Although this effort from
Taiwanese lesbian filmmaker Zero Chou won for Best Feature Film at the Berlin
International Film Festival, reactions of viewers seem to be quite mixed. Unfortunately,
I found myself disappointed by the distracting subplots and lack of chemistry
between the actresses, and annoyed by the main character. The major screen
time of the film is spent on the webcam life of Jade (Rainie Yang), who makes
her living with an online peep show. Even offline, she perpetually acts like a
cutesy little girl. When Jade visits a tattoo parlor, she runs into Takeko
(Isabella Leong), the woman whom Jade had a crush on as a nine year old girl.
Takeko is a lesbian tattoo artist with major intimacy issues related to her past,
her mentally challenged brother, and guilt over her first love. Although
Takeko is a very private, closed individual, somehow (inexplicably) Jade breaks
through those barriers, and Takeko opens herself up to love again. Since there
is nothing to explain why Takeko would be interested in this sexcam operator,
perhaps she is just so terribly lonely that she lets it happen? The plot
hangs together with symbolism and associations involving spider lilies, tattoos
and earthquakes. It does take some thinking power to understand everything that
happens in flashback and how it all relates to the present, but it seems somehow
too well planned to be compelling. |