FRANCE: Record-breaking 3D erotic film "3D Sex and Zen: Extreme Ecstasy" travels to Cannes Film Festival

Record ID: 334861

  • Title: FRANCE: Record-breaking 3D erotic film "3D Sex and Zen: Extreme Ecstasy" travels to Cannes Film Festival
  • Date: 17th May 2011
  • Summary: CANNES, FRANCE (MAY 14, 2011) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) PRODUCER, STEPHEN SHIU JR, SAYING: "James Cameron always say that: 'Oh my God, the producer and the director do not know 3D. They just convert from 2D to 3D and they don't know how to shoot a 3D movie and if this keeps on, 3D movies die'. We are not, we are planned to shoot all the shots on 3D and we well planned how to make it more 3D. I really hope that he can see it because many of the press or buyers after the screening, they all say: 'This is the best 3D I have seen after Avatar'." LIPSTICK ON NECK OF ACTRESS (SOUNDBITE) (English) PRODUCER, STEPHEN SHIU JR, SAYING: "Especially the South part of China, people come to Hong Kong to see this movie. They join a tour - 100 people or 200 people - they come to see the movie and have a dinner and then come back. This really amazes me."
  • Embargoed: 1st June 2011 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: France, France
  • Country: France
  • Reuters ID: LVA90UT2Q4V4V8ERQK7LIW7FUN6B
  • Story Text: No ordinary softcore erotica, "3-D Sex & Zen: Extreme Ecstasy" Hong Kong's first 3D erotic film is also one of it's most successful - even beating the territory's box office records set by Hollywood mega hit "Avatar" when it first opened.
    Seven simultaneous screenings in central Hong Kong were arranged for the premiere of the film to be released on the same day last April.
    The Hong Kong film has since attracted the attention of distributors across Asia and Europe.
    "We never thought it would be international success like this. Maybe it's all because a lot of Chinese people are residing across the world and they give inferences to their friends, too, so it's something that's over our head but we are enjoying it," director Christopher Sun told Reuters Television in Cannes.
    Sun believes that part of the film's success is that it has attracted an audience beyond the typical male dominated market.
    "Most of the time when you are speaking about erotic films, you always categorise it as a guy thing, but then, eventually, some female audience came into the theatre together with their boyfriends or husbands and then they find the story is very convincing for them so by word of mouth they tell their friends, their girlfriends, so we had to put up a ladies night in Hong Kong just to cater to female audiences to view our movie," he said.
    The movie has even drawn special tour groups from the more conservative mainland China who travel to Hong King just for the 3D experience.
    "People in China are more open-minded now - especially the younger generation are more open-minded to the subject of sex. And they are more willing to come into Hong Kong and even to other cities like Taipei to watch our movie," Sun said.
    "Especially the South part of China, people come to Hong Kong to see this movie. They join a tour - 100 people or 200 people - they come to see the movie and have a dinner and then come back. This really amazes me," added the film's producer Stephen Shiu Jr.
    Based on a classic Chinese erotic text, "The Carnal Prayer Mat," the 3 million U.S. dollar film follows a young man as he befriends a duke and enters a world of royal orgies and other sexual peccadilloes.
    Taking almost twice the time to shoot than conventional films and with a higher budget, more advanced equipment and elaborate lighting, the take-up of 3-D productions has been relatively slow in the erotic film industry despite early excitement at its promise.
    "James Cameron always say that: 'Oh my God, the producer and the director do not know 3D. They just convert from 2D to 3D and they don't know how to shoot a 3D movie and if this keeps on, 3D movies die'. We are not, we are planned to shoot all the shots on 3D and we well planned how to make it more 3D. I really hope that he can see it because many of the press or buyers after the screening, they all say: 'This is the best 3D I have seen after Avatar'," said Shiu.
    As the 3D formula has proven a success for the film-makers, a sequel is already being planned, and other producers have the same idea. Adult entertainment firm Hustler is reportedly working on a three-dimensional pornographic-spoof of the lithe, blue aliens in "Avatar," while Italian director Tinto Brass plans to film a 3-D version of his classic 1979 erotic film "Caligula," based loosely on the dissolute life of the Roman emperor.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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