Sex and Zen

A loose adaptation of the Chinese erotic novel "The Carnal Prayer Mat" (written in 1657, published in 1693) by Li Yu. The lustful scholar Mei Yeung-Sheng disagrees with the teaching of monks that the passions of the flesh prevent someone from reaching true enlightenment. He likes bedding women. Unfortunately, his own wife Huk-Yeung has no interest in sex, due to an overly conservative and prudish upbringing. The scholar gets a promise from the flying thief Choi Kun-Lun, that he will teach him how to seduce other people's wives. After getting his own penis enlarged by a doctor with strange methods, the scholar goes on a sexual rampage. He beds many women, but completely neglects his own wife. Huk-Yeung has her own sexual awakening and runs away with a lover, but she is betrayed and sold to a brothel. While her initial experience there is traumatic, she comes to enjoy her new life. Years later, the scholar has become frail and sick due to exhausting himself with too much sex, and due to having two sadistic lovers. Seeking to regain his virility, he seeks the services of the top courtesan available to him. Due to his failing eyesight, he fails to recognize that the courtesan in question is his estranged wife. After realizing who she is, the aging scholar turns verbally abusive and denounces her. He unwittingly breaks her spirit, and Huk-Yeung commits suicide. Broken in body and spirit, Yeung-Sheng seeks forgiveness from an old monk whose teaching he had once scornfully rejected. He has finally realized that pleasure can have a high price.