LEAPFROG PRODUCTIONS
The workers at a Hollywood massage parlor reflect on their day in "Soap Girl."
Stars savor When Kerry Liu and Gina Hiraizumi met us on a brisk and chilly Thursday afternoon in Manoa to talk about their roles in the independent film "Soap Girl," which opens today, it looked like they could still be in character.
breakthrough roles
'Soap' girls say the film
Review
transcends its settingBy John Berger
jberger@starbulletin.comHiraizumi, who plays Asia, the "bad girl with attitude," was decked out to turn heads from any angle -- perhaps as Asia would on her day off as the head girl and "resident trainer" in a Los Angeles massage parlor. Liu, who stars in the title role as a mysterious woman who takes a job in the parlor for enigmatic reasons, was low-key, opting for the layered look and a cap that seemed to distance herself from her screen character.
Liu said, "We're really proud of 'Soap Girl' because I think it's like an actor's dream role for me as an artist. It's not overly shocking, but you're supposed to do something different, something out there. That's why you become an actor, to create something new."
While the film's scenario of "Asian woman in seedy job gets involved with Caucasian man" is not a particularly new one (i.e., "The World of Suzie Wong" and "Miss Saigon"), Hiraizumi says she's gotten an earful from people who apparently feel that "Soap Girl" presents a negative picture about today's Asian-American woman.
"I've gotten a lot of criticism (from Asian-American activists), saying that I'm not staying true to what Asian-American women really are -- but who's to say Asian-American women are one way? They're the same people who are complaining that Asian roles are so stereotypical," she said.
Another hot-button issue in the film is the interracial romance between Liu's character, Maya, and a sensitive if introspective Caucasian man.
"I can understand how people can be upset about that," Hiraizumi said. "A lot of Asian-American activists have complained, 'Why is it always a Caucasian man rescuing the poor Asian woman?' But he's not really rescuing her -- and he's such a dork!"
Liu mentioned that while some may choose to take offense at the massage parlor setting, "Soap Girl" is not just about sex.
"People already have a preconceived notion that it's all about sex and prostitution, but our movie puts a twist on it and puts a different light on the lifestyle," she explained.
A FEW minutes into the conversation, we're joined by Tomiko Lee, the movie's executive producer, who also plays the mama-san of the massage parlor and plays a similar real-life role by watching over the two actresses during their stay in Honolulu. Her son, actor-producer Dennis James Lee, also appears in the film as an extortionist who collects protection money from the business and takes an interest in Maya.
Lee describes "Soap Girl" as depicting a struggle for survival similar in some ways to her own experiences. She came the United States from Korea when she was 18, and lived in Denver for three years before coming to Hawaii. Alone and without formal job training or career skills, she became a bar hostess and saved her money until she could buy a bar of her own. She eventually owned a nightclub as well, but decided to move on to other endeavors and got out of the bar business 15 years ago.
"People talk negatively about Asian massage parlors, but when you look at it, a job is a job. It's just like a women's shelter: They're not going to stay there forever. We all have hopes and dreams. This movie will tell you that," she said.
There are, in fact, scenes where the women talk about their lives. Some have long-range career plans. Some are romantics. Most view men in general as pigs, geeks or jerks -- and most of their customers as pathetic losers.
"So much of our own personalities came out (in those scenes) ... and prior to shooting, we went to massage parlors and just sat around and watched the women. The real massage parlor girls are very, very close to what you see onscreen."
Concerning the male characters, Liu said she applauded the decision to cast an Asian male in the role of the intimidating gangster.
And what about Harry, the male lead who is a romantic but quirky 30-something writer who's still a virgin?
"You'd have to know the writer, Tony Young," Liu said. "He really was adamant -- 'I want my story told, this is what I went through,'" further explaining that Young himself eventually went to a massage parlor "partly as research and partly because he was frustrated about his own experience.
"Harry is an interesting character, and the actor, Luciano Saber, got that. That's why he did the role, because he watched Tony for a long time. ... It was so weird the way he dressed, and people sometimes think it's so surreal the way Luciano acts in the film, but there is a guy in real life that he's portraying: Tony Young."
DESPITE some of the negative comments about the film, Hiraizumi and Liu emphatically described it as a positive experience for them as Asian-American actors.
"I've had roles in studio films before -- the token Asian girl in a predominantly Caucasian or black film -- so I was happy to be able to play a co-starring role," Hiraizumi said. "It definitely opens a lot of doors. People see that you can act, and, through 'Soap Girl' ... I know I can sell myself as the 'bad girl with the attitude' and that's working for me."
Because of the exposure provided through the film, Hiraizumi started work this week on a UPN pilot, "All Mixed Up," and has the lead role in a Japanese film production about a Japanese singer in Los Angeles who becomes involved in the hip-hop scene; "two months' worth of work in March and April," with shooting in both Tokyo and L.A.
Liu will be going to Rome for work in a film in which she'll play an angel -- "but you don't know if it's a boy or a girl." She also has a second project on the horizon.
There has also been talk of a "Soap Girl" series perhaps in the style of HBO's "Six Feet Under."
"The question is, Can an Asian-American ensemble cast carry a series?" Hiraizumi said. "It all comes down to the race thing again, and that upsets me, 'cause why can't we? Because it hasn't been done before doesn't mean that it's not going to sell."
Whatever the future holds for the film's cast, Liu says they'll be back.
"I have a feeling that you'll be hearing from us again because we love what we do, and I don't think any of us can do anything else. This is our life."
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Massage girl and geeky
client find unlikely romanceA mysterious woman takes a job in a Hollywood massage parlor -- is she seeking refuge, revenge or some combination of both? But, to be honest, by the end of "Soap Girl," it doesn't really matter due to the fine performances of Luciano Saber and Kerry Liu.
"Soap Girl"Not rated
Playing at Wallace Art House
at Restaurant Row
Liu plays Maya, the neophyte parlor worker, and Saber is Harry, a preternaturally geeky writer who meets Maya as a customer after his friend and agent discovers that the 30-something Harry is still a virgin. Naturally -- for this film anyway -- they hit it off, and a romance blossoms even though Maya is dealing with the sexual demands of other customers and Harry is struggling to finish writing a technical manual when he would much rather be writing poetry about Maya.
The love story is so engaging that viewers are likely to suspend their knowledge of life and love in the real-life "floating world" and hope that the unlikely couple will beat the odds against them. While some of the secondary story lines add depth, others seemed to have been placed primarily to showcase the supporting cast, which include Gina Hiraizumi as the gorgeous and "exotic" Asia and Tomiko Lee, who does a perfect turn as the parlor's mama-san.
But it's Saber and Liu that make "Soap Girl" more appealing as a love story than a message or slice-of-life movie.
(While the film doesn't carry a rating, it does contains brief shots of nudity and no explicit sex scenes.)
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