Film Review - Eden (2015)

LFF 2014 - London Film Festival Cinehouse Highlights

Eden Review

Rating:15
Release Date (UK):
19th July 2013
Director:
Megan Griffiths
Cast:
jamie chueng, Matt O'Leary, Scott Mechlowicz,Beau Bridges, Grace Arends
South Korean, Cheong Kim was 19 years old when she met a man claiming to be in the United States military. Believing she had struck up a romance with the dashing stranger, she agreed to elope with him to Florida. En route she was handcuffed, had her identification destroyed and was held in captivity. Kim escaped, but with no means of identification and with no assistance, she grudgingly became an escort. Shortly after, she was raped and sold into slavery in Las Vegas, spending an horrific 2 years being transported to and from various warehouses with 40 or 50 other girls, many of whom were under 16 years of age.

Kim's captors tortured her by burying her in bathfuls of ice; they beat and even shot other girls who fell ill or didn't live up to their standards. Eventually Kim managed to escape by gaining the trust of her captors by convincing them she wanted to learn how to become a trafficker. She gained their trust, escaped and, after a decade, shared her story, going on to become a legal advocate promoting civil rights.

Megan Griffiths brings the story to the screen with an American Indie sensibility that eschews sensationalism or on-screen horror in favour of a more sombre, responsive aesthetic.

Intially you fear lack of visual punch seems to be a misstep; the absence of carnage seems to give the misery short shrift. It's Jamie Chung's heartbreaking, downtrodden performance which wrestles the film away from obscurity and offsets the lack of visual clout, delivering something which lingers and disquiets.

★★★☆☆

Chris Banks

Watch the Trailer For Jamie Cheung's Sex Slavery Drama Eden

Directed by Megan Griffiths (The Off Hours, producer of My Sister's Sister) EDEN is based on the chilling yet inspirational true story of human-trafficking survivor Chong Kim and stars an award-winning performance from the beautiful Jamie Chung (The Hangover II & III), rising star Matt O'Leary (Disney's The Lone Ranger) and the legendary Beau Bridges (The Descendants).

The year is 1994. Korean-American teenager, Hyun Jae (Jamie Chung;The Hangover Part II &; III, Sucker Punch, The Man with the Iron Fists), goes to a bar in New Mexico where a handsome young man buys her drinks and offers her a ride home. But she never reaches home and is instead abducted and forced into prostitution by a domestic human and drug trafficking ring located outside the
bright lights of Las Vegas, Nevada.
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Hyun Jae is initiated into her new life by Bob Gault (Beau Bridges; The Descendants, Stargate SG-1), the corrupt Federal Marshall who runs the organisation and troubled Vaughan (Matt O’Leary;Spy Kids, Fat Kid Rules the World, Disney’s The Lone Ranger).Through a haze of morphine, Hyun Jae (soon renamed Eden, by her captors) learns what her future holds: sex with strangers and life in a 10x10 storage unit. Throughout the two years she is held, Eden reluctantly ensures her own survival by carving out power and influence within the very organization that has imprisoned her.

Eden will arrive in UK cinemas on 19th July put aside any reservations of Jamie Chung's previous film, Eden proves she does posses some acting chops just some critics wish she would show a little more often.