Review of Eden (2013) by Sebastien D — 08 May 2014

Eden is a purportedly true account of events that took place in the American Southwest a few decades ago that are taken from the memories of a young Korean-American woman who escaped the sex slave industry while working in Las Vegas by out-smarting a captor and fleeing to safety.

This was a reportedly huge and powerful ring that spanned the borders of several states and even had some local government officials making money off of the trade. Jamie Chung (Sucker Punch) stars as Eden who is based upon Chong Kim, the real-life escapee who has inexplicably faced some harsh criticism after coming forward (!) and sharing her ordeal.

Slut-shaming a woman who has been trafficked for sex reminds the world that decency is dying and that human idiocy knows no bounds. None of this later treatment of Kim/Eden is found in the movie, though, as it instead focuses upon young Eden being tricked one night into having some fun and instead quickly finding herself in the middle of a nightmare.

Eden's intelligence and knack for numbers benefited her as one of her low-level captors, Vaughn (Matt O'Leary - Brick), used her as his "right-hand" in the business. Eden stays alive by doing as she is told and sometimes by turning a blind eye as she had to fight to stay alive within the ring and prove her worth when her age of 17 was deemed too detrimental as most clients would find her to be too old (I stifled vomit here too).

It is hard to criticize a film like Eden even though there are better films -- harrowing, horrifying, haunting ones -- on this subject out there. Eden slyly reminds audiences that trafficking can happen anywhere and traffickers fit no one stereotype.

Sick, depraved individuals will do almost anything to get a piece of the $32 billion a year trafficking industry.