How Mysterious

Devlin Tay: Censorship and conservatism
I cannot believe Philip Ruddock is leading the charge to ban Mysterious Skin. For heaven's sake, that movie is being shown in cinemas in Singapore right now. Singapore! A country with one of Asia's most conservative and straight-laced governments, with one of the most stringent set of censorship rules governing film and TV. If something can be shown in cinemas in Singapore, I simply cannot see how anyone can justify banning it in Australia. What have we come to? Does the religious right even bother to examine a movie's themes before condemning it to censorship hell?

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Mr Devlin could not be more wrong in proclaiming that Singapore-yada yada censorship rules. Remember kids, if it's political, it's wrong. That's the basis of our censorship rule. If it's about the church, it isn't that wrong. We're welcomed to watch it with open minds. Afterall, if we start banning stuff based on actual content, the poor ah peks at Yangtze would suffer greatly without their daily dosage of porn. Kudos to Cathy for bringing Mysterious Skin into Singapore. I first saw the trailer a few weeks ago and was greatly greatly disturbed. Haunting images they are and they do not disguise themselves to be anything but shocking. I'm finally getting time to watch it tomorrow (not during Flag! though I'll be absent from Flag due to other matters...) and I'm prepared to be blown away.

Expect a thumbs up for this film. I can't wait.