Naked Party

Director: James Cheung
Year: 2000
Rating: 6.5
Recently we have had Naked Weapon, Naked Poison II and now the film Naked Party sneaks into stores like a drooling peepshow pervert in a badly stained raincoat. As of late a number of Hong Kong films are putting the Cat. III label on their films as a marketing ploy to sell DVDs to unsuspecting buyers. Often the film turns out to be no more racy than a heated episode of one of those “reality” dating shows. That is definitely not the case with this one as it wallows in full frontal nudity and sexual situations. In fact when you pick up the DVD you may want to wear some plastic gloves or your hands may feel sticky afterwards. The film was made in 2000, but has just been released now (2003) on DVD – one can only conjecture where the film has been lying all this time – in some fetid dungeon or held up by some very jolly customs officials.
 

Now this is not necessarily a bad thing – in fact much of this film is perversely amusing and in fact down right interesting from almost a mondo-documentary point of view – but the fairly innocent picture on the cover, the actors and the blurb on the back doesn’t even begin to prepare you for what is contained within. So simply as a warning to those viewers with good taste – there is a lot of material in this film that many might find offensive of a sexual nature and other parts that are simply disgusting – if on the other hand you are a viewer with no taste (as I suspect many visitors of this site may well be!) – this could be right up your alley! Perhaps for some this is old hat – but I have to say much of it took me by surprise – but then I am clearly an innocent in these matters! After having seen films like A Chinese Torture Chamber Story I thought I had seen it all – but this only goes to show you that the old adage about truth being stranger than fiction is still relevant – especially in the world of sexual predilections. No – there is no flying sex here – but just about everything else most of us can think of and lots that never crossed my mind.
 

The film is saddled with a silly plot framework that is only meant as a way to exhibit the more sordid scenes in a matter of fact lighthearted manner and with a bit of tongue in cheek humor - wait that might be a poor choice of terms when talking about this film. Bessie Chan and Robert Siu are two reporters for a rag that is all about the sex scene in Hong Kong. Circulation is down and so their boss sends them to Tokyo to write about the sex scene in that city. At the same time the boss hires a young man to attempt to get into the Japanese porn industry and sends him off to Tokyo as well.
 

The two reporters arrive in Tokyo and begin a very in depth exploration of just about every nook and cranny, and every fetish and kink of the Japanese sex industry. And my uneducated guess is that most and perhaps all the sexual situations shown are based on the truth and that in fact many of the locations and people are real and a part of the sex industry. The two sexual fetishes that I have read about are certainly presented here – the soiled panties for sale (which I in fact witnessed in a vending machine outside of a 7-11 in Tokyo – no I didn’t buy them – way over my price range!) and the simulated subway molesting scenario that was featured in a New York Times article a while back. Those two though apparently only begin to scratch the surface of what goes on behind closed doors in Tokyo. Here are a few other tidbits to chew on – sorry another inappropriate expression for this film.
 

Our intrepid reporters visit a strip club of ex-porn stars, see two transvestites showing their hidden side, romp through the biggest porn shop in the world, go to a sushi bar where the food is placed on naked women and eaten by a roomful of men and witness a hostess bar where the girls rotate from customer to customer like a touchy feely merry-go-round. But that’s only getting started – throw in a lactating married prostitute, a cellar where customers are tied up and have hot candle wax dripped on them, see up close and personal (actually I turned away) a woman’s breast pierced for a ring, a gigolo bar, sex with a simulated corpse and a prostitute/manga writer demonstrate various roles she takes with clients.
 

And lets not forget the aspiring porn star – he meets an adorable young woman (Sakurai Fuka - a porn actress in real life) who needs to raise money quickly in order to go to school in America (a plot device from Bounce Ko Gals) and finds an unlimited number of men willing to buy her panties (in an auction), buy her urine, saliva and fecal matter, buy a replica of her . . er . . private domains. She finally joins the porn biz and gets a lesson in fellatio from a veteran porn actress. I may have forgotten a few things but you get the idea – and to think I have visited Japan a few times and missed all this! These various vignettes are all treated in a completely non-judgmental and straightforward way – almost like a tourist video except that instead of “to your right is the Imperial Palace”, we get “to your right is a fetish store dedicated to all things to do with tongues”. This may not be exactly your cup of tea or your cup of anything – but if you are going to Japan anytime soon you may want to check it out! Apparently a sequel is in the works in which two young women from Hong Kong go to Tokyo in search of their G-spots - called The Twins Take Tokyo.
 

(My thanks to M.C. Thomason - he informed me that this film is actually a re-titling of a film called Buttman Japan)