Friday, 23 July 2021

Abridged Asian Musings

This is an abridged list of Asian Tarzan-related films that DeviantArt newcomers can reference. 

The post-1970 Asian Tarzan works 

A. Hameed’s Tarzan radio drama - From the mind behind Ainak Wala Jin comes his own (unofficial) remake of the 1932-34 Tarzan radio drama. It’s a pretty unique remake of a radio serial, in which it’s spoken in the standard Pakistani variants of both Urdu (although related more closely to the more populous Hindi, it’s technically a Hindustani sociolect) and Punjabi. 
Babbar Subhash’s Adventures of Tarzan - This schlock masterpiece took much of its title from that of the last Elmo Lincoln Tarzan film. Released onto cinemas in the Christmas weeks of 1985 (for New Years Week 1986), the most famous of unofficial Tarzan films spawned a couple of spin-offs, a scrapped sequel, a scrapped remake and a Nepali language continuity reboot mockbuster. 

Things that are safely not named after Tarzan for legal reasons 

Before Yoichiro Minami’s death

Buruuba - Based only loosely upon (but more likely spun off from) the Baruuba books written by Arsene Lupin Aficionado Yoshimasa Ikeda, Buruuba as a movie is a schlock masterpiece which deserves an international cult following, mostly because of how obscure it is at least outside of Japan. 
Zimbo - Even though Zimbo as a film is one of the first foreign Tarzan expy films in colour, the original colour print is a medium which is technically gone forever, due to the plausible types of filming material being explosively dangerous, so only the black and white dupe print survives, albeit in a poor condition. Its sequels Zimbo Comes To Town and the succeeding Zimbo Finds A Son also have their masters been considered irreparably lost as well. However, its Kannada remake, released in the year of the first and prettiest Woodstock fest ever filmed, is otherwise generically named Kadina Rahasya.

Afterwards 

Kadina Raja 85 - Released in April 1985, Kadina Raja is more like a part time ripoff of Kenya Boy in both tv series and anime film forms than its predecessor, which is a mere riff on the tale of Zimbo, combined with some elements of Tiger Boy. 
Bollywood’s Jungle Love - As implied by how Raja was being raised by a pride of lions (which was after being unintentionally abandoned by his unlucky birth mummy, in a kingdom led by greedy Amazons), The Ultra Studios-distributed Jungle Love Film seems to be based a bit more on Buruuba, than on either the Cold War Zimbo films or the Tarzan books themselves. That said, it’s still a very loose (unofficial) reimagining of all three. Zembla is also a contributing inspiration for the movie, although it gets denoted to a minor role instead. 


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