Review of Sex and Zen

Introduction

`Sex and Zen` was a sensation on its release with its outrageous and irreverent telling of an ancient erotic text about a an amorous youngster who believes that the true path to Buddhist enlightenment is not meditating, but rather a bit (well, a lot) of how`s your father. With that philosophy at it`s heart, he sets off to conquer as many women as possible, rather like a young kung-fu warrior. He ends up taking the advice of an elder (who tried to rob him), resulting in him getting his penis transplanted with that of a horse. Yes - you heard right.

We see the young man at the outset having less than perfect relations with his beautiful young wife who seems to see sex as a marital duty not to be enjoyed, but rather endured. When spying on the brutishly cruel exploits of a neighbour (a low-point in an otherwise acceptable movie), who abuses and subjugates his horribly submissive wife, the young hero decides that his only course is to agree to the bizarre transplant.

Much farce ensues, occasionally broken with some soft-focus erotic encounters (like the lesbian session with the flute - James Galway will never be able to hit those high notes again!).

The highly moralistic ending to the film shows that, even when our hero succeeds in his drive for more sex, he is just left feeling exhausted and empty. A curious end to a picture clearly revelling in the erotic, though not entirely uncommon in soft-core movies like this one. (Russ Meyer`s early picture`s spring immediately to mind).

`Sex and Zen` was really the first Chinese porn movie to make any impact in the west, and its female lead (Yip) became a huge star as a result.

Video

This is a nicely shot movie and the transfer here is top-notch. It`s in anamorphically enhanced 1.85:1.

Audio

Whew! Such a lot of choice for a movie comprising carry-on style sound effects mixed with rapturous grunts and sighs. There`s the original Chinese mono, and a 5.1 to make you feel a part of the action. There`s also a 5.1 dub, which wasn`t as bad as they usually are and which I used for the review view. Perfectly adequate.

Features

Not much here really. There`s a feature called A Lot of Sex, A Little Zen, which turns out to be one of those text based slide-show essays (by Steffan Hammond, a HK film expert) which outlines the plot and adds a little historical background which was useful, though batter saved until you`ve viewed the movie.

Conclusion

This movie is just bizarre. It`s probably the nearest you`ll get to seeing a Cantonese version of a `Confessions` movie…full of cheesy soft-core sex with plenty of bawdy gags and japes along the way. On occasion it gets surreal enough to warrant comparison with the demented un-PC genius of Russ Meyer, (though lacks Meyer`s eye for angles, composition and, well, sheer scale!).

Though it`s full of bawdy half-laughs, it`s also occasionally erotic, casting aside absurdity in favour of high-gloss soft core that isn`t too tough to watch. It`s a pretty base formula for a movie though bizarrely it sort of works.

There are certainly moments that will offend any right-minded viewer, not least in some brutishly violent scenes, though just as you reach for the remote in disgust you`ll be on to some forgivable high farce and will find yourself watching the whole thing. That said - not for the under eighteens or anyone of a Mary Whitehouse disposition. Quite a diverting 90 minutes or so - though not enough of the `foreign art movie` cultural content to justify this as anything other than soft-porn.

It`s a remarkably good transfer too, showing this tastefully (and expensively) shot film to great effect with eye-popping detail.