Movies

Review of “Spider Lilies” (“Ci qing”)

Taiwanese lesbian director Zero Chou’s latest film, Spider Lilies (Ci qing), seems on the surface to be light and music video-like, with its bright colors, cybersex story line and tattoos. But this film, which won the Teddy Award for Best Feature Film at the Berlin Film Festival, is actually quite an intense story about the impact of trauma on the lives of two women and their families. It is currently screening at a number of gay film festivals in the United States.

Jade (played by Taiwanese pop star Rainie Yang) lives with her grandmother but operates a cybersex webcam out of her bedroom. She plays up her youth, appearing on-camera in school uniforms and carrying on conversations with her dolls.

She decides that a tattoo will make her look even sexier online, and she visits a tattoo parlor operated by Takeko (played by Hong Kong actress Isabella Leong) to make a selection. The large tattoo of golden flowers – spider lilies – on Takeko’s arm triggers a memory in Jade: Takeko was the older neighbor girl Jade had a crush on when she was 9. Jade decides she should get the same tattoo. Takeko balks at the idea, prompting a flashback about when she got the tattoo of the poisonous spider lilies from her mentor. He warned her that it was a plant of death and tried to convince her not to get that design. Takeko similarly tries to dissuade Jade, not wanting harm to come to her.

Through flashbacks we learn that Takeko’s father, who sported the same spider lily tattoo, died in an earthquake while Takeko was sleeping over at a girlfriend’s house, presumably the first night they made love.

Takeko’s little brother, Ching (Shen Jian-hung), witnessed their father being crushed by a building, his tattoo-bearing arm the only part of him visible in the resulting rubble. Ching was traumatized by the incident, left with no memory of his past or of Takeko, and Takeko decided to get the tattoo in honor of her father and in hopes that it would trigger Ching’s memory.

The weight of the guilt she carries for leaving her brother on the night their father died is palpable. She literally lives her life for him, even though he’s caught in a post-traumatic stress-disordered amnesia in which he doesn’t even realize that she’s his sister.

Takeko works at the shop each day and brings Ching, who spends his days at an institution, home with her each night. Adong (Shih Yuen-chieh), a skater punk who is addicted to tattoos and hangs out at her shop, tries to engage with Takeko, and he even realizes that she’s a lesbian, but she doesn’t encourage his friendship.

She has shut off her sexuality as a result of their family’s trauma, though Jade does her best to awaken it.

Jade gives Takeko her card with the webcam site information and asks Takeko to visit her online. Shocked by the content when she first visits the site, Takeko nonetheless shyly returns, even engaging in some anonymous chat with Jade.

But Jade makes the mistaken assumption that another visitor to the website is Takeko, with predictable results – complicated by the fact that Jade’s site is being monitored by a governmental agency of some kind, and she’s been targeted for a raid.

Nonetheless, Jade does get to Takeko. Not wanting to risk giving Jade the spider lily tattoo, Takeko spends hours at night drawing an elaborate jasmine plant for Jade’s tattoo instead. When Jade arrives late one day at the studio and sees it, the two embrace — and as we see Ching wandering outside the institution at dusk, wondering where his ride is, we know that more heartbreak is on its way.

The contrast between the cartoonish quality of Jade’s sex-kitten webcam persona and Takeko’s serious demeanor heightens the on-screen chemistry between these two women: opposites attract indeed. They look great together.

Isabella Leong could have done more with her role as solemn-but-gorgeous Takeko, but part of the problem may be her age. There is supposed to be at least a 10-year difference between the younger Jade and Takeko, but the actresses appear to be around the same age. (Yang is 23 and Leong is 19.) This may be a minor point, but one would also expect Takeko to look older than her age due to the stress in her life; perhaps some different makeup would have made this more believable.

Rainie Yang is almost too over-the-top as Jade, yet her vivaciousness is suited to the role. Especially effective are the scenes where she believes she is chatting online one-on-one with Takeko, when in fact she is chatting with the smitten undercover cop (Kris Shie) who is monitoring her site. Her shock when she discovers the truth shows her youth and naiveté beautifully.

The subplot involving Adong brings additional spice to the story but is not presented clearly. Also unclear is the reason that Jade’s site is being monitored: Is it illegal to have a sex-themed website in Taiwan ? Do the authorities think she is underage? Why is she being targeted instead of the host of the site, especially if they think she is a minor?

The resolution of this plotline is dropped in the film — we hear the sirens as police cars take off for Jade’s place, but what happens?

All this being said, I did enjoy this intense film and appreciated its unique story line. With film festivals full of coming-out stories, girl-meets-girl tales and lesbians-considering-children films, it’s great to have a film where, as in Takeko’s case, sexuality is important to the plot but is explored in tandem with other aspects of a character’s psychology and history.

Spider Lilies, which is predominantly in Chinese with English subtitles, is the second feature from director Zero Chou. Her first, Splendid Float, was about drag queens and won her comparisons to Pedro Almodóvar for her use of melodrama and color.

Reported to be the highest-grossing film in Taiwan so far this year, Spider Lilies is also being released theatrically in Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand and Korea this summer.

The stars of Spider Lilies are teenage pop idols in Taiwan, no doubt counting for some of the film’s popularity there. But as Chou said in an interview with the International Herald Tribune, as a lesbian herself, this story in particular interested her: “There have been many [Taiwanese] films about homosexuality, but very few about lesbian relationships.”

Remarking on the film’s popularity, Chou said, “For the public it does not really matter whether it’s about a gay relationship or a heterosexual one, as well as it’s a well-made love story.” Chou has created a moving, intense and convincing love story with Spider Lilies, and though she says her next project is not queer-themed, we can hope she returns to lesbian relationships in future work.

For another perspective on Spider Lilies, go here. Watch the trailer for the film here:

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