Viva Erotica (1996)

An ode to artistry and perseverance

For a film which revolves around sex, Viva Erotica doesn't feel the least bit sleazy or grimy, instead offering an electrifying meta-filmic takedown of both the absurdity and sensationalism of the world around Category III filmmaking. It throws out the window any typical expectations you have, delivering a provocative satire that pokes fun at the film industry while celebrating the people who keep it running. It certainly helps that the film has a tremendous spirit of style with some wonderful direction and photography, plus a terrific sense of humour, with its tongue firmly in cheek, featuring witty dialogue, cheeky references, and guest cameos that ground the film in a slightly offbeat existence. The different styles reflecting different moments, within its realm of porn, there's a lot more colour and movement, but it slows down when it's brought back to reality. It dips into the classic retrospection of filmmakers, moving flawlessly from moment to memory and back again, while thriving on capturing the typical heart of low-budget indie cinema, just with extra nudity and sex thrown in. Leslie Cheung gives a great performance, tackling his role with abandon, embodying the turmoil an artist endures when his ideal must be compromised to meet the reality of the market. He's flawed, but in a very natural and relatable way, as people can't always make the right decision at every turn. All the while, Shu Qi is doing a parody of bad porn acting, resulting in cinematic gold. It helps that they're backed by a fantastic support team, a mix of different personalities who all have something to add, originally out digging into artistic integrity but evolving into becoming a family and together, trying to create something great. Although at times, Viva Erotica seems precisely like the soft-core sex flicks it's trying to skewer, starting with a literal bang with one of the most enthusiastic bonking scenes ever witnessed, yet it all comes together in a surprisingly heartfelt examination of filmmaking, artistic compromise and the struggle to survive in a commercial entertainment industry.

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