The cold war on human sexuality, it seemed, was finally at an end. After 'Showgirls,' none of the studios wanted to have anything to do with explicit sexuality. All of the sex scenes in today's movies are homogenized . . . Despite what the MPAA says, if you accept the NC-17, you're opening yourself up to a lot of censorship. Plus, there's a stigma to NC-17.
Many people think the rating means a film is pornographic.
In the early '70s, when he was first breaking into the industry back in Hong Kong, his contacts at Golden Harvest studios encouraged him to start out making blue movies for the Japanese and Korean markets. That was the impetus. But you can have 300 bodies on a beach, bleeding all over the place, and it's PG-13. Today's political climate has also put distributors and exhibitors on the defensive when it comes to trailers and other promotional material. Our Web site also was a challenge.