Daughters of Club Bilitis

Okay, what are you doing right now?

Well, if you haven't watched Daughters of Club Bilitis, I would urge you to drop whatever it is you are doing, and sit down for about one hour and watch all four segments of this movie (1, 2, 3, 4).

It's Korean. Doesn't matter, because it's universal.

And the beauty of it, is they don't focus on one story, one age, but weave in all three phases of life, from the teenage crush (eh, `phfina, like you haven't outgrown that, Miss that's all I write about?) to the young committed couple, so lost in their own problems they can reach out to each other to help, to the 'old biddies' who are the perfect couple, ... but at what cost?

I write this review as if I watched a tragedy, and, yes, I did cry (cries?) (how many hankies did I use?), and it is, Korea is a society so homophobic a mother would rather bite her tongue off and die than hear her daughter is in love with another girl, and, even, a lesbian couple hope and pray their own daughter never gets this 'sickness.' And that's what these women are living in and through.

And, somehow, magically (and beautifully: realistically, this isn't a rosy 'love conquers all' story) they make it work. And wonderfully: the film shows how they have to keep making it work, every day, day in and day out, and how tiring that can be, how scary, and for each other, how ... how special, sweet, tender, spiteful, jealous, scared, beautiful, agonizingly beautiful.

And hopeful.

Watch this film. Please.

And ladies, filming this movie, and acting in it ... I salute you (`phfina salutes). Thank you for daring to make this.