'I decided to take on the role of a stud to see how people react to it'

Sex. Now she has your attention here's what she wants to sell. Grace Quek, aka Annabel Chong, is determined to make her millions by capitalising on her claim to fame. In 1995, for the purposes of an X-rated flick titled The World's Biggest Gang Bang, the then 22-year-old set a record by having sex with 251 men in one 10-hour session. The event and the documentary it inspired gave her instant notoriety. But that was five years ago. How does Singapore's most prominent porn queen plan to prolong her stay in power? By peddling more pornography, of course. But this time Quek will mostly be behind the camera, directing. Among other things, the fine arts graduate from the University of Southern California will be making hardcore movies shot especially for women.

'Women want to see women on the screen that they can identify with and relate to,' she says. 'Instead of the big blonde girl with the big chest who looks fake and plastic surgerised [sic], I want to portray real women in real situations.' Pornography has become 'formulaic', Quek insists. 'It's done without much thought, as opposed to the films made in the 70s. Until someone is willing to make serious pornography it's never going to be taken seriously.' Not being regarded as a joke obviously means a lot to Quek, who, unfortunately, comes across as being as odd as she is outrageous, tragic as she is tough. Part of the oddness stems from the fact that she is obviously well-educated and intelligent (as well as being in the gifted students' programme in Singapore), she studied law at Cambridge University in the UK and undertook fine arts and gender studies in the US.

But while she spouts high-brow post-feminist rhetoric and argues that it can be empowering to behave like a slut, she presents a pathetic picture in the documentary that had audiences slavering for seats when it premiered at last year's Sundance Film Festival.

Sex: The Annabel Chong Story includes scenes from the Gang Bang video interspersed with vignettes from the life of Chong/Quek. It shows her attending college and explaining to classmates her interest in pornography, for example, and follows her home to Singapore, where she tells her mother why she has become so famous.

Sordidly fascinating, the documentary, however, does not adequately explain the motivations and mindset of its protagonist. One comes away feeling puzzled - not to mention a little soiled - having seen the 86-minute film, which fails in other departments as well. Apart from the haphazard film sequence, several scenes seem hammy and included only for cheap thrills. However, those seeking titillation will probably also be disappointed. One thing this documentary is not is a turn on.

But perhaps the failings have something to do with the fact that Canadian film maker Gough Lewis became intimate with his subject - literally. 'We got close during the process of making the film,' Quek admits. 'But the relationship didn't work out.' She is quick to point out, however, that she is less sexually active now 'than your average American'. Not that she has any catching up to do. Quek estimates that she has had about 110 male lovers to date ('plus a handful of women'), 80 of them during her record-breaking stunt in 1995. It seems these men were 'recycled' to help her achieve the magic number of 251 - double the previous record set by a prostitute in Amsterdam.

'It's all about marketing,' she says, laughing, and declaring that she began what has developed into a thriving cottage industry in the porn business. Gang bang-type events are apparently now all the rage, with women and men striving to outdo each other by setting records of the sort that would make most readers' heads spin. (Porn actress Jasmin St Claire broke Quek's record a year later by taking 300 men to task.) Having led a life of extremes, it is not surprising that little seems to faze Quek these days. From her cloistered existence in Singapore, she experienced for a year the beery life of an undergraduate in the UK, where she was gang raped.