Spider Lilies by Zero Chou (2007)
6 August 2007An interesting Taiwanese Lesbian Drama, that has great atmosphere, and is almost suffocating in the characters repression, though it does have some lift at the end. The film is beautifully shot, and keeps the film interesting as the story unfolds, but the real message of the film does not really come through. More than anything the film seems to be about self destructive behavior and not letting them destroy you, not allowing yourself to self destruct based on things out of your control, but it never really comes together, and the pat ending kind of pulls that away. Oh well, the leads are gorgeous to watch, even if the film doesn’t have too much substance. This is a lesbian film that never really deals with the main characters being lesbians, they just =are, and that is accepted, and that is a progressive attitude, that does serve well, but also lessons some of the impact.
A girl making a living exposing herself on a webcam named Jade (Taiwanese idol Rainie Yang, who is nothing but super cute here), and decides to she needs a tattoo to spice up her act, and bring in more money, to pay for her and her grandmother. She ends up going to a slightly older tattoo artist named Takeko (Isabella Leong). Takeko is a wizard of a tattoo artist with her whole arm tattooed with skulls and spider lilies, illustrating the road to hell. Takeko takes care of her mentally ill younger brother (John Shen Jiang Huang). Jade comes into the tattoo parlor and wants the tattoo of the spider lilies that is actually on human flesh on the wall, as it was a tattoo that he first love had, and she invites Takeko to watch her web cam.
REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…
Jade meanwhile has her webcam being watched by a cop, who is supposed to be busting her, by recording her stripping, so she can get busted in a raid, and he likes her and talks to her, and doesn’t narc on her, but she thinks it is Takeko.
Eventually we find out that Takeko’s father was killed in an earthquake, leaving the brother staring at his arm with the tattoo, and that was the only thing he recognized, so she went and got the same tattoo from her father’s master, who also taught her how to ink. She had gone out that night, and was in bed with her high school lover when the earthquake happened, so she blames herself for her father’s death, and for her brother’s condition, and got the tattoo which was not a real tattoo for her, but her father’s.
We also learn that after the Earthquake, Jade as a little girl was Takeko’s neighbor, and her mother and older brother left her. She met Takeko as a kid, and fell in love with her, when she gave her a ride on her bike, but Takeko moved away to go learn tattoo, and Jade always hoped she would remember her.
Jade keeps trying to get Takeko to give her the same tattoo as a tattoo of her love, but instead Takeko designs another flower design, just for her, and she starts to give her the tattoo, and they make love, but Takeko is late to pick up her brother, and she goes missing. And her best customer a wimp of a guy who uses tattoo’s to give him strength ends up outside her door, missing an arm. She goes to find her brother, but he is in a coma, after wandering off and finding one of the spider lilies.
Takeko freaks out and texts Jade, that she is giving up on doing tattoos, basically leaving Jade as everyone has done to her. Jade leaves a message for Takeko saying she will meet her online, and goes online and thinks she sees her, but it is the cop, and she realizes that Takeko never said she liked her. And freaks out, and her grandmother closes her computer, so she won’t get caught in the raid.
Though things don’t turn out badly, as Takeko’s brother wakes up from the coma, finally having his memory back, and Takeko texts Jade to meet her at the parlor and will give her the tattoo. Takeko has finally opened up.
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Everyone does a great job, and of course it culminates with Rainie and Isabella making out, which with too such beautiful leads is good to see. The film is beautifully done as well, but while it does have a conclusion, it feels like it could really have had more going on, or more of a resolution or message. Still enjoyable.