Sex and Zen: Extreme Ecstasy Review

• 3rd Jan 2012

Sex and Zen: Extreme Ecstasy professes to be the world’s first erotic 3D movie. But this is a pure promotional stunt. There are others that have preceded it. Granted only a few, but they have been made. In 2010 a little seen South Korean film called Natalie was made and as early as 1975 there was the saucy Swedish comedy, What the Butler Saw. 3D technology has saturated the blockbuster market in the past couple of years and has almost outstayed its welcome yet again. It is cinema’s fight against other forms of mass entertainment, satellite and cable TV etc. But, while it is mostly family and big budget science-fiction films that are, for the large part, being shot in this medium there are a few foreign language or art house films going 3D.

Sex and Zen is actually a remake of Stephen Shu’s 1991 Hong Kong film of the same name (he also produced and scripted this version) which was based on a 1657 Chinese novel, The Carnal Prayer Mat, China’s very own Les Liaisons Dangereuses. In fact, at some point the story’s hero talks about the amount of sex and women he has had and that women were like a mat for him to lay on. Yep, there is plenty of misogyny to also be had here. The film is set during the Ming Dynasty and focuses on an artist who marries a beautiful woman. However, on marrying she finds sex with him less than fulfilling as he suffers from premature ejaculation (as well as being poorly endowed). In desperation he takes advice from the degenerate Prince Ning who introduces him to his court of sexual deviants and makes him the court artist. Wei Yangsheng tells the prince of his troubles and he allows him to learn the art of pleasure from the sexual prowess of Ruizhu, a sexually ambiguous woman with a man’s voice known as the Elder of Bliss who has a very large prosthesis tied to her leg (which springs out at the viewer in 3D naturally) and a bevy of other women in his court. He then decides to have a transplant of his very small penis with a donkey’s in what becomes a botched operation; the results are the most hilarious moments in the film and he becomes very popular in the court. This sexual exploration by Yangsheng leads to jealousy and problems with his wife and the disintegration of their marriage. Meanwhile, the prince is seeking his own revenge. He orders the rape of Yangsheng’s wife and his torture for his betrayal for talking about him. Following a final bloody showdown that leads to many deaths and obligatory martial-art battles, Yangsheng and his wife are saved, despite her being raped and he being gruesomely tortured. Ultimately all is well and Yangsheng reunites with his wife. We see them in old age with their children and grandchildren, but she wears an unremoveable chastity belt placed there by the Prince before his demise and he has been castrated. Never the less, they tell their grandchildren that sex is not important but love is.

It is hard to make out what is comedy and what is art house; what is intentionally funny and what isn’t. It really is like a weird blending of House of Flying Daggers and a 70s Confessions sex comedy with Robin Askwith thrown in; Confessions of a Courtesan may have been a more appropriate title. Indeed the titillating gags have all the extreme cruelty and violence of Asian cinema but all the guffaws of a 70s European soft porn movie. It has to be said some of the film is hilarious and some of it is uncomfortable, violent and cruel. The scene with the two hack surgeons who wish to replace his inadequate penis with that of a horse is funny: they cut off his tiny member, take a horse’s bloody schlong and one of them trips, sending it flying in the air (towards the camera for a 3D effect naturally) when the other surgeon rolls over it with his wheel chair. Yangsheng is distraught and they offer to re-sew the original little penis on when a dog snatches it and the morsel is ruined. They then decide to sew on a donkey’s member which, eventually, makes him very popular in court. The sex scenes themselves are annoying as we hear fake moans and groans and poor imitations at sexual thrusts and jerks. All very 70s again.

The DVD/Blu-ray suffers the fate of many 3D releases made for the small screen. Of course it comes with the standard 2D and 3D options, but the technology is poor unless being viewed with a 3D television. Flimsy cardboard and colour filtered glasses are inadequate and the viewer is better off either viewing it at the cinema or on a properly equipped TV screen. Needless to say the effective 3D moments are far from subtle with blood, nipples, prosthesis, knives and broken objects being flung at the screen. The subtitles are also poor and at times are barely legible, but the film does not require a great deal of concentration to follow. If sex were not as important as this film morally lectures us then why feel the need to make a film like this in the first place. It ultimately made $1.1 million in Australia showing on just six screens and has broken records in New Zealand and Hong Kong. Extras on the disc also include a making of documentary in addition to the 2D and 3D options.

Chris Hick