Monday 16 April 2012

A snake queen by any other name...


Hahaha, oh mein gott!!! An ebay seller is charging 300 dollars for three small lobby cards from a film he sells off as the Indonesian SNAKE QUEEN (starring Suzzanna) and his entire plot description is of the Indo film... B-U-T... his lobby cards are from an entirely different movie!!! Hahahaha. They're from a HK/Thai film of the same English title!!!

The Indo film is directed by Sisworo Gautama Putra. This joker's lobby cards clearly list a Snan Charussilp as the director, and the actors' names all seem to be Thai.

However... after having laughed at the eBay seller... (I know-I know, don't tell me, it's not nice laughing at people but 300 dollars for three small lobby cards and a seller who can't even be arsed to check the bloody movie the cards are from deserves to be laughed at. What a fucking ripoff!!!)... I must admit I'm very curious about the HK/Thai film now. I have NEVER heard of it!!! Do any of you out there in Cyberspace know this film?? Has it been released to home-cinema at any stage???

PS: notice the huge spelling mistake on all three cards: Eastman "coulor".





UPDATE:

James Marshall in Thailand sent me this scan of what is most likely a Taiwanese poster for the film!
(thanks, James!)



And I've just discovered there's a Hong Kong Movie Data Base listing for the film:


蛇國女王
Snake Queen (1974)
Country: Taiwan
Genre: Fantasy

Director: Choi Sai-Nam
Producer: Chan Leung-Kai

Cast:
June Chan Kei
Wong Fei-Lung
Lam Ping
Lee Tan
Chow Pan

Production Company: Great China Film Company H. K.
Production Manager: Wong Kai-Chun
Presenter: Ting Hui-Kuen

Note : 1974 is an estimated year.



And here are the full credit list from the lobby cards (none of the names actually appear to be the same!):


Main actor: Chaiya Suriyan
Main Actress: Aranya Namwong

Starring:
Metta Rungrat
Prim Prapaporn
Aurasa Isarangoon
Sasima Sirisilp
Lautog
Sritao
Sompong
Ruj Ronapope

Producer and director: Snan Charussilp

Snansilp Film Production

Distribution: Great China Film Co. (H.K.)
(236 Nathan Road B/F Front Block Kowloon, Hong Kong)


And finally, there's also an entry at the Hong Kong Film Archive but altho many of their films are listed in both English and Chinese this one is only listed in Chinese. And sadly the online translator tool I used just wasn't very good.

6 comments:

  1. I'm going to guess, Jack, that it's a Thai film distributed in HK and that the cast, where it applies, have been given Chinese names, and vice versa. Speaking of snake queens, remember that spread for that weird lookin Asian movie, THE BIRTH GODDESS? It had some snake woman action in it too including a fire spitting snake, lol. I don't see it listed at HKMDB, though, at least not under that title.

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  2. Argh! No, I don't remember that one. O_O

    However, it seems someone over at Cinehound has spent a really long time trying to find out about this film and my lobby cards were just what he needed.

    Check here:
    http://z9.invisionfree.com/THE_CINEHOUND_FORUM/index.php?showtopic=6998

    ReplyDelete
  3. The cards and poster above come from Thai film named "Mea Ngu". It's Thai movie. You can see pictures and story of this fim from this link.

    Itichai

    http://www.thaifilm.com/forumDetail.asp?topicID=5167&page=5&keyword=

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi anonymous,

    Thanks for your info! Very helpful. But, uh, you didn't check the link in my post above yours, did you? It's a link to someone telling me it's the MEA NGU film. LOL.

    It is also knowns as "Lady Master Snake" (HK English title) and "Snake Queen" (Taiwan English title). But thanks again for your info and link.

    I wish some of these films were easier to track down. I wish I could find the Thai VCD of "Cannibal Mercenary 2" but it seems to be impossible to find. You wouldn't know where to get it would you?

    The cover scan is here:
    http://backyard-asia.blogspot.dk/search/label/Cannibal%20Mercenary%202

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  5. any link to buy the snake queen dvd ?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Nope. I don't have it myself and I don't even know if it's available anywhere, in any format. If you find it do let me know, thanks.

      Delete