Re: Top-Ten erotic movies/ a story about watching "gia su'c" film

[AnHai Doan <anhai@cs.washington.edu>]

On Wed, 14 May 1997, Thanh Dang Nguyen wrote:

> > 1) Number 1 erotic film: "In the realm of the senses", Japan. Lo+.n cu.
> > This film created a huge controversy when it was first introduced. It was
> > then banned in Japan, I believe ...
> 
> I don't see any reason why you have to comply with the popular concensus.
> We're talking about *your* Top-Ten, right? 

Hi Thanh, hmmm...I am a conformist :-).

>As far as I am concerned, I
> found the movie disgusting and dirty

Hey, sex is not dirty, unless it is done well. :-)

Luckily, it's not me who thought up this statement, but Woody Allen.
So according to Mr. Allen and you, the film is good from the sex point of 
view. Not many erotic films can claim that. :-)

>Maybe the movie is
> not bad (I mean it does have artistic values), but the sex scenes
> are too much specific and look like tortures. I admit that it was
> controversial by revealing many sex taboos in Japan, but it simply
> didn't work for me.

I think the film tries to show that not only romantic, platonic, and other
-ic kinds of love, but physical love could also be extremely intense and
strong (vulcanic, to use vnsa's dialect). In fact, this physical love (the
desire to possess and be united with the other body) could be so strong that
the girl had no other choice than to kill and mutilate the guy (GUYS, BE
CAREFUL!). The film manages to handle this "sensitive" topic very well, 
with very convincing character plays (i.e., dirty sex :-) ), and never strays
over to the realm of banality. This, coupled with the originality and
inherent controversy of the topic, made the film an award-winner and
interesting film. 

BTW, the film is based on a true story about one lover's killing and 
mutilating the other in the postwar Japan.

Some would consider the film only as a hard-core porno, but that's fine 
too. :-)

> In this aspect, I prefer "Lady Chatterley's Lover". But altogether it's
> really difficult for me to set up any Top-Ten erotic movies, since
> I never get interested in it. BTW, I guess we need to have a clear
> definition of "erotic movies", since there are thousands and thousands
> trashy movies out there that simply exploit eroticism, exploit our
> unsuspected eyes and unconcious brains. It seems to me that they can't
> sell a movie these days without some nude scenes featuring some sex
> bombs (Sharon Stone, Kim Basinger, Demi Moore, and the list goes on).
> I hate them all! (strictly my personal taste.)

Hey, relax :-). Compiling the top ten is just for fun. I am also trying to
diversify vnsa topics here. :-) Besides, as I said, it may be of practical
value for some vnsa members who haven't been abroad as long as us to be
adequately and accidentally exposed to the decadent Western culture. :-) 

I don't know how we should define erotic movies, but know how to choose the
top ten. The top-ten erotic movies should consist of those films we deem
*interesting*, from whatever point of view. Oh, by the way, it should also
contain some "nghe`o qua^`n a'o" scenes. :-)

Kim Bassinger is fine. Sharon Stone looks nice in "Basic Instinct". Demi 
Moore, hmm.., very "duy y' chi'" face. Any good film involving her 
except "Ghost"?

> FYI, the famous song in "9 1/2 Weeks" was sung by Joe Cocker (I think
> the title was "You Can Leave Your Hat On"). I remember watching the
> video clip of this song on Hungarian TV many times which features some
> footage from the well-known striptease scene in the movie.

Thanks, Thanh. I saw this videoclip in Europe, too.

Speaking of Lady Chatterley, I remember this funny story from my early 
time in Hungary.

I just arrived in Budapest, and it was September or October, I believe. We
spent on average 6 hours a day studying Hungarian, and the rest relaxing and
exploring Budapest. People watched a lot of "gia su'c" and "chu+o+?ng" films,
probably because they don't require any language skill to be understood. :-)

Remember the film rating system in Hungary?  "Mo^.t sao, hai sao, la.i ba
sao...", the more stars, the more violent and nudity scenes. And "Lady
Chatterley's Lover" was rated four stars, the highest number of stars a film
can get. So one starry night, I sneaked out via the backdoor with two other
Vietnamese friends. Hey, artistic films are, after all, not for the mass,
they should be enjoyed in a small circle, right? We took trams and bus and
all sorts of public transportation means to get to this small movie theatre
at an isolated corner of Budapest. It was the only one showing "Lady
Chatterley's Lover" at the time. 

We got to the movie theatre about 10 minutes late, it was dark inside, and
the film already started; but we managed to get a good seat and understood
most of the film. Frankly, I didn't (and still don't) like the film, I was
thinking at the time "Phew, disgusting, how could the white folks make such a
decadent film"? :-) Anyhoo, the film ended, the light was turned on, I heard
a lot of familiar voices; so I took a look around and...ooh la` la, why there
are so many Asian faces in the room? Hey, isn't this my Vietnamese student
neighbor at the dorm, and that an esteemed "lo+.n con" candidate, who just
came to Budapest together with me? Surprised voices everywhere "Hey, La^m, is
that you?", "Hey, Tie^'n, what are you doing here?", "Ah, ba'c Thanh, you
said you had to go to the library tonight...". Hihihi, hohoho, hehe...I
heard laughing everywhere. :-) It turned out that many out of the 40 or 50
Vietnamese students and "lo+.n con" candidates who arrived in Budapest that
September were there, in the theatre; though certainly they didn't arrive at
the same, and didn't expect to see acquaintances. :-)

Later, we agreed that there was nothing surprising or unusual in this story.
We are the best and brightest, after all. So we all have great minds; and
great minds always converge and agree on major things (n~ ta^m ho^`n lo+'n
ga(.p nhau o+? mo^.t ddie^?m :-) ). And art is such a major thing, isn't 
it? :-)

Cheers.
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