You’re Just a Few Short Weeks From 3-D ‘Ecstasy,’ Extreme Style

Will Leitch
·Editor

We have no idea why we're sitting here right now, typing this to you: We should be at the Village East Cinemas, just a 25-minute subway ride from our apartment, watching "3-D Sex and Zen: Extreme Ecstasy." We had no idea it was so close. To think how many hours we've wasted already today, eating cereal.

To remind, "3-D Sex and Zen: Extreme Ecstasy" was a massive hit in Hong Kong, breaking all of "Avatar"'s box office records, proving that there are at least some weirdos on this planet who prefer sex to James Cameron. It opens wide on September 2, but if you want to watch a red-band, NSFW, jiggly trailer it definitely exists on the internet.

As amusing as seeing a 3-D sex movie on the screen next door to "The Smurfs" and "The Undefeated" is, it's worth noting that some aren't so amused. In Elizabeth Kerr's review of the film for The Hollywood Reporter, she points out, in a paragraph after one with the words "in-your-face boobies" and "floating schlong," that a couple of scenes late in the film won't play particularly erotic in the United States. (Or anywhere, we hope.)

After divorcing her husband for his dalliances, Yuxiang is raped by what seems to be a local handyman, sending her into her own miserable abyss. That she is raped is bad enough, but the fetishizing of it — really, just keep raping her and eventually she'll like it — is the real issue. Add to that scads of sexual violence against women (for the most part), endless torture devices (is that a vibrator or a giant drill bit Yuxiang is forced onto?) and Ning literally killing a woman with sex, the overall tone becomes intensely unpalatable.

Oh, yeah: That's why we were eating cereal this morning, instead. And why we just retched it back up.

Exclusive Red Band Sex & Zen Trailer [Empire]
You Should Probably Expect Some 'Sex & Zen' Protests [The Projector]