A monk warns about carnal excess. The hero responds: 'hold my prayer beads.'
Before Michael Mak’s Sex And Zen became a cult favourite in the ’90s, there was Ho Fan’s Yu Pui Tsuen (The Carnal Prayer Mat, 1987). But without sex bomb Amy Yip, coarse humour or lesbian love affairs, Yu Pui Tsuen had to rely on the nudity and sex from his cast of relative unknowns to save the day. When a young man dreams that he drowns after a night of carnal passion, he asks a buddhist monk to translate the experience for him. The monk replies that the dream is a warning not to indulge the pleasures of the flesh to excess, but the man ignores his advice, marrying a virgin and making love to her constantly. However, after several torrid affairs, the man begins to realise the sagacity of the monk's warning.
Production
Dream sequence drowning shot with genuine arthouse ambition
Costume
Period robes that stay on approximately never
Writing
Buddhist monk dialogue written by someone who skimmed one book
Director
Ho Fan
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Pre-Amy Yip erotica proves Hong Kong's Category III existed before it had a name.
Ho Fan allegedly shot this in two weeks while Michael Mak was still planning Sex and Zen—race you to the prayer mat.
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