| Title | 50 Shades of Lei |
|---|---|
| Rating | 1/10 |
| Director | Lana Wachowski and Fred Durst |
| Stars | Willem Deafoe, Deborah Gibson, Rinko Kikuchi |
| Genre | Thriller |
| Summary | On the shores of an unnamed Specific island resort, newlyweds are greeted with a customary lei. What begins as a simple floral gesture unravels into a labyrinthine conspiracy involving colonial tourism, fertility rituals, and a volcano that erupts only during sex. Rinko Kikuchi stars as Melonia Lei, a botanist whose research into the genetic modification of hibiscus flowers leads her into a forbidden liaison with the island’s guardian spirit— a towering tiki idol, voiced and partially embodied by Willem Dafoe. As her passion deepens, she discovers each lei represents one “shade” of devotion, binding the wearer to increasingly surreal rites of passage: competitive fire limbo, ceremonial Spam carving, and, ultimately, the sacrifice of her AirBnB deposit. Hovering at the edges is Deborah Gibson, playing a former pop star turned spiritual concierge, who insists she alone can interpret the leis’ hidden meanings— mostly through choreographed monologues set to a steel-drum remix of her 1987 hit Shake Your Love. Co-directed by Lana Wachowski and Fred Durst, the film oscillates between an avant-garde meditation on cultural erasure and a soft-focus Cinemax feature shot on a jet ski. |
| Rated | R-25 |
| Trivia | The film’s opening sequence was storyboarded by Lana Wachowski but directed entirely by Fred Durst on a GoPro strapped to a parrot. Willem Dafoe demanded to learn actual Polynesian war chants for this film, but forgot them halfway through and improvised with nursery rhymes in falsetto. Deborah Gibson rewrote several scenes to include her character’s line: “Aloha means never having to say you’re sorry.” The island “set” was actually the backlot lagoon from Gilligan’s Island, which hadn’t been cleaned since 1974. The cast reported finding the skeletons of two crewmen and a feral animatronic Skipper. During the festival sequence, Kikuchi’s lei caught fire three separate times, all of which remain in the final cut because Durst called it “method cinematography.” |
| Reviews | |
| The Gaurdian | “An intoxicating collision of tropical kitsch and late-capitalist longing. Wachowski’s fingerprints are visible in every slow-motion lei toss, while Durst counter-balances with camera zooms that feel like they were filmed through a blender. It is either satire or prophecy, but either way: unforgettable.” |
| Variety | “Despite Kikuchi’s committed performance, the film cannot decide if it is a cultural critique, a spiritual odyssey, or a commercial for banana daiquiris. Willem Dafoe delivers a volcanic performance, though one suspects he simply wandered onto set during a midlife ceremony.” |
| Letterboxd User: ShrimpCocktailRevenge | “This movie ruined my vacation plans in the best possible way. I now refuse to accept leis at airports for fear of being spiritually entangled with Willem Dafoe. Deborah Gibson’s monologues should be studied in schools. 10/10, I left my body during the Spam-carving scene.” |
