This is a highly unusual disc. I am at a loss to explain why it has a reference number like those used by the Hong Kong publisher ERA Home Video. I strongly suspect that ERA may have been somehow involved in this Singapore release. I compared this disc with the Hong Kong ERA release of this title [ERA-24], and found them to be quite similar. The primary differences are that the name and logo of ERA do not appear on-screen or anywhere on the packaging, only those of Warner Home Video. Also, there are no subtitles on this Singapore release, and the Chinese text found on the jacket of the Hong Kong release is absent. The same four stills appear on the back of both jackets, but the wording of the synopsis is different. This is a slightly edited version, and is 4 minutes shorter than the Hong Kong release. Jacket wrongly lists running time as 81 minutes. Although the mint markings appear to have originated at Kuraray,
they have only batch numbers and no serial numbers.
In a direct side-by-side comparison with the Hong Kong release, I found that this version is missing footage in many scenes, as follows:
- In the scene at the police station, Kenner's line,
"Motherf***er!" has been removed, right before he runs into the interrogation room and the Yakuza member kills himself.
- At the party, a brief shot has been cut of a topless woman stepping into the pool. Minako's line, "Why do you still hang around them?" has also been cut. When Angel goes to see Yoshida, the scene is much shorter. All of the nudity has been deleted, when he removes her clothes and fondles her breast. Then, when he kills her, you only see him start to swing the sword and hear the slashing sound. The actual shot of her head being severed is gone.
- In the first Bonsai Club scene, footage has been deleted of two nude women wrestling, and men eating fish off a nude woman's body. During the fight, footage has been removed of Murata punching one of the thugs and shouting, "Down, motherf***er!"
- When Kenner and Murata arrive at the Red Dragon Brewery, the last word of Kenner's line, "That arrogant scumbag Motherf***er!" has been omitted. Inside the brewery, the shot of Yoshida chopping off the hand of the Hell's Angel member has been deleted. You only see him pulling out the sword and starting to swing it, then the man on his knees screaming.
- At the beginning of the scene when Yoshida returns to the Bonsai Club, a brief shot of three topless dancers is missing. When he goes to Minako's dressing room, the footage of him entering the room and walking past two topless women has also been removed. His line, "I don't understand my countrymen's obsession with these other women", has been cut, as a topless woman walks behind him.
- The most violent shots have been deleted from the scene in which Yoshida shows Minako the videotape of him killing her friend Angel.
- During the Yakuza meeting, the goriest shots have been removed of Yoshida's henchman cutting off his own finger, wrapping it in a cloth, and passing it over the table to Yoshida.
- In the steam bath scene, some glimpses of nudity have been cut. This also results in some missing dialog, such as Kenner's line, "Yeah, you're the problem. Get your clothes on. We're going to the station." Yoshida's line, "You have nothing!" is also missing.
- The nudity has been deleted when Minako undresses and climbs into the hot tub with Kenner, as well as shots of them having sex later. You only see them getting in bed and starting to kiss.
- There are a couple of brief shots of Kenner struggling when he and Murata are being tortured by Yoshida's gang which have been cut. As Yoshida and his men leave, there are English subtitles translating Japanese dialog which are not present on the Hong Kong release.
- During the battle in the brewery, footage has been removed of Kenner shooting a gang member at the top of the stairs, and him falling to the bottom.
- During the final showdown, the shot is missing of Kenner stabbing the sword through Yoshida's body, right before he says, "This is for my parents!"
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