[KineJapan] Asiapol Secret Service

Wed Apr 24 10:15:28 EDT 2019

Dear Alex,
Thank you for this extra information - very very interesting. I saw Venus
Tear Diamond years ago in Hawaii. I should look for it again. That was
Inoue Umetsugu I think. I remember Lily Ho is in it and the Korean actress
Park Ji-hyeon. I had no idea Shin Sang-ok had been involved.
best
ej
Earl Jackson P
Professor
Chair, Foreign Languages and Literatures
National Chiao Tung University
Associate Professor, Emeritus
University of California, Santa Cruz
Co-Director
Trans-Asia Screen Cultures Institute

On Wed, Apr 24, 2019 at 8:32 PM Zahlten, Alexander via KineJapan <
kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu> wrote:

> Hi Earl,
>
>
>
> You are right, there are two versions of Asiapol, though only one is / was
> officially available on DVD as far as I know, which is the one Jasper
> pointed out (contact me offline and we can talk more about how to get your
> hands on it). Akinori’s films are very interesting for the way they use the
> widescreen format – Jasper can probably tell us a lot about that aspect
> (Jasper, when is your book on widescreen finally coming out? I can’t wait!).
>
>
>
> Venus Tear Diamond is terrifically interesting – the Expo scenes are
> amazing by themselves. The expo visit by the characters ends up focusing on
> the Korean pavilion (built to look like a giant turtleship (!), oars and
> all – talk about sticking it to Japan) because of another fascinating
> aspect of the film. It was partially a project initiated by Shin Sang-ok,
> who was heavily involved with Shaw Brothers at the time and thinking of a
> Korean release; this was another reason Inoue needed to use a Chinese film
> for the directing credits.
>
>
>
> Best,
>
> Alex
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> *From: *KineJapan <kinejapan-bounces at mailman.yale.edu> on behalf of
> Jasper Sharp via KineJapan <kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu>
> *Reply-To: *Japanese Cinema Discussion Forum <kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu>
> *Date: *Wednesday, April 24, 2019 at 04:31
> *To: *Japanese Cinema Discussion Forum <kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu>
> *Cc: *Jasper Sharp <jasper_sharp at hotmail.com>
> *Subject: *Re: [KineJapan] Asiapol Secret Service
>
>
>
> As far as I was aware, the film was a Nikkatsu-Shaw co-production and so
> not two different versions.
>
> Nikkatsu have basic details on their own website, but the film is not on
> any home viewing format in Japan: http://www.nikkatsu.com/movie/20962.html
> <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.nikkatsu.com_movie_20962.html&d=DwMFAg&c=WO-RGvefibhHBZq3fL85hQ&r=__ROkypPMfBMMPVia3CjGrxSJryXbwjGyfBDGhCKd68&m=8dyBkyO4roa90Q4phaATVq-qwqFevxj_EJ1E34LZy9g&s=p8MqXQa5EhH-TH7-2m01Gpy7IekAnqfeTbjQ5zMVAFg&e=>
>
>
>
>
> However, a lot of the Shaw Bros films were released on DVD about 15 years
> ago, including this one, although it might be hard to find at the moment:
> https://www.badpandashop.com/products/asia-pol-1967-region-3-dvd-english-subtitled-shaw-brothers
> <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.badpandashop.com_products_asia-2Dpol-2D1967-2Dregion-2D3-2Ddvd-2Denglish-2Dsubtitled-2Dshaw-2Dbrothers&d=DwMFAg&c=WO-RGvefibhHBZq3fL85hQ&r=__ROkypPMfBMMPVia3CjGrxSJryXbwjGyfBDGhCKd68&m=8dyBkyO4roa90Q4phaATVq-qwqFevxj_EJ1E34LZy9g&s=q7Sf5SuGIBBFpR25m33uLDdTa1TMeFvi4iEmi1iyVTw&e=>
>
>
>
> Akinori made quite a few films in Hong Kong. In fact, I don't think his
> Japanese work is particularly well known or available at the moment - I
> don't think I've ever seen any of it, but I do have his Shaw Bros
> production Lady Professional, from 1971, which features Lily Ho as an
> assassin running around Hong Kong and Japan disguised in a nun's outfit.
> Actually, these Shaw Bros films from Japanese directors do tend to look
> awfully like Nikkatsu films, Umetsugu Inoue's Venus Tears Diamond being a
> case in point - a great comic heist movie that even features a scene at the
> Osaka Expo. Would love to research these further myself had I time time and
> resources.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> *The Creeping Garden
> <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.creepinggarden.com_&d=DwMFAg&c=WO-RGvefibhHBZq3fL85hQ&r=__ROkypPMfBMMPVia3CjGrxSJryXbwjGyfBDGhCKd68&m=8dyBkyO4roa90Q4phaATVq-qwqFevxj_EJ1E34LZy9g&s=Vb2Vyt6AqulyUiGjYBrWh4oqTISvWm7j4jzdlgmH1Pc&e=>*
>  - A Real-Life Science-Fiction Story about Slime Moulds and the People
> Who Work With them, directed by Tim Grabham and Jasper Sharp.
>
> Available now on Dual-Format Blu-ray/DVD from Arrow Films
> <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__arrowfilms.com_product-2Ddetail_the-2Dcreeping-2Dgarden-2Ddual-2Dformat_FCD1435&d=DwMFAg&c=WO-RGvefibhHBZq3fL85hQ&r=__ROkypPMfBMMPVia3CjGrxSJryXbwjGyfBDGhCKd68&m=8dyBkyO4roa90Q4phaATVq-qwqFevxj_EJ1E34LZy9g&s=mIrsuOJbRIiGFaCj1nT81imyrgaiVdRVc8uu4LOfsJ0&e=>
> .
>
> The book, *The Creeping Garden: Irrational Encounters with Plasmodial
> Slime Moulds *is out now from Alchimia Publishing
> <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.alchimiapublishing.com_creeping-2Dgarden_&d=DwMFAg&c=WO-RGvefibhHBZq3fL85hQ&r=__ROkypPMfBMMPVia3CjGrxSJryXbwjGyfBDGhCKd68&m=8dyBkyO4roa90Q4phaATVq-qwqFevxj_EJ1E34LZy9g&s=3U_sUzHhHqABnhn2IdqyR58RjCJH9oSTlF3bpvfHHWQ&e=>
> .
>
> "A surprising investigation of perception, thought and life itself",
> Nicolas Rapold, *The New York Times*
> <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.nytimes.com_2015_09_30_movies_review-2Dthe-2Dcreeping-2Dgarden-2Don-2Dthe-2Dwonders-2Dof-2Dthe-2Dslime-2Dmold.html&d=DwMFAg&c=WO-RGvefibhHBZq3fL85hQ&r=__ROkypPMfBMMPVia3CjGrxSJryXbwjGyfBDGhCKd68&m=8dyBkyO4roa90Q4phaATVq-qwqFevxj_EJ1E34LZy9g&s=kSciqvAx61OlS280pQBCppLbcQWwEQDUavz_NMv0Hnc&e=>
> .
>
> "An out-of-left-field nerdy delight", John DeFore, *Hollywood Reporter*
> <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.hollywoodreporter.com_review_creeping-2Dgarden-2Dfantasia-2Dreview-2D724416&d=DwMFAg&c=WO-RGvefibhHBZq3fL85hQ&r=__ROkypPMfBMMPVia3CjGrxSJryXbwjGyfBDGhCKd68&m=8dyBkyO4roa90Q4phaATVq-qwqFevxj_EJ1E34LZy9g&s=4adg_A0rhckKVTOlTlpCL1mZd4aij3Qi4LdWk9btrGQ&e=>
> .
>
> "Strange, eccentric, diverting", Peter Bradshaw, *The Guardian*
> <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.theguardian.com_film_2017_mar_09_creeping-2Dgarden-2Dreview-2Dslime-2Dmould-2Dfilm&d=DwMFAg&c=WO-RGvefibhHBZq3fL85hQ&r=__ROkypPMfBMMPVia3CjGrxSJryXbwjGyfBDGhCKd68&m=8dyBkyO4roa90Q4phaATVq-qwqFevxj_EJ1E34LZy9g&s=GVGf2A8T8uiGXImuUQ0BnfKMW0S_6sb0ecHMmCH9ay4&e=>
> .
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> *From:* KineJapan <kinejapan-bounces at mailman.yale.edu> on behalf of Earl
> Jackson via KineJapan <kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu>
> *Sent:* 24 April 2019 04:56
> *To:* Japanese Cinema Discussion Forum
> *Cc:* Earl Jackson
> *Subject:* [KineJapan] Asiapol Secret Service
>
>
>
> Dear Everyone
>
> Apparently Matsuo Akinori directed a film in Chinese in Hong Kong called
> Asiapol Secret Service but also made a Japanese version concurently,
> starring Shichido Joe, Asaoka Ruriko, and Nitani Hideaki in 1966. Does
> anyone know if this has ever become available in any medium at all?
>
> Thank you
>
> earl
>
> Earl Jackson
>
> Professor
>
> Chair, Foreign Languages and Literatures
>
> National Chiao Tung University
>
> Associate Professor, Emeritus
>
> University of California, Santa Cruz
>
> Co-Director
>
> Trans-Asia Screen Cultures Institute
> _______________________________________________
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> KineJapan at mailman.yale.edu
> https://mailman.yale.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan
>
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