The Singapore censors -- who are supposedly the bearers of good taste and gatekeepers of wholesomeness -- have sent a strong message to movie-goers with their latest cuts applied to Lang Tong: Murder is generally still okay, but lesbianism, is not.

The local Mandarin erotic thriller, out in selected cinemas on March 5, 2015, has been trimmed to a paltry 79 minutes. Three minutes of its steamy scenes, including two shots with lesbians performing lesbionics, had been cut.

Here is the Media Development Authority's classification justification:

[Warning: Spoilers aplenty. Avoid reading if you want to watch the movie without any preconceived notions.]

“Lang Tong” revolves around Zack, a callous womaniser who lives with his girlfriend Li Ling, but is concurrently involved in a sexual relationship with the latter’s younger sister, Li Er. When Li Er asks him to murder her elder sister, Zack agrees, only to find out that there is more to the two sisters than meets the eye.

The film is rated R21 with the consumer advice “Sexual Scenes and Homosexual Content”

The film contains several strong, prolonged and explicit heterosexual sex scenes. These include depictions of the male character engaging in various sexual activities with different women, where close up shots of thrusting motion; various sexual positions; implied oral sex and masturbation are seen. While the sexual scenes are prolonged, no genitalia are depicted in the scenes. Such portrayals are permissible under the R21 Classification Guidelines which state that “simulated sexual activities are allowed if they are not excessive” and “explicit images of sexual activity (e.g. fellatio) need to be justified by context”.

The film also contains depictions of same gender kissing and a scene depicting a man sexually abusing a woman with a foreign object. In the latter scene, the act is implied through the woman’s cries as she struggles to free herself while the man pins her on the floor. In addition, the film contains a scene of violence depicting castration where it is implied that a woman has cut off with a man’s genitalia with a pair of garden scissors. The act is implied through the man’s screaming and a close shot of blood oozing out from the man’s underwear.

The movie was previously released to the public uncut at the Singapore International Film Festival at the National Museum of Singapore on Dec. 13, 2014. Screening time then was at 11.30pm. It was a one-show run, where tickets were sold out in a jiffy, because, you know, Singaporeans are into the arts. *Wink wink*

The Straits Times Life! review gave the movie 2.5 stars and said it lacked a story, while 8 Days obliged by giving it a 2-star rating, but not before calling it an "empty exploitation pic" whose "plot is illogical".

Here is the Lang Tong trailer that is still worth watching after the 244th time:

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