The 33D Invader

Though the 2011 Hong Kong sex film 3D Sex and Zen: Extreme Ecstasy became a massive hit and an international talking point, the sci-fi sex comedy The 33D Invader released later in the year fell far short of its predecessor’s box-office grosses. The 33D Invader may not possess the innovation of the stereoscopic 3D Sex and Zen, but there’s still room for enjoyment in the film besides nudity and cheap laughs. Director Cash Chin delivers a knowing slice of exploitation that should entertain inclined audiences, and maybe even some that aren’t.
In the year 2046, alien radiation has rendered 99.9% of the male population sterile, so the United Nations sends Future (Macy Wu) back to 2011 to mate with a fertile male. Hot on her tail are alien villains Xucker No. 1 (Japanese AV actor Kato Taka) and Xucker No. 2 (Hsueh Ya-Wen), who intend to rape Future and ruin her fertility. Future appears Terminator-style (i.e., naked) in the bedroom of Lawrence (Chen Jyun-yan), a college student with a 98.7% health rating. However, Lawrence refuses Future’s proposition to mate because he loves nubile law student Jeana (AV starlet Yoshizawa Akiho). But Jeana is suspicious and conspires to uncover the truth about Future. Appropriately, her plans involve getting naked.
The 33D Invader’s plot is cobbled together from many sources, from The Terminator to teen sex comedies to Chin’s The Fruit Is Swelling to numerous Japanese inspirations like anime, eroge (erotic games) and pink films. The story is thin and development is equally weak, but Chin neatly dodges those flaws by acknowledging his sources and eschewing any pretensions. The screenplay does provide some lip service about love, but Category III flicks frequently use love as thin justification for sleaze, making the hypocrisy ultimately minor.
The 33D Invader is frank about its influences, with dialogue referencing other films, media and the actors themselves. Kato Taka is known as the “Hand of God” in AV circles for his women-pleasuring skills, and the film references that through Xucker No. 1’s electromagnetic finger technique. The film contains rape, but it’s of the pink film variety, involving comic sci-fi and hermaphrodite aliens. The silly unrealism makes the uglier content somewhat easier to take, and subversive touches (like a strange painting of an angry Donald Duck in the background of one sex scene) add some humour. One running gag pokes fun at actor Stephen Chow; overweight actor Tsui Ho-Cheung dresses like Chow, has hair like Chow and makes constant Chow references while being voiced by Wen Chao, a dubbing actor who’s famous for sounding like Chow.
The 33D Invader also surprises with graphic gross-out gags that exceed the boundaries of good taste, which may be enough to push the film beyond also-ran entries in the sex film genre. Chin adds enough sex scenes to satiate fans, from cheesy sax-scored softcore to odd couplings that are comically disturbing instead of titillating. The actresses are attractive and professional, willingly and enthusiastically disrobing – with the exception of Monna Lam, whose prudishness is not uncommon for a Hong Kong actress (all other actresses hail from mainland China, Taiwan or Japan). Also, besides the ugly alien sex, the film is not all that sleazy. Chin intends to titillate, but does so with a wink and doesn’t usually resort to tawdry or sordid content to satisfy his audience. Overall, The 33D Invader is as silly as expected, but it gleefully does what it should, and even a little more.