Jolie Thana Pho

A secret from the past combined with the drudgery of everyday life in the company of sweating machos and patronising managers may turn out to be an explosive mixture worthy of Park Chan-wook’s cinema of vengeance and passion. But the film was made by young debutante Élodie Yung, who invites us for a ‘full body massage’ to a parlour where a young Cambodian immigrant is trying to earn money for a better life for herself and her family. Obviously, it is not her dream job and the clients can be excessively fussy. How long can you accept their demands, peevishness, quips, comments and ‘inappropriate’ requests? In this inciteful satire, drama is intertwined with poignancy and revenge has a spicy flavour.