An erotic journey

While the world's first IMAX 3D erotic movie isn't likely to be shown on the Chinese mainland, it hasn't stopped people from visiting Hong Kong to see it. Shi Yingying reports.

Sex and Zen: Extreme Ecstasy is unlikely to be screened on the mainland, but this hasn't deterred fans of 3D titillation going to Hong Kong for a one-day trip to see the film, which claims to be the world's first IMAX 3D erotic movie.

"If it's not coming to us, then we will go to it," says one 21-year-old student from Shenzhen, who didn't want to give his name, but says he will visit Hong Kong with five friends - all guys - on May 23 to see the movie.

"We will arrive on Saturday afternoon, do some shopping, as the cinema is located in busy Mongkok, have a quick bite to eat, rush to the movie and then get back by the end of the day."

The film's executive producer Stephen Shiu Jr. estimates 100,000 mainlanders have booked tickets to see the film in Hong Kong, which was released on April 14 and is expected to screen until the end of May.

Larry Zhang, a 20-year-old student from Shenzhen Vocational Technical College, claims he is "the only student agency for 3D Sex and Zen: Extreme Ecstasy" on the micro-blogging platform Sina Weibo.

"I have sold around 300 tickets so far, with a record of 50 a day, mainly through the e-platforms of Weibo and Taobao," Zhang says.

He says most of his clients are college students from Guangdong province's Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Foshan and Dongguan.

"It didn't take me long to secure the rights to sell tickets (from the film company) as they were eager for me to do so," Zhang says.

He says one of the conditions for selling tickets, costing 120 yuan ($18.50), was that the age of potential clients was double-checked.

"I don't sell to those under 18 as they will check IDs at the cinema - it would be a waste of money."

Another dealer Zhong Shun provides travel packages, not just tickets, and charges 168 yuan in Shenzhen and 268 yuan in Guangzhou.

"I sold 1,000 packages before the film premiered," he says, adding he got the tickets in Yuen Long, half an hour from Hong Kong's city center. "The April 16 tickets were most popular, as it was the first Saturday after the premiere."

The $3 million 3D erotic film will also be seen in Italy, France, Russia, Australia, New Zealand and even conservative Singapore - though the director has trimmed 18 minutes of scenes including oral and group sex, and only those aged over 21 will be able to see the film.

The same version will be released in India, and 3 minutes of group sex will be left on the cutting floor for the South Korea edition.

On the mainland, meanwhile, not only will the movie not be shown but search engine Google is filtering out search words relating to the film's Chinese name.

A 26-year-old financial reporter (who asked not to be named) from the mainland who works in Hong Kong, describes the film as "imaginative, funny" but "very dogmatic" after she watched it.

"It's actually very Chinese in terms of the concept. After going through all these imaginative sexual adventures, it comes back to the idea of 'true love is best'," she says and adds that the 3D effects were just stunts.

"All of my Hong Kong friends wanted to check it out," she says.

Christopher Sun, the film's director, was quoted as saying, "I wouldn't have been lucky enough to shoot the film and have such a big audience if it wasn't for (the more relaxed laws) of Hong Kong".

3D Sex and Zen: Extreme Ecstasy is dedicated to the 1991 Category III hit Sex and Zen, which had a record-breaking HK$20 million ($2.6 million) box office and ushered in an era of Category III erotica in the 1990s (in Hong Kong). Shiu's father, Stephen Shiu Sr., was the producer and scriptwriter.

Shi Jing contributed to the story.

(China Daily 04/16/2011 page11)