MONDO CANNIBALE (Bruno Mattei, Philippines/Italy 2004)

DVD / English dub / open matte fullscreen / uncut / no subs / USA

Director: Bruno Mattei (as Vincent Dawn)

English distribution title: Cannibal World
Japanese English title (vhs/dvd): Cannibal Holocaust The Beginning
USA title (dvd): Mondo Cannibal
Title on bootleg dvd from Thomas Weisser's webshop: Cannibal Holocaust 2

Bogus/incorrect info on IMDb: 
"Japan (English title) (DVD box title):  Cannibal Holocaust 2"

 – Obviously, someone couldn't tell the difference between Thomas Weisser's bootleg-dvd and the official Japanese dvd!!!
In fact IMDb lists TWO English titles for the Japanese dvd – needless to say the same dvd doesn't have two different English language titles. Doesn't anybody check their info at the IMDb!?!?!?)


MATTEI REMAKES DEODATO

In 2004 Bruno Mattei remade Ruggero Deodato's CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST from 1980 and called it MONDO CANNIBALE. He shot the film back to back with NELLA TERRA DEI CANNIBALI (aka Land of Death/In the Land of the Cannibals) in the Philippines with an internationally unknown cast (I haven't been able to find ANY info about the actors apart from the two American expats). The two American expat Filipino actors are Mike Monty and Jim Moss. For some reason they´re both uncredited. Both passed away a couple of years later. Andrew Leavold quoted Nick Nicholson's comments about Jim Moss' passing here.

The American DVD from Intervision is retitled Mondo Cannibal but I'll refer to the film under the film company's international title, CANNIBAL WORLD (why do American labels always have to retitle films to make everything more confusing???)

DVD / English dub / 16:9 widescreen / uncut / japanese subs / unknown origin
(Bootleg off official Japanese dvd)

As I said, CANNIBAL WORLD is a remake of CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST. I should point out this isn't just me going, "Hmm, I think that scenes resembles this other scene a bit". No, we're talking frame by frame remake here. Done exactly the same way. Just, uh, worse (haha). A film crew goes into the jungle to find natives to do a documentary film about them – exploitation style. After a while the crew goes into taking extreme measures to exploit the locals. If you've seen CH you know what I'm talking about; set village on fire, cut head off young man, rape his girlfriend, stage various scenes, etc.

If you didn't like the original film because there's a turtle being killed I would advise you to stay clear of this as well; there's no turtle killings but a big lizard is being gutted alive.

Mattei also finds time to, once again, reuse cannibal footage from Akira Ide's NUOVA GUINEA: L'ISOLA DEI CANNIBALI (1974). He also did this in his HELL OF THE LIVING DEAD in 1980. 

CANNIBAL WORLD is on a completely different level than CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST. While CH is a masterpiece CW is a SOV crap-piece with "actors" who overact like 12 year old kids from theatre class. There are a couple of scenes of women being infuriated and I was cracking up laughing. One of them slapped a curtain out of anger. A curtain!

But apart from this the film also contains a ton of good splatter scenes. And nudity. And cannibals sporting spiffy modern haircuts. Actually, all the cannibals have modern haircuts.

VHS / English dub / uncut / Japanese burnt-in subs / Japan

Now, if you're thinking this is probably a crappy film I fully understand where you're coming from. But you'd be wrong. CANNIBAL WORLD is highly entertaining! No, it's not a "good" movie in the classical sense of the word, but to me a good movie is one that entertains me. A crappy movie is a movie that bores me. One that leaves me feeling I've wasted my time. I was fully entertained by CANNIBAL WORLD and I want to watch it again. Overacting, gore, nudity, Filipino cannibals, what more do you want! – that's a rhetorical question, you don't have to answer it (your answer would most likely be "a better movie").

Finally, a comment about the Intervision NTSC DVD that I've just bought; The picture quality is really good for a DVD (there are no blu-ray releases). However, the label decided to present the film open matte! The Japanese DVD is 16:9 widescreen and by (a quick) comparison I must admit the widescreen framing looks better. But it's a minor gripe and I'm just happy this film (and its companion, Land of Death) is available on DVD. The Intervision release has a trailer for the film in the extras – and that's it!


Japanese trailer (in the wrong format but still)

Mattei's FILIPINO CANNIBALS come to reg. 1 dvd

We are indeed squatting in exciting times and so it is time to put on the skull-mask and ride that flaming ghost-horse once again, uh, I mean... re-animate this slumbering blog!

Hey there, how y'all doing! "Exciting times" at least in regards to new releases of foreign films shot in the Philippines!

There's no less than five cool Filipino films on dvd (and one blu-ray) from Vinegar Syndrome, and Severin/Intervision has just released Bruno Mattei's two post 2000 cannibal movies, LAND OF DEATH and CANNIBAL WORLD, on reg. 1 DVD in the US.

The new DVDs are retitled In The Land of the Cannibals and Mondo Cannibal. They've previously been out on DVD and VHS in Japan (check my old post and see way cooler Japanese covers here).

Check Steven Ruskin's review and DVD info on AVMANIACS here. And yeah, I'll agree with Steve on the films. They're not great by anybody's standards but if you like your entertainment trashy you know what you'll get with these two films, entertaining trash. I do however think Bruno's two post 2000 zombie films and THE JAIL: A WOMAN'S PRISON are way better (they were shot in the 'Pines as well).

Are BRUNO MATTEI cannibal movies Asian worldweird movies?

If you were to say no then... I'd have to disagree. Well, kinda. Bruno Mattei and his Italian film crew were, needless to say, Italian - but ol'e Bruno actually filmed quite a few of his post 2000 films in the Philippines and quite a few of the cast members were locals, either Filipino actors or the ex-pat actors we're so familiar with not least from the trashy Vietnam War and action films that were shot in the 'Pines in the 80s and early 90s. So in a bizarre way Bruno Mattei's cannibal movies that you see presented on Japanese VHS here actually do belong on this site!

Mattei also made several other films in the Philippines, ZOMBI 3 was shot there (and altho it is credited to Lucio Fulci it was probably Mattei who made most of the film due to Fulci's falling ill shortly after the filming had begun. It's rumoured that Fulci's footage only takes up about 15 minutes of the film) and so were his last two zombie flicks ISLAND OF THE LIVING DEAD and ZOMBIES: THE BEGINNING, and also his highly entertaining and gory WIP film THE JAIL: A WOMAN'S HELL.

I received these two Japanese ex-rental video tapes yesterday. The two films are LAND OF DEATH (2003) (released in Japan as "Cannibal Holocaust: Cannibal vs. Commando") and CANNIBAL WORLD (2004) (aka "Cannibal Holocaust: The Beginning" in Japan). The films are also released on Japanese DVD and these vhs/dvd releases are the ONLY legit releases anywhere in the world. There are bootleg dvd's in the USA, and LAND OF DEATH is out on a Russian boot dvd as well, but like I said they are bootlegs.

If you check the covers you'll notice sequel numbers 2 and 3 after the Japanese language titles. In Japan they were released as sequels to Ruggero Deodato's CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST from 1980. The two films are quite entertaining but no-way nearly as awesome as Deodato's film. They're fun trash films though.




If you check Youtube you'll find the ordinary trailers for both films from the Italian film company, but here's the Japanese made trailer for LAND OF DEATH. Check it out, it's wild!!