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What's Up, Tiger Lily? Actor: Woody Allen Directors: Woody Allen, Senkichi Taniguchi Number of Items: 1 Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen Format: Color, Widescreen Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested) Running Time: 80 minutes Studio: Image Entertainment Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 Region Code: 1 Product Group: DVD Release Date: 2003-07-15 Buy from Amazon |
 "Experimental cinema ..."The 60's were definitely a time for experimentation, and breaking barriers, so perhaps this concept made sense then. Take a Japanese action movie, remove the soundtrack and dialog, have Woody Allen write an entirely different script to convert it to a comedy, and then dub the dialog in English, with new music and added scenes, and the result is What's Up Tiger Lily? The supposed plot of this disjointed farce, follows secret agent Phil Moscowitz in his quest to recover a secret formula for egg salad. Coming up with "suitable" comedic dialog to "match" the action on-screen, is a reactionary process. Writing in this manner, occasionally produces humorous dialog that works with some of the scenes. However, creating any kind of cohesive storyline out of these individual jokes and gags, is a task the writing can't accomplish. Applying references from American and Jewish culture, to a Japanese film, is one of the sources for the humor, but many times the writing strives too hard to be funny, going overboard for cheap laughs, with an endless stream of one liners. A limited number of voices are used for the dubbing, and the vocal delivery style is reminiscent of a Shaw Brothers production. Both of which, get monotonous after a while. The film's credits list "A no star cast". Featured are actresses Mie Hama (Teri Yaki), and Akiko Wakabayashi (Suki Yaki), who both would appear the following year in the James Bond film, You Only Live Twice (1967). Actor Tatsuya Mihashi, who plays Moscowitz, may be also be known for playing a Japanese Army officer, in Frank Sinatra's war film None But the Brave. The music of the Lovin' Spoonful is featured in the film, and the group appears playing a couple of songs. It is interesting, that Woody Allen was apparently so displeased that released version of the film included the group, that he threatened legal action. Tiger Lily has its funny moments, and is an interesting creative experiment, that may appeal to fans of spy satires, or commentary in the style of Mystery Science Theater 2000.  "Just Plain Funny"Woody Allen's "What's Up, Tiger Lily?" is silly, sophomoric, and at times very funny. The overdubbed dialogue at times is silly (two guys in a fight shouting insults like "Spanish fly!" "Turkish taffy!") and at times quite clever (one pun involving equinne necrophilia takes a while to get). Great cinema, this is not: I once saw the film in a theater where the projectionist showed the reels out of order, and it didn't affect our enjoyment of the film in the slightest. One side effect of seeing this movie, however, is that it's impossible to view any performance by Japanese actor Tatsuo Mihashi without cracking up: When I saw him play the courageous Japanese pilot in "Tora! Tora! Tora!", I continually expected him to start wisecracking about egg salad recipes.  "Funny, but requires the right mood."I'm a big fan of Woody Allen, especially his earlier work. This is, oddly enough, the film that got me into Woody Allen in the first place. It's rewritten dialog performed by Woody and some other actors, and it's totally hammed up. Some of the voices are great -- everybody has one line at some point that really just works perfectly with the absurd voice they've got. Is it as intelligent as most Woody Allen films? Absolutely not -- it's just ridiculous dialog about the search for the ultimate egg salad recipe. It's long on throwaway lines and just ridiculous, almost Mystery Science Theater 3000 comments, and short on the usual jokes about death, dying, or Bergman. However, it'd be totally inappropriate to have all of that stuff in this movie. Let's face it, this movie is just a silly, unpretentious exercise. The problem is that while it's usually funny -- laugh out loud funny at times -- it's uneven. Sometimes it can fly by, but frequently, it feels like it bogs down for a while, and the jokes wear thin. This is a great movie if you like Mystery Science Theater 3000 type treatments, but if you can't stand them, I would avoid this at all costs. If you're a Woody Allen fan, chances are you'll like it, but it's a movie that definitely merits a rental first. I have a number of friends who are Woody fans that don't like this movie one bit. Likewise, I know a number of people who like this movie that can't stand Annie Hall (which makes me wonder what's wrong with them). If you like absurd comedy with strange dialog, this is definitely up your alley. Also, extra cool: The makers included the original and alternate dialog tracks (there are two Woody Allen dialog tracks, subtly different -- not a Japanese and English version) -- so you can pick what version you like. There's also a comparison that calls out the major differences in the special features, plus the egg salad recipe is hidden on the disc.  "hillarious!!"This an excellent spoof film. Woody Allen is superb as usual. I highly advise purchasing this film. "A very novel Idea"Woody Allen came up with, I believe, an original concept when he put together "What's up Tiger Lily?" back in 1966. He took a Japanese "B" movie and eliminated the soundtrack. This enabled him to dub in a completely new script which played on a lot of the scenes while creating an inane plot. I saw it at the movie theater when it came out and I thought it was hillarious. (As a young teenager, I also retained a somewhat vivid memory of the ending). I was watching some more recent works of Woody Allen recently and the movie came back to mind. I looked it up and ordered it through Amazon.com and thoroughly enjoyed it. I wasn't tempted to rate it a "5" because there were some stretches between laughs. However, in all fairness, Allen did have to put together some sort of a plot and follow the film he was spoofing. If it was all gags, it wouldn't have worked as well as it did. There were times I really cracked up laughing and I know I'll laugh again the next time I watch it. Maybe this concept has been copied since "What's up Tiger Lily?" but I guess once was enough for Woody Allen. This movie is one of the better ones from his early years as a writer/director. I certainly am glad I picked up again after all these years. I don't ever recall seeing it available on TV. |
