Sex and Zen is not the kind of movie you watch to find out more about Zen. It s a softcore Hong Kong sex film that has been cleaning up around the world - it grossed more than $1 million in Italy - because it looks good, has a sense of humor, and contains positional variations so bizarre it should come with a health warning: Caution! Do not try this at home! The movie is based on a Chinese novel named Prayer Mat of the Flesh, written by Li Yu during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). It tells a cautionary tale about a man who marries a beautiful young bride, but still intends to sleep with as many other women as he can. His pursuit of lust leads him down the path of decadence and decay, while his hapless bride is taken into a brothel and trained as a sex therapist. It is inevitable that by the end of the film the two will meet again, and a sad lesson will be learned, but not before everybody has experienced a lot of sex and even a little zen.