathy for the central characters even though they shouldn't really be likable people. Reminds me of how I care for the characters in the Sopranos even though they are generally bad people.This film reminded me of a Chinese "Kids" and although darker in content,it is very similar to the Japanese film "Bounce Ko Gals". I would definitely recommend this film. I should mention that the subtitles were not the easiest to read because they are done in white and the English subtitles are running simultaneously with the Mandarin.