For Shame

That's the official reason for wanting to trim a 2 minute segment from Steve McQueen's critically acclaimed "Shame", a movie about sex addiction which could have thrown some light on why a senior legal counsel, a lieutenant colonel, or a school principal would want to surf online for puerile gratification. Academy Award winner for Best Picture "Platoon" was also not shown in Singapore initially because Oliver Stone objected to his film being abbreviated by the censor's scissors, the part where Charlie Sheen inhales smoke from a shotgun barrel. That was at the height of the government anti-drugs campaign.

Curiously, the "prolonged and explicit threesome sex sequence" is significantly shorter than the 9 minute horrific rape scene in "Reversible", and full frontal nudity in "Lust, Caution" was screened without cuts. Has the censorship board reverted to prudish standards?

Movie critic Roger Ebert tells us the American Psychiatric Association in 1987 defined sex addiction as a mental disorder involving "distress about a pattern of repeated sexual conquests … involving a succession of people who exist only as things to be used."  Like a good reviewer, he leaves out the spoilers, and we are still in the dark about the offensive parts. Others with less scruples write that the protagonist walks about his bedroom starkers (an illegal act in Singapore, don't try it in your HDB flat) with his plumbing equipment in full high definition glory, kisses a bearded biker, and then directs him to the subject of mutual interest. Ah, that kind of movie!

Wanna suck face? It's legal.

At least the Japanese are more honest when condemning the popular all-girl AKB48 band members for seductively passing bite-sized candy mouth-to-mouth in an advertisement. "The commercial may encourage homosexuality," complained a Tokyo broadcasting watchdog. The snipped scene in "Shame" also has two girls "sucking face", to borrow the quaint terminology from "On Golden Pond," as in the Henry Fonda line, "Wanna dance or would you rather just suck face?"

So why don't the self appointed custodians of public morality come right out and call a spade a spade? Are they afraid to offend their more liberal minded government officials who might accept that the next Singapore beauty queen could be born a man? For the record, the organisers of Miss Singapore Universe have indicated that they intend to abide by the new ruling set by the Miss Universe organisation to allow transgender women to participate in the pageant. When a country is run like a corporation, it's only the money that counts: tv coverage, tourist arrivals, corporate sponsorships, etc, etc.

Looks like the country is going to the dogs, and before long, we may have to issue an apology to Sun Xu.