‘Sex and Zen’ Lives Again, in 3-D

was a feast fit for an emperor.

On Friday night, the cast and crew of “3-D Sex and Zen: Extreme Ecstasy,” described as the world’s first 3-D erotic film, gathered at a Hong Kong restaurant to promote the Ming Dynasty-era sex romp.

Producer Stephen Shiu Jr. and director Christopher Sun lined up the movie’s cast members for dinner and a photo shoot at Supreme Hot Pot — a bustling local establishment on a busy street corner in Kowloon’s Tai Kok Tsui district, tucked behind the noisier and more chaotic Mong Kok.

William Lee — the proprietor of the restaurant, which is wallpapered with posters for the movie — was busy supervising the dinner. His eatery serves up a traditional Hong Kong favorite: raw food that’s cooked in a large pot of boiling water in the center of the dining table. A bountiful assortment of fish balls, seafood, meat and vegetables was spread out across the table as the movie group posed for a crowd of journalists and photographers.

Actress Vonnie Lui, armed with a pair of chopsticks and a coquettish smile, fed leading man Hiro Hayama as photographers scrambled to capture the scene. If there was any hesitation among the stars about appearing in a soft-core movie, it wasn’t on display Friday night.

“Yes, I thought about the nudity,” says Mr. Hayama, a Japanese actor who’s lived in Hong Kong for 10 years and speaks Cantonese and English. “I’m a very low-profile person.”

Mr. Hayama, who has appeared in roughly 20 Hong Kong movies, including “New Police Story” (2004), starring Jackie Chan, says acting is his chosen profession and he’ll do what’s required of him.

The skin flick is a remake of “Sex and Zen,” a notorious 1991 sex farce that over the years has reached cult status and earned its place as one of Hong Kong’s most successful Category III films. (Category III is the equivalent of the NC-17 rating in the U.S.) Both films draw their inspiration from “The Carnal Prayer Mat,” a 17th-century erotic novel by author Li Yu.

The movie is the pet project of Stephen Shiu, who produced the 1991 version, and his son Stephen Shiu Jr. (They weren’t involved in two “Sex and Zen” sequels from the 1990s.)

By some measures, the 25 million Hong Kong dollar (US$3.2 million), Cantonese-language production is part of the great tradition of Hong Kong’s entrepreneurial spirit and the ability to exploit a new trend for profit: in this case, 3-D entertainment.

The younger Mr. Shiu says after watching the 2008 Hollywood movie “Journey to the Center of the Earth,” it became clear to him that 3-D had reached maturity.