[SIFF week two-and-a-half]

* Dasepo Naughty Girls was just ridiculously fun. A South Korean film based on a web comic, it is totally crazy and colorful, a musical which makes not a whole lot of sense but is a blast just the same. I was totally charmed.

* Red Without Blue might be my favorite of the festival so far. It’s a documentary about a set of identical twins, where one is transgender (MTF) and the other is gay. It’s a beautiful film, and though it doesn’t push some issues as much as it perhaps should (I suspect this is because the filmmakers knew some of the family before filming), it’s a moving look at the family. Initially intended to be just a look back at their past, it evolved into the story of the family now, moving towards Clair’s decision regarding surgery. The changes in the views of the parents I found particularly moving. Two of the directors were present at the screening, which was lovely, because we were able to get an update on the subjects of the film.

* And finally, Spider Lilies, a Tawainese film about memory and loss, and, oh yes, tattoos & lesbians. I didn’t love it like I wanted to — it was always on the edge of touching me and never quite making it — but I absolutely adored that it was a film featuring gay characters moving towards a relationship, that was not at all about being gay. It could have been very nearly the same story featuring a straight couple. There were no coming out stories, none of the tropes associated with American queer film. There was guilt surrounding a sexual experience, but I never had the impression that it was because she was gay. It was because it meant that the character was not with her family at the time of a tragedy, and she would have felt the same effect if she had been with a boy. (Also, now I really want a tattoo.)