88 Films

[yoloswegmaster]

'House on the Edge of the Park' has been passed uncut by the BBFC and will be released on 4K UHD.

[yoloswegmaster]

Kim Newman has stated on his website that he has done a commentary for an upcoming release frok 88 Films of 'Cannibal Holocaust'.

[black&huge]

Holy crap.... but is it gonna be a new resto? If it's just a clean ul of the existing grindhouse release I may still get it anyways

[domino harvey]

How can that film be released in the UK?

[swo17]

Maybe it'll be US-only?

[Big Ben]

How can that film be released in the UK?

A version exists that has all of the animal cruelty cut out. I imagine this is what the UK will be getting.

[therewillbeblus]

Fine by me, I'm pretty anti-revisionism re: cutting films, but the animal cruelty is atrocious and the film would be much better without its unnecessary inclusion

[swo17]

Or one might say the two are inextricably linked, and that the film should be either accepted or rejected as a whole

[therewillbeblus]

Right. That’s what I meant when I said I’m anti-revisionist. The “fine by me” and subsequent rationale is a subjective stance, not any declaration that this is an objective case of revisionism being the answer. I can appreciate a position without subjective exceptions to the rule of revisionism, that holds the ethos higher than personal taste. Just pointing out that this is a film where, to my surprise, I wouldn’t mind it and would consider picking it up with cuts.

[Big Ben]

I recall seeing a video some time ago of Mark Kermode talking very openly about how much he liked the film and the only thing I could really think about while he was talking was that the most contentious footage had all been cut out of the film when he saw it. I've seen the film all of one time and I cannot help but think that the animal cruelty on display rightly undermines Deodato's supposed "intentions" with the film and as messed up as it sounds I feel something is lost without it being in there simply because it makes Deodato look more sincere. Deodato has since come forward and apologized for killing all the animals for no reason and that kind of seals the deal for me.

[colinr0380]

I think Kermode would have been well aware of the cut footage from Cannibal Holocaust and may even have preferred the censored version. That was from an earlier, edgier, 1990s to late 2000s era of Mark Kermode when he was very much pegged as the horror and extreme cinema guy, doing re-cuts of Caligula (NSFW) into 'acceptability' for television screenings on Channel 4. I would be curious to know what he thinks of some of these films nowadays and after years of having to review more mainstream fare on the BBC 5 Live radio show, where he seems more mellowed into something like Raw being seen as 'extreme'.

There's the amazing moment in the video commentary on the US Grindhouse edition of the film between Deodato and star Robert Kerman when as that turtle is being killed (and the muskrat too, as the footage from the film running in a box underneath gets smaller and smaller during those scenes!) that Kerman just looks away from the screen and at Deodato in stony silence while he weakly attempts to justify it!

I think the BBFC have been getting slowly more lenient on this film in particular (due to its undeniable importance to the horror genre) with fewer and fewer cuts to its most notorious scenes in recent years, with only the unfaked animal violence standing as a point of contention at this stage. I think I heard that the last time it went through the BBFC that incredibly graphic and lingering turtle scene was passed because it was deemed a 'clean kill' due to it being decapitated (I think, as I have only seen it the once many years back and am not about to look the scene up on the disc to check!) before the really grisly stuff of the film crew pulling its shell off to show the quivering meat inside occurs. But the other really notorious scene of the muskrat getting its heart slowly punctured with a knife as it struggles and screams in someone's hand was still seen as beyond the pale. Maybe that has changed in this new ruling?

I don't think the real animal violence is justifiable either, though it was a staple feature and therefore somewhat 'required' element of the Italian cannibal genre all the way from 1972's Man From Deep River onward, so in some ways to make the ultimate statement on the subgenre it was inevitable that Cannibal Holocaust would have it. And of course while here it is used as the ultimate example of our reporter's casual cruelty (and creates a queasy sense of complicity between the filmmakers and the statement they are making that interestingly muddies and sullies any sense of superiority with regards to its moral message. The world really is exploitative and hideously cruel as otherwise the film itself would not just have a reason to exist but actually proves that thesis by existing in the manner that it does, equating Deodato and company (accidentally?) with the callous onscreen characters creating the sensationalist situations to then exploit for their own cameras), I doubt we will be seeing Umberto Lenzi's much more obviously comic book-y grand guignol gore-fest Cannibal Ferox ever have its even less justifiable animal violence get the same treatment from the BBFC!

I'm actually more shocked by the news of the sexual violence-heavy House On The Edge Of The Park (or "House Of The Park On The Edge" as the original trailer accidentally puts it! (NSFW)) getting through the BBFC in the current climate.

[Mr Sausage]

I recall seeing a video some time ago of Mark Kermode talking very openly about how much he liked the film and the only thing I could really think about while he was talking was that the most contentious footage had all been cut out of the film when he saw it. I've seen the film all of one time and I cannot help but think that the animal cruelty on display rightly undermines Deodato's supposed "intentions" with the film and as messed up as it sounds I feel something is lost without it being in there simply because it makes Deodato look more sincere. Deodato has since come forward and apologized for killing all the animals for no reason and that kind of seals the deal for me.

I’m surprised anyone could mistake that film for having serious intentions, even without the animal cruelty. The film is so nakedly exploitative and its depiction of the natives so offensive and boneheaded (each new tribe is introduced committing an obscene act of misogyny invented by Deodato & co to titillate) that I can’t even imagine anyone being swayed by the puddle deep “it’s us who are the real savages!” moralisms the film trots out by way of excuse. The film is no more worth taking seriously than Cannibal Ferox or Mountain of the Cannibal God.

I’d far rather see Tsui Hark’s We Are Going to Eat You get a stacked release. It’s the best thing to ever come out of the cannibal subgenre, a madcap socio-political allegory brimming with visual invention and not faking its social criticisms as a defensive posture.

[Big Ben]

I’m surprised anyone could mistake that film for having serious intentions, even without the animal cruelty. The film is so nakedly exploitative and its depiction of the natives so offensive and boneheaded (each new tribe is introduced committing an obscene act of misogyny invented by Deodato & co to titillate) that I can’t even imagine anyone being swayed by the puddle deep “it’s us who are the real savages!” moralisms the film trots out by way of excuse. The film is no more worth taking seriously than Cannibal Ferox or Mountain of the Cannibal God.
I’d far rather see Tsui Hark’s We Are Going to Eat You get a stacked release. It’s the best thing to ever come out of the cannibal subgenre, a madcap socio-political allegory brimming with visual invention and not faking its social criticisms as a defensive posture.

I think that this criticism could be be applied to the cannibal subgenre as a whole. I was seventeen (2008) when I saw the film for the first time in what could best be described as a "I'm going to watch the nastiest shit imaginable" bender. Deodato's other work doesn't really inspire much confidence in me either. It's there to be awful and exploitive and I'm certainly more aware of it now. I'll look into the Hark though, based on your mentioning of it.

[L.A.]

Human Lanterns @ DVD Compare

[Finch]

88's BD of Hero features a restoration full with frame cuts

[Orlac]

88's BD of Hero features a restoration full with frame cuts

Blame Celestial around 2004 to 2006 cutting corners by removing lots of frames from their films. But it amazes me they were doing that on movies that were less then a decade old at that point.

[yoloswegmaster]

Kim Newman has stated on his website that he has done a commentary for an upcoming release frok 88 Films of 'Cannibal Holocaust'.

Cannibal Holocaust has now been rated by BBFC for the upcoming 88 Films release. The runtime is listed as 95 minutes, which is 3 minutes longer than the previous UK blu release. Is the full runtime of the uncut version 95 or 96 minutes?

EDIT: There is a scene that was cut:

This work required a compulsory cut to a scene of animal cruelty. Cut was made in accordance with BBFC Guidelines, policy, and the Cinematograph Films (Animals) Act, 1937, which is applied in accordance with the Video Recordings Act, 1984.

[EddieLarkin]

The Shameless release was only cut by 14 seconds, and ran 92:06. But the Grindhouse release is unct at 95:44. So what's the additional 144 seconds? That's almost dead on a 4% difference so I think we can guess that the idiots at Shameless had their disc running on PAL time.

Meaning this 95 minute version approved by the BBFC could just be the same cut as the Shameless release but now running at 24fps.

[Thornycroft]

I'd imagine the cuts are identical to those on the previous UK release. The BBFC waived most of the animal violence cuts in 2011 on the basis that they represented "clean kills" and therefore didn't amount to cruelty, but the muskrat scene undeniably depicts a suffering animal and couldn't be passed while the Cinematograph Films (Animals) Act 1937 is still law.

[yoloswegmaster]

88 Films will be releasing Police Story 3 on 4K in the U.S.

[dwk]

First Dragons Forever and now PS3. I wonder if they snagged the US rights to the other Jackie Chan titles formerly with Miramax?

[dwk]

Irongod posted at the Blu-ray.com forum that, as of right now, 88 Films isn't using Eureka's Police Story 3 master.

[yoloswegmaster]

The following releases have been delayed:

Seventh Curse release moved to July 4, the Tiger Cage trilogy to August 1, and Drive UHD has been delayed to August 29.

It also looks like there will be a 4K release of Burial Ground:

[Finch]

Specs are still being finalised but Brandon Bentley confirmed that the 88 release of Righting Wrongs will have all three cuts, a hybrid cut and "an ending randomizer" as well as additional audio options like the Cantonese home video track and the original Cantonese theatrical track.

88 release trailer

[therewillbeblus]

The Seventh Curse is fantastic fun, never grounding itself to a focal point of expectations like Riki-Oh does with its consistently absurdist violence, so when the gore does come it's just as gut-busting as when other, softer absurdities or unprompted eccentric choices are implemented. Overall I like Riki-Oh better because it's a nonstop romp, whereas The Seventh Curse has a few dead zones, but this film is packing a whole lot of eclectic passions into its soup and deserves some grace to pivot. The fight choreography is stronger than its surrounding madness anticipates, and the martial arts action is also sporadic so you don't even know it's going to be this kind of movie until it becomes that genre for a moment (on a few spaced-out occasions!) I also found the Russian doll storytelling very amusing, in forcing these derailments from predictable constructs that we rely on to ground us. The one that kicks off the plot, in the second-act no less, is just outlandish - making the narrative even sillier in its drastic left-turn. The entire opening section makes no sense as coming first except to establish Maggie Cheung's relationship to the action, but it's as superfluous as her character is, and the film knows it which is why the choices work so well.

My only complaint is that in the first few minutes of 88's blu-ray release, the sound and picture quality is atrocious - like almost unwatchable/listenable, and I'm usually not very sensitive to this kind of thing. Thankfully it's resigned to the initiation of the story, which has no bearing or value on anything, and once we actually transition to the first flashback where the narrative takes place, the A/V levels become digestible.