Hong Kong film hopes to break new ground with 3D porn

On the leafy fringes of Hong Kong in a shabby film studio, a nude pony-tailed actor stretched out on animal skins with his lover as the cameras rolled in a set evoking a subterranean sex lair in ancient China.

Turning away from a slightly blurred high definition TV screen as the actors writhed, director Christopher Sun shouted "Cut!" whilst yanking off his 3D glasses. "Good!" he yelled.

No ordinary porn flick, 3D Sex & Zen: Extreme Ecstasy is being touted as the world's first IMAX 3D erotic film.

First out of the gates, the soft-porn Hong Kong film comes as the stricken industry, hit hard by free internet porn in recent years, turns to 3D as a potential money-spinner, following the success of Hollywood blockbusters such as James Cameron's Avatar.

"Somehow when you're making 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," said the UK-educated Sun.

"It's not just erotica, they want some 'wow factor' too!" he said. Based on a classic Chinese erotic text, The Carnal Prayer Mat, the $3 million film follows a young man as he befriends a duke and enters a world of royal orgies and other sexual peccadilloes.

The producers are hoping the erotic period drama will prove a titillating hit with 3D glasses-wearing audiences and help develop a lucrative, niche film market.

"It's because it's forbidden in China, [that there] is so much enthusiasm in China for this film," said filmmaker Stephen Shiu, who was responsible for the original 1991 erotic film Sex and Zen, which grossed over US $2.6 million and held the mantle as the city's highest-grossing adult film for over a decade.

Taking almost twice the time to shoot than conventional films and with a higher budget, more advanced equipment and elaborate lighting, the takeup of 3D productions has been relatively slow in the porn industry despite early excitement at its promise.

"We have to change the lenses frequently, the setting, lighting; we need more time than a normal movie," said Japanese porn performer Saori Hara after completing a scene.

Despite this, other major 3D sex flicks are now reportedly in the making. Adult entertainment firm Hustler is reportedly working on a 3D porno-spoof of the lithe, blue aliens in Avatar, while Italian director Tinto Brass plans to film a 3D version of his 1979 erotic film Caligula, based loosely on the dissolute life of the Roman emperor.

The Hong Kong film has attracted the attention of distributors across Asia and Europe. "The sex scenes are explicit and sometimes violent, but the main theme of the story is love," said Sun, the director.