3D Sex and Zen: Extreme Ecstasy is a 2011 Hong Kong 3-D erotic costume drama film released in Hong Kong, South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand on 14 April 2011. It is a new installment of the Sex and Zen series, but more focused on drama unlike the comedic tone of the previous films.
3D Sex and Zen is essentially an adaptation of the classical novel The Carnal Prayer Mat depicting the sexual exploits of a young Ming Dynasty scholar named Wei Yangsheng. It is produced by Stephen Shiu, the executive producer of its predecessor film Sex and Zen. The film was promoted as "the world's first IMAX 3-D erotic film" and its cast includes Japanese AV idols.Laughing aloud, producer Stephen Shiu Yeuk-Yuen described the experience of watching this film onscreen: "It is just like [being a] voyeur near someone's bed."
The film is a Category III film as per Hong Kong rating and Stephen Shiu told that screening was likely to be blocked in Mainland China, a key market for Hong Kong filmmakers. Nevertheless, producers further announced that 3D Sex and Zen will be released in various versions in order to bypass censorship laws in some jurisdictions and allow wider distribution.In Australia and New Zealand, the film was screened by Hoyts and IMAX.
In 2011 Chinese New Year, T-shirts and 3-D mouse pads with portraits of the cast were sold at the Lunar New Year Fair in Victoria Park, Hong Kong.
Zoe Li of CNNGo gave the film a positive review, "I walked out of the first private screening of the softcore 3D Sex and Zen: Extreme Ecstasy never wanting to have sex again, not because the sex scenes were gross... but because its message of 'true love doesn't need sex' was so convincing", she confessed. On Simon Miraudo's blog, Simon suggested that the movie herald a new age in cinema.
Cast & Character 3D Sex and Zen: Extreme Ecstasy | 3D肉蒲團之極樂寶鑑 | 3D肉蒲团之极乐宝鉴
Yukiko Suo | Saori Hara | HAYAMA Hiro | Vonnie Lui | Leni Lan
However, Simon Foster of SBS Australia suggested the film loses steam along the way. He believes the thrill of the movies dissipates as the narrative turns nasty at the final 40 minutes cause by those multi-dimensional rape and dismemberment scenes. Daniel Rutledge of TV3 (New Zealand) sees the movie carries noble messages of love being more important than lust and true love not requiring sex at all, but those messages are muted by the shock of wanting a bit of naughty fun and instead getting something really quite nasty.Elizabeth Kerr of The Hollywood Reporter suggested that the road that the filmmaker took to tell the story of “All you need is love” is perplexing to say the least.
Reported by Russell Edwards of Variety.com, 3D Sex and Zen: Extreme Ecstasy took in US $351,000 (HK $2,790,000) on the first day alone, and beats Titanic and Avatar's HK$2.5 million opening gross in Hong Kong in 2009. It has earned HK$13,104,982 in the first 4 days after opening.
As of June 15, 3D Sex and Zen: Extreme Ecstasy has earned more than HK$40 million (over US$ 5M) in Hong Kong.
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