Reviewer's Rating 3 out of 5 Ìý User Rating 4 out of 5
Sex and the Emperor DVD (1994)

A young heir to the Imperial throne falls for a pretty chambermaid, only for her to be sold into prostitution. Setting out to find her he leaves no brothel unturned in this steamy Hong Kong drama, now out on a suitably spicy DVD.

The disc features two versions of the film: the bleary fullscreen English dub, or the anamorphic widescreen Cantonese version with subtitles. The latter is by far the better choice, with a fairly sharp picture offering good detail and, er, suitably good flesh tones.

Both 2.0 mono mixes are a little faint, but do the job quite adequately.

Rated as a Category III movie in Hong Kong (their equivalent to our R18), this is one of the better examples of a local genre that kicked-off in the late 80s. The history of these popular Cat III films is broken down in an excellent essay extract, included on the disc.

Hong Kong's answer to Roger Corman, Wong Jing, has produced plenty of these features including "Satan Returns", which is listed in an extensive filmography available on the DVD. If the naughtier stuff doesn't appeal, then one of Jing's more mainstream action efforts like "City Hunter" with Jackie Chan is worth checking out instead.

Trailers, a small stills gallery, and animated menus finish off this alluring offering from Hong Kong Classics - a label that is increasingly improving the quality of their releases.

Chapters: 13
Region: 2
Ratio: 1.85:1 (Anamorphic)
Sound: Dolby Digital 2.0 (Mono)
Extra Features: Scene selection, two trailers, production stills, cast and crew biographies and filmographies, 'What is Category III?' essay extract, animated menus, multiple languages, subtitles.

End Credits

Director: Sherman Wong

Writer: Sherman Wong

Stars: Yung Hung, Sung Poon-Chung

Genre: Drama, World Cinema

Length: 92 minutes

Original: 1994

DVD: 23 April 2001

Country: Hong Kong