Well, that’s interesting. Yes, indeed … interesting, very interesting.
Word arrived this past week that Cauldron Films, with
sales and distribution support provided by MVD Entertainment Group, has assigned
a street date for a film that they’ve unearthed … an exceeding rare
exploitation film from prolific filmmaker Gordon Ho.
Being released in association with the “Neon Eagle
Video” label, Kill Butterfly Kill is a
new 4K film restoration from what is believed to be the “best surviving
elements” of the English-dubbed export version.
But wait, there’s more, because it’s Cauldron Films
they’ve gone extra mile and included two additional cuts of the film for fans,
film buffs and the curious to delve into.
First, there is Underground
Wife, which is the original Mandarin language
version in standard definition (filmed in Taiwan circa 1982).
But the big bonus here is the 1987 re-cut version of
the film titled American Commando 4: Kill Butterfly Kill. This is one of those IFD Films & Arts Limited
“specials” with additional footage spliced in — and with additional actors — to
take advantage of the untimely death of the film’s star. It is
an entirely different storyline that is only loosely connected to the
original.
American Commando 4: Kill Butterfly Kill is also
a 4K film restoration from the original camera negative.
To be honest, we are not familiar with the film
(regardless of its various titles), and the release has been on the radar for a
while (a limited edition came and went) … until now!
Look, it’s backed by Cauldron Films, which has an
impressive track record for delivering unique and cult films, so you pay
attention when a double-disc Blu-ray edition of Ho’s 1982 (’87) film, Kill
Butterfly Kill (aka: Underground
Wife; aka: American
Commando 4: Kill Butterfly Kill) gets
a Dec. 12 release date.
As to the story itself, the exciting Juliet Chen
Li-Yun (Li-Yun Chen — Commando Fury, The Vampire
Dominator, Angel’s Blood Mission,
etc.) has the lead as an attractive young woman, Tang Mei-Ling, who inexplicitly
goes out walking one evening in a seedy part of town. Sure enough, a quintet of young joy-boys spot
her and decide to have their way with her (note, in the IFD re-cut her
attackers are members of a drug gang).
After all, any woman walking the streets after dark in
this neighbor is obviously asking for it, so why not oblige! Although skilled in martial arts, Mei-Ling holds
her own in the early goings of the assault, but five against one eventually
proves too much for her to handle and she is beaten and gang-raped.
Bloody, humiliated and violated, she commits suicide
by leaping to her death off a bridge.
But, as luck (or fate) would have it, she is rescued by a former
killer-for-hire played by “Tattooer Ma” Sha (aka: Liu Jin-Zhen — The Witch
with the Flying Head, Guns to Heaven, Ma! Don’t Die on My Back,
etc.), who nurses her back to health and spends the next few years imparting
his skill-set as an assassin so that she can have her revenge … which she
does!! In the alternate IFD cut of the
film, she has outside “help” bent on taking down a criminal drug-dealing enterprise.
As to bonus goodies, the Kill
Butterfly Kill version has commentary by
Kenneth Brorsson and Paul Fox, podcasters for the Fire Network.
