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Review

An unexpectedly hilarious and entertaining Korean flick clearly influenced by American sex comedies such as Porky’s, American Pie, Meatballs and the like. Sex is Zero has all the obligatory elements of the genre; gross-out gags, gratuitous nudity, raunchy humor, sex-obsessed dudes and lots of hot chicks. Disaster prone 28-year old Eun-shik just enrolled in the university where he doesn’t completely fit in. He joins a martial arts performance group and falls for beautiful, popular aerobics chick, Eun-hyo. Needless to say the feeling isn’t mutual and while his buddies hook up with Eun-hyo’s friends - our ‘hero’ is left to get himself into a series of ridiculously embarrassing situations - the worst has to be the consumption of a certain sandwich with a special ‘fried filling.’

Unfortunately about an hour into the film, things go from uproarious to sappy when Eun-hyo learns she is pregnant and the father wants nothing to do it. This gives Eun-shik his chance to prove his love by standing by her side. The abortion twist seems more than a little out of place in a film that revels in its sexual vulgarity and references masturbation more times than a safe sex pamphlet, but it’s not entirely excessive.

While the direction is fairly straight forward, the cast is tremendously enthusiastic and whatever they may lack in dramatic chops is made up for in sheer energy. The characters follow the traditional sex comedy blueprint - The guys are silly, shrieking dorks and the girls are oft naked and beautiful, if a bit haughty. Sex is Zero will appeal to any fan of '80s raunchy teen comedies, its '90s revivals or those who simply appreciate sexy Asian girls.

 -- PJ