I was looking at the thread down below regarding Lion Man, and I was hoping that some people might be able to help me with a few questions about it...

(And note that I'm pretty sure the title in Turkish was Kiliç Aslan, not Aslan Adam)

Does anyone know the circumstances surrounding the cheap UK dub and its so-called sequel? They definitely rearranged some of the footage, added things that weren't in the original, etc... and since the 'sequel' was released by the same company and looks like it's just a bunch of British actors who'd have trouble getting work at a community theatre, I kind of wonder how exactly that film came about.

Also, what's the basic story in the real Lion Man (as in, not the dubbed version)?

Thanks.

Not sure i can help as i never realised there was so much tampering with the export version! Saying that, the box does state a much longer running time than the film actually sports if i remember correctly so may have been cut back from the original Turkish edit?
I have the rare UK tape of this classic and it is probably my favourite Turkish film. I love it! I also have the Uk tape of the dire sequel, which was put out on tape by a different company here (although i am guessing you meant that both films had been amde by the same production company?).

I think LION MAN had a small American video release also...

The official Turkish title of LION MAN is KILIC ASLAN...not ASLAN ADAM (what's wrong with imdb.com)!

The English version has the first few minutes from another Cuneyt Arkin film called BATTAL GAZI'NIN OGLU (son of Battal Gazi) spliced onto the beginning. This is the scene with an older looking Arkin with a beard and a scimitar slicing and dicing his way to victory.

Some scenes were also injected in from BATTAL GAZI DESTANI (The Legend of Battal Gazi). As you can see, Arkin made quite a few of these Battal Gazi films, and next to his "Kara Murat" films, they make excellent entertainment!

These scenes are not in the Turkish version of course.

Cool. Thanks for the info!
I always thought that various small scenes in the film looked similar to images from BATTAL GAZI DESTANI but thought that either they were filmed back-to-back or that scenes from LION MAN were reused in that film...should have known it could have been the other way around! lol

Yes, thanks for the info.

Also, what does the title come from? I gather it means "Lion Sword" in Turkish, right? I know it was the name of a historical figure from the era of the Crusades, but I haven't been able to figure out whether that's why the movie has that title.

Anyone know anything else about the UK sequel? From what I could tell, both were distributed by Boomerang Films, and it always seemed to me like the original could've been distributed in Britain partly to help market the completely unrelated 'sequel'...

Not a problem. This answer requires a bit of history - KILIC ARSLAN was a real warrior, in fact he was the king of the Seljuk empire (that is, the Turkish empire before the Ottomans were established).

When a crusade was launched he fought wave after wave of crusaders and won. There was also KILIC ARSLAN II (1115-1192) and KILIC ARSLAN III ( ? -1205).

Out of the three Kilic Arslan's I believe the one nearest to the LION MAN film was KILIC ARSLAN III. He was the son of Suleyman Shah (as in the film!). However, history ends there, as there is nothing to indicate that his hands were burnt with acid by his enemies, and so he fought with lion claws!

The first LION MAN was produced by UGUR FILM. The second was produced by Eris Akman's production company and has nothing to do with the first, production-wise. Unless you count a minor side-kick or two that were brought back for this somewhat unofficial sequel.

By the way, the unofficial sequel was released in Turkey under the title ASLAN ADAM (maybe because of legal matters?). This has led to many misunderstandings, and some assume that this is Cuneyt Arkin's title. No, the Arkin title is KILIC ASLAN :D

I see. Thanks for the explanation.

Hm... and so that second Lion Man really was made in Turkey? Interesting... I wonder why the two Lion Man films are the only Turkish films I've seen that were dubbed into English in the 80s.

where can i get hold of an excellent copy on dvd or vhs of this lion man please

Hello driller1,

you shouldn't have any trouble finding a copy here! I'm sure a lot of us would have both LIONMAN films, cheers!

please anyone wants to trade
i have trailers of diferent genre on discs

Are there any differences between the greek and the brittish releases of Lion Man?
I have the greek tape myself, haven't watched it though.. saving it for a special day.

what is the production company called that made this title in turkey?

Driller1, if you scroll up on this page you'll see that I have provided information on this a long time ago. In any case, the Production Company was UGUR FILM, which is owned by Memduh Un.

i read that but i cant seem to find that co in turkey .

I just watched LION MAN for the first time and was impressed. Very entertaining!! The tape I have is the US NTSC tape. Ayman, you mentioned that several scenes were spliced into the film from BATTAL GAZI DESTANI (The Legend of Battal Gazi); apart from the beginning which scenes where they?

Oh, and just out of curiosity; is that dreadful orchestral elevator muzak also in the Turkish version?? :wacko:

No that dreadful music is only present in the English dubbed version. The original Turkish version has tunes from Enter the Dragon :D

Only the credit sequence has Battal Gazi spliced in, the rest of the movie is intact!

The credit sequence has scenes from Battal Gazi Destani and Battal Gazi'nin Oglu (Son of Battal Gazi)

Ayman, have you the cover of the Turkish VHS?
Turkish version sounds so interesting!

Thanks, Ayman. ENTER THE DRAGON, cool!! :lol: Someone ought to make a fan version with subtitles.

Ayman, by the way, I used one of your posts from this thread for quotation as a reply to my post about LION MAN (on my blog). Hope it's alright. B)

Go here:
http://enlejemordersertilbage.blogspot.com...nows-about.html

Got the old UK pre-cert video original available for sale if anyone is interested? It is the export edit under the title of LION MAN...quite hard to find this 'Rex' label release these days...

I think i may (possibly) still have the British video release of LIONMAN Vs THE WITCHQUEEN also somewhere, but i would warn anyone interested in it that the company that released it had a duplication error on at least a batch of these as the final 30mins of my tape (and also another collector i know who has one of these) goes very quiet on the audio...

I have the Australian vhs release from Kervan Video (a Turkish Australian company from the 80s), and the sequel both on Kervan and Prestige Video.

Kilic Aslan also uses music from Planet of the Apes!

Cheers Jack :D

Just picked this up on VHS and watched it last night. Incredible film, hilariously awful dub. :lol:

There's also a French release. Check out the cover here:
http://enlejemordersertilbage.blogspot.com...nows-about.html

the characters on the cover look NOTHING like in the film. :lol: :lol:

that artwork is more generally used for Lion Man II, for witch it is slightly more apropriate (there is a definite sword & sorcery edge in the semi-sequel). I have the Dutch, Greek and UK Lion Man tapes so far! Hope to do a review / comparison for them one day on the Twitch website... but so much plans and so little time :( I am definitely going to ask Aymanoglu for advise if and when I'm doing such a piece!!

Some of us aren't on that site so do let us know if you decide to do a piece. Cheers.

Got this german / turkish release of Lion Man today :

very nice!!!!!!!!!!!!
if it's ever for trade please let me know!!
:o

Yeah, that IS a nice release.

My question is: why this movie? Why not any dozen other great Cuneyt Arkin movies? Why was this particular film chosen to be distributed widely all over the world?

I think it`s one of the better produced turkish movies . There are 4 movies starring Cüneyt Arkin that were released on VHS with german dubbing : 2 x Karamurat , Lion Man and Mat Ling/Ninja Killer ! These are mostly peplum/adventure/karate movies , and I think they fit quite good into the video-programs back then ...

Many Arkin movies , such as Dev Kani ,En Büyuk Yumruk , Kin , Insan Avcisi ,Vahsi Kan had also turkish dubbed VHS releases in Germany , but these were / remain ALL banned ... they were too violent for the times when censorship ruled the videostores . So unfortunately its very hard / impossible to find any dubbed version of these . But to be honnest , they are still fun to watch in turkish language ... for example , when I first watched Intikam Benim I didn`t care much for dialogue because I never saw such a trashy , ultraviolent non-stop action movie before !

Do you know if the German release of Der Rächer Des Khan is cut?

Actually there are 2 german releases of the movie with different age-certification + artwork by the same label . Maybe Canisius can help with the running time , he owns the tape !

Cool, thanks. This is the one I have:



Especially at the beginning it seems like there is a cut in a scene where some children have their heads cut off.

Interesting - I wasn't aware that Germany had a censorship problem during the 1980s. Similar to the 'Video Nasty' scare in the UK I assume?

LION MAN does have a slightly more 'up-market' feel to it than, say Arkin's 80s films with Inanc or even the nearly contemporaneous TARKAN movies. But I'm sure there were several other similar productions of the same caliber at that time - was this one just that much better?

Metin Demirhan had English posters of Cuneyt Arkin films from the 80s in his shop ATILGAN when I saw him in '98 and '02.

Did you mean films like Vahsi Kan had German dubbing?

I thought the films were simply intended for an English release but perhaps never picked up by foreign distribution markets.

Same with KUCUK KOVBOY? There's an English, French and Italian press release which I own, but no copies in these languages? Since the film starred Pascale Petite and Hercules regular Alan Steel, there's a higher chance this one did make it!

Besides, UC KAGITCILAR, SUPERMENLER have also German and Eng releases.

BATTAL GAZI DESTANI was dubbed in English under the title BATTAL KHAN.

I think there were special video-stores for turkish speaking fellows in the 80ties .
Vahsi Kan etc ... were all turkish language tapes , but I think most of them had a german distribution adress .

@Jared : yes , there was a "video nasty scare" in Germany , too !

These are the turkish tapes that are banned in Germany :

Bruce Lei Intikam
Cellat
Dev Kani
En Büyük Yumruk
Gecenin Sonu
Insan avcisi
Kartalbey
Kin
Melek Yüzlü Cani
Vahsi Kan
Yamyamlar (Cannibals)
Zindan
Zombie Ölüm Günü

That's so weird. Some great movies on that list too!

Yeah, just ask Jörg Buttgereit about that! I remember reading about how the cops raided his home in order to find one of his own films so they could destroy it (I forget which film it was) and how he had to hide it at some friends' place. The video nasty scare was probably even worse than in the UK. In the UK the distributors would send their films to the BBFC who would then cut them. In Germany it was even illegal for the distributors to send a film that was too violent to the censorship board! So in order for them not to get a fine they would cut the films before sending them off and they'd do it so severely that too much gore was probably cut out just to make sure!!). And then in addition to that the censorship board might still cut even more stuff out. Yeah, happy days for horror and action movie fans in Deutschland. :blink: It was ridiculous. Gore movie fans like Andreas Schnass who made little splatter movies that, basically, where just silly (but enjoyable) amateur films were actually breaking the law and risking jail sentences because of their films.

I had no idea. This is fascinating to me. What other European countries went through similar things in those years? Denmark didn't did it? And I know the Netherlands have always been famously liberal for that sort of thing, but who else fought this scourge? Although we've had our own censorship problems in the US, it's mostly been self-imposed by industry standards, save for some of the more dark areas of porn. So it often baffling to us to understand how that could have happened in the places that to us often seem far more liberal than our own state. But like I said, it's fascinating.

No, Denmark has never gone thru anything similar. I always say Denmark is the Sodom and Gomorrah of Scandinavia. Denmark, Holland and Belgium have similar censorship regulations which only put age ratings on films, there's no censoring in terms of cutting scenes out or banning films. Provided they don't contain anything that renders them illegal obviously. Kiddie porn videos are of course not allowed since child porn is illegal.

Why did (and to a certain extent some still do) come countries censor/ban films? I think it's certain governments way of protecting the innocent but instead it becomes a burden to everyone. In the UK the idea was that violence on tv would lead to violence in society. I lived in the UK in the late 80s and I remember one tv debate where one "expert" said: "Look at hardcore porn (which was fully banned in the UK); those countries that allow it have high levels of rape".

Looking at this with my liberal Danish eyes it was of course all a load of bollocks. Denmark was the first country to legitimise porn (in 71) and you can buy and rent as much HC porn here as you like but the level of sex crime has always been low here compared to places like... ta-ta-tarr... the UK. And the same goes for violence; Denmark has always had low levels of violence compared to the UK so I don't buy the "you see it on tv you go out and do it in real life".