Due West: Our Sex Journey

一路向西

Hong Kong, 2012, colour, 16:9, 3-D, 118 mins.

Director: Hu Yaohui 胡耀辉 [Mark Wu].

Rating: 6/10.

Over-long but okay sex comedy of a Hong Konger in search of action across the border.

STORY

Hong Kong, the present day. Xiang Xi (Zhang Jiansheng), who works in sales and marketing, takes the train across the border to Shenzhen, China, with his longtime friend Wang Jing (Wang Zongyao), who has always mentored his love-life. En route, Xiang Xi remembers his disastrous sexual history. Raised in a “model Hong Kong family”, with a domineering mother (Wu Lizhu) and hen-pecked father (He Huachao), he’s had one after another disastrous relationhip since his teens, starting with Japanese AV star (Jessica Kizaki) watched on a DVD while his parents were out. After that, came schoolmate Zoey (Mo Qiwen), his first girlfriend; Anglo-Chinese Margaret (Zhang Nuanya), while studying in London; air hostess Zeta (Guo Ying’er), who had a cleanliness obsession and checked her message board while having sex; and Shenzhen hooker Xiaoyu (He Peiyu), whom he met at a Shenzhen swingers’ club. After breaking up with him, Zeta had tried getting together again, but Xiang Xi found she still had the same hang-ups. Arriving by train in Shenzhen, Xiang Xi and Wang Jing meet an old Hong Kong friend, James (Hu Yaohui), who is now working in China, and they all go to the Washington Sauna for a night of sex. There, Xiang Xi picks Xiaosi (Wang Li Danni), a Mainlander who is going to change his life.

REVIEW

Produced by the same team behind 3D Sex and Zen: Extreme Ecstasy 3D肉蒲团之极乐宝鉴 (2011), and directed by its writer Hu Yaohui 胡耀辉 [Mark Wu], who also scripted softcore fluff Lan Kwai Fong 善爱夜蒲 (2011) and Lan Kwai Fong 2 喜爱夜蒲2 (2012), Due West: Our Sex Journey 一路向西 serves up what it says on the label. Despite being visually less lavish than its costume predecessor, and thankfully free of its sexual violence, it’s actually better directed. Hu, who also gives himself a jolly role as the lead’s chubby best friend, spends the first hour flashbacking over the nerdy hero’s klutzy sexual history (fairly standard Hong Kong boyish pranks, obsessed by breasts, porn and getting laid) before getting to the nitty-gritty when Our Hero, accompanied by his smooth sexual mentor (suavely played by Wang Zongyao 王宗尧), takes a train across the China border to get some life-changing action at a Mainland “sauna”.

The script is based on a collection of online stories, Due West: My Sex Journey 一路向西, published in book form in 2012, by pseudonymous writer Xiang Xi Murakami Haruki 向西村上春樹 (who apes the well-known Japanese novelist’s name), about cross-border sexual escapades by Hong Kongers in neighbouring Guangdong province. (The best-known story in the collection is the novella Epic Prostitution Report: Dongguan Forest 东莞的森林, though in the film the town of Dongguan is never mentioned.) It’s not the first movie to deal with the subject: the more lavish comedy, Men Suddenly in Black 大丈夫 (2003) by Peng Haoxiang 彭浩翔 [Pang Ho-cheung], also centred on wimpy Hong Kong husbands sneaking across the border for some action behind their wives’ backs. But anyone looking for more allegories about Hong Kong’s relationship with China will find a few here, especially in the way Our Hero is torn between his neurotic Hong Kong girlfriends (an air hostess with major sexual issues) and the practical, assured Mainland hooker he spends a toe-curling night with.

However, the main item on the movie’s menu is simply lots of t&a, lots of harmless softcore sex, and lots of juvenile Cantonese comedy, fairly well staged even if (like 3D Sex and Zen) over-long by at least 20 minutes. Zhang Jiansheng 张建声, who had supporting roles in 3D Sex and Zen and The 33D Invader 蜜桃成热时33D (2011), makes a likeable protagonist, underplaying the nerdiness, while mega-pneumatic Mainland model Wang Li Danni 王李丹妮, of Mongolian origin, brings some surprising pathos to her assured playing of Our Hero’s hire. Among the other babes, Hong Kong models Guo Ying’er 郭穎兒 and He Peiyu 何佩瑜 stand out for their lightly comic playing of the air hostess and a Shenzhen gold-digger.

CREDITS

Presented by China 3D Digital Entertainment (HK). Produced by China 3D Digital Entertainment (HK).

Script: Hu Yaohui [Mark Wu], Lin Feng. Story collection: Xiang Xi Murakami Haruki. Photography: Liang Ziming. Editing: Zheng Weilin. Music: Xie Guowei. Art direction: Yu Xinghua. Costumes: Xie Huixin. Sound: Wang Qingsheng, Ye Zhaoji. Visual effects: Legendtoonland. 3-D direction: Zhong Youtian.

Cast: Zhang Jiansheng (Xiang Xi/Frankie), Wang Zongyao (Wang Jing), Hu Yaohui [Mark Wu] (James), Mo Qiwen (Zoey, Xiang Xi’s first love), Jessica Kizaki (Japanese AV girl), Wang Li Danni (Xiaosi/Celia), Zhang Nuanya (Margaret), Guo Ying’er (Zeta), He Peiyu (Xiaoyu/Fish), Li Muqing (No. 211), Huang Aiming (No. 106), He Huachao (Xiang Xi’s father), Wu Lizhu (Xiang Xi’s mother), Zhao Shuozhi (Susan, Xiang Xi’s boss), Liang Yashi (Ze/Jackie, Washington Sauna manager), Tian Qiwen (Du Wen, Washington Sauna manager), Xue Lixian (young Wang Jing), Wu Jiayi (teacher), He Jiazhen (Zhen/Jane, Zoey’s friend), Xu Simin, Yu Mulian, Du Liyun (mahjong players), Sun Jialong (young Xiang Xi), Huang Guohua (policeman), Susan Ng (Wang Jing’s girl), Zheng Fenglan (prisoner), Liang Yunyi (barmaid).

Release: Hong Kong, 20 Sep 2012.

(Review originally published on Film Business Asia, 1 Feb 2013.)