Sex & Zen II — Sex & Zen II( Blu Ray)
Appearing four years after the first film, Sex & Zen II is another period-set cinematic slice of sex comedy & fantasy- mixing softcore, raunchy/ at times bad taste humour, wackiness, light touches of horror, and general lush/ colourful look. Here from the fine folks at 88 Films, who reissued the first film last year (reviewed here), is a Blu-ray, taking in a high-def/ fully uncut print, a new commentary track, and a few other things.
Sex and Zen II ( Yuk po tuen II: Yuk lui sam ging) is a Hong Kong cat III production in Cantonese. It’s from the year 1996, directed by Man-Kei Chin, between the early 1990’s and early 2010’s, he had fifteen features to his name, such as downbeat war film 1941 Hong Kong on Fire (1994), risqué sex comedy Fruit Is Swelling (1997), and boarding school set horror The Haunted School (2007).
The film opens by introducing us to Sai-mun Kin (Elvis Tsui), a shaved-headed and moustachioed, sex addicted, rich man. He’s on a beach having both his member and testicle stretched/pulled in various manners.
We then head back to his large mansion/ palace, where he hits a different gong depending on which concubine he wants to sleep with. He has two grown-up children, Yiau (Loletta Lee), who is keen to get out of the mansion & study. And a metal/physically disabled son, who is the butt of some of the truly bad-taste/ unfunny moments.
Anyway, Yiau keeps pushing to go & learn- and finally, her father agrees, under one stipulation- she must wear a body covering chastity belt- it’s effective is demonstrated by Sai-mun’s Yes men- one goes to touch her buttocks- a blade spins chopping at his hand, the same happens when another tries to touch her breast, then the last man won’t be forced to put his member down below- so instead a carrot is used, and it gets well & truly mangled.
She goes off to be a scholar, which is basically an all-male affair, so she has to dress up to pretend to be a man. It’s, as you’d guess, a fairly sexually repressed place- where students line up for sperm spurting competitions- to get rid of their backlog. Anyway, she befriends Fa-tau (Tat-Wah Lok) a somewhat bumbling & nervous student- one thing leads to another, and his member gets managed.
As the film progresses, we see mechanical members installed. Female faces are replaced. There’s sweaty- budging butts & bobbing bobs intercourse, as well as long tentacle mauling’s/rapes. And a macho-man headed search for a shape-shifting female demon.
On the raunchy comedy side of things, we often sail close to knuckle, for example, in one scene, Yiau returns home to find her father trying to act normal as he’s been aggressively suck-off under the table.
The film is very well produced and shot with colourful set/costume design. The cast is all pretty good- though Elvis Tsui is clearly having the most fun, as the obnoxious/ loves himself, Richman.
All in all. I’d say this is a decent follow-up to the first film- I’d say there is less sleaze/titillation this time around, and more humour.
The HD scan looks good- with great definition and clarity throughout- with the flesh tones and colourful costumes/ backdrops nicely enhanced. The English subs are largely readable, with the Cantonese language and score mixed evenly.
There’s only one new extra on the disc- this is a commentary track from Hong Kong film expert David West. He talks about the books mentioned/ shown in the pre-credits. He chats about how genital conditioner is very real- as he has an early 90’s Kung Fu book, with pictures of a man dragging a stone roll to strengthen his testicles. He discusses how the film shows sex as a battlefield between men & women. He talks about the possible influence of legends/ stories on the film characters/situations. He points out, then chats about eyebrow make-up some of the men are wearing & the reason for it. We find out the film was released on 9th of May 1996 in Hong Kong cinemas, going on to play for four weeks. Later on, he gives a more in-depth bio on one of the lead actresses, comments on statues in the background of shots/ their relevance to the film's plot, and much more. All in all, a well-researched/ interesting enough track.
The finished release comes with a booklet with writing from Dr Calum Wadell, a single-sided/ uncensored poster, and o-ring packaging featuring new artwork by Sean Longmore.
I’ll have to say I was pleasantly surprised by Sex & Zen II- you’re never quite sure how sequels are going to shape up, but it was a most entertaining mix of comedy, softcore, and fantasy. Sure, it wasn’t as sizzling as the first film, but there still is some steam. This new 88 Films release features a nice HD scan and a worthy commentary track.