So, although this was revealed gently a while back, I've been thinking about it again because of recent happenings in relation to it's appearance stateside... the sense I have of this particular time (and before...) in HK cinema was it was both a time of quite extreme material and it was a time that suffered frequently with the films being fairly disposable. No, the films aren't simply trash, they're certainly unusual, difficult to describe in terms beyond 'intentionally distasteful' as they mix (in quite a questionable, but fascinating manner, sex and gore), they were however pretty badly treated or inadvertantly mistreated and the prints often become hard to track down in decent shape - shape good enough for the demands of an HD age. Still, although the film has a lacklustre Japan Shock DVD, a fairly recent HK DVD, and a reputation that preceeds it as one of the more interesting semi-legendary Cat.III movies from HK, there was always faint recurring discussion that some footage was either edited out, deleted, misplaced, or simply lost.
Now, Discotek may be treading on the toes of another release or two, but nobody has managed to find the lost scenes and insert them back into the movie (the more powerful, desirable option) or present them for us to finally see as an extra - until now, it seems. They've revealed now that they're getting their hands on a prepared HD master of the film, complete with several minutes of deleted footage in glorious 16:9 - and hey, that's good enough for a HD DVD too. Nice, yes, I will be a happy man (even though it goes against many of my purchasing principals) if Discotek turn up something good on this one - they're also in line for an Anthony Wong & Herman Yau interview and are angling for questions... so if you have any, pop them in the comments below, I am sure they'll discover them. Hey, I have an odd fetish for this kind of film, and I think this is one of the best, so it's worth looking into.
'Ebola Syndrome' Review at MandiApple *contain pictures, not for the faint-hearted or those at work!*
'Ebola Syndrome' Trailer at YouTube. *again, not safe for work!
This could be a monumental release for fans of these kinds of films but I refuse to get excited just yet. There have been too many disappointments. I am still waiting for my uncut widescreen DVD of DR. LAMB which was supposed to come out in Germany three years ago. On the other hand, France just recently got a full uncut DVD release of RUN AND KILL so it seems as if miracles of this sort are actually possible. Maybe someone will eventually be able to release an uncut SEX AND ZEN?
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