China’s first sex-shop comedy?
Red Light Revolution
DVD Release Date: 13th February 2012
Label: Terracotta
Running Time: 91 mins.
Director: Sam Voutas
Writer: Sam Voutas
Starring: Jun Zhao, Vivid Wang, Xiduo Jiang, Masanobu Otsuka, Tess Liu, Huimin Tian, Ji Qing, Bing Bo
Shunzi (Jun Zhao) is a hard working cab driver who can’t afford to provide the life his wife Lili wants. After getting fired from his job for disobedience and thrown out of his house by his wife, he moves in with his mother (Ji Qing) and father (Huimin Tian). Living with his parents and dead broke things look bad but he has a brain-wave – open an adult toy shop. Unfortunately he knows nothing about the adult entertainment industry and winds up stuck with a supplier who turns out to be a violent gangster and a conservative neighbourhood watch that harasses him. Shunzi could lose everything but so could a gradually building customer base which means the game is on to save the shop.
DVD extra features:
- Directors intro
- Deleted scenes
- Audience Q&A’s at Terracotta Festival & Wuhan Film Club
- Making of….
- Featurette: Art Auction
The facts are pretty startling
1: Number of sex shops in Beijing in 1996
2000+: Number of sex shops in Beijing in 2010
1.3 trillion: Number of condoms made in China every year
70%: Percentage of world’s sex toys made in China
Shanghai: Site of the world’s largest sex expo
10,000 +: Number of sex toys companies in China
1: Number of feature films about these shops
So there’s a lot of smutty material to mine here but director Sam Voutas has aimed high by referencing the socio-economic backdrop and he has assembled a fine cast of actors including Masanobu Otsuka (the critically acclaimed City of Life and Death), Tess Liu (Karate Kid), Ji Qing (Gasp).
