Kill Butterly Kill

As physical media uncovers more obscure titles, it also opens up unexpected cinematic borders.  Case in point, Kill Butterfly Kill (1983), a Taiwanese rape/revenge/martial arts flick that was part of the wave of  “Black Movies” ushering in action, gangster and related exploitation during the late ‘70s and early ‘80s.   Very few of these ever made it out of Taiwan and even fewer received subtitles.  So the Blu-ray premiere courtesy of Neon Eagle Video is quite a coup, and even includes a couple of alternate versions for good measure.

In a cut-to-the-chase opening sequence, Donna is laboriously raped by five men in a drunken stupor.  Six years later, she’s ready for revenge, teaming up with a hired assassin to carve her pound of flesh from each of the culprits, now successful figures in various facets of the criminal underworld.  With the element of surprise, her plan seems almost foolproof.  But once the bad guys realize they’re marked men, the hunter becomes the hunted once again.

 

Surprisingly chaste in terms of nudity and violence, Kill Butterfly Kill feels seedier than it really is.  The English dubbed theatrical version on disc one (originally released through distributors IFD) rearranges the opening rape scene, cutting to flashbacks each time Donna confronts another victim.  It’s a major improvement over the Mandarin-language version, Underground Wife, which is also included as an SD extra.  Here we get a much more satisfying narrative with occasional kung-fu beatdowns for good measure.  If not exactly edgy, Kill Butterfly Kill arranges all the pieces on the board with no wasted moves, delivering a fast-paced bit of imported exploitation artistry.

 

Four years later, IFD recycled a good portion of the film as American Commando 6:  Kill Butterfly Kill, which turns Donna’s revenge into a subplot, focusing instead on two special agents (Mike Abbot and Mark Miller) tasked with taking down a drug cartel.  It’s just as corny and contrived as you might imagine, but the original footage works into the whole better than you might think.  Either way, it’s a completely different experience, which makes this essentially a double-feature.

 

Each version (except the aforementioned SD cut) gets the benefit of a 4K restoration.  Bear in mind, there’s only so much that can be done with Kill Butterfly Kill, which still suffers from blemishes and stains from time to time.  That said, it looks pretty terrific in widescreen format with the segments from American Commando 6looking even better.  Kenneth Brorsson and Paul Fox provide a commentary track as an introduction to Taiwan Black Movie history, which even they admit is still a bit difficult to sort out.  But it’ll definitely have you looking forward to the next title Neon Eagle uncovers!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tormented

Image
The west coast always struggled to create a creepy atmosphere on screen.  All that southern California sunshine just doesn’t lend itself to ghostly apparitions or gothic castles.  But  Tormented  (1960) gives it a good try, staging its opening scene in an abandoned lighthouse where blackmail turns into murder - and one cover up leads to another.  Director Bert I. Gordon, better known for his giant-sized - but low-budget - monster movies, works well at this level, turning in a film that delivers small scares but perhaps his most  professional finished product. Tom Stewart (played by genre regular Richard Carlson) is a fairly successful jazz pianist whose impending marriage to Meg Hubbard (Susan Gordon) will put him in an entirely new tax bracket.  Trouble is his old flame, Vi (Juli Reding), isn’t taking this lying down.  After  allowing  her to fall to her death in the opening scene, Tom is haunted by disembo...
Read more

All Ladies Do It / Frivolous Lola

Image
Every semi-professional review of erotica probably starts off with the same question:  what’s the difference between porn and art?  The internet age has essentially done away with foreplay; sex is merely the act of completion itself, minus the threat of any malware or suspicious browser activity.  But the work of Italian director Tinto Brass, for all its leering upskirt shots of derrieres and pubic hair, still communicates something that websites like Pornhub never will:  the art of seduction.  All Ladies Do It  (1992), a breezy sexual adventure, follows Diana (Claudia Koll) whose marriage is threatened by her fantasies of dalliances with other men, stories her husband believes are nothing more than exciting role play.  But her loose definition of adultery inspires plenty of promiscuous hook-ups, taking advantage of any (ahem)  loophole  that provides a quick thrill.   Flirting with some hardcore sequences (there...
Read more

The Cat and the Canary

Image
My favorite directors have always been showoffs:  Hitchcock, DePalma, Spielberg (when he’s feeling frisky) and gonzo auteurs like Sam Raimi.  There’s just something about their cinematic ambition, constantly reminding the audience that, yes, there actually  is  someone behind the camera calling the shots.  And that directorial discontent shines through even in the early days of the medium, such as Paul Leni’s 1927 adaptation of  The Cat and the Canary .  While the rest of the industry was still learning the basics of visual language, Leni fills his frame with tracking shots, POVs and dramatic lighting that set the standard for every spook show to come!  Gathered for the reading of the last will and testament of eccentric recluse Cyrus West,  the potential heirs meet up in his decrepit mansion to discover who will inherit the estate and family jewels.  Predictably there is some petty jealousy when young Annab...
Read more