China goes wild for 3D porn film

Sex and Zen: Extreme Ecstasy is a world first, with technology that hopes to revive an ailing industry. But it is unlikely to be seen in full in the mainland

• Ben Child
• guardian.co.uk

Grappling with it ... Sexual content is cut for mainland audiences, for example from Ang Lee's Lust, Caution. Photograph: Supplied By Lmk
 
It is being billed as the world's first 3D porn film, a movie so salacious that Chinese audiences are reportedly flocking from the mainland to more permissive Hong Kong for the chance to see an uncut version. Sex and Zen: Extreme Ecstasy will open in the former British protectorate and Taiwan next week. The £2m Cantonese language film is an ornate fantasy with high production values, set at the kinky court of Ming dynasty ancient China. It is ostensibly based on the classic Chinese erotic text, The Carnal Prayer Mat, and follows a young man as he befriends a duke and enters a world of royal orgies and other sexual peccadilloes. The film is also a reworking of an earlier Chinese movie, 1991's Sex and Zen. Writer and producer Stephen Shiu told local media the film would feature some "very graphic sex scenes". He added: "It will leave audiences feeling like they are sitting right there at the edge of the bed." Sex and Zen's content means it is unlikely to be screened uncut in mainland China, though there are reports of tour groups planning trips to Hong Kong and Taiwan so that people may see it. Such a development mimics events in 2007, when mainlanders travelled to the island to watch an uncut version of Ang Lee's Lust, Caution, the Chinese cut having excised key scenes which left audiences confused and disappointed. Last year during the shoot for Sex and Zen, Shiu told Reuters "It's because it's forbidden in China, (that there) is so much enthusiasm in China for this film." He added: "Somehow when you're doing a 3D movie you always want to make an impressive image because the viewers ... are going to buy tickets with double or even triple the ticket price to get into a world they've never seen before. It's not just erotica, they want some 'wow factor'!" Sex and Zen stars one Hong Kong and two Japanese actors in the main roles and is directed by Christopher Sun. Some are predicting it could be the first of a wave of softcore 3D films, helping the industry to emerge from a period in which it has been hit heavily by free internet porn. However, the costs of shooting in the format have so far proved prohibitive. Nevertheless, Italian director Tinto Brass is said to be planning a 3D version of his notorious 1979 erotic film Caligula, and there are rumours of a 3D porn spoof of Avatar titled This Ain't Avatar XX.

The First IMAX 3D Porn Movie Is Here (Yes, IMAX 3D Porn)

From: http://gizmodo.com/

I can understand 3D porn movies at home, but IMAX 3D porn? Who wants to sit through two hours of explicit 60-foot tall 3D sex scenes, no matter how engrossing the plot could be? With other people around, I mean.

But that's exactly what Stephen Shiu is proposing for his 3-D Sex & Zen: Extreme Ecstasy, the first IMAX 3D pornographic film. An erotic fantasia set in a subterranean sex lair from ancient china. It's based on a classic Chinese erotic story called The Carnal Prayer Mat, the tale of a man who meets a duke that introduces him to a world of luxurious orgies.

The director says that the $3 million film, which is being produced in Hong Kong using IMAX cameras, will be explicit:

The sex scenes are explicit and sometimes violent, but the main theme of the story is love. There will be many close-ups. It will look as if the actors are only a few centimeters from the audience.

He claims that people don't want "just erotica, they want some wow factor!" I think he may be right, but I don't know how many people would like to watch a gigantic penis waving in 3D a few centimeters from their faces. Anyway, at least the 3D glasses will also serve as protection.

Whatever happens with this, I really want him to set cameras in the IMAX theater, just to see the reactions of crowd. [Reuters]

Send an email to Jesus Diaz, the author of this post, at jesus@gizmodo.com.

Chinese bride gets married in 1.4 mile-long wedding dress

A Chinese bride has made a bid for the record books when she turned up for her wedding wearing a 1.4 mile-long gown.

Zhao Peng, the groom, and his family spent over two months stitching together the trail of the dress to break the former Guinness World Record for the longest wedding dress which is 1,579 meters long displayed in Bucharest, Romania earlier this year Photo: BARCROFT

Aerial view of length of the train of a wedding dress Photo: REUTERS

More than 200 guests took over three hours to unroll Lin Rong's wedding train and pin on 9,999 red silk roses for her wedding, Xinhua news agency said.

Groom Zhao Peng said he wanted to challenge the current world record of 1,579 metres.

"Both the length of the dress and the number of silk roses pinned on the wedding dress can make history. But it doesn't matter whether I can successfully register it on Guinness," the 28-year-old railway worker from northeast Jilin province was quoted as saying.

Zhao said he had sent an application to Guinness World Records and would also send a video of his wedding with his 25-year-old school teacher.

Zhao Peng, the groom, and his family spent over two months stitching together the trail of the dress to break the former Guinness World Record for the longest wedding dress which is 1,579 meters long displayed in Bucharest, Romania earlier this year Photo: BARCROFT

Aerial view of length of the train of a wedding dress Photo: REUTERS

"I do not want a cliche wedding parade or banquet," the groom said, "nor can I afford the extravagance of a hot balloon wedding."

But even so, his family was initially not too impressed at the far from frugal 40,000-yuan (nearly $6,000) price tag.

"It is a waste of money in my opinion," his mother said. "Though I understand that he wants to show his love on the big day."

Lin Rong, the bride, laughed and cried at the romantic gesture.

Zhao said he was actually inspired by the world's record of the longest wedding dress made in Romania in April when he planned his wedding.

He bought the materials and asked his relatives for help in making the wedding dress by hand, which has taken three months to finish.

China Performs 13 Million Abortions Yearly

By AP

(BEIJING) — China performs about 13 million abortions every year, mostly for single young women who experts say know little about contraception, state media said Thursday in a rare disclosure of sensitive family planning statistics.

The China Daily newspaper said the real number of abortions is believed to be even higher since the 13 million accounts for procedures in hospitals but many more are known to be carried out in unregistered rural clinics. Also, about 10 million abortion pills are sold every year in China, the paper said. (Read "China's One-Child Policy")

It quoted Wu Shangchun, a government official with the National Population and Family Planning Commission, as saying that nearly half of the women seeking abortions in China had used no form of contraception.

China imposed strict birth controls in the 1970s, limiting most couples to just one child. Sterilization and the use of intrauterine devices, or IUDs, for women are widely promoted — and subsidized — forms of contraception for married women. However, the policy tends to overlook the contraception needs of unmarried women even as attitudes toward casual sex have dramatically liberalized. (See TIME's China covers.)

The report said around 62 percent of the women undergoing abortions were single and aged between 20 and 29 years old.

It called the widespread use of abortions "an unfortunate situation" but did not directly say whether abortions were on the rise. No year to year statistics were given.

Wu told the paper that reducing the number of abortions was a tough challenge facing the country.

Peking University professor, Li Ying, was quoted as saying that sex education needed to be improved at the university level and that Chinese parents also needed to teach their kids more about sex.

The government says its family planning controls since the 1970s — including contraception, sterilization and abortion procedures — have prevented an additional 400 million births in the world's most populous country of 1.3 billion.

About 1.2 million women have abortions each year in the United States, which has a population of just more than 300 million people.

See TIME's Pictures of the Week.

2yo Lights Up Cigarette And Smokes It.

WTF