Title: Sex and Zen: Extreme Ecstasy
Director: Christopher Sun
Starring: Hiro Hayama, Leni Lan, Saori Hara, Yukiko Suho, Vonnie Lui, Tony Ho
A hit in its native Hong Kong, and sure to be trimmed heavily or banned outright in mainland China, “Sex and Zen: Extreme Ecstasy” is getting a boutique release across the rest of the world, including major metropolitan areas of the United States. And why not, really? Screening in both 3-D and 2-D, the slickly produced film is a lurid, wild and weird attempt to reboot the 1990s’ “Sex and Zen” softcore franchise, in which outlandish sex and borderline gnarly-cartoonish violence were commingled. The end product lives up to its title, that’s for certain. A demented, Faustian-infused “Flash Gordon” episode crossed with a Chinese costume dramedy and some sort of discarded “Masters of Horror” script, “Sex and Zen” is a memorable viewing experience, in however many dimensions one watches it.
The story centers around a Ming Dynasty scholar, Yangsheng (Hiro Hayama), who marries Yuxiang (the beautiful Leni Lan), but finds himself lacking as a lover and unable to please her. Obsessed with the smallness of his penis and seeking carnal knowledge, he visits the conniving Prince Ning (Tony Ho), who has a Tower of Rarity (you know, with a blood-sweating horse and stuff like that) and a Pavilion of Ultimate Bliss. Yangsheng eventually wins admittance to the latter, and Prince Ning sets him up with “sex healer” Ruihu (Vonnie Lui). Then he has an operation to replace his penis with that of a donkey. Yep… seriously. During this time Yuxiang takes a lover, but still misses her husband, so she sets out to retrieve him. More insanity ensues.
The film starts with and maintains as a sort of touchstone a generally goofy tone. When Yangsheng and Yuxiang honeymoon, he pronounces her breasts “so cool,” and when she worries about the pain associated with her first time having intercourse, he proclaims, “It will hurt, but it will be extremely awesome!” In its final third especially, as Prince Ning turns jealous and villainous, the movie’s wild violence spikes, though not enough to completely derail its carnival atmosphere, which comes across like an Oriental take on Werner Hedman’s Danish “In the Sign of…” 1970s sex comedies crossed with the aforementioned influences with maybe a little bit of “Circle of Iron” thrown in for good measure.
“Sex and Zen” is kind of bizarrely captivating, and not necessarily because of all the nudity and sex (though that certainly helps). It’s watchable chiefly because one never quite gets a firm grasp on where it’s headed. Part of this is no doubt a reflection of cultural differences, and part of it is undoubtedly just because it’s some disorienting combination of silly, poorly scripted and outright insane. So when Ruihu pops up and turns out to have another set of sexual running gear, and then starts flinging around and smashing massive wooden wheels with her firehose-length phallus, well… one just sort of shrugs and goes with it.
In the end, one can’t really recommend “Sex and Zen: Extreme Ecstasy,” at least not with a straight face. It starts to get into male and female sexual insecurities that cut across cultures and eras, but it’s too slapdash to emotionally connect, and while portions of it are certainly arousing, it doesn’t have a, ahem, lasting erotic charge. The degree to which one might feel truly cheated by a viewing, though, is dependent only on one’s company, level of alcoholic imbibement, and post-screening coital success level.
Technical: B
Acting: B-
Story: C-
Overall: C
Written by: Brent Simon
