Sex and Zen

Sex and Zen (1992) is one of the most popular of the category III genre films. This film has reached a far more mainstream audience world wide. It has appeared in art house theaters and video stores. To give you an idea about this movie I am going to pose a question for you. What does Amy Yip, a man who loves the ladies and a horse have in common. Alone, nothing at all but watch the movie and you'll have a good idea. Bizarre erotic fun from Hong Kong (courtesy of Category III). In Cantonese with English sub-titles.

Stars Amy Yip, Lawrence Ng, Carrie Ng and Kent Cheung. A strange period piece that'll have you wanting more. Don't fret, they made a few more sequels that were even more sexually charged than the first film. For shame the Chinese government put an end to this films. They saved the film making industry (for awhile).

Highly recommended.

Well I don't know if this is supposed to be a sexcomedy but it is. Man can't get gorgeous women due to size problems. Man gets transplant from a horse, this sorts out problem but brings many further bizarre difficulties. This is strange Hong Kong Category III movie making as only they can produce.

I wonder what the original title "Yu pu tuan zhi: Tou qing bao jian" means, but the English title "Sex and Zen" sums the movie up nicely, if you translate Zen as "you know, Asian stuff: drinking tea, silly daggers, eating rice, kicking the stuffing out of your opponent". Sex and Zen is an interesting and genuine Asian twist on your average softcore / erotic skin flick, a tasty offering of steamy sex scenes which are loosely tied together by an story. For my taste, the storytelling was a bit too loose and erratic as I'm a big fan a of plot, narration and development. I found myself wondering somewhere in between the rape scene in the fabrics warehouse and the calligraphy-by-shoving-a-brush-up-your-unspeakables segment how it all fits together. Overall it's well worth a viewing, but because of the surreal and incongruent storytelling it didn't really grab me.

When this movie first came out, I never expected it to be the classic that it has become. It's really a somewhat unlikely, and silly story about a man who doesn't know a good thing when he gets one, and ruins his life. Hong Kong actress Amy Yip who was known for her nice figure was the attraction for seeing this movie.

The other attraction that was somewhat unexpected was the scene between Rena Murakami, and Isabella Chow. Rena was starring in both Japan, and Hong Kong in the early '90s, and was a much sought out talent. If you see this scene, you can see why.

This movie received lot of endorsement from Hong Kong Penthouse magazine when it first came out, and probably this publicity helped in making it the commercial success that it was.

It's a lavish production for a Cat III movie, and is made very well. The success of this movie seemed to benefit future up coming stars that has appeared in part 2, and 3 of this movie, like Siu Qi. So it had rather wide reaching effect as well.

Not an artistic movie, but good entertainment from the '90s Hong Kong.

While I have a great fondness for this awful gem, I just don't buy that bit. Two women? In that position? With a flute? There's just no way.

The first thing that sold me on this movie was the flying medieval thief guy. Everyone knows that any film is made intrinsically better by the inclusion of an amusing flying thief. ;) The amusing preparation of the young scholar's wife for her first sexual experience was the second. Especially, the look on Our Hero's face as he attempts to deal with it!

This movie is very silly and surprisingly strenuous in sections; two memorable scenes include a rampant, gymnastic almost-rape among bolts of hanging silk, and an incredible cardiac workout underwater.

If you like silly martial arts movies and sex, you will probably enjoy Sex and Zen. It is softcore, so you don't really see anything more than breasts or the odd bum. The subtitles are unfortunately a little hard to read, but the entertaining action speaks for itself.