Saint Jack (1979) on Netflix
Jack Flowers makes his living managing prostitutes in 1970s Singapore, telling people he works for a local Chinese businessman. He wants his own brothel and a fortune to take home.
- Netflix3.0/5
- IMDb7.0/103,363 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes72%
Trailer
Plot summary
An American pimp in 1970s Singapore, Jack Flowers has made the expatriate underworld his territory. On his boss's business he meets William Leigh at the airport, a British accountant who comes to the city each year and prefers a quiet game of squash to the nightlife Jack knows. First a hotel, then a bar popular with British expatriates, then a brothel, and the evening closes with members of a Chinese triad pursuing them because Jack's operations are not sanctioned. Jack wants to run a brothel of his own and return to the States; American agents offer him the chance to run one for soldiers on leave from Vietnam.
Cast
- Monika Subramaniamas Monika
- Judy Limas Judy
- Joseph Noëlas Gopi
Show all 20 cast
- Kian Bee Ongas Hing
- Yan Meng Tanas Little Hing
- Andrew Chuaas Andrew
- Ronald Ngas Triad Gang Member
- Peter Pangas Triad Gang Member
- Teow Keng Seowas Triad Gang Member
- Ken Wolinskias Australian Businessman
- Peter Tayas Mike (Prince's Desk Clerk)
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Saint Jack (1979)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Cybill Shepherd sued Playboy magazine after they published photos of her from The Last Picture Show; as part of the settlement she got the rights to the novel Saint Jack, which she had wanted to make into a film ever since Orson Welles gave her a copy.
- Because of the novel's controversial nature and the conservative social climate of Singapore in the late 1970s, the filmmakers hid the project from local authorities and obtained permits with a false synopsis for a fictitious romance titled Jack of Hearts, which Bogdanovich described as "a cross between Love Is a Many Splendored Thing and Pal Joey".
- Saint Jack was banned in both Singapore and Malaysia shortly after its release on January 17, 1980, the Singapore ban coming largely from concerns about the edits its nudity and coarse language would need before a general audience could see it, as well as its LGBT-related content.
- The film was the first feature to depict a gay sub-plot involving a Singaporean character, including scenes with full-frontal male nudity, as well as the first to feature a nude scene with a Singaporean trans woman.
