Sex and the Emperor - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Sex and the Emperor



Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:

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Movie
Wow, there’s not much more I can say other than “wow”. I have read and heard about 1994’s Sex and the Emperor for literally decades, being labeled as one of the biggest bombs of 90s Hong Kong Cinema. It has blended heavy parts cheeky sex comedy (with a good amount of nudity), part political drama, and some really disturbing violence thrown in to round it all out. And frankly, the second I saw this come across my doorstep from 88 Films, I knew I HAD to check it out. But after viewing this debacle of Hong Kong’s “Category III cinematic boom,” I want my money back. And I watched this film completely free of charge.

The story follows Lee Lien-ying (See-Ho Leung), a half-castrated eunuch who is hiding the fact that his castration wasn’t really COMPLETE. His role in life is to be a eunuch to the emperor, and having to hide his little secret can be a bit “hard” at times (wink, wink). After becoming a servant to Emperor Tongzhi (Pounh Chong Soong), he follows the young lad around as he gets into all sorts of tawdry adventures as a hormone-riddled youth. And while he loves to get involved with the ladies, his favorite dalliance (turned romance) is with a chambermaid by the name of Guilian (Yvonne Hung Yung) that eventually turns sour when his controlling mother and her violent eunuch by the name of On Dahai (Stuart Ong) get involved.

What starts as a silly sex comedy (we have consorts who can do calligraphy with her genitals, random boobies everywhere, and of course hilarious sex scenes that are more parody than anything) turns nasty real fast, as we see that the Empress Dowager is a bit of a sadist who has imprisoned her husband’s favorite concubine in a clay jar, AFTER having chopped off her arms, legs, and eventually her tongue and eyes as punishment for being her husband’s favorite. And now she has her eyes set on making her son, Tonghzi, the emperor. But the young man’s lascivious nature leads him astray, to the point where his mother banishes Guilian from the palace before her son is completely overwhelmed by his hormones. Throw in some violence from the evil eunuch On Dahai, and soon Lee Lien-ying is tasked with the inevitable task of avenging the young prince and becoming the Eunuch that he has always wanted to be.

Wooooooooooooooooooooooooooow. That’s all I’m saying. I’m a forgiving sort of fellow when it comes to Hong Kong cinema, but this one is just too much. The humor falls flat 90% of the time, and it feels like a rip-off of 1980s sex comedies in Hollywood, just twisted into a bizarre Chinese fashion that makes zero sense whatsoever. The violence is so crazy and over the top that I actually started laughing at a lot of it (the end fight where On Dahai gets his comeuppance is so hilarious with all the bone breaks). But there’s actually a pretty decent tragic love story between the Emperor and Guilian under it all. But it’s so far buried under a metric ton of boobies, stupid humor, and ridiculous violence that it's hard to actually find any enjoyment in it.

I could see a better film if they forwent all of the sex comedy aspects and made this a fairly serious political drama, but as is, the film is a gigantic mess of incorporated ideas that just feel at odds with each other. At the end of the day, Sex and the Emperor is more of an odd curiosity that one sees simply to see just HOW bad it actually is. Not for any enjoyment as a film. The performances are uneven, the story insane, and the sex comedy aspect of it just plain odd. The best I can say about the film is that it has gorgeous costuming and set pieces. But that’s about it.




Rating: Not Rated by the MPAA




Video:
The new 2K restoration from the Original Camera Negative is pretty solid, I must say. It's a gorgeous-looking film with lavish costuming and spacious set pieces that rely on super hot colors to make this a very vivid-looking image. Reds and oranges are SUPER hot, leaning almost into neon shades at times, which is amplified by a very bright-looking image at times. There are other portions of the movie that are more dimly lit, and the colors tend to be a bit more tamed here. But that being said, we get a LOT of reds and blues and yellows that are just running stupid hot and vivid here, so things can sometimes look a bit soft and hazy as a result of the blooming.


Audio:
Once more we get a rather decent audio mix, but nothing spectacular in the slightest. The dual Cantonese and English tracks do the job, but they’re not exactly spacious or encompassing. The dialog is a bit harsh at times (though nothing as bad as The Haunted Cop Shop), but it’s a bit thin and dull, with some harshness mainly in the English track. The Cantonese track is a bit smoother, but feels less dynamic and full (for a 2.0 Mono track).


Extras:
• Audio Commentary by David West
• If this Castle A-Rocking – An Interview with James Mudge
• Hong Kong Trailer
• Image Gallery
• Reversible sleeve featuring Original Hong Kong Art

Final Score: ​

Sex and the Emperor is one of those cinematic abortions that is best viewed as an oddity of cinema. One that you use to gauge just how badly a film can do while still being shown theatrically back in 1994. Frankly, I wanted to at least love the film as one of those “so bad that it's actually good” ones, but I couldn’t even do that. At the end of the day, ay all I can say is that this is a film that I know I’ll never watch again unless it's in a film class. 88 Films has done a solid job with the remastered video, giving us the same “meh” audio as The Haunted Cop Shop and a moderate amount of extras to round out the package. My recommendation is going to be “watch at your own peril”.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Yvonne Hung Yung, Pounh Chong Soong, Gwan Chin, Stuart Ong
Directed by: Sherman Wong
Written by: Bing Cheuk
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 AVC
Audio: Cantonese: LPCM 2.0 Mono, English: LPCM 2.0 Mono
Subtitles: English
Studio: 88 Films
Rated: NR
Runtime: 93 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: October 6th, 2026

Recommendation: Watch at Your Own Peril

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