When I was a kid, I wouldn't listen to a lecture but my parents didn't have much concern as to what I was up to, because there wasn't really anything that bad around.
Maybe a gang or two, but no drug gangs, no ethnic groups or foreign cultures to pull me in as a rebel, certainly no smackheads or pot smokers. Just the occasional thief, a break and enter expert and, if there were any dealers, they were dealers in stolen goods. These types generally wouldn't cause you any harm and anyways they were stealing off people with money, so they were local heroes in a way.
Enter the 70's and 80's; drugs, cheap booze, liberal society, lower community standards , the pill etc., and there's a detonation of values.
Unfortunately some of the tried and tested ones got blown up too and so kids started doing more of what they thought they liked, and less of what their parents and teachers told them to do.
Places sprang up in society that enabled the new behaviour ; free condom dispensaries, free birth control, financial help to stay home and do nothing, instant gratification, counselling, acceptance and the riddance of shame for teenage Moms.. you name it and it was allowed.
Who should be surprised then when someone moves in to gather the harvest?
Vulnerable young girls, who see the gates of freedom blown off the hinges , girls who see their friends having a life of endless parties and a culture that says that the state's taken on your responsibilities, ...... that's who.
There's always going to be someone who takes advantage of such an opportunity and in this case it was natural for those someones to be from a culture where their own female contingent are still strictly controlled.
This then was the backdrop for the girls who are featured in this story, a perfect storm of circumstances.
The same perfect storm touched down in dozens of communities, proving that national, liberal public policies can be devastating in ways never even thought of.
The story devolves into an examination of the attitude of the various, now indulgent, authorities and how they handled their own responsibilities.
Not very well at all!
That is the hopeless feeling you get once the credits start to roll , the only redemption is that maybe the kids have learned and will pass it on to the next batch.
This lot of exploiters happened to be East Asians but really it could have been any group of scumbags who happened to have this jigsaw puzzle fall into their laps.
Great acting, I could have been in the cast myself and no one would have noticed. Not a real lot of hope in the final message but maybe a glimmer of understanding that unlimited freedom releases unlimited vices.
