Wednesday, January 16, 2013

CHINA AND SEX (1994) directed by Joe D'Amato

"I feel... like volcanoes burning inside me. All its fire is about to erupt. It's about to gush out of me... a river of hot lava!"

I can save anyone that is not a hardcore fan of either director Joe D'Amato or a worshipper of Chinese nipples a little time right here. CHINA AND SEX may not be for you. However, this is a nice piece in the later career of D'Amato as he moved away from Filmirage cheap shockers such as CRAWLERS and into his final and ultra-prolific career as a full-time porn maven.

I'm a big D'Amato fan and I do enjoy Chinese breasts with large nipples.

I'm the target market of this MYA DVD release...and if you continue reading, then you are too.
CHINA AND SEX opens as a wealthy man (Marc Gosalvez) enters the tea house of MME. SHU looking for a little downtime and fleshy delight. Well, he finds it  alright – but this is a case of "look and don't touch" as he quickly falls under the spell of Tama (Lora Luna) and her mystic dances of lust. He can buy any woman in the place, with the exception of her.  And he wants her.  Tama only gives herself to those she chooses...

Gentleman, if you ever think you have worked hard to get to the golden triangle of feminine pleasures, this film will prove that it could have been much, much worse. Forget dinner and a movie, this woman wants to push you beyond all endurance. For the next 70 minutes or so Tama teases our man until his penis pretty much explodes with all the fury and eroticism of synthetically-produced pseudo-Asian rhythmic fucking music that crawls across the soundtrack. She masturbates and forces him to watch. ARGH! She makes him watch her with another man. ACK!  She even ties up and blindfolds him, leaving her honeypot resting delicately on the tip of his nose... and no honey for this Panda Bear is in sight until Tama shoves her whole hand in his mouth!!  FAAAAAAAAAAACK!

And she even whips out this line while combing the delicate pubic region of her wonderful body... "My fingers, caressing the swamp of your oblivion." Now, I sure do love giving a woman all my attention, but that line might make me do a spit take while getting down to business.

The film really picks up at the end, though the pace may be too slow for non-sexploitation fanatics, as our man goes through some final trials that have him murdering a man just to get close to Tama. And... and... well, I don't want to spoil the big D'Amato shock scene, but it is graphic (a totally awesome sound effect really SNIPS it home) and is preceded by the line, "Let me placate the flames of your virility with this ointment."  Yep, he can't feel his wand of flesh... and there is a knife in Tama's bed. SQUEEEEE!

A little twist ending will make you smile as the nature of angels (!!) comes into play... And I loved every second of that.

As horror really petered out, D'Amato (directing here as Robert Yip) followed his already well-established nose right back to the Peter Popping cinema of sex and eventually cranked through a horde of mostly interesting porn films. CHINA AND SEX is part of a series of films shot to appear to be Hong Kong films, though I'm not sure what the motivation was. The movie is in Italian and the dubbing crew sound very familiar if you know the porn years at all.  There are others featuring this cast, including CHINESE KAMASUTRA, THE HOUSE OF PLEASURE, THE LABYRINTH OF LOVE (both of which were released to DVD as a part of the 11 DAYS, 11 NIGHTS films in the UK) and TALES OF THE RED CHAMBER.

I find these films fascinating, because even though Filmirage was known for soft-core cable filler like 11 DAYS, 11 NIGHTS and HIGH FINANCE WOMAN (amongst others), CHINA AND SEX feels different.  It calls forward to the streamlined, almost video shot look of many of the adult films to come and doesn't shy away from the tough edged sleaze of earlier D'Amato films with some crazy limb hacking that could fit into EROTIC NIGHTS OF THE LIVING DEAD.  I'll certainly be watching more of these films.

Also notable is that CHINA AND SEX really resembles one of the soft variants of the various D'Amato porns that would follow; it could have been hardcore with ease, but D'Amato works with what he has and jerks out a completely acceptable film that will leave you as erect as Tama's nipples, but softer than an Italian noodle pretending to be Chinese when you see what she has in store for her lovers!!

The MYA DVD is acceptable, though I'm going to wager there aren't fantastic elements laying around for these films. Standard 4:3 framing, sort of washed out, but if you are still reading this review then I'll bet you care about that as little as I do.  To have these films on DVD and easily available is a miracle to the few that want them.  A trailer is included and features almost all the good shots in 2 minutes.

2 minutes will work for some and the full feature for the truly insane EuroSex fanatic will satisfy your every need in sleaze!  It's a Fortune Cookie Dialog Dumpling Dripping With Sleaze...  CHINA AND SEX will please.

Now I'm off to dig up all the other films that have led me to term this... JOE D'AMATO, THE HONG KONG FAUXEY YEARS.  He's my number one super guy... HYAAAH! – David Zuzelo

David Zuzelo is a full time father, part time Joe D’Amato Porn Excavator and non-stop Media Mangler. He has been writing about stuff for over a decade online and you can peek into his slightly unhinged brain by pointing your webmind at David-Z.blogspot.com. Print-oriented readers can pick up his co-authored book TOUGH TO KILL: THE ITALIAN ACTION EXPLOSION or just try and find some of his comics work in ZOMBIE TERRORS or A.K.A. if you dare! Lamberto is his favorite Bava. David is also a regular contributor to ER (print and on-line) and Weng's Chop.

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