Sheltered and virginal innocent Felicity Robinson (winningly played with infectious vivacity by the adorable Glory Annen) can no longer ignore the erotic yearnings of her budding sexuality, so she goes to Hong Kong and sheds her inhibitions in order to embark on a bold odyssey of carnal self-discovery.

Director John D. Lamond, who also co-wrote the surprisingly thoughtful and sensitive script with his wife Diane, keeps the compact and eventful story moving along at a brisk pace, makes nice use of the exotic Hong Kong locations, and does an ace job of crafting a pleasant and intoxicating sensuous atmosphere. Moreover, Lamond warrants additional praise for maintaining an open, positive, and nonjudgmental attitude towards the sexual adventures of its highly charming female protagonist; the tone remains remarkably sweet and upbeat throughout instead of sleazy and cynical. The presence of a few lovely ladies certainly doesn't hurt matters in the least: Slinky brunette Jodi Flynn as bubbly and unabashed rich gal Me Ling, fetching blonde Jody Hanson as enticing schoolmate Jenny, and attractive Marilyn Rogers as Felicity's more worldly friend Christine. Christopher Mine contributes an excellent and engaging performance as amiable photographer Miles. The abundant nudity and hot, yet tasteful sex scenes provide plenty of sizzle. Garry Wapshott's dewy soft-focus cinematography gives this picture a sumptuous sunny look. Spot-on groovy theme song, too. A real treat.

After finishing a run of watching British Sex Comedy flicks,I decided to take a look in one of my piles of DVDs for other similar titles. Having been impressed by the first film I've seen by him,I was happy to eye a John D. Lamond movie in the pile,which led to me meeting Felicity.

View on the film:

Flirting across his career between Ozploitation offerings and Aussie New Wave (such as Breakfast in Paris (1982-also reviewed) flavour creations, co-writer/(with wife Diane) director John D. Lamond & Lamond's regular cinematographer Garry Wapshott fittingly have Felicity thrust between both genres/movements, via featuring a level of skin (from both sexes) which grinds to the fun frolics of Ozploitation, but is delicately captured with a smooth as silk stylisation of soft lights and dolly shots over the awakening cast across Felicity's face.Going to Hong Kong, Lamond and a cast/crew of just 12 wonderfully glide across the streets guerilla- style,in sequences of Felicity walking round historical shipping villages and the neon high streets being lit by glossy tracking shots, which dive into a sex scene on a (rented) tram,which was driven round the Hong Kong streets during filming.

Peaking at Felicity reading The Story of O a number of times, the screenplay by John and Diane Lamond smoothly fits into the high-end Erotica of the era,in going back to Felicity's innocent all-girls high school, (where they all shared showers) and shredding it layer by layer in steamy back rooms of Hong Kong, along with the awakening of Felicity's own sexual curiosity.Sprinkling a romance in for the final, the writers do very well at making it flow by keeping it light and breezy,in keeping with Felicity's relaxed attitude to exploring her sexuality. Putting on a good fake Aussie accent, Canadian Glory Annen gives a blissful turn,thanks to keeping the sexy (soft) scenes pinned on the psychological awakening of desire for Felicity.

"Felicity" is one of the innumerable imitations from the seventies and eighties of Just Jaeckin's notorious "Emmanuelle". Like that film it is a piece of softcore erotica chronicling the amorous adventures, both heterosexual and lesbian, of a young white woman in a Far Eastern city, in this case Hong Kong rather than Bangkok. Whereas Emmanuelle had been a married woman, the wife of a French diplomat, Felicity is supposedly a teenage schoolgirl, even though Glory Annen, the actress who played her, would have been 26 in 1978. (Sylvia Kristel was only 22 when she first played Emmanuelle).

I don't need to say much about the plot. We first meet Felicity as a girl in a convent boarding school, where she has a lesbian crush on one of her classmates. She then moves to Hong Kong, where she loses her heterosexual virginity in a joyless coupling with an older man, watches a friend and her husband making love, has another lesbian tryst with a beautiful Chinese girl called Me-Ling and eventually falls for a handsome young man named Miles.

The film shares some features with "Emmanuelle" such as the soft-focus effects used for the love scenes. Annen is even seen sitting on a chair very similar to one used by Kristel. It lacks, however, the portentous (and pretentious) philosophising of the earlier film; the closest it comes to philosophy is the heroine's conclusion, after falling in love with Miles, that sex should be reserved for someone you really love, a conclusion which would doubtless have seemed hopelessly moralistic to Emmanuelle.

Kristel was never the world's greatest actress, but compared to Glory Annen she looks like Katharine Hepburn. On the basis of this film, Annen's acting skills appear to have been close to zero, beyond the most elementary skill of being able to remember her lines and recite them in a flat, toneless voice. There is no attempt to convey any meaning or emotion, and it is all too clear that she was cast on the basis of her cutesy, girl-next-door prettiness and of her willingness to take her clothes off, not on the basis of any talent.

In the early and mid-seventies softcore films like this were controversial, but were regarded by their defenders- and they had plenty- as something fresh and liberating after decades of prudery in the cinema. By the end of the decade, however, the novelty was already starting to wear off, and something like "Felicity" was no more than a third-rate knock-off of a second-rate film like "Emmanuelle". 2/10