BREASTS AND ZOMBIES

Good news on the local front - soon all of us here in Singapore will legally be able to see bared breasts and flesh-eating zombies on our own home televisions.

Singapore will now be permitting the sale of uncensored NC-16 and M-18 movies at video stores. Cinemas have been liberalizing here at a reasonably fast pace in recent years and racier and violent fare is allowed at select venues. But even if a movie was shown at a cinema, you could not buy or rent the DVD unless it was cut to secure a PG or G rating. For instance, zombie flick 28 Day's Later did reasonable business at cinemas here - but the only thing available for purchase or rental is a poorly cut lower-quality VCD.

RENTING and buying uncensored versions of movies such as Blackhawk Down, Aliens and Saving Private Ryan may soon be possible under a government initiative announced yesterday.

The new move doesn't go far enough - R-21 (A) videos will still not be available - but it's a welcome start. I expect we'll even start to see a decline in the sale of pirated DVDs - which are bought by many people because the uncut versions are not legally available. And perhaps bandwidth will improve here as people will have less incentive to spend hours downloading Sex and the City.

Unrelated, but further on breasts and zombies, Linnea Quigley's strip scene in Return of the Living Dead was not gratuitous. It established the nature of her character (a kinda slutty goth-punk) and furthered plot development (i.e. it explained to viewers why she was running around naked for the rest of the movie).