Second image from the top: Isabella Leong who plays the tattoo artist and Rainie Yang (2nd from the bottom), a cutesy pouty-lipped cybersex vixen.
From its very first frame, Spider Lilies out to be provocative: Rainie appears as a cutesy 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 part-Japanese/Chinese 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 (Splendid Float), 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.