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Fridae's Singapore Movie Guide	5 June 2007
> Join Fridae Movie Club > Forward to a Friend \| Archive > Subscribe \| Unsubscribe > Write to the Editor A lesbian film, at last! After we've been starved of lesbian entertainment in our cinemas for months, *Spider Lilies* arrives in cinemas this week to feed our hunger. Spider Lilies is an award-winning Sapphic drama by Taiwanese lesbian director Zero Zhou. It stars ultra-cute actresses Rainie Yang and Isabella Leong as a cybersex goddess and a tattoo artist who meet and help each other come to terms with their past and their lesbian attractions. This, dear girls, must be the first film you watch this week. Meanwhile, there's something for the boys too. Ocean's Thirteen opens this week with its usual parade of ultra-cool actors (George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Matt Damon) in ultra-cool clothes pulling off yet another impossible heist in Vegas. For sheer guilty pleasure, nothing beats *Ocean's Thirteen. Finally, for diehard supporters of Singapore cinema, Kelvin Tong's horror comedy Men In White* opens this week. It stars major hotties like the sultry Ling Lee, the hunky Shaun Chen and the Bambi-eyed twinkie David Aw – definitely a contender for Fridae's annual list of Top 10 men! Till we meet again next week, enjoy.
	REVIEW: SPIDERLILIES on Fridae Lifestyle We bring you a review of this winner of this year's Teddy Award for Best Lesbian and Gay Feature Film at the Berlin International Film Festival. more>> >> Spiderlilies: Official Website >> trailer >> more multimedia clips >> behind the scenes >> review >> review (Chinese) >> interview with director Zero Chou and actress Rainie Yang >> taiwan's spider lilies wins award at berlin film festival
	MORE THAN SKIN DEEP Many thanks to those of you who have contributed your money to help the cause of AWARE at the gala premiere of Taiwanese movie Spiderlilies last week. Find out what public services and education programme are being carried out and will be implemented by AWARE. Receive invitations to exciting free film screenings and other movie goodies when you join the Fridae Arts & Entertainment Mailing List. Simply sign up here. >> Add me! >> View list of movies shown at previous Fridae Private Previews
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Spider Lilies (Ci Qing)

Mandarin with English subtitles
Director: Zero Chou
Cast: Rainie Yang, Isabella Leong, John Shen, Jay Shih
Best Feature Film Teddy Award, Berlin International Film Festival
[Charity Gala Premiere]

The last time we watched an Asian lesbian film in Singapore theaters was probably Saving Face in late 2005. Since then, there were Sapphic subplots found in Asian gems like Indonesia's Love For Share, but none were wholly devoted to dyke issues.

It's no wonder then that Spider Lilies arrives amid great anticipation and excitement. Not only does the film star two of cutest and most talented ingenues today, Rainie Yang and Isabella Leong, it also won the Teddy award for Best Feature Film at this year's Berlin Film Festival. Applause, applause!

From its very first frame, the film sets out to be provocative: Rainie appears as a pouty-lipped cybersex vixen who dances sensuously for anonymous web visitors. She even strips on screen for the right price.

One day, she visits a tattoo parlour where the shy and mysterious Isabella works. Rainie wants Isabella to give her a spider-lilies tattoo – the exact same one the Isabella sports on her arm. But the latter is reluctant. Flashbacks reveal that the two may share a tragic past – one that haunts them to this day and stops them from forming meaningful relationships with other women…

Directed by Zero Zhou, an openly-lesbian documentarian and filmmaker, Spider Lilies is a drama that soars and dips. At its best, it is a genuinely tender portrayal of how difficult coming to terms with your sexuality can be. Both Rainie and Isabella give thoughtful, believable performances as young lesbians struggling to come out of the closet. What's problematic, however, is its unintended suggestion that having gay sex leads to tragic consequence – for each time Rainie and Isabella make out, something untoward happens.

All said though, Spider Lilies is a royal treat for the LGBT crowd this week. Both Rainie and Isabella are guaranteed to fire up your loins – and then some! Don't miss it.

Ocean's Thirteen

Director: Steven Soderbergh
Cast: George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Andy Garcia, Don Cheadle, Bernie Mac, Ellen Barkin, Al Pacino, Casey Affleck, Scott Caan, Eddie Jemison, Shaobo Qin, Carl Reiner, Elliot Gould

We suspect that nobody really watches the Ocean movies for their plots. Instead, moviegoers watch them for the super-cool actors in the super-cool clothes strutting down the streets and casino aisles of Vegas, looking like they own the world. (And in the case of George Clooney and Brad Pitt, they certainly have a substantial share…)

When Ocean's Eleven premiered six years ago, it was supposed to be nostalgic tribute to the so-called Rat Pack of the 1950s and 1960s. The Rat Pack was a group of famous male entertainers like Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis who hung out together, drank, gambled, womanized and generally did everything that straight men apparently dream of doing.

Of course, we gay men don't know much about straight men's dreams. But we do know the clothes. Oh the cloooothes – the fitted suits, the swanky accessories, the immaculate shades. Every thread on those men's bodies were to die so – more so than the men themselves. The fitting for Brad Pitt alone reportedly took several hours every day. And because of the spectacular clothes, we'll keep watching.

Ocean's Thirteen sees the return of George Clooney and Brad Pitt as two classy conmen who gather eleven of their friends to pull off yet another complicated heist. Their target this time is a billionaire (Al Pacino as a Donald Trump-like character) whose high-rise Vegas casino is raking in big bucks. But he double-crossed one of George and Brad's gay pal (Elliott Gould) so our gorgeous dudes just have to get back at him…

Like the first two films, Ocean's Thirteen is simply a guilty pleasure. Watching the biggest male actors in Hollywood trade barbs and witticisms, while dressed to the nines in luxurious menswear, is an exercise in fantasy fulfillment. Those of us who've always hankered after the good life will be delighted by the display of lifestyle must-haves. Those of us who don't might just find our minds changing just a little bit after seeing the movie.

Men in White (Gui Ah Gui Ah!)

Mandarin with English subtitles
Director: Kelvin Tong
Cast: Shaun Chen, Ling Lee, David Aw, Xavier Teo, Ben Yeung, Alice Lim, Benjamin Heng, Laurence Wong

Blending slapstick and superstition, Kelvin Tong's Men In White doesn't come together quite as well as the Hong Kong horror comedies which he obviously adores. But it still has some hilarious high points that make it worth watching.

Men In White centers of five ghosts who cannot reincarnate because of Singapore's low birth rates. But even as ghosts they are pretty useless – they don't know how to scare people because, as Singaporeans, they are so used to being told what to do and how to behave by the government.

Things come to a head when another ghost (David Aw) joins the motley crew of the undead and persuades them to start wreaking havoc on the living. All manner of Chinese superstition and local jokes come rattling in.

Men In White is a hodge-podge of original ideas and borrowed ones, and the presence of the yummy cast (which includes Miss Singapore runner-up Ling Lee, Mediacorp hunk Shaun Chen and twinky newcomer David Awwwww) certainly make it worth checking out. But pleeaase, pleeaase leave your brain at the door.

Black Snake Moan

Director: Craig Brewer
Cast: Samuel L Jackson, Christina Ricci, Justin Timberlake

Writer-director Craig Brewer is a genuine maverick. Craig's last film, Hustle & Flow, was a story of a pimp who wanted to be a rap star. The film shocked everyone when it nabbed two Oscar nominations. It shocked them even more when it won Best Original Song for the song "It's Hard Out Here For A Pimp" – the first winner in Oscar's history to have words like "niggaz", "bitches" and "hoes".

Craig's latest film, Black Snake Moan, is as tacky as it sounds – but in a good way. Really. It combines elements of sensationalistic drama, B-grade kitsch, sharp humor and anything else Craig fancies. Christina Ricci plays a psychologically damaged trashy nymphomaniac who will sleep with anything and anyone. Samuel L Jackson plays psychologically damaged blues singer who decides to chain her up to his radiator and rehabilitate her himself. The possibilities are endless.

The film is so bizarre, rule-bending and politically incorrect that even Justin Timberlake agreed to co-star in it as Christina's boyfriend. He must have thought it would be fun.

And fun it is. We haven't seen a film this eager to break every Hollywood convention in quite a while. And since we LGBTs are quite familiar with the act of breaking conventions, we can happily give this the thumbs up!

Shrek 3

Directors: Chris Miller, Raman Hui
Voice Cast: Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz, Antonio Banderas, Rupert Everett, Justin Timberlake, Julie Andrews, John Cleese

Zodiac

Director: David Fincher
Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo, Robert Downey Jr

The Dead Girl

Director: Karen Moncrieff
Cast: Toni Collette, Piper Laurie, Earl Carroll

Hula Girls

Hula Garu
Japanese with English subtitles
Director: Lee Sang-Il
Cast: Yasuko Matsuyuki, Etsushi Toyokawa, Yu Aoi, Shizuyo Yamazaki
Best Film, Best Director, Best Supporting Actress, Most Popular Film Awards, Award of the Japanese Academy

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End

Director: Gore Verbinski
Cast: Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightley, Geoffrey Rush, Chow Yun-Fat, Stellan Skarsgård, Jack Davenport, Kevin R McNally

Amazing Grace

Director: Michael Apted
Cast: Ioan Gruffudd, Albert Finney, Benedict Cumberbatch, Michael Gambon, Romola Garai, Rufus Sewell, Ciaran Hinds, Youssou N'Dour, Toby Jones, Stephen Campbell Moore

Infamous

Director: Douglas McGrath
Cast: Toby Jones, Sigourney Weaver, Gwyneth Paltrow, Michael Panes, Sandra Bullock, Hope Davis
ALFS Award British Actor of the Year, London Critics Circle Film Awards

Blades of Glory

Directors: Will Speck, Josh Gordon
Cast: Will Ferrell, Jon Heder, Will Arnett, Amy Poehler, William Fichtner, Jenna Fischer, Romany Malco, Nick Swardson, Craig T Nelson

Bridge to Terabithia

Director: Gabor Csupo
Cast: Josh Hutcherson, AnnaSophia Robb, Zooey Deschanel

Director: Lee Tamahori
Cast: Nicolas Cage, Julianne Moore, Jessica Biel

Priceless

Hors de prix
French with English subtitles
Director: Pierre Salavdori
Cast: Audrey Tautou, Gad Elmaleh, Marie-Christine Adam, Vernon Dobtcheff, Jacques Spiesser, Annelise Hesme
[Fridae Private Preview]

Born into Brothels: Calcutta's Red Light Kids

Bengali and English with English subtitles
Directors: Zana Briski, Ross Kauffman
Cast: Shanti Das, Avijit, Suchitra, Manik, Gour, Puja Mukerjee, Tapasi, Mamuni
Best Documentary, Features, Academy Awards
Golden Kinnaree Award Best Documentary, Bangkok International Film Festival
Best Film, Cleveland International Film Festival
Audience Award Documentary, Sundance Film Festival
Truer Than Fiction Award, Independent Spirit Awards
Audience Award, Full Frame Documentary Film Festival
Audience Award, High Falls Film Festival
IDA Award - Feature Documentaries, International Documentary Association
Best Documentary, National Board of Review
Best Documentary/Non-Fiction Film, Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards
Audience Choice Award and Documentary Prize, Bermuda International Film Festival
Golden Space Needle Award Best Documentary, Seattle International Film Festival

28 Weeks Later

Director: Juan Carlos Fresnadillo
Cast: Robert Carlyle, Rose Byrne, Jeremy Renner, Harold Perrineau, Catherine McCormack, Imogen Poots, Idris Elba, Mackintosh Muggleton
[Free Movie Passes]

Spider-Man 3

Director: Sam Raimi
Cast: Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, Thomas Haden Church, James Franco, Topher Grace

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Perfect Stranger

Director: James Foley
Cast: Halle Berry, Bruce Willis, Giovanni Ribisi, Gary Dourdan, Patti D'Arbanville, Clea Lewis
Release Date: 7 Jun