Sunday, November 06, 2011

Cannibal Holocaust evening: Korean DVD discovery

I've been shopping for a DVD of The Brood, which I have owned and sold before and have now decided I need in my permanent collection. Since I have a vested interest in the existence of physical media - I *like* that there are shops where I can buy movies - I try to buy DVDs rather than torrenting them, especially when costs aren't high. The cheapest DVD version of The Brood available comes from Korea, so  I purchased it via eBay the other week. Since there was a discount for shipping if one buys other DVDs, and since Korean DVDs are usually of reasonably good quality (if often void of extras), I poked around the seller's site. I'm presently taking Ernest Mathijs' Cult Movies course at UBC, so I've decided to see as many cult films as possible while the course is going on, especially ones I've previously avoided, and it seemed prudent to see if I could make an interesting bulk purchase.

This, folks, is how I come to be in possession of the Korean DVD of Cannibal Holocaust. And for the benefit of any movie geeks googling "Korean Cannibal Holocaust" for a review, I will now offer a few caveats.

The Korean DVD version I purchased (pictured left) is not widescreen -which most other releases are. It is mostly, but not all, in English, and the portions in Italian - during the scenes with the soldiers in the jungle near the beginning of the film - are not subtitled in English (those of you who read Korean need not worry). It has a rather grainy, VHS-quality image. Optical fogging is used to censor the pubic region, where it appears, similar to what some of y'all might remember on the Japanese VHS versions of El Topo and The Holy Mountain (one might also note that there is a puzzling plentitude of male nudity in the film, so often it's the cricket set that's getting fogged). On the other hand, optical fogging is not used to censor the actual deaths of animals, which the film is notorious for; these do not appear to have been censored in any way. There is a screaming coatimundi being stabbed in the neck (described elsewhere incorrectly as a muskrat, an anteater, and so forth), and several minutes of upsetting turtle gore. There are also spider, snake, pig and monkey deaths. I can't say which version of The Last Road to Hell is used - a film within a film based around "found footage" or such of unfaked Nigerian executions; apparently there are Dutch versions that are longer than those in other countries - but there is certainly some real human death in the Korean cut (though not shot FOR the film - it isn't a snuff film, though that impalement sure looks convincing, doesn't it?). Overall, it's a mediocre but watchable presentation of an immoral and nearly unwatchable film. The censorship is in itself quaint enough (and bizarre enough, that anyone should think pubic hair is more of a threat to public safety than images of people and animals being killed) that it actually adds to the movie's limited appeal.

And now I've finally seen it. There's one less horror movie in the world that I'm afraid of watching. Perhaps I should take a bath...

Oh, that reminds me, while I'm at it, the Korean I Spit On Your Grave, while I'm sure it also has censored pubes, has the castration scene intact, including one big spurt of blood that I didn't recall from the previous version I watched. So that's good.

Happy viewing, folks.

10 comments:

GJ said...

Any idea if the Thai DVD is uncensored? It's eBay item 281208835502.

Also, is I Spit On Your Grave definitely optically censored on the Korean disc?

Allan MacInnis said...

Nope, dunno the Thai. The Korean is horrible.

I actually haven't watched my Korean I Spit On Your Grave all the way through, but I've upgraded from it to the special edition, and don't need it anymore. If you want to trade or something you can have it - you in Vancouver?

GJ said...

I may be interested, but have nothing to trade, sadly. I can get a new copy on eBay for under $4, is it a decent print? I am in the US.

Allan MacInnis said...

It seemed okay, but - forgive me, I'm not going to re-watch the film to be sure! When I got it, I checked the castration scene and it seemed intact; generally Korean DVDs are pretty good quality (the big exceptions were Cannibal Holocaust and Verhoeven's The Fourth Man, which cut the dangling cock at the start and parts of the castration). There may be optical fogging on the rape scenes, and/or images cut that I wouldn't be able to spot without doing a whole lot more work - this is a film I've only ever seen once, as opposed to The Devils, so there might be stuff chopped that I wouldn't notice. Koreans tend not to cut violence, however brutal; genitals seem to be the big threat. If there are any visible genitals in I Spit... I would guess they might be fogged.

One tip - the discounts for multiple shipping are usually pretty good and I bet you can find a few other things you want, so if you're ordering from Korea, find a few things from the same seller (classics have always been a safe bet - often you can get big discounts on Criterion titles). Make sure there are English subs specified in the listing, since *some* of their foreign films are absent them. Oh: the other Korean disappointment was Claire Denis' Beau Travail, which is in the wrong aspect ratio...

GJ said...

Thanks so much for your comments. ISOYG is markes as being "uncut" and the artwork features two totally unrelated female characters lol. I assume that's the one you saw? If it's not, and it's a bootleg, maybe its a straight copy of the uncut R1?
I did spot one or two Criterions on there; good call. I would prefer original Criterions but may get some of these cheap to tide me over for now.

Allan MacInnis said...

Yep, that's the same edition as mine, and it might well be the same as the R1. But FYI, I wouldn't place much stock in anything you read on the art for a Korean DVD ("original uncut edition," etc) especially if it's in English, since the Koreans don't always seem to read that, or care what it says! The Korean Strangers on a Train boasts in English that (like the recent American releases) it has both the US and UK versions; not sure which is actually on the disc but there's only one of the two. The Killers has the same cover as the Criterion, which has both versions of the film on it - so Lee Marvin's face is on the front cover; but only the Burt Lancaster version, which Lee ain't in, is included on the Korean disc! They just copied the art and language without realizing (or caring) that they had the wrong guy on the cover. And there are sometimes spelling errors; the Korean DVD of The Brood - one of the better discs I've gotten from them, actually, since it's hard to find here - credits the film to David Cronenberc!

The other thing to know in advance is that almost all extras are omitted. These are bare-bones discs, no commentaries, no featurettes. If you get lucky they include a trailer. All the same - the price is great, and with very few exceptions I've been very happy with the Korean DVDs I've bought (and *never* have I had a problem with shipping, or getting the wrong movie, or...).

Be curious, tho' - when you get the disc, let me know if you think these are bootlegs! I've been inclined to believe the sellers' claims that they're legit, since - the above language glitches notwithstanding - they generally look pretty good, pretty official; Chinese bootlegs tend to scream "Hello I am a bootleg" at you at every turn, with badly-made box art, weird labels, glitchy DVDs, and such, but the Korean vids I've picked up are USUALLY much better-looking, better-made. They SEEM like the real thing to me. But then again, I kind of *want* to believe that, because they've been a good source of interesting, cheap movies!

GJ said...

Well if it's a R1 copy, it wouldn't have the optical censoring which leads me to think this is a different master. I see no mention of this on legitimate DVD sites, however, which leads me to think it may be unofficial. But why censor it in that case, lol?

Allan MacInnis said...

I remember in Japan stumbling across bestiality porno videos at an open-air public market that had the dogs' genitals censored on the box art. So you could make, buy, and sell videos of dogs fucking women... as long as the genitals are fogged. Since then, I don't try to make sense of these things. I would totally believe that Koreans have bootleg product that they censor to conform to their country's laws...

GJ said...

Well, I am gonna take a dip on the Thai DVD of Cannibal Holocaust. I'll let you know what I find.

Allan MacInnis said...

Hey, GJ - I got no way of contacting you, so I'm just adding comments to our previous discussion. At the request of another correspondent, I did some closer checking of the Korean DVD of The Devils. Sad to say that it *is* the Spanish release, 8 minutes shorter than the BFI version. It even has Spanish subtitles as an option, suggesting it's an NTSC port of the Spanish DVD. It plays to 1:43:20, as opposed to the 1:51 runtime (in NTSC) of the BFI release. Annoyed that I hadn't realized I was watching a censored version of the film; hope I didn't lead you astray.

Video Watchdog's Tim Lucas on the Spanish cut of The Devils here. Presumably all this applies to the Korean (except it being NTSC) - apparently it is NOT enhanced for widescreen, either:
http://videowatchdog.blogspot.ca/2010/09/devils-spanish-dvd-report.html