 |
| Images courtesy of Neon Eagle Video |
Emerging from Cauldron Films in conjunction with Mondo Macabro
founder Jared Auner, the two formed a new boutique label imprint entitled Neon
Eagle Video which will predominantly cover sleazier Asian grindhouse fare and
other cult-oriented items that remain overlooked if not neglected outright in
today’s ever growing home video marketplace.
True to their moniker, the company has started out by purging through
the Hong Kong based IFD Film Arts & Services company including but not
limited to Bruce Lee knockoffs, ninja movies and insane monster movies. So far the new label starting out only has
two titles to name as of yet: Zero Woman: Red Handcuffs and today’s
first ever Neon Eagle Video review for Kill Butterfly Kill.
Originally made in 1982 as a Taiwanese rape-revenge actioner
called Underground Wife which then got retooled into the English dubbed Kill
Butterfly Kill in 1983 for American markets before getting repurposed again
into another movie in 1987 called American Commando 6: Kill Butterfly Kill
featuring IFD actors Mike Abbott and Mark Miller, this weird exploitation
trashterpiece edited into three different movies is an explosive, bonkers
opening for the new boutique label. Spread
across two discs, Neon Eagle Video seeks with this release to point a spotlight
on one of the zanier examples of film editing and repurposing to churn out more
movies out of one.
In the first version(s) on disc one directed by Hsu Yu-Lung,
the film zeroes in on a young well-dressed woman Tang Mei-Ling (Juliet Chan)
running in stilettos through the rain alone at night on an isolated railroad. Immediately, she is accosted by five
drunkards who proceed to gang rape her and leave her for dead. In the throes of shame she tries to kill
herself but is rescued by a passerby named Richard (Ma Sha) who turns out to be
a skilled assassin and formidable ally and over the next six years she
conspires with other masseurs and call girls a plan to track down and take out
her assailants one by one, culminating in a steadily ultraviolent battle
including but not limited to chainsaws and spears.
A basic Taiwanese action thriller with a bit of a surrealist
streak to it including uncomfortable flashbacks to the rape scenes intercut
with images of rainwater destroying open flowers, Underground Wife akd Kill
Butterfly Kill is loaded with many of the tropes of the over-the-top exploitation
flick. Sleazy with glittering lens
flares captures in 2.35:1 panoramic widescreen shot by Tung-Hsiang Tu with a lyrical,
occasionally Casio keyboard score by Hsin-Yi Chen, this is the very definition
of roughie ‘black movie’. Made on a
shoestring budget, the film like Massacre Video’s 4K restoration of The
Devil is badly damaged and worn with the film quality shifting throughout and
a note stating the print was comprised of numerous sources. Also included in the extras is the original Underground
Wife cut with the Mandarin language track though only in cropped fullscreen
standard definition.
Cut to 1987 with The Ninja Squad director Godfrey Ho
in the director’s chair tasked with making a new film with very little newly
shot footage. Turned loose into the
editing room with footage for ostensibly American Commando 6, a cops/criminals
movie cross between Miami Connection and Samurai Cop in terms of
tacky garb, clearly disparate productions cut together and all manner of
incoherence, Ho emerged with American Commando 6: Kill Butterfly Kill and
even uses the exact same title font card for the opening credits. Redubbed top to bottom in English once again,
this new movie edited from an older one attempts to plug itself into Ho’s
preexisting American Commando film series with hasty if not
incomprehensible results that cannot be properly described in mere words.
With both cuts restored in 4K from the original camera
negative with irreparable picture and sound, these three oddball and
psychedelic rape-revenge action flicks are mostly okay. But when seen together side by side with the
curious, hasty editing done to retool the first film into another film, it
becomes a kind of mind melting exploitation trash package. Featuring reversible sleeve art, a running
audio commentary with Kenneth Brorsson and Paul Fox of the podcast on Fire Network,
Neon Eagle Video’s deluxe release of this unearthed unlikely trio of films
represents a sharp swift kick of the boot through the gates wide open with a
boldly weird new boutique releasing label.
Being what it is, these movies aren’t very good per se but for fans of brain
boggling Asian exploitation flicks that remain covered up by rocks, Kill
Butterfly Kill is kind of an unusual treat.
--Andrew Kotwicki
