Movie Review: Spider Lilies

Lesbian themes aside, heard that this is a very nice movie.

“Spider Lilies” will be showing in local cinemas next Thursday (June 14).

The lesbian-related movie, directed by Zero Chou, had received great reviews from recent Berlin Film Festival, and is highly anticipated by movie fans.

In the film, which is possibly Asia's answer to “Brokeback Mountain”, Rainie plays a girl, who strips on Web cameras and gets involved with a female tattoo artist, played by Hong Kong actress Isabella Leung.

The controversial role has set the Asian media and audiences abuzz with enough curiosity and anticipation to warrant a box-office success.

“Spider Lilies” has already sold an impressive 10,000 tickets in its pre-sale and grossed NT12 million ($548,000) within two weeks in Taiwan, despite a small opening in only 11 theatres on 30 Mar.

In Hong Kong, it reaped HK$1.23m ($239,000) during its opening weekend last month, and also earned rave reviews from critics.

Its official website (http://spiderlilies-movie.com/) drew a staggering two million hits, with many Netizens gushing over the 'beautiful' cinematography, the 'deeply moving' love story and the 'good acting'.

Director Zero also won international acclaim when she took home the Best Gay/Lesbian Film award at the prestigious Berlinale International Film Festival in February.

Rainie Yang is trying to shake off her cute image in the movie. Korean star Bae Yong Joon stripped for his debut film “Untold Scandal”, and it created so much hype because the gentlemanly actor played the 'totally unimaginable' role of a flirtatious playboy.

Other good-looking stars like Louis Koo and Vicki Zhao have also played ugly characters in the name of art - Louis playing a drug addict in “Protégé” and Vicki an acne-stricken bun seller in “Shaolin Soccer”.

Poster of Spider Lilies

Rainie Yang with Isabella Leung

Rainie Yang in a scene from the movie

Movie Plot:

Jade (Rainie Yang) is a webcam exhibitionist who visits a tattoo parlour looking for a sexy decoration to excite her clients. She requests for a spider-lily tattoo similar to the one framed at the tattoo parlour but the female tattoo artist, Takeko [Isabella Leong], is reluctant to accede to her request. Visiting Jade's website, Takeko finds out that they knew each other 10 years ago when Jade had a crush on her.

David's Review:

Spider Lilies (刺青) is a Taiwanese movie starring Rainie Yang (楊丞琳) and Isabella Leong (梁洛施). Yang plays the character of Xiao Lu (小綠), a webcam girl who decides on getting a tattoo (the name of the movie in Chinese means tattoo). She then meets tattooist Takeko (Isabella Leong). The main plot of the movie centres around the relationship between the two women.

I think the key theme of the movie is how events of the past can weigh heavily in the present and prevent people from being what they truly want to be. Both characters suffered losses as a result of the 921 earthquake and these continue to haunt them in the present. Xiao Lu seeks to connect with Takeko in order to return to a happy moment in the past. Her role as a webcam girl means that she is frustrated by her isolation and lack of relationships in the real world.

Takeko has tried to suppress those memories and still lives with a great burden. She has to care for her brother, A-qing (阿青), who suffers from dissociative disorder (解離症). She feels responsible for him after losing her father in the 921 earthquake.Two of the other main male characters in the movie are both interesting and complex. There is A-dong (阿東), the epitome of taike (台客), who hangs around the tattoo parlor. And Da Yu (大宇), a young police man with a stutter who watches Xiao Lu via the webcam. They seem like an adjunct to the film when they could have played a greater role in it. The movie is well shot and edited and the stars give good performances in a touching drama. According to today's Taipei Times the movie had the fifth highest box office takings in Taipei last weekend. This is quite good considering it was showing at only a limited number of cinemas. It is a pity that it wasn't given more promotion and a wider release, because with two big stars it has what it takes to be a success.