NOW even adult movies are arriving in 3D.

    Sumptuous costumes, golden keys opening doors to reveal orgies in imperial China and plenty of erotic action in lurid 3D — “Sex and Zen: Extreme Ecstasy,” the world’s first major three-dimensional pornographic movie, is generating a lot of excitement in China.

    The reworking of the 1991 cult film “Sex and Zen” is due to open in Hong Kong and Taiwan next week and there are already reports of tour groups planning trips from the mainland, where the film is banned. “It will leave audiences feeling like they are sitting right there at the edge of the bed,” Stephen Shiu, who wrote and produced the Cantonese film, told Chinese media.

    Based on a classic Chinese erotic text, “The Carnal Prayer Mat,” the movie centers on a young man who gets a taste of courtly peccadilloes and features what Shiu promises will be “some very graphic sex scenes.”

    Shiu produced the original 1991 erotic film “Sex and Zen,” which is still a soft-core legend in Hong Kong lore. The 2011 film features one Hong Kong and two Japanese adult-video stars and is directed by Christopher Sun. At the recent Filmart event in Hong Kong, where the Asian industry gathers to show off its wares, the “Sex and Zen” stand was constantly crowded and made sales all over the region and in Europe.

    The filmmakers are also cutting numerous versions of the movie in the hope that it will be able to pass censors in different Asian markets.

    Some are predicting it could be the first of a wave of soft-core 3D films, helping the industry to emerge from a period in which it has been hit heavily by free Internet porn. The Italian director Tinto Brass is also planning a 3D version of his classic 1979 erotic film “Caligula,” and there have been one or two low-budget 3D porn movies already released, including one called “This Ain’t Avatar XX.”

    (SD-Agencies)