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Released by: One 7 Movies
Released on: 1/11/2011
Director: Joe D'Amato
Cast: Georgia Emerald, Gloria Chen
Year: 1993
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The Movie:
Say what you will about the late, great (?) Joe D'Amato. The man gave us moody and atmospheric films like Anthropophagous, bizarre XXX track like Erotic Nights Of The Living Dead and gory gut wrenchers like Buio Omega. He made hardcore porn and softcore erotica, he made action films and sci-fi films, cannibal movies and the notorious Black Emmanulle films that brought Laura Gemser to near and dear to many of our hearts. He made a lot of different kinds of movies, and they always looked great - but often times, as is the case with Chinese Kamasutra (the reason we're all gathered here today), they're weren't all that good. Interesting, sure, and sexy, quite frequently, but not really all that interesting once the superficiality wore off. But they did look good. You've got to give him credit for that.
So yeah, Chinese Kamasutra - where do we start? The drop dead gorgeous Georgia Emerald (who didn't ever appear in anything else, if the IMDB is to be believed - and in this case, it might be) plays a stoic and snooty English scholar and librarian type named Joan Parker. She takes a job at a Chinese library where, if the title didn't already clue you in, she coincidentally finds herself leafing through a copy of the Kamasutra. As she works her way through the pages, her mind starts to wonder and her fantasies begin to mix with the words and illustrations on the pages in front of her, which allows D'Amato and his crew to show off a few scintillating set pieces, most of which thankfully allow Ms. Emerald to appear in various states of undress.
While Joan's getting all hot and bothered by the book, one of her co-workers is making eyes at her and hoping that the time will come soon when the two of them will be together. Joan's really not all that interested, however, things start to change when she walks past a haunted house and a weird dude starts spying on her. Before you know it she's in the clutches of a sexy cult, the very same cult that helped write the book she's become so enthralled with in the first place!
You'd think a film with as many wanton orgies, dildo wielding cult leaders and sexy naked ladies as this one has would be ranking pretty high on the ol' R!S!P!-O-Meter but sadly, D'Amato loses interest in this picture almost as quickly as his cast members do. You can almost see the extras in the copious sex scenes yawning and checking their watches and while the ubiquitous Ms. Emerald is a captivating presence in the physical sense, she, like everyone else in the film, is hurt pretty bad by the atrocious dubbing job inflicted upon the film for the export market. It might play better in Italian, but we won't ever figure that out with this release (see the next section for that).
D'Amato's picture, like many of Joe Sarno's films, stops just short of heading into hardcore territory but it certainly leaves very little to the imagination. Moving aimlessly form one set piece to the next the script feels like it was put together at the last minute to sew some ideas that don't really fit together into some sort of screwy cinematic tapestry, but sadly it all starts to unravel before the half way point. But hey, it's a Joe D'Amato film, right? Right. It's got a few weird set pieces that keep it from being a complete bore and plenty of naked ladies. Naked ladies count for a lot, particularly when they're built the way they are here, and as pointless as all of this is (and it really is pointless), at least it looks good. Say what you will about the late, great (?) Joe D'Amato… but at least his movies always looked good.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Chinese Kamasutra arrives on DVD courtesy of One 7 Movies in a tape sourced non-anamorphic 1.66.1 widescreen transfer that is, to be honest, pretty weak. As far as tape sourced transfers go, this one is fine I guess but it obviously suffers from the limitations of its source material so expect consistent softness and color fading throughout. The aspect ratio looks right, which is always a plus, but the image quality here isn't particularly exciting.
Audio options are offered in English and Italian language Dolby Digital 2.0 tracks, though surprisingly there are no subtitles of any kind provided - so don't choose the Italian track unless you speak the language, or you'll wind up rather confused. The quality here is on par with the video - it's listenable, there aren't any serious problems to report (outside of the missing English subs, which is a big one) and it gets the job done but you won't be writing home to your mother when the movie is over telling her how badass this one sounds.
As far as the extras go, aside from a static menu screen and chapter selection there is a single deleted scene, also tape sourced and presented dubbed into English, which runs just under a minute but which fails to add much of interest to the feature itself. No trailer is included, unfortunately.
The Final Word:
Moderately steamy and beautifully shot, Chinese Kamasutra is probably best left for Euro-sex enthusiasts and D'Amato loyalists rather than casual and curious viewers, but it does offer up enough interesting cinematography and odd set pieces that, hey, on a slow day, it's worth a look. One 7 Movies' DVD is obviously sourced from a tape and that's a problem, but it's watchable, if still disappointing and while the lack of any substantial extras is no fun, there is that single deleted scene which is better than nothing. It's kind of tough to justify the $29.95 MSRP though…
