Spider Lilies (2007)

While pretending to be a love story, SPIDER LILIES in fact is a film about damaged people. They are not damaged in a physical sense but all the protagonists are carrying heavy psychological burdens. First we have Jade (Rainie Yang), a young girl who lives in a shabby apartment with her senile grand mother. She makes her living as a web-cam girl. That means she chats and strips online for money. One day, she decides to get a tattoo, to add a little spice to her allure.
Enter Takeko (Isabella Leong), the owner of a tattoo shop. Takeko doesn't speak much and is a very introvert young woman. Jade is instantly attracted to Takeko and tries to become friends with her. She wants a tattoo of spider lilies, that reminds her of her first love, as she tells Takeko. But Takeko refuses the request. Now we discover that Takeko has exactly such a tattoo, that covers her whole left arm and we get a first glimpse that these two girls have kown each other before. Jade knew this the monent she saw Takeko, but the other woman doesn't remember - or at least acts like she doesn't.
The story of Jade and Takeko, the quite openly proclaimed love of the one girl for the other and the struggle of the other one to come to grips with her emotions, is the center of the movie. In long flashbacks we learn of their past, of the time when Jade was nine years old and Takeko about fifteen. It is a heartbreaking story, that sometimes borders on kitsch and clichee, but is very effective told. We learn of the deep hurts that are buried in the minds and souls of the two girls and that influenced their lives all these years.
Three more characters, all of them male, complete the main cast of the film: Takeko's young brother who is deeply traumatized by the same event that led to Takeko's tattoo, and acts mentally retarded, is the most important of them. The other two are a young punk who wants more and more tattoos from Takeko, to overplay his insecurities, and a cop with a bad stutter, who investigates the illegal internet firm of Jade's web-cam act. He only sees the girl on the internet and chats anonymously with her to get evidence for her illicit behavior, but falls deeply in love with the cyber-princess.
There we have it: five persons with traumas or psychological deficits, that cross paths. The story of Jade and Takeko is the core of the movie, as I said, and it is told very sensitive and with great love for the protagonists. Thankfully, the fact, that it is a lesbian love story isn't exploited or made as something out of the ordinary - the characters are interesting enough without that. This, obviously is a good thing, but it goes a bit too far. While Takeko's lesbianism is handled very matter of fact (we even see one of her earlier lovers in a flashback), Jade's sexual orientation is left a bit vague. Is she really a lesbian or is she only attracted to Takeko, because she has fond memories of her and wants to recapture the feeeling of belonging and security, the older girl gave her so many years ago?
Don't get me wrong: I don't question Jade's reasons for falling in love with Takeko. Two people can fall for each other from a multitude of reasons and all of them are legitimate and only the two concerened persons are allowed to question them. But in a film I'd like to know these reasons to feel with the characters.
Well, it's only a minor quibble of a very compelling, bittersweet and thought provoking movie. The two main actresses are doing a fine job in getting their characters across. I have seen Isabella Leong in the silly (but enjoyable) comedy BUG ME NOT and the horror spoof THE EYE 10 and thought her just another pop star that tries to make some light weight movies. But then she popped up in much more demanding roles like ISABELLA and DIARY and it became obvious that she takes her acting quite seriously - and with very rewarding results. I hope to see more of her in the future. That also goes for taiwanese pop singer Rainie Yang: She is the real star of this movie and brings a lot to her complex character. I can't say much about her, because this was the first movie I saw her in (not very astonishing since it seems to be her first real movie), but what I saw is very promising.