Australia's answer to Emmanuelle - there's even a scene where the title character reads the book - complete with similar soft focus photography, exotic locations and a young woman's sexual awakening. Unlike Emmanuelle, Felicity is a virgin to start off with - well, a virgin when it comes to sleeping with a man, she's already had a boarding school lesbian experiences. She's younger too, which does make this a little uncomfortable at times, even though Glory Annen is clearly in her twenties.
Most of this is set in Hong Kong, giving rise to some terrific production value. (Some of it was shot in Melbourne - I presume the scenes set in that house with a large pool took place there, it feels very spacious for Honkers). There are lots of lingering scenes of Felicity putting on underwear and getting changed and some narration which sounds like it's straight out of Penthouse Forum ("I knew he was watching me as I was getting changed but it excited me", "I began touching my nubile young body").
Yet the film can't be dismissed entirely. It's a rare Australian film that encourages people to have sex, and says that it's an enjoyable thing - not just Felicity, but the family she stays with, her Asian friend (who she sleeps with), the nice bloke she hooks up with (Chris Milne, playing a knockabout self deprecating guy instead of a stud, which is a pleasant change). Even after Felicity and her boyfriend go on a break when she goes to Macao both sleep with other people but aren't punished for it. And there's a surprisingly un-erotic scene where Felicity loses her virginity to a man in a handlebar moustache - which makes the good point that when you have sex you should care about for partner's feelings (a point made in The ABC of Love and Sex, Lamond's earlier film, which characters in this movie go to see).
John Michael Howson makes yet another appearance in a Lamond movie as a pervert. Annen gives quite a good performance (relatively speaking) in the sort of role that is hard to pull off - she's not Sylvia Kristen but she does well enough. Whether you're actually turned on by any of it depends what you're into.
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