Shocking Asia

Erwin Halletz Director: Emerson Fox Emerson Fox

Overview

Mr. Fox offers this collection of grotesque Asian scenes.

Product Details

Release Date:	07/18/2006
UPC:	0018619098646
Original Release:	1975
Source:	JEF FILMS
Region Code:	A
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Stereo]
Language:	English
Time:	1:34:00
Sales rank:	43,488

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Erwin Halletz

Composer

Technical Credits

Emerson Fox

Emerson Fox

Director,Screenwriter

Editorial Reviews

This German/Hong Kong-produced "mondo" documentary sent grindhouse audiences screaming for the exits with its most notorious scene, an unflinching depiction of a sex change operation rendered with a power drill. Otherwise, it's a fairly tame look at unusual customs and practices on the Asian continent, including fakirs, Japanese S & M clubs, erotic temple art, and prostitution. The dual narrators -- one providing straightforward (if obtuse) commentary, the other offering a running critique -- neatly encompass the xenophobic underbelly of the mondo film's relentless voyuerism: they cast a cold light on the most unpleasant aspects of foreign cultures, and then ridicule them for how "different" they are, thereby justifying the viewer's superiority. Director Emerson Fox is actually German actor/writer/director Rolf Olsen, whose eclectic CV includes the 1975 mondo Journey Into the Beyond: The World of the Supernatural, as well as several action and exploitation titles. Olsen also directed Shocking Asia 2 (1986), but left 1995's Shocking Asia 3 to a Hong Kong company (Olsen died in 1998). Running times vary, due to numerous international edits; the Magnum Video VHS version, long a staple of independent video stores, and often paired with 1975's Mondo Magic (the two were packaged together in a "Shock Box") runs 80 minutes.