The Fruit is Swelling (1997)

I wanted to but couldn't!

It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

"The Fruit Is Swelling" is a weird Category III skin flick with a premise it not only does nothing with, but seems reluctant to acknowledge.It's about a fairly charmless, annoying eight year old girl who makes a wish that she can grow up because she is tired of being fobbed off over things sexual. Eg., her beautiful older sister goes out with boys and won't let the irritating tyke tag along.Anyway, she makes a wish to grow up (by a "sacred tree") and wakes up the next day to find her role played by an older actress.This older actress is pretty, but doesn't have a whole lot of sex appeal, which is weird since this is basically a soft-core porn flick.She isn't alone in this escapade: her best friend, Fatty Girl, also gets an older body, though she probably should have also wished for a skinnier one. This character serves no purpose to the plot; her presence does nothing but make you ask questions such as, "Is that her real name, or a nickname? If it's her real name, how did her parents know she was going to be fat when they named her as a baby? If it's not her real name, isn't it cruel of Peach (the sort-of main character) to keep calling her Fatty Girl?" I guess the most pressing question of all is: what is she doing in this movie, since the movie does nothing with her? The movie really doesn't have a plot. You would think that the story of an 8 year old suddenly becoming 18 would have some obvious comedic and fantastic potential, but the movie doesn't really go for it. Instead, most of the time is spent showing people around Peach, such as her sexy older sister and horny, bald-headed dad, having sex. The sex is typical soft-core fluff and mostly pretty boring.The ending has a swimming pool sex scene stolen straight from "Showgirls". It's the only part of this presumed "sex comedy" that could potentially raise a laugh.

The film opens with Shu Qi on a beach in a bikini (a great start to a film that only gets better); she is the narrator who tells the tale of eight-year old Peach, a little girl who longs to be eighteen, so that she can find out exactly what it is that boys and girls get up to when they go out together. When Peach asks the Sacred Tree to make her all grown up, she wakes up the next day to find that her wish has come true. Peach is now a rather tasty teenager, and she proceeds to try and find out what love and sex are all about.The Fruit Is Swelling comes across like a twisted adult version of the Tom Hanks movie Big, and is packed with wall-to-wall nudity and soft-core couplings from the beginning. The little girl in this film doesn't waste time getting a job in a toy company; she's too busy watching her sister (big breasted Christine Hung) getting jiggy with her boyfriend and spying on her sex-mad dad (played by Cat III legend Elvis Tsui) seducing every woman he sees. Eventually she falls for her school swimming instructor Danny, but will she do the dirty with him and will he mind the fact that she is really only eight-years old?This (surprisingly romantic) shagathon is actually very enjoyable, and if you can put up with the dubious nature of the plot, there is loads of fun to be had. Chun Chung, as Peach, is absolutely gorgeous and the film is worth watching for her alone. However, the fact that there are many other busty babes in the film all willing to shed their clothes for the sake of their art doesn't hurt either. Pretty much every female in the film strips off and gets down to the deed at some point in the film.The movie actually manages to successfully avoid the whole 'paedo/child porn' angle with a soppy ending that sees Danny wait ten years before he finally gets to roger Peach (she reverts back to her original age before he makes a big mistake!). At the very end, he is reunited with a 'genuinely' eighteen year old Peach, and gets to 'break her in' in his pool (a scene ripped off from that great Verhoeven 'classic' Showgirls).Shu Qi appears before the final credits to end her story and then she frolics in the sea for a while. Sweet!.

The Fruit is Swelling (1997) was one of the last official category III films to come out of Hong Kong. This strange adult film is about a young girl who wants to become an adult. One night she takes her best friend and they make a wish to the blessing tree. Remember the old adage, "Be careful what you wish for.."? I can't explain the rest of the movie. it's one of those "you have to see it to believe it". A sweet movie that'll entertain and please you all at the same time. Elvis Tsui and Yuen King Tam co-star as the little girl's weird parents. A.K.A. When the Sweet Peach Ripens.What a way for the category III cinema to go out. One of it's best films made it's debut on the tail end of it's production. I guess all of the genre stars will have to adjust to making normal films.Highly recommended.

I second the views of the previous reviewer - this is a romantic comedy that seems a little warped to most Western viewers (particularly the mixture of sex and childhood innocence), but it has distinct pleasures for anyone interested in the wild world of Hong Kong Category III cinema. Shu Qi makes a brief but welcome appearance at the beginning and the end to introduce the film and conclude it with a moral message, kind of like a public information broadcast, but on a beach in a bikini. For those of you who like to play the nerd's game of spotting scenes stolen wholesale from Hollywood films, I don't think I'm spoiling anything by hinting that the romantic climax of the film is a shot for shot repeat of the legendary (!) swimming pool sequence of Showgirls. Special mention, as ever, must go to Elvis Tsui - I can't remember the last CAt III romp I saw without him showing up. Why's he called Elvis? Because he's the King...