WE'VE come a long way, baby. These days, the ''made in Hong Kong'' tag on a film is seen by those overseas as a sure-fire guarantee of street credibility. Especially in the United States, directors, buffs and the faces in the crowd are impressing their peers by speaking knowledgeably and enthusiastically about the latest offering from John Woo or Tsui Hark.
The only trouble is that as Hong Kong-made films graduate from minor festivals to commercial release, overseas audiences are being showered with some of the territory's less-than-inspired efforts.
Here are two responses by respected American critics to recently-screened Hong Kong productions Sex and Zen and Black Cat.
Dave Kehr, New York Daily News, on Sex and Zen : Like much soft-core porn, Sex and Zen is less about sex than about sexual anxiety. Directed in a garish, discontinuous style by Michael Mak, the film purports to be based on Li Yu's 17th-century novel The Carnal Prayer Mat, identified as a classic of Chinese erotica.
This particular classic concerns a young student of Zen (Lawrence Ng) who fears his physical equipment is too diminutive to satisfy the many women in his life, including his virginal bride (Amy Yip Chi-mei). So he arranges to have a travelling acupuncturist replace his organ with that of a horse.
Thus refitted, our hero is free to disport himself with all the women who cross his path. Some of the couplings are hilariously athletic; others are of the kitschy, soft-focus style. None of the lovemaking, however, seems particularly warm or intimate.
The poorly translated subtitles add an extra level of camp to this forlorn exercise.
