It’s being touted as ‘The World’s First 3D Erotic Movie’, has already out performed both Avatar and Titanic in Hong Kong, made over $1.1 million in Australia (while playing on a mere six screens!) , but now, 3D Sex and Zen: Extreme Ecstasy is coming to cinemas across the UK.
Adapted from the classic erotic novel The Carnal Prayer Mat, 3D Sex and Zen follows a young Ming Dynasty scholar on an eye opening journey of sexual discovery, and provides a truly unique cinematic experience, one we were lucky enough to discuss with the film’s director Christopher Sun; who was happy to talk about the use of 3D in the film, the ways in which it’s been censored across the globe, and what makes his new movie more entertaining than simple pornography…
Good Film Guide: Could you start by telling us how you became involved with Sex and Zen?
Christopher: It was a long story. Our producer; Stephen Siu; produced and co-wrote the original Sex and Zen some twenty years ago, and it was a big hit in Hong Kong but eventually Mr Siu fell out of the business because… well I don’t know what happened, but he hadn’t produced anything for quite a while, and then three years ago we had a casual conversation about how we could revisit his script vault; because he has a big vault and all of his old scripts are kept inside the vault; and then we mentioned what would happen if we re-did the original Sex and Zen?
There were a lot of conversations about this, and then out of the blue we came up with an idea; why don’t we shoot it in 3D? But around three years ago it wasn’t feasible to do that here in Hong Kong; the technology wasn’t very sophisticated, and we didn’t know if there were sufficient screens to support the 3D format.
But we thought it was a good idea, so we started to research how we could put together the technical side, and how we could re-do the story; because the story was well written twenty years ago, but if we were going to do it again, we needed to re-invent, or introduce a new look and tonality for the film, according to the 3D format; so we introduced new characters, new story points, and a very… shall I say… a sophisticated role in art direction, and things like that.
“No-one has ever made anything like this.”
– Christopher Sun
Good Film Guide: So was 3D a format you really wanted to work in, or did you see it as a gimmick to get people to watch the film?
Christopher: I always wanted to kick-start my career with a Category III film here in Hong Kong [the Chinese rating for adult only movies] because i figured the erotic subjects and the violent subjects are really hard to contend with, so it’s a very challenging issue for both audiences, and producers, and even the director, because there is always some boundary that remains unwritten by the censorship board; there are rules and morality issues that we need to play around. So I figure it’s a big challenge for us, and I always bear in mind that if I’m going to kick-start my career I need to do a Category III film, and then it also came to our attention that the 3D thing is quite new to the audiences; especially since no-one has made anything like this. Of course there were talkings about a Korean producer going to produce the first 3D erotic film, which they didn’t actually shoot in authentic 3D; it was just converted; and we have the entire production shot in 3D, and the 3D itself played a very heavy role in the way we market our production, and this is the first time I think its also the first time for Hong Kong viewers, and viewers around the globe, to see a 3D film with such a subject.
Good Film Guide: You spoke about the censorship of the film there, and we know that a couple of the scenes in 3D Sex and Zen have been cut for release in the UK. What do you think about that, and the way the film has been censored across the globe?
Christopher: When we shot the movie, we knew it was at high risk from different censorship boards across different nations; different countries have different boundaries, different rules and regulations, and different morality issues that they have to look into; but when we shot the film we didn’t engineer it to fit any censorship schematics.
Afterwards it came to my attention that, now it’s about to be released in the UK, a scene or two has been shortened or cut away, and of course I think they’ve done some harm to the originality of the story, but that’s how things work, because there were people who thought that certain kinds of things weren’t appropriate to show the majority of the audience, and I think we have to play with it.
But on the other hand I think we’ve been blessed, because some 40 years ago even Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange was banned in the UK. I think in terms of graphical elements, our 3D Sex and Zen has outnumbered A Clockwork Orange; in terms of violence and sex scenes, we are pushing the limits, and I think that we are blessed with the end product that we have.
Of course I feel sorry that some scenes have been shortened or cut away, and I really hope that it won’t harm the integrity of the whole story.
“You get a lot of memorable moments when you spend two hours with Sex and Zen.”
– Christopher Sun
Good Film Guide: Did you ever expect a film that is so graphic, and has so many sex scenes, to be so successful? did you ever think it would go this far?
Christopher: Well I must say I was surprised, because when we first planned to do the production, it was entirely, 100%, a Hong Kong local production, and then in the middle of the production we have a lot of interview requests from international news agencies such as CNN, the American Press, and even the French people, with people coming from Italy, and India, and China, who all came to our set and visited us, and we knew that the production itself was drawing a lot of attention, but we never knew how that would affect the end product itself; but after it started getting a lot of controversial comments, and applause, we knew that was a good mix.
It drew a lot of people from across Hong Kong and Asia simply because 0f the title itself; Sex and Zen is very intimidating; a lot of people have a curiosity about the subject, and they want to see it, so when they go into the cinema and find out there is a lot of comedy, and action, and even quite graphic bits, but take out the story as a whole, they liked the way we told the story, and started to completely forget about the sex thing, because we aren’t doing grossly heavy sex, but using it as a crucial part of the story, and when it comes to the violence, that enriches the story, and the cruelty of our villain character.
Because our story took place during the Ming Dynasty; one of the cruelest times during Chinese history; where there was a lot of torturing, and a lot of things that you daren’t even imagine about human torture, those things are a good way to let the audience know why we did it that way; we tried to do the violence part mostly according to Chinese history.
Good Film Guide: So in your opinion the story, the comedy, and the action, is all as important as the sex?
Christopher: Of course! It plays a very heavy role, and I want to stress that 3D Sex and Zen itself is not just an erotic film; I always tell the audiences that we actually made an erotic-love-comedy; it’s a love/comedy with a lot of erotic images, and of course it’s quite graphic too.
To put it another way, people have gone to the cinema, taken two hours out of their lifetime, and most of them actually want to be entertained; just like I do when I go to an auditorium; so when we put together the story, the comedy part actually plays a huge role, and I really wanted to find a way to make the movie more relaxed and give the people a laugh.
I think the UK audiences may find our jokes and comedy quite silly, but I think it’s a good thing to have a bit of laughter in the cinema.
“In terms of graphic violence and sex, we outnumber A Clockwork Orange… We didn’t compromise for any censorship board.”
– Christopher Sun
Good Film Guide: Finally, what would you say to people who think that they can get enough erotic material free on the internet? Why should they go and see Sex and Zen?
Christopher: First, this is a movie we’re talking about; we’re not doing any hardcore subject matter; and there’s no way to match any of the hardcore porn that is produced in Europe; like the Italian, the German, and though I’m not going to say there’s a lot of porno made in the UK; if people want to go into the cinema and have a good look at any hardcore porn, there’s no way you can do it. So try to go into the cinema to kick back, relax, get entertained, and try to look at how we treat the 3D image in a Chinese way; the art direction is gorgeous, the way we tell the story is quite contemporary, and there are a lot of memorable moments when you spend two hours with Sex and Zen.
3D Sex and Zen: Extreme Ecstasy is out now, and playing exclusively at Odeon cinemas; where viewers get the chance to witness a film that was called “too outrageous” by the BBFC, yet made it onto UK screens with nearly all of its strong sex scenes remaining uncut.
You can find two more clips from the film, including the memorable “penis swap” scene, here.
