| Life Is Cheap... But Toilet Paper Is Expensive | |
| Director: | Wayne Wang |
| Starring: | Cheng Wan Kin |
| Music: | Mark Adler |
| Cinematography: | Amir Mokri |
| Producer: | Winnie Mokri |
| Editing: | Sandy Nervig |
| Studio: | Far East Stars Forever Profit Investment |
| Distributor: | Silverlight Entertainment |
| Runtime: | 83 minutes |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
Life Is Cheap... But Toilet Paper Is Expensive is a 1989 black comedy film directed by Wayne Wang.[1] The film stars Cheng Wan Kin and John Chan. It won an award at the 1990 Rotterdam International Film Festival.[2]
A man is hired, by people he believes to be gangsters, to deliver a briefcase from America to Hong Kong.
The film was the subject of controversy when it originally received an X rating from the Motion Picture Association of America, the distributor, Silverlight Entertainment, chose to release it without this rating and with a self-anointed adults-only A rating.[3]
On their TV show for the week of August 13–17, 1990, the late film critics Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert praised the decision to apply the A rating since it was a concept they had often discussed on At the Movies in the context of harshly criticizing the MPAA's standards of forcing serious films aimed at adult audiences to either undergo damaging edits to receive R ratings or be locked out of most theatrical and advertising outlets. While neither Roger nor Gene thought the movie was very good (they both gave it a thumbs-down verdict) they appreciated the director and studio taking this stand, and hoped it would someday lead to a viable ratings designation for films that were for adults but weren't pornographic.[4]
In 2022, the film received a 4K restoration, released theatrically by Arbelos Films.[5] Arbelos later released it on Blu-ray in 2023.[6]