Human Traffic
Human Traffic is a
1999 film directed and written by
Justin Kerrigan. It is based around a group of friends living in
Cardiff and their clubbing exploits over the course of one weekend, including sexual exploits and drug use. In a recent edition of UK gay lifestyle magazine Attitude, actor Danny Dyer spoke about the film being based on the withdrawn 1990 film feature "Loved Up F**ked Up" mentioning that the original films drug and sexual content forced the feature to be withdrawn.
Jip (
John Simm) lives in Cardiff, works at a clothes shop and is sexually paranoid. He lives for the weekends, going out with his friends and getting drugged out. The film focuses on one such weekend; Jip,
Koop,
Nina (Koop's girlfriend),
Lulu and
Moff go out to a club in Cardiff on Friday night with devious intentions. Throughout the course of the film, Lulu and Jip eventually get together and have sex; Moff has a discussion with a fellow partygoer about how Star Wars is a drug fantasy, and Koop and Nina argue over her flirtatious behaviour. The film ends with Jip and Lulu dancing in the street in a parody of 'typical' love story films.
An important part of this film is the soundtrack; which includes some of the most famous dance music producers of the 1990s. These include
CJ Bolland,
Fatboy Slim,
Orbital,
Aphrodite and
Primal Scream.
Many panned the film as having little or no plot when it was released, however it has become a cult hit in the
rave scene. Many see it as having a huge similarity to their own lives. Although there is significant dialogue about drug use contained in the film (specifically
MDMA(Ecstasy),
marijuana, and one sarcastic rant about
heroin use), there is barely any visual representation of actual drug use in the film. The characters are never shown actually ingesting Ecstasy tablets. There are a few small scenes showing secondary characters smoking what is implied to be marijuana. The only drug use by main characters shown is a scene where Jip and Koop are having a conversation at a house party and they are seen cutting up a line of a non-specific white powder. They are never actually shown ingesting/snorting it. This is a marked difference in comparison to most movies about drug use and/or raves and such movies almost always show the main characters ingesting drugs on-screen.
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Jip [getting ready for party]: "All that exists now is clubs, drugs, pubs and parties. I've got forty eight hours off from the world, man. I'm gonna blow steam out of my head like a screaming kettle. I'm gonna talk codshit to strangers all night. I'm gonna lose the plot on the dancefloor, the free radicals inside me are freaking man! Tonight I'm Jip Travolta, I'm Peter Popper, I'm going to
Never Never Land with my chosen family, man. We're going to get more spaced out than Neil Armstrong ever did. Anything could happen tonight, you know? This could be the best night of my life! I've got seventy three quid in my backburner. I'm gonna wax the lot, man.
The milky bars are on me! Yeah!"
*
Jip and Moff [talking on phone]: "Nice one Bruva
!"*Human Traffic at the Internet Movie DatabaseThere is another cut of this film called Human Traffic Remixed. According to The Guardian there were rumors that Justin Kerrigan wasn't involved with edited version but the producer Allan Niblo was. There are also rumors that they had fallen out during the shoot. It is available on DVD in the UK. This is re-cut with new scenes, new CGI effects, and new tracks.
The US version was edited to remove certain cultural references that it was felt Stateside audiences would be unable to identify with. Notable amongst the changes was the removal of the "Summer of Love", late 80s/early 90s flashback sequence - complete with dummies, glowsticks, et al. Apparently this - and other refences - were thought to have been confusing for American youths whose similar "old school rave" period came rather more recently.
For example: When Jip is introducing Lulu - he says that he has "recently become clubbing partners" where the UK version he says "recently become dropping partners".
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