Life Is Cheap... But Toilet Paper Is Expensive

Life Is Cheap... But Toilet Paper Is Expensive is a 1989 film directed by Wayne Wang. The film stars Cheng Wan Kin and John Chan. It won an award at the 1990 Rotterdam International Film Festival. 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. 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. Both critics, however, also said the film itself was not very good.