User Reviews

For about half its length, ANNABEL CHONG is a bright, light, unexpected, vibrant, witty documentary. Annabel Chong is Grace Quek, a Singapore-raised English anthropology student at the University of South California, who became a porn actress after an unenlightened feminist tutorial, as an expression of sexual freedom. She became famous in 1995 when she broke the world record for sleeping with the most men (251 in ten hours), and became a fixture on programmes like THE JERRY SPRINGER SHOW.

Grace herself is a very likeable, seemingly together young woman, with the teeth of Goldie and the accent of Jane Seymour, who decides to become a 'stud' to critique masculinity. She seems in complete control of her career and her image, and, as her world record is revealed straight away, there is no conventionally contrived documentary 'success'.

The film is sharply funny as it explores the strangely haphazard and hugely lucrative pornography industry. Many of its denizens, with amusingly childishly suggestive names, find Annabel's antics distasteful and degrading, confirming the image of sleaze the constant display of computers are trying to conceal. The marketing men are either aging, pony-tailed relics who are easy to laugh at, or the younger, can't-quite-believe-their-luck jocks who can't stop giggling.

Unfortunately things become more sinister as the pressure begins to tell on Annabel. She is quite clearly not in control, and the film constantly undermines her claims to independence, as she dances for a bunch of slavering perverts. These latter don't care what incomprehensible post-structuralist jargon comes out of her mouth, as long as she delivers the goods. In fact, this feminist liberation goes beyond their wildest dreams - a woman who is actually looking to them for it.

This we might have expected, but more repulsive revelations begin to leak out. Not only do we assume that she is tacitly forced into the event by leeches who can see a sucker from a mile off, but she isn't paid, she is quickly abandoned for an even more photogenic cash-cow, and most horrific of all, we discover that the health and safety standards for the event were criminally lax.

This becomes a deeply and properly misanthropic film in which, I think, the filmmakers, if I may say so under IMDb guidelines, collude. Produced and directed by men, the film is formally weighted against Annabel. The more images and 'reality' contradict Annabel, the less we listen to her voice, the more we listen to others, squeezing her out. Music (for instance the repetition of 'Amazing Grace') is used to ironise Annabel, and there are a number of occasions when the film's ethics are seriously in question, and not just the obvious contrivances of many scenes.

Little 'narratives' are slipped into the story (eg does Annabel have AIDS?). In one, she hasn't yet told her mother, and the film uses this very private and damaging dilemma to generate suspense. Frequently, Annabel doesn't seem to be in control, and yet the filmmakers watch her slashing her wrists so they can offer a neat thesis on different penetrations of the body. The film is careful to record the different groups of men who use and belittle Annabel (TV shows, the porn industry, her old teachers, Cambridge students etc.), but don't seem to notice their own culpability.

The film becomes seriously depressing , and while it is quite right to give an audience lured by the sensationalist title a shock, a play with gender identity, a critique of filmmaking itself, the filmmakers seem to have crossed a line, where they have become as exploitative as the porn producers. In one scene they revisit the site of a rape; in another they gang up with us and an informed teacher on an unknowing Annabel. The frequent shots from outside looking in invoke a voyeuristic model, and maybe the documentary is intensely self-aware, but the increasingly moralistic drive is only at the expense of Annabel Chong.

Annabel Chong gang-banged her way to the top of the porn industry by having sex with 251 guys in 10 hours. Did she do it to make a feminist statement, for the money, or because she simply enjoyed the act itself? The film explores all the possibilities and more.

This documentary is more about the person behind the act other than the actual act itself. Annabel is quite an interesting character. At times she comes across as highly intelligent, and other times she appears to be highly sensitive, fragile, and self-destructive.

The documentary is presented through a serious of interviews and outtakes, some of which can be pretty disturbing.

The parts in which Annabel demonstrates her techniques for self mutilation, as well as her mother in Singapore discovering what her her daughter has been doing in America for a living are particularly gut-wrenching.

A very intriguing look at a this multi-faceted / multi-dimensional character and woman.

Recommended!

The Annabel Chong story is as captivating as it is disturbing, rarely has documentary film making been utilised to achieve such an intense and personal profile of an individual. The film charts the porn actress Annabel Chong in her quest to make a porn film with the largest gang-bang ever captured on film, this 'quest' is contrasted with Chong with her family in Singapore and with her professors and classmates at her Californian University. Annabel Chong is an endlessly interesting and perplexing charecter - and an endlessly contradicting character. Credit must be awarded to the director for making such a tight and non-reactionary piece of work, it ends up being an extremely bleak film but the feeling is that this is only a refelection of the truth. The level to which all documentary films should wish to aspire too.

A documentary about Annabel Chong and her sad, offbeat and occasionally desperate relationship with the US porn industry.

I came to this film with mixed feelings. There is a lot of agendas going on here. Chong's, the director's, the producers/distributors (they want money as well, just look at the title!) and the sex industry.

Naturally I have my own agenda and ideas about the whole issue and the style of film making that this product involves: At one stage the protagonist does self-harm (although only token) and the camera continues to roll. Why? In a stroke the film makers fall in to line with the pornographers: They want their good footage at any cost. Maybe the event was staged, but that doesn't really matter, they were exposed.

My favourite word in the English language is "ambiguous" and Chong is as ambiguous as any woman on the planet. She doesn't see herself as a victim per se, but at the same time plays herself to the audience as a victim of circumstances - which include a slightly sadomasochistic sex drive.

I felt cold to her throughout the film. She is a person of choices and the choices she has made may be bad (drug taking cannot be viewed as anything else), but they were her choices. No "evil pimp" is brought forward to take the blame.

The two usual excuses: Ignorance and poverty do not apply to her. She is smart and university educated. Maybe she wants to have it all - the fun and freedom of the slut and the respect of the educated. At various stages of this movie she gains both.

Naturally I have my own agenda. Not just on Chong, but also on the whole sex industry. You are only a victim if you look and feel like a victim. If you go to a sex club and have yourself tied down and lightly whipped (ALA Madonna) then you not a victim because it is your choice.

I personally believe you have the right to sell yourself sexually or have people film you in a sex act (for money or not), but that doesn't mean that is all of a good thing. There may be consequences and repercussions - moral and medical.

What we have too much of here is the "I don't care's" and the "lookers of the other way." In truth porn is not what it was in the 1960's and early 1970's. It is everywhere and the Internet has brought it in to the home for keeps. People have adjusted to it - they are even yawning at it.

In the struggle of everyday life and the diminishment of the role of the church, other people's morals are not something that the mainstream loses sleep over. Chong is treated politely by all she meets here - the moral castigation, while often mentioned, is off-screen and maybe even imagined.

The first problem any documentary maker has to do is get us to care about the central character. To bring us inside their lives and dilemmas. The producers are only fair to middling. There is no real pacing and humour, it is sombre and plodding. Sometimes nothing seems to be happening at all and features scenes that add nothing to my understanding of anything.

This film wants to exploit porn. But do so from a different angle. The bosses of the industry are neither devils or fighters for freedom of expression (something they occasionally pretend to be). They are, in the main, quick-buck merchants that cannot really be trusted. But at the same time are very nickel-and-dime. With a video camera and a motel room you can be a director and if you can't hold the camera steady or hold focus then make this in to a feature!

Like I am not a buyer of porn, I am not a buyer of this movie. Chong is not really that sexy and can only operate at the lower end of the porn movie biz (and that is the bottom of the show biz barrel to start with!) so let us not speak falsely now. She is the centre of a freak-show, but very willing to be that centrepiece.

Her confused sex life would still be a confused sex life if porn was outlawed or didn't exist. If you like rough sex (and Chong says she does) then when you go out looking for it you might well find it!

Chong seems vacant and bored for a lot of this film. Maybe she is looking for that other life that many of the lost and the vacant are (secretly) looking for. She has tried sex (doesn't work), she has tried drugs (doesn't work), she has tried education (too early to say). Maybe she just needs a hobby or to try that one last thing that the vacant try in order to change their lives: Religion.

Sex has brought Chong some limited fame (if only as a fifteen minute wonder) but even that doesn't seem to suit her. She needs to grow up and find a life and a way of living her life without hurting herself and those around her. I wish her well on her quest.

I watched this simply because I was intrigued by the write up in the TV Guide which mentioned that Annabel Chong is the porn star who was setting a record for having sex with 251 men in 10 hours . Aren't you also intrigued ?

There's two reasons for a prospective audience to watch this . One is that they're equally intrigued as I was and the second reason is that it sounds like really good masturbation fuel . If you're watching for the second reason you'll be bitterly disappointed since there's very little on screen sex but if you're watching for the sensible reason you'll still be as disappointed as the voyeurs . Ms Chong gives a pretentious neo feminist explanation of why she's doing it , something along the lines of " I'm doing this because I'll be striking a blow against chauvanism and by being in control of the situation I'll be showing that it's the men who are sluts " . I don't think Ms Chong has thought through he reasons fully . Either that or she's not a great communicator

What is obvious is that Annabel Chong is certainly a very unhappy individual who probably needs to use sex in order to boost her esteem in much the same way as a person with a drink problem uses alcohol to boost their self esteem . Sex and alcohol like so many things in life are metaphysical false economies for the human soul . Luckily we see towards the end of the movie the self destruction that being a porn star can bring but Ms Chong unlike the audience can't see the woods for the trees

Beyond moral judgement, I liked this portray of a girl who decided to break a barrier that had never been broken and therefore become as unique as one can be. Of course, stepping in the Guinness book of world records is not exactly enough to create a memorable destiny, and choosing the pornographic field attracts heaps of hungry viewers that cannot exactly be called reputable admirers, and yet...I think movie managed to show us in Annabella a pretty unique and sympathetic character, at the same time excessive, provocative but also sincere and fragile.

I specially liked the episode of her return to Singapore, which depicts so well the gap that has been experienced by this proud, ingenuous nature, hypnotised by the freedom of America - as far as to forget all moral barriers and follow her single pleasure till the extreme - and then crash down on reality when going back to her family roots - probably in search of a recomfort she was starting to miss in the vain and stupid environment of those cynical sex filmmakers.

There is really an Annabel Chong story, that has nothing to do with peeping pornography and condemning judgments.

This is a well-done documentary, but it is also very disturbing. While Annabel Chong may claim she sees her recording breaking sex-a-thon was about women's empowerment, what the filmmaker managed to show is that she is a deeply disturbed woman.

Aside from the fact that this documentary displays little technical skill, it also seems to possess no real artistic or narrative INTENT. This is supposed to be Grace Quek's chance to tell the REAL story of her alter-ego, porn starlet Annabel Chong. Naturally you expect some in-depth analysis of Quek's unconventional trajectory, with adequate psychological insight and complex discussion. However, you get none.

This is an exploitative and disjointed sleazefest - but Quek herself is largely part of the problem. Instead of making sense of her dubious and scandalous career choices, she flounders, displaying faux-confidence and nonchalance at times, emotional instability and fragility at others. Quek is one of those privileged and intelligent people who orchestrate their lives in order to precisely undermine their privilege and intelligence. It is this unrepressed, egocentric, ungrateful display of self-indulgence that makes such people unable to garner sympathy or respect from anybody. Such happens here, and it is rather pointless to have the subject of a documentary be so contemptible.

Quek grew up as the only child of well-meaning, middle-class parents in one of the world's wealthiest nations, where she attended some of the top schools before being granted the means to attend university in the UK. Yet amidst this oasis of privilege and opportunity, she was oh so overwhelmed by her existential lack of purpose and identity that she headed for L.A., where she nosedived into the underworld of drugs and pornography.

Meanwhile, she rationalizes her choices by claiming there is some sort of higher philosophical quest embedded in what is otherwise blatantly self-destructive behavior. Although it is clear Quek has unresolved issues, and most probably longstanding clinical depression, there is a catch: she is, and always has been, in a position to DEAL and SEEK HELP. That she CHOOSES to destruct beyond repair and delude herself about her motives is the real travesty here, and not all the nonsense some people keep pointing out about the porn industry being sleazy and exploitative and devoid of morals.

Most women who get into porn come from working-class, if not downright desolate backgrounds. Their childhoods and adolescenes are best quantified by LACK rather than excess. Many have a history of child abuse, sexual abuse, violence, and early drug and alcohol addiction. That Quek would choose such an exploitative industry as the medium to carry out some of sort of "intellectual exercise" to, in her words, "subvert Western ideals of masculinity" only exposes the fact that her choice had NO SUCH INTENT. Partaking in the infamous "gangbang" was merely indulgence in a high form of self-destruction - hey, with an audience to boot (Quek seems is undeniably a narcissistic sort of masochist). The fact that she doesn't care about never having been paid a cent also compounds this. Name a single porn actress who would work for free!

The sad this is, her intent in making this documentary is one and the same as her intent in doing porn: more self-indulgence, more self-absorption and more self-destruction. I am only sorry that she consented to getting her parents involved in it - watching the scenes of her mom is heart-breaking. Many kids fail their parents, but for a kid to be so ungrateful as to FLAUNT their failure, is just unnecessary.

This is not a well-crafted documentary, and no doubt film students will pick it to pieces. BUT, it is certainly a compelling and unforgettable piece of cinema, and one that raises many more questions than it answers.

The film is as tasteful as is possible, given its subject matter. Annabel Chong (Grace Quek) is an exceptionally complex human being: highly intelligent yet quite psychologically damaged. Watching the film is like being on amphetamines - the first half is hyper-frenetic and luridly self-congratulatory, but then the "come-down" happens. And when it comes, it hits hard.

I did some follow-up research. Ironically, this documentary gave Annabel Chong the financial rewards that her gang-bang didn't, and she earned enough to buy a house and return to college. She is currently completing a course in web-design/networking. She appears to be earning her living by operating a website that combines her discussions of Windows 2000 installations with subscriber-only pornographic photos of herself and others. Like the film itself, this historical footnote doesn't give any simple answers either.

As I said, this film is flawed in many ways, (I'll let you decide in what ways) but a few weeks later I still find myself thinking about the issues it raised. And on that score, it deserves a high recommendation.

After much deliberation I gave this film a 9/10 - not because of the film's actual quality (which only deserves a 5-6), but because it is a film that deserves to be seen and contemplated.

A haphazardly revealing documentary, intermittently interesting in spite of itself. Gough Lewis's herky-jerky approach isn't consistent---frequently he cuts off potentially interesting developments (Grace's family situation and rage at her oppressive Singaporean upbringing, fascinating clues to her psychosexual makeup, are barely touched on) and even the more prurient and lurid elements (the making of the gang-bang video, the hypocritically scathing assessment of Grace/Annabel's persona by her porn producer) are given perfunctory treatment, while some of the more positive aspects of her life (concerned classmates and her one or two genuinely supportive friends) barely register. The squalor of Grace's everyday life becomes chillingly mundane and repetitive by the midway point; how many shots must we see of her apartment in disarray? Structurally the film's only intermittently involving---the film takes a jumbled, confused course from Grace's childhood, porn career, family visits and academic life, never creating a consistent dialogue with each element and therefore failing to engage the audience as either a character study or lurid gawkfest.

The film is, inadvertently, telling when it comes to Annabel/Grace. Grace Quek's theorizing and intellectualized justification for her notorious record-setting actions come off as tiresome and unconvincing. What's ultimately more compelling are the glimpses into Annabel/Grace's ruptured persona. To say that she's a conflicted personality is a mild understatement---for all her talk of self-empowerment, of making a statement about controlling her sexuality, Grace comes off as someone who is anything but in control of her emotions and internal demons. Fifty percent ambitious academic control-freak, twenty-five percent regressive China Doll, and the remainder Hysterical Head Case, Grace/Annabel/Whomever is less successful in proving her case to the world than proving the spiritual futility of her quest for self-actualization. Morality aside, her lame attempts at intellectualization provoke more pity than contempt--- the revelations about her life (oppressive childhood milieu, an alleged gang-rape in her teenage years, the lax HIV screening of the participants of the 251-men Screw-A-Thon) reveal a serious LACK of self-examination and belie her futile attempts at asserting her sexual persona of control and empowerment. Her academic discourse reveals itself as a disorganized jumble of babble, an ineffective salve for Annabel's existential crises---the poor girl got screwed, and instead of screwing the world back, she's really just switched the masks on the faces of her internal demons.

For an interesting comparison, see Ryu Murakami's "Tokyo Decadence".

A number of the comments here seem way off the mark to me. Saying this woman is messed up & needs therapy and going on to complain that she's ugly says more about the commenter than the commented upon in my view.

I guess all documentaries are constructed in such a way as to put forward an argument, but here again, some people are complaining about hidden agendas whereas others are complaining that not enough conclusions are drawn and demanding pat psychological explanations. It seems to me that the film presents you with the facts and asks you to decide for yourself what to think about them, and that that's no bad thing.

I liked Grace by the end of the film. It's clear she has some issues and she's chosen a pretty unconventional way of working through them, but I don't think it's anyone's place to judge her. I'm glad to hear she's made some money from the documentary at least and seems to be doing OK in her new life as a computer geek. Interesting use of the word "geek" actually - now means computer buff, used to mean circus freak.

I didn't know quite what to expect from this film. I didn't expect light and fluffy, but this movie, which documents the life of one weird nymphette, was less enjoyable than I could have imagined. Ms. Chong (not her real name) had a very decent middle class upbringing. The question I asked myself was why she turned out the way she did, but we have a person with absolutely no self-esteem, who appears to be totally strung-out on whatever, and who claims to be doing 251 guys in ten hours in the name of liberation. Something she's proud of. Yeah, sure. I thought I'd at least like her in the end. I didn't. In my opinion Ms. Chong is a total flake who needs to see a good therapist. Soon!

If you want to be entertained, go see almost anything else. On the other hand if you want to feel good knowing there's someone out there more messed up than you are, by all means see this movie.

This film is quite disturbing because all you come away feeling is angry.Angry at the morons who exploited this woman , angry at the documentary maker ,who seemed to revel in the fact that this woman made the most appalling decisions and mostly you feel angry at Annabel Chong. This woman is the most pathetic specimen i have seen i many a long time. She has no regard for her family or her own health. After taking part in the totally unsexy gang bang she didnt care if she caught aids , she didnt care what her friend , family or college friends thought and most of all she obviously didnt care what a pathetic woman she looked like the general public by making the film. The only reason the porn industry wanted anything to do with this immature woman is because she had no scruples and would sleep with over 250 men. It certainly can't be because the woman is sexy or erotic in anyway. She is a pug like ugly woman who's teeth look like thy have been modelled on Stonehenge. All i can say is that if Annabel Chong ( or whatever your real name is) reads this please have some dignity and respect your body and family and leave the porn industry to those who are good at it and look the part. 5 out of 10.

Annabel (Grace) Chong - woman, space pixie or messe dup kid? You decide. Funniest moment? In a cafe in Singapore Grace tells her cousin "I was in, like, the worlds first gang bang, with 250 guys! I hope my mum will be proud of me." Worst moment? Grace describing she will only let another girl fist her up the a** if she gets $1200 for the whole movie. Why? "Because I am Annabel Chong!" A sad, sad story of a woman who wants to exploit the porn industry and bring about recognition for womens sexuality, but fails to realise that she is being exploited. Poor girl. Nice legs but needs her teeth fixed.

Half way into this movie I began asking myself why I should care about Anabel Chong. I've seen several documentaries on the Porn industry and this is certainly not one of the better ones. It reveals little about the industry itself and yet it also fails to deliver anything more than a superficial glimpse into the world of Anabel Chong. Anabel is at once proud and defiant about her gang bang and yet deeply ashamed and embarrassed - to the point where she tearfully begs her mother for forgiveness and lies to her old teachers about her profession. Yet little light is shed on this contradiction.

There are several scenes which, in and of themselves, sparkle, but they are lost in a film that has little structure and constantly struggles just to have a point.

Several people have commented on the insight this film gives into the porn industry. That may be true, but it's not what this film is about. The events which unfold over 90 minutes in "Sex: The Annabel Chong Story" are more about one girls trip through life and the choices she made along the way. Many of the reviews have been very judgmental and tend to present Grace as disturbed and in need if therapy. This may be true on a certain level (for example the scene of her self-mutilate "cutting" removes any doubt that self-destruction is in the forefront of her personality) but there is much more to this young woman than that. She has substance. She's intelligent. She has a drive to succeed in life and achieve approval from her peers. Many of her personality traits are in paradox to one another...But more to the question; "Is this a good film?" You're damn right it is. A very good documentary the places a vast array of players, institutions and mechanisms into orbit around Grace and unabashedly reveals her ventures into and out of each circumstance from seeking acceptance from family and friends to navigating through the denizens of the porn industry.

An interesting side note: In the scenes where Grace is visiting the set of porn-starlet Jasmin St. Clairs attempt at "shattering her record" of 251 men in 10 hours, Grace appears to be out of her element and somehow trapped in a place she'd rather not be. In comparison to the people around her, she almost seems innocent and out of place. The whole feel of this shoot (while technically the same style) is directly the opposite of her experience. Grace leaves the set feeling dejected and lost. Her naiveté is glaring in this moment. Don't know if anyone else picked up on this, but I did.

In the end, I like Grace. After watching her go through so much self-inflicted agony with such an air of bravado (real or imagined) I can't help myself. She's all heart. It's a shame that her triumphs (participating in the Cambridge Debate, attending USC, moving on to a grad degree) are overshadowed by the darker elements of the film. And lastly, many Thanks to Grace for having the guts to be honest in presenting the story of her life. Remarkable.

Intensly personal and moving documentary about the life and times of arguably one of the more well known porn stars - Annabel Chong.

The film covers the time during and following her world record of sleeping with 251 men in 10 hours. We see her preparation for the attempt, the attempt itself and the years following where she was afforded great fame but at a huge personal loss.

Annabel is a very intelligent woman; she studied and graduated from USC in 1998 and from her teachers accounts she is a very articulate writer and thinks very analytically. Its only when she tries to verbalise a lot of what she is thinking that we see the pain, the emotional torment that must be facing her every day of her life.

Her voice is one that seems to be on the verge of breaking down into total incomphrensibility - it falters, pauses and staggers along - fuelled a mind that is providing the information but the mouth cannot process it fast enough.

She is a tortured woman; you can see everyone of those 251 men in her eyes every time the conversation moves around to the record breaking feat. She often justifies it by calling it an experiment; one that shows the empowerment of women over men - she was showing that women can be just as agressive sexually as men.

But the price she has paid for it is great. She did not tell her parents for over two years that she was a porn actress. Though not filmed; the after effects of the revelation are shown graphically; her mother on the floor of her room packing Annabels bag, crying and moaning as she removes all trace of her daughter from her life.

There is a lot to this documentary that is worth discovering. Don't get it just for some mindless titalation - there is little of that during its 86 minute running time. What you do get though is a look into the human condition; a condition that craves acceptance amongst peers, a condition that believes it is in control of its own destiny.

A moving lesson for all.

8 out of 10.

The porn star Annabel Chong prepares for her part in the world record gang bang. This documentary examines her roots in the business and follows her before and after the shoot to find out why she's doing porno and what her background is. We see her as a real complex person who is seemingly unsure of what her motivations are for doing the work she does.

The `porn documentary' is an area that is becoming more popular as porn becomes more mainstream. I have seen several – some that aim to just have a laugh (The Legend of Ron Jeremy) and some that are brutally honest (Hardcore). This was one of the first I'd seen and I wasn't sure what the agenda was behind it. For the most part I don't think the makers had any aim but to be honest but fair. This takes us to Chong herself as this is a look at her rather than a look at the business she's in.

Chong changes her story during the film. For some of it she is a porn star who is doing it because it's `the ultimate ego trip' to have all these men wanting to have sex with her. Then we find out more about her teenage gang rape and the whole porn stuff looks different. Later however she lost my vote when she appeared at a Cambridge Uni debate and on channel 4's The Girly Show (that height of political debate) talking about how it was `a p*ss take on the whole western ideal of masculinity' and similar pretentious sounding remarks. That's fine if what you're doing is art, but porn is not art. If you are in any doubt her Cambridge debate is preceded by her boasting about loving anal sex and her pride at doing triple penetration – how very Van Gogh!

She comes off very mixed up. At times very reasonable and normal, others very OTT and really into getting f*cked by as many guys as she can then at others we see her tearful confession to her mother and see her slicing up her arm with a knife just so that she can `really feel something'. It's hard to know how to feel about her because she doesn't seem to know who she is and why she's doing the things she does.

For the most part the film just about manages to remain tasteful. It doesn't focus on the sex scenes and tries to have plenty of character study rather than whacking material. However it does use a lot of clips and stuff that don't add to the message but really only serve to spice things up. Some of the scenes have a reason – for example the gang bang scenes are in no way erotic and are slightly like watch meat being processed, and Chong has a weird smile the whole time. But some from the start of her career are just there to show off breasts and ass! The only good bit about following her early work is the interviews with directors like John T Bone, Ed Powers, Dick Nasty (here as `Richard'), Ron Jeremy and Robert Black. They don't give much insight into the business but it is clear they don't give much weight to Chong's idea that this is a social comment. In fact they are the first to point out how she was exploited – with many of the performers not having had AIDS tests, and also Chong not getting rich from her day's work.

This is a little hard to take. I watched Hardcore where we see Dick Nasty as an agent for an English girl – pressuring her into things she didn't want to do. So to hear him take the high ground is a little daft. Robert Black is a regular for documentaries and he always make sense because he is honest about porn – `it's f*cking shameful and nasty' he says in `Hardcore' but he does enjoy his work!

Overall this isn't a look at porn but a look at Chong and on that level it isn't great. How can we get who she is when she isn't clear on that herself? It's interesting viewing and slightly depressing to see a woman who is so clearly exploited claiming the artistic high ground, and also seeing someone who is so intelligent (she passes her degree) constantly going back to work in porn. A bit of a muddle but a compelling world to dip into for 90 minutes.......but not any longer than that, thank God.

Probably everyone who has progressed from cell division as the reproductive means of choice has some interest in porn, but if yours runs a little deeper then the "Annabel Chong Story" is a very worthwhile documentary to watch, offering a truthful glimpse behind the scenes. And that's pretty much all there is to say about it.

To dispel a few popular notions about this documentary, it's not exploitative other than of Grace Quek's (that's Annabel Chong's real name) exhibitionism save possibly her parents, it doesn't purport to chronicle all minutiae of human sexuality, pornography is probably not the most wholesome business to be and in and this fact can not reasonably be blamed on the documentary (don't kill the messenger), film maker Gough Lewis repudiates the fact that he and Quek were a couple at the beginning of this movie for the patent reason that he wanted to make a movie about Quek and not about their relationship, Quek is neither centerfoldish-statuesque nor is she phenomenally ugly with the "the most crooked teeth ever", if you think her views are bizarre then you have obviously enjoyed the privilege of blissful ignorance of the field of womens' / gender studies and, unsurprisingly, Grace might not be the wholesome waif that you can exchange coy glances over glasses of iced tea at the country fair with. In fact, she probably is a bit of a whore, bless her little heart.

In approaching this movie please note that it is a documentary and not a sequel from Playboy's Girl Next Door video franchise, thank you.

I actually have not seen this documentary, but would like to add that anyone who thinks this movie is good as porn or useful for masturbating is apparently forgetting that this is a DOCUMENTARY. From most people's comments though, this movie is a good at leaving questions to be answered from the viewer about her life, what's going on in her mind and a further look at what goes on in this business. And it's also important to take a better look at Annabel Chong herself, and not treat her like some passionless, worthless porn star who should shut up and only provide masturbating material and label her opinions as "pretentious" and "neo-feminist." That just proves the validity in her wanting to change the "slut" stereotype. If you go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annabel_Chong, you'll actually discover that she's well read and smart, earning a scholarship to study law in London. She also went to graduate school studying a few subjects, one of them being feminist studies. So you can see her thoughts aren't just coming from nowhere. And even if she didn't go to school...women DO have thoughts and opinions that are valid. Crazy, I know. If I get the chance, I would like to see the documentary after reading material from the link above; she sounds very interesting and she was at least someone who tried to turn things around. But alas, ignorance rules...

I was quite pleased not to have found this film, nor Grace/Annabel, to be as depressing and fatalistic as others on the IMDB would have one believe. Though Grace certainly appears to have fallen victim to those in the porn industry who only want to exploit her, and though she seems to have been effectively "castrated" by mainstream public perception of her, I don't think any of this makes her social/political observations less worthy of consideration. Sadly, Grace does not seem to able to publicly express her points very well (we are told by former teachers that she's a very good writer, however), and the filmmakers don't help matters much by painting her pretty much as totally alone in her beliefs (despite the fact these pro-sex "feminist" arguments have been around for at least 15 years).

Finally, I find complaints that the film was not "fun" a bit beside the point. Frankly, it gives one cause to wonder if some of these people came to the film expecting to get aroused, and when they didn't, they chose to look no deeper.