With a title like this, this film obviously deserves honorable mention whenever exploitation movies and the likes are discussed. However, if you leave the so-called "educational" intention aside, this German production has some merits to offer. True, it does not deliver insights into the reality of societies in the Far East. On the other hand, most of the scenes shown are actual footage (not all though: some are obviously staged, which of course does not change the fact that what is done in these scenes is real nonetheless). So, if you want to have a collection of strange, absurd, disturbing pictures, bound together by hardly any other point than the strangeness, absurdness and disturbingness of it all, don't hesitate to take a look. It's a film worth having as a document of the Mondo film "movement", for its sheer rarity and for the sake of adding another of those 70s obscurities to your collection. Viewed with this in mind, "Asia", even with its harsh and sometimes really unpleasant images, can be fun.
Review of Shocking Asia
