I know there's a fairly recent Thai horror movie called KRAI THONG and there's also a sequel. I haven't watched either but every damn review I've read so far totally disses them :lol:

HOWEVER, as I was checking out the various DVD versions I discovered that there are also two OLD Krai Thong movies. They're out on Thai VCD and apparently at least the first one has English subtitles!

Check out my links to them (scroll down, there's scans from the films). Has any of you seen these old versions? Are the new ones remakes or different takes on the Croc story? They're only around 6 bucks so obviously I ordered them.

Krai Thong (Classic)
http://www.ethaicd.com/show.php?pid=12909

Krai Thong 2 (Classic)
http://www.ethaicd.com/show.php?pid=17524

Btw, the postage is included in the price at eThaiCD. You can also get them from Thai CD express.

Jack

There are other versions of the Krai Thong legend. One is a recent porn adaptation, without any interest. But before the two movies which starred Sorapong Chatree, there was one that you can eventually find on VCD as "The Crocodile Men".
It was probably made in the late 1970s, the exact country is difficult to establish, perhaps a copro between Thailand and Hong Kong. It was directed by Hui Keung (but the name has different spellings, like "Kam Yung" in Cantonese, "Jin Weng" in Mandarin, or "Chin Weng" in Taiwanese Mandarin) and the star is the Cambodian actress Dy Saveth, who was the "Snake Girl" in a series of films (a girl with a Medusa-type hair, full of snakes). Hui Keung, the director, also stars. Others in the cast are Huoy Dina and Hsien Hu Ting.
Actors are difficult to identify as my VCD is Chinese and all the names are of course Chinese transcriptions. Apparently Dy Saveth is renamed "Li Sa Yue" (or "Li Sha Yue", or "Li Sha Yueh").
Dy Saveth was (and still is) a beautiful Cambodian star. By miracle she escaped the Red Khmer terror as she was shooting a movie in Hong Kong, if I remember well. She take refuge in France where she lived during at least twenty years, and in recent years returned to Cambodia.
"The Crocodile Men" is the classic story of Krai Thong and his arch enemy Charavann. The title is sometimes mentioned in Khmer forums as "Kritong Kraper Charavann", or "Krai Thorng Krawper Charavan". The Chinese title is "Tin Gor" (Cantonese), "Tian E" (Mandarin), "Tien E" (Taiwanese Mandarin).
The VCD is subtitled in Chinese and English.
I'm almost sure that other versions of "Krai Thong" were made.
Incidentally, the "Krai Thong 2" mentioned in your post was the movie later "cannibalized" to become "Cocodile Fury", after adjonction of sequences of Chinese hopping vampires or zombies !!! the problem being than the quality of the "Krai Thong 2" segments were superb in the patchwork film (in Scope), when the VCD release of the original movie is really awful (and the same goes for the other movie, "Krai Thong 1")... Sad.

Hey Jean-Claude,
We spoke briefly about Indo flicks over at Dvdmaniacs a little while ago, remember?

Thanks for your info on the Krai Thong films. That's very useful.

I already have DVD releases of both THE CROCODILE MEN (with great picture, I think it's taken from a laserdisc) and also SNAKE GIRL (also great picture). They are both dubbed in Mandarin and comes with English subtitles.

I also just got SNAKE GIRL DROPS IN (aka La vipère du karaté) on French DVD. In our brief PM exchange you mentioned that she plays a mute due to her not being able to speak Chinese. I don't think this is the case. All Hong Kong movies prior to the mid 1980s were filmed without sound and were later dubbed in the studios. All actors were dubbed later (either by themselves or somebody else). So it wouldn't have been a problem that she didn't speak either Cantonese or Mandarin. Cynthia Rothrock sure as hell didn't speak a word or Chinese when she did YES, MADAM! I believe it was just a natural part of the role Dy Saveth played.

Here's my two DVDs of the films:






Jack

Hello Jack... now I remember this brief exchange in DVD Maniacs.
I just took the "explanation" of Dy's mutism in this HK movie in a Khmer forum, but you are probably right. What is curious is that she plays a mute character in this one when the same character was speaking in the first films in the series...
Can you tell me who distributes the DVDs reproduced in your post ? or where I can find them, and under what titles ?
Recently in YouTube someone posted one of the snake girl Cambodian movies, I got it but the print was awful, incomplete and makes no sense. However I kept it as reference. The title was "Pous Kerng Kong". I wonder if this one survived in HK or elsewhere.

Uhh, buddy, I'm afraid you just missed the train! Those DVDs are very well made bootlegs and were put out by a company in the UK. The reason nobody noticed them is that it was a bootlegger that sold mainly kung-fu films. He had tons of very rare films that his dad (who became a kung-fu fanatic already in the 1970s) would go to Asia and buy already in the early 1980s. I discovered them by chance.

And unfortunately he closed down shop on the first of January (of this year) and moved with his dad to Dubai. No kidding.

The site is still there and they'll keep it alive as a reference site, but you can't buy anything. The titles are the English ones I used in the above.


http://www.flashlegsrare.com/default.asp



Jack

Too bad... Just let's hope that somebody will follow this example! I never get enough of these rare movies. :lol:

Both "Krai Thong" and "Krai Thong 2" (the old versions, not the recent remakes) were released in Thailand on VCD. These movies, produced around the early 1980's, starred Sorapong Chatree and both were directed by Meramit for the Chai-yo company.
Unfortunately, as it's too often the case with Thai VCDs, the transfers are very poor and the movies themselves are cropped.

The paradox is that a really beautiful print of "Krai Thong 2" was apparently available somewhere, but unfortunately was bought (or stolen ?) by the unfamous Tomas Tang, the so-called "producer" of innumerable "two-in-one" movies. One of his "yes-men", hiding himself behind the pseudonym of "Ted Kingsbrook", was in charge to direct incoherent sequences involving a Chinese witch, a flying human skull, and an dozen of hopping vampire/zombies. The actors were recruited in Hong Kong, among them was a young athletic man named Kent Wills who became "Nick Reece" for the screen. The others, including the Chinese ones, being hidden under American names.

The resulting sequences were pasted-up around lenghty passages of "Krai Thong 2", the actors from this movie never encountering the others, of course. The result ? as you probably guessed: an incomprehensible mess, called CROCODILE FURY, and apparently totally unreleased anywhere excepted in... France.

The dubbed VHS (the dubbing itself being a monument of hilarity) is of good quality, and the wide-screen is respected. This being, of course, a suplementary motive of exasperation, as if Tomas Tang had simply chosen to release "Krai Thong 2" without these idiotic "new sequences", it would have been the best source for this rare movie.

Thanks for your info and the cover scan. Great pity they didn't just release the film (or both of them) on a proper DVD! The subs on the first VCD are barely readable and of course the second VCD doesn't have any subs at all. They really deserve a proper release.


Jack

Who knows ? perhaps we'll have a good DVD some day from an unexpected source. It's a chance that most of these Thai, Cambodian, etc. movies were also released in Hong Kong, or even Japan - these "foreign" prints could be the last ones existing. It's the same thing for some Philipino movies, the ones that survived, and in very good condition, are the co-productions with the USA !

This is the Thai poster for the version of KRAI THONG starring Dy Saveth and Hui Keung (who was also the director and, incidentally, Dy's husband). The Thai dealer who was selling this poster on eBay transcribed Dy Saveth's name as "Deesavate" !!!

Cool poster there for CROCODILE MEN, JC. And yes, those transcriptions can get to be a pain. Especially with films that are so rare and hardly mentioned in any books.


Jack

I recently learned that not one ("Crocodile Men") but THREE Krai Thong movies were produced in Cambodia, years before the two Thai movies starring Soraphong Chatree.
These films were:

1) "Kray Thorng neng Krapeu Charavann" released 1968 and starring Kong Sam Oeun et Dy Saveth.

2) "Champa Thorng" released circa 1970 and starring Kong Sam Oeun et Dy Saveth.

3) "Krapeu lok nén", released 1973 and starring Chea Yuthorn et Dy Saveth. This one wasn't a sequel but rather a remake, with Chea Yuthorn replacing Kong Sam Oeun in the title role. It's this movie which is available on VCD, renamed "Krai Thong kropeu Charavann", aka "Crocodile Men".

Hello Jean-Claude

I also did research about old Thai and Khmer films and I currently also believe that your list of these 3 films may be as correct as it gets.

1) "Kray Thorng neng Krapeu Charavann" released 1967 or 1968
currently most likely a lost film

2) "Champa Thorng" released 1969 or 1970
exists in bad state on Cambodian DVD

3) "Krapeu lok nén" released 1972, 1973 or 1974 (HKMDb lists it as "1983")
(= The Crocodile Men) Cambodian-Taiwanese (& Thai?) co-production
exists in bad state on Chinese VCDs (and on Cambodian DVD, with Chinese credits! The Cambodians probably took the existing Chinese print and re-dubbed it back into Khmer language)

I'm still trying to figure out the Cambodian title of the mysterious film "Lady Master Snake",
starring Dy Saveth and Kong Som Eun.
Like "The Snake Girl" ("Teeda sok puos"), it was released in Hong Kong by Ocean Shores Group, it even has the same Chinese title ("蛇魔女"), it however appears NOT to be the same
film.

May "Lady Master Snake" be the same film as "Snake Girl Drops In" (I haven't seen that one yet)?

To date I'm aware of four movies starring Dy Saveth as the snake girl:

196? - POUS KENG KANG (Pos Keng Korng / Pos Kaing Korng)
referenced as "The Snake King", "The Giant Snake", "The Snake Man"
production company: Dara Rath Pheap Yun
producer / director: TEA LIM KOUN (Tia Lim Kean / Tia Kim Kon)
Cast: Dy Saveth, Chea Tuthorn, Sak Si Sbong, Or Dum, Mondoline, Noya,
By Saluoth, Suy [aka Bèn Séng], Neang Ny, Loto.

1971 (?) NEANG LAVEAR CHAIK (Cambodian title), NGU GENG GONG (Thai title)
In Honk Kong: The Snake Girl (released in HK in February, 1974)
production company: Sovankiry Pheap Yun
producer: Roy Chua
exec producer: Huoy King
director: CHIN WAN (aka KAM YUNG, JIN WENG)
screenplay: Huoy King
director of photog: Hui Kwok Fai (?)
editor: Chow Ming
music comp: Joseph Koo (aka Koo Kai-fai, Koo Chia-wai)
production manager: Leung Weng
Cast: Dy Saveth (Ah Mei), Kong Som Oeun (Fei Lung)
rest of cast: Oh Lan, Fong Au, Hon Kan, Choi Lam Lam
(I have the following character names, but I don't know who are the actors:
Meggie alias "Big Madam", Su-kuei, Mila, Ah-hua, Mute, Monkey.

1974 (? in HK only?) NEANG PREAY SORK POUS
presented by Roy Chua
producer: Hui Keung
director: HUI KEUNG (aka HUOY KING)
screenplay: Tyrone Hsu (aka Hsia Hsu Tien-yun Chu)
editor: Chow Ming
action dir: Chan San-yat
production manager: Ho Mei-ching
executive director: Tyrone Hsu
music composed by Frankie Chan Fan-kei
Cast: Dy Saveth, Chear Yuthorn, Aranya Namwong, Petchara Chaovarat

1974 (?) "La vipère du karaté" (French title). I don't think this one is one of the above but I can be wrong. The credits are as suc:
presented by Roy Chua
producer: Huy Keung
director: HUY KEUNG
screenplay: Tyrone Hsu
dir of photog: Chang Hsu Lin
editor: Chow Ming
executive director: Tyrone Hsu
(at first view the credits are same as film #3, but the cast is apparently different)
Cast: Dy Saveth, Yang Kuang, Tieng Feng, Tseung Kuang Chao, Lei Ming, Wei Ping Ao, Huang Lan, Lung Tien Chang, Dyna ("The Child Star"), Shao Lo Hui, Wang Fei, Hsu Liu Sheng, Yu Ting, Wang Jo Ping
+ some others difficult to read on the screen:
Tang...? Yu Jen
Wuen...? Hsiao Chun
"Chin King" ?
"Kang I" ?

Maybe these credits could help you to identify your movie...

Thank you for posting these.

Sadly the on-screen credits for "Lady Master Snake" are entirely in Chinese, therefore it won't
be an easy task to identify the film.
I'll have to watch it in the coming days, maybe I'll know more afterwards.

Ninja Dixon reviewed KRAI THONG on his blog and posted photos of the rubber crocodile:
http://wildsideofthailand.blogspot.se/2012...thong-1980.html

B)

I hope to find all of these Crocodile Man/Snake women VCD ad DVD once in Cambodia....and make the final point about all of these releases, because it seems there's still a lot of confusion and incorrect information about them