3D Sex and Zen: Extreme Ecstasy review ★★★★

We are introduced to the Hayama Go as the garrolous but charming Wei Yangsheng and Tie Yuxiang (Leni Lan) as his patient bride. They fall in love over a painting but marry to find the their love life less than potent. It seems they can manipulate their brushes together but cannot make music and despite lots of practice, he climaxes far, far, far too early. As a result, he seeks the assistance of various denizens of desire, from the comic to the callous, so that he can learn the secrets of passion.

The first question many will ask of a film containing numerous nubile young stars is whether it is actually sexy. The answer is that it depends on your taste. It's one thing to pretend to ogle a body for the benefit of your friends, entirely another to truly enjoy what that body is doing. Much of the action is comic rather than enticing and once you're over the smirks, seat shuffles and wink-nudges that may come with seeing sex on the big screen, you will find yourself laughing along with Wei's fortunes rather than fantasising. There are, however, a few sections where the camera lingers so lovingly over the bodies of people who so genuinely seem to be in ecstasy that that it becomes incredibly erotic.

Nevertheless, being partly a teen comedy, the course of true love never runs smooth and there is a word of warning: Sex and Zen plays like a very strange cross between American Pie and last year's infamous A Serbian Film. On the comic side, there are some brilliantly imaginative body jokes that you will not see coming and which (thanks to the 3D) will poke you in the eye when you do. You will finish the film with a good idea of how it feels to be hung like a donkey.  
It is partly as a result of this 3D and the impressive photography that you can empathise with the characters because  you feel as though you are part of the action and in the adventure with them rather than it merely being an annoyance that breaks the cinematic forth wall in its zeal to show how amazing it looks.  

However, there are serioius undertones that will not sit as well with a sex and giggles audience in England. Being an exploration of the kaliederscope of sexual behaviours, the film does contain some scenes of extreme violence that audiences may find upsetting. These scenes show the sexual enjoyment of bodily pain and vivid rerepresentations of cruelty, mental and physical torture and death.

As a result, Sex and Zen is similar to Pinky films beloved of world-cimena connosieurs and yet this need not be a deal-breaker. Indeed, this film has an incredibly human feel to it and honesty, humor and lack of Americanised artifice may just turn more people on to the joys of subtitles.

Indeed, Sex and Zen's scenic variety may well be key to its success. It is great fun with proper money shots and gross-out humor as well as having 'grown-up' themes that stop it from feeling too lightweight as to stop the sex feeling real. Added to this is the overarching story that is plain, old fashioned sweet.