I normally give a movie a bargain basement low score of 1.5/5 when that film is basically at the threshold of suckiness that many terrible films peter out at. So, within the context of whatever it's trying to be, a film with a 1.5/5 score is a film that is a failure at whatever it's trying to be. It's totally inept but it's competent enough that it's not a fire-shooting-out-your-ears kind of failure. To wit: Shocking Asia is a mondo documentary about all the wild and weird things lily-white (and I do mean white) viewers can see and do while in...ASIA. Yeah, totally textbook mondo doc whose components were broken down so thoroughly by Eric Schaefer in his Bold! Daring! Shocking! True! A History of Exploitation Films from 1919-1959 that I feel kinda bad for initially taking such umbrage with the sometimes sweeping nature of Schaefer's narrative. These mondo docs really are all the same after a point! The introductory square-up spiel! The pretense of education! The numerous signs of canned drama! The surgical footage! I feel like I'm singing the sleaziest variation on the Green Acres theme that you'll ever read! Gah.
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