Missing a Kiss

I just watched The Hours. Beuatiful movie with a wonderful soundtrack, which I enjoyed immensely. The back cover on the VCD packaging quotes Eric Houston of the Houston Chronicle as saying that it is "A compelling, moving film that respects its audience and its source material." With a label like that you don't expect it to be an easy movie to watch or make sense of, I suppose.

And it doesn't. I do agree it's a really good movie.

What gets me is the censorship of lesbian loving. The scenes in which the women kiss each other were cut out. It was done very well, of course, such that you wouldn't have known it unless you were looking out for it - and I was, at the second viewing. For you see, the first viewing made little sense to me when they characters' faces drew closely to each other, there was a sigh and then a breaking away, with the slight impression that a kiss had figured on the horizon but had never made it to centre stage. This would inevitably cause the characters(well, some of them) incredible pain and anguish. Which makes no sense. Only after reading some reviews did I realize the lesbian scenes I had missed, and which were the real sources of the agony, not some phantom fantasy unacted out.

I'm no art critic, but I'm pretty sure that those kisses should have been in. The story just isn't complete without them. Sigh. But, of course, I live in Singapore, and our conservatives will die before they allow a PG rating for a movie showing females kissing(each other). And R(A) just wouldn't have earnt as much, I suppose. Although I'd have left the kisses in and given an R(A) anyways. Little kiddies should not see this show. I can't imagine the damage it'll do to poor little girls who jump off buildings or go to hotels to down sleeping pills.

But if it'll give them some life, maybe that's a good thing.