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.
