Movie Review: Naked Ambition/豪情

Naked Ambition/豪情is directed by Dante Lam, and was released in 2003. 

There’s a good reason this movie is called Naked Ambition/豪情. There’s an ambitious amount of nakedness.

See?

So there’s nudity. But I know what you’re thinking.

What about the story?

Two regular guys, played by Eason Chan and Louis Koo Tin Lok, work irregularly in the lower echelons of the magazine trade.

After their latest dismissal, they decide to branch out into irregular magazine publishing.

The movie, which is based on a true story, was made in 2003, when the internet wasn’t the staple of our lives that it is today.

That’s one reason why these guys could find unexpected success: They published a guide to Hong Kong’s horizontal refreshment industry.

Sort of a Michelin guide to help you find the best chicken.

As their power grows, they find themselves becoming sexual celebrities, rubbing elbows (and other extremities) with the creme de la creme (?) of Hong Kong’s sex industry.

The popularity of their magazine means that they have become (salty) taste-makers; if they give you a bad review, your operation is doomed.

Both men have girlfriends.

  And they’re nice women.

And not hard to look at.

But both men are men.

The temptations aren’t just a singing group.

As if this wasn’t enough, they also find themselves the target of a police investigation headed by Daniel Lee.

There are a ton of cameos and small roles in the movie, and while none of the name actresses do anything Category III, some of them wander tittilatingly close to it.

Jo Koo is really funny as a lazy prostitute who comes up with a novel way of getting time off.

Josie Ho plays Tess Tickles, a woman whose oral scores have nothing to with education.

Naked Ambition ends up much more of a buddy story than a morality tale, and I for one am grateful.

This movie makes no apologies for its content, and why should it?

It also thankfully doesn’t try to rationalize its excesses through cheap tragedy.

Let’s face it, that’s what I do. Just ask my ex-girlfriend.

After Naked Ambition came out, a company in mainland China bought the rights to it, cut out all the Category III stuff like nudity, sex and profanity, and dubbed it into Mandarin.

Even better, they hired Danny Lee to reprise his role in new footage, and the grey shirt he wears in some of the intercut scenes almost looks the same.

But not quite.

They change the plot to a story about a young female cop from China who comes to Hong Kong to bust a porn ring.

It’s weird to me that they made sure to get rid of all the porn, and sex, and swearing, and replace it with light comedy, righteousness and laughably bad acting.

It’s called The Inescapable Snare in English, and that’s your ending ruined.

Speaking of which, at the end of the movie the young female cop ends up becoming Danny Lee’s girlfriend.

Ewwwww.

The sequel, Naked Ambition 2/3D豪情 opens on April 3, and here’s hoping it’s worth the decade-long wait.

I’ve seen the trailer, so I am not terribly optimistic.