Lately a memory from back in my childhood has been sneaking into my consciousness. For context, my parents kind of only haphazardly monitored what I watched, and I saw my share (and your share and his share and her share) of late-night Skinemax while my parents either didn’t know or didn’t care. For those not familiar, “Skinemax” is a portmanteau of “skin” and “Cinemax,” the latter being a once-popular cable move channel that would show R-rated films late at night/early in the morning. Some of these R-rated films bordered on being X-rated – hence, Skinemax.
The movie cut corners almost comically. When the main guy realizes he’s about to get some, he slowly cracks a smile, revealing his stereotypically awful British teeth. That scene of him cracking that smile is used probably four times in the movie. literally the same scene every time, just recycled into the movie at various points. As an establishing shot, there’s a street scene in some Asian city (perhaps Taipei or Hong Kong) and again, the same scene (same cars, same pedestrians, same angle, etc.) is used multiple times throughout the film. Another oft-recycled scene involves a rich guy’s chauffer opening up the car door to let the rich guy out from the back; it’s used, same angle same dialogue same background etc., a couple of times. AND, the rich guy’s car is like a Buick Skylark or some other mid-range luxury model, and not a limo. And it’s a two-door, meaning that the chauffer has to move the front seat forward to let the guy out (you’d think a rich dude who can afford a chauffer can afford a four-door).
Sounds corny (horny?) as hell. I’d love to watch it. I can recall a few such films from that time period. As an aside one of the more popular cars in Japan is the Buick LaCrosse because of the spacious back seat. Of course they have 4 doors, though.
Cinemax launched on August 1, 1980–so you would have seen it after that.
As competition increased, Cinemax adjusted its programming strategy by including more adult-oriented films and launching the “Friday After Dark” late-night block in 1984.
The block typically featured erotic thrillers, softcore pornography, and other films with mature content. So there is a good possibility that is where you saw the movie.
ChatGPT thinks it’s Emmanuelle in Hong Kong (1977)
Blockquote It sounds like you’re describing Emmanuelle in Hong Kong (1977). This film is part of the Emmanuelle series, which is known for its erotic themes and low-budget, often comically bad production values. Emmanuelle in Hong Kong fits the description of being a British or European R-rated film with a focus on sexuality, set in an exotic location like Hong Kong, and featuring a plot where the female protagonist explores her desires. The mention of the lead actor having “stereotypically awful British teeth” aligns with the film’s casting, as many European actors of that era were often portrayed in films like these, with an emphasis on stereotypical, exaggerated character traits. Given that the film was likely broadcast late at night on cable networks like Cinemax during the late 1970s and 1980s, it would have been part of the era’s late-night erotic content.
Except IMDB doesn’t list an Emmanuelle in Hong Kong from 1977. It could very well be the original Emmanuelle that I’m thinking of.
For whatever it’s worth, I think ChatGPT is more right than wrong here. Based on what I could gather from IMDB and Wiki, it appears there are two official films in the Emmanuelle series, plus unofficial spinoffs or ripoffs or words like that. One of the two official films takes place in Bangkok, the other in Hong Kong. Both deal with women exploring their sexuality in an exotic foreign city, and both are known to have comically-bad production values. I’ll see if one or the other or both are available on-demand when I get home. I’m 99 percent confident one of those two is our winner.
The Emmanuelle movies I saw were all over-dubbed from French, so could you confirm whether not only were the teeth terrible but the lips not synching with the words? Production value was also reasonable for low-grade soft porn and so reusing footage and gurning for the camera don’t make it sound like an Emmanuelle film.
If it was, the official Emmanuelle canon is a lengthy one - 7 films. The one that mentions Hong Kong in its summary is the first sequel - Emmanuelle - Joy of A Woman, which was released here as Emmanuelle the Anti-Virgin, closer to its French title.
Exactly how much nudity was there? A bawdy comic farce like Confessions of a Window Cleaner, of which the Brits made quite a few would have been more than enough in the early 80s for a virginal young adult to commit self-pollution.
All of it. One particular scene I remember – and this, too, may be one of those scenes that was recycled several times – involves a burly dude feeling up our heroine and revealing one of her tits, and she doesn’t consent to it. One of those Sexual Assault But She Actually Enjoyed It kind of bits that’s not going to fly in a movie today.
I’m pretty sure this movie was serious, or at least as serious as it could be given its constraints. I don’t remember it being a “bawdy comic farce.” But I could very well be wrong.
Ah yes, Skinemax. I never had pay channels except for once, when a cable worker accidentally turned them on for all the apartments in my building.
Saw one film that had Kato Kalin(sp?), OJ’s houseguest, in it. He was some sort of mechanic that wasn’t just working on the car, but the owner as well.
I had the pay channels for about three months until someone else in the building had some cable work done, and they were all blocked again.
I watched the first Emmanuelle last night – well, about a third of it until I fell asleep – and that’s not the movie I was thinking of. I may well be remembering the second in the series, but I’m starting to doubt it, as the production values in this movie were significantly better than those of this smut film that I’ve forgotten. Still, if I can find it somewhere, I’ll watch Emmanuelle II tonight.
When Lily Allen released ‘littlest things’ I said to my wife that the piano music sounded really familiar to me. Looked it up and decided never to mention it again. It’s sampled from the score to Emmanuelle and must have sunk into my teenage brain.