Sex is Zero
Director: JK Youn
Year: 2002
Rating: 4.0
Country: Korea
The film opens with about twenty-five young lithe college girls doing floor
aerobics in halter tops and tight shorts contorting themselves into positions
that are illegal in certain countries and perhaps a few southern states as
well. I, of course, immediately reached for my remote control to turn off
this hedonistic display of writhing taut bodies but sadly the remote was
a few feet away and so I had to continue to the next scene in which the girls
go to a swimming pool in revealing bikinis. Damn, that remote is so far away.
This is a voyeuristic paradise if that is your thing. Apparently, it was
in Korea and this was a huge hit. That I wasn't overwhelmed may be a sign
of my advancing age. This takes every teenage sex comedy in Hollywood and
doubles the gross out and sex factor. You want scenes of boys masturbating?
Once is not enough when you can have it throughout the film - always leaving
their dorm room door unlocked of course. Masturbating doesn't do it for you?
How about sex with a blow-up doll a couple times - again leaving the door
unlocked. There is actually real sex too with a surprising amount of nudity
for a film of this type.
The film focuses on Eun-hyo (the wonderful Ha Ji-wan) who is training for
the National Aerobics contest. Eun-shik (Chang Jung-lim) is secretly in love
with her. Eun-shik is the biggest schlub around. A complete dork. Twenty-eight
years old who is entering law school after being in the army. A nice enough
guy but with the mental capacity of a fifteen year old. We first meet him
when he is being initiated and has to drink from a large bowl of alcohol,
spit and cigarettes. The next morning when he wakes up smoke is coming under
his door - from bug sprayers - and he immediately assumes the building is
on fire and jumps out the window. From the third floor. Don't worry, if you
missed it, he does it two more times. He later accidentally eats a rat. Later
he picks up a sandwich lying on the floor and eats it. Needless to say it
has rat poison on it and semen which one of his friends masturbated onto
it. They chase after him to stop eating it and naturally end up in a room
where a guy is giving the blow-up doll the best night of its life.
And this being a Korean comedy it has its share of vomiting and hitting.
In fact, Eun-shik's hobby is with a group of friends who bang each other
over the head with sticks. A long time ago I probably would have found some
of this amusing - now it just felt tiresome. Really two guys masturbating
in a crowd at a sports event? Is masturbating the Korean National Sport?
You keep expecting Eun-shik to grow up and get the girl but he is an idiot
to the end. The film does take a melodramatic turn near the end when Eun-hyo
falls for the wrong guy and gets knocked up by him. Maybe I am being too
harsh on this film but a film with as many attractive girls showing their
figures to good advantage should not have bored me so much. Put it down to
age.
