Well,Miss Campion has certainly pushed plenty of buttons with "China Girl".Mostly male ones I would suspect because as a gender they are treated rather harshly in this the second in the "Top of the lake" series. Personally as an elderly male I did not take offence as a repellent rapist cop in a wheelchair was beaten half to death by the female detective or that the young men in the Internet Café spending their time rating prostitutes on their computers were portrayed as sexist buffoons in need of serious adjustment. Nor that the appalling "Puss" was a man whose views on women a Regency Buck might have considered extreme. Men like this do exist - Miss Campion hasn't made them up. Possibly White Australian Society and it's development from the male - dominated Convict Fathers has encouraged these extreme attitudes. Perhaps Miss Campion was merely trying to "Claim back the night",as it were. I feel no more qualified than the average man to comment knowledgeably on the sensitive subject of motherhood,let alone surrogate motherhood with all its obvious mental and emotional pitfalls,and as a good proportion of this series is concerned with these two subjects which are a minefield for men to approach at their peril,I feel somewhat unqualified to comment on that aspect of "China Girl". A girl goes missing from a Sidney brothel and her remains are washed up in a suitcase on Bondi Beach.So far,so "Home and Away",as it were. Where it goes from there is dark and convoluted indeed. But brilliantly done with outstanding performances all round. It deserves to win some TV award but probably won't where ten - a - penny British detective mysteries seem to proliferate every year. Believe me,none of those mentioned elsewhere in these reviews can hold a candle to this brilliantly conceived and executed masterpiece. It's also educative:-"Reverse Cowgirl"?Who knew? If Australian men think that's all women are any good for they deserve everything Miss Campion has thrown at them.
Review of China Girl
