A controversial Korean erotic re-exploration of the Lolita concept and a documentary about the Lusty Lady club dancers' unionization are two highlights of the San Francisco International Film Festival, which began April 20.
Lies, directed by Jang Sun-Woo, retools the Lolita concept into what the festival itself calls "a sadomasochistic, sexually-explicit exploration of individuality and culture." The film was controversial enough to rouse conservative threats to ban it in Korea and arrest Jang for violating porn laws. Its source was just as controversial: Lies is based on the book Tell Me A Lie, which got its author six months in prison and the book itself "recalled for permanent destruction" in 1995.
The story, the festival said, is a graphic tale of the love affair between a high school girl and a 38-year-old sculptor and its sadomasochistic progress, through which the two lovers surrender all social ties and consolidate each other's resources, until "doubts and indiscretions" begin interfering.
Live Nude Girls, Unite! is directed by Julia Query and Vicky Funari and chronicles the struggle of a pair of exotic sister dancers at the Lusty Lady in San Francisco, who decide to form a union when a co-worker is fired, they believe, unjustly.
Query decided to document the developments, which began as job protection and turned "into a fight for human dignity as the women demand an end to rules that classify them by race, hair color, and breast size," said the Festival, which says the film shows all the "struggles, triumph, humor and grit of the human condition."
Lies was shown in its U.S. premiere at the Festival April 20 at the Kabuki Theater. Live Nude Girls, Unite! will make its festival showing April 26.
