Where are Hong Kong’s iconic 90s adult film stars today? Simon Yam will appear with Donnie Yen in Raging Fire while Sex and Zen’s Amy Yip traded the spotlight for the quiet life
- After starring in Category III erotic films with Hong Kong icons Carina Lau and Chingmy Yau, Yam made his Hollywood debut in a Lara Croft: Tomb Raider film
- Elvis Tsui trained in TVB alongside Andy Lau and Tony Leung but is now focusing on art, while Veronica Yip married New York bankrupt billionaire Jeffrey Wu
Flat Earth theory, internet challenges, kitten videos ... If you wonder where appealing to popular demand can lead, then look no further than the “Category III” adult entertainment trend rife in Hong Kong cinema of the 1990s.
The Category III classification was created in 1988 with the introduction of Hong Kong’s film rating system. Films under that rating are forbidden to any viewer under the age of 18, and are typically classified as such due to explicit scenes of sex and violence.
Then in 1991, Veronica Yip did the unthinkable. Experiencing tepid recognition as second runner-up in the 1985 Miss Asia Beauty Pageant, she ditched the respectable beauty queen career path and took part in Take Me – an erotic Category III film.
It was a huge commercial success, and filmmakers and producers began looking to other struggling mainstream actresses to star in similar roles. And falling prey to some kind of post-Deep Throat curiosity of forbidden fruit, the public was clearly intrigued, going to the cinema in droves to see normally conservative actresses undress to varying degrees on the silver screen.
But the trend ran out of steam just as quickly. Pornography is also illegal in mainland China, where local filmmakers were turning for greater profits, which also led to the dampening of the trend.
It wasn’t all for nought, though, as the soft-core erotica trend did launch a few careers – while causing collateral damage to some. Let’s look back at the familiar faces of that period and where they are today.
Veronica Yip
