Gwendoline (Tawny Kitaen) ships herself to China in a wooden box, and is immediately kidnapped upon her arrival to the Far East. Thankfully for her, rough and tumble sailin’ man Willard (Brent Huff) comes to her rescue and takes up the task of helping our heroine locate the butterfly her butterfly (that’s a lot of “butterfly” in one sentence… oh, shit… ) collector father went missing in the mythic land of the Yik Yak trying to find… for a fee of course.
Along the way our erstwhile heroes must contend with river pirates, cannibals, poisonous clouds, and a tribe of Amazons that live in a hi-tech mine deep below the Earth… a serious ordeal all for a simple butterfly!
Want to know something that exemplifies the surreal nature of The Perils of Gwendoline in the Land of the Yik Yak? The film has an easy-listenin’ synth score (totally inappropriate given it’s early 1930’s setting) that plays no matter the sitch… Murder? Dreamy keys. Attempted rape? Dreamy keys. I have no idea why this music was chosen, but then again I have no idea why a great many of the decisions resulting in this wacky masterpiece were made… but I’m damn glad they were. And were off to the races cats n’ creeps…
Let’s discuss the acting in ol’ Gwendoline, because that just continues the “anything goes” vibe of the film. Huff (he of the great Bruno Mattei’s Strike Commando 2) makes for a convincing hero, and seems to be enjoying every minute of being in this production, as does every single bit-player involved, but some of the best acting comes from Zabou as Gwendoline’s comely girl Friday, Beth who seems totally invested in the proceedings. As for our heroine herself, things are a bit uneven… sometimes she delivers a fine performance, other times it seems she’s off on Cloud Nine somewhere, but regardless she’s watchable either way… and her love/hate relationship with Huff’s Willard is a ton of fun to witness.
A big deal has been made of the film’s erotic content, and for the most part it’s all rather chaste. Gwendoline is presented as a naive, yet often horny, virgin, but the only “action” you get is some randy dialog and the occasional exposed breast (which becomes considerably less occasional once those Amazons make the scene).
Now with all of that you may think this whole thing is a low-budget affair… man are you wrong. This picture is filled with massive sets, exotic locales, and elaborate costumes; it’s truly a visual delight, and well it should be given it’s comic strip roots (the film is based on the character created by John Willie).
It all adds up to a massively fun, and irresistible watch that is sure to appease fans of films such as Vadim’s Barbarella (1968) or Farina’s The Devil Witch (1973)!
As good as the film is, the extras provided by Severin for this Blu-ray release are every much it’s match! First up we get two audio commentaries; one from writer/director Just Jaeckin and the other featuring Kitaen and Huff. Both are lively (and often hilarious) conversations and shed an ass-load of light on how this epic came to be!
Following that we get the U.S. cut of the film that runs nearly twenty minutes shorter (and is the version I became obsessed with on HBO in my misspent youth), interviews with Jaekin (he gets two in fact, one archival and one new), costume/concept designers (and comic book artists) Francois Schuiten and Claude Renard, executive produver Jean-Claude Fleury, production designer Francoise Deleu, and an archival audio interview with Willie… which devolves into singing, and not particular good singing either.
Bringing up the rear we get a series of Blu-ray promos featuring Kitaen and Huff, a promotional photoshoot from French magazine ‘Lui’, and a duo of trailers for the film.
The Perils of Gwendoline in the Land of the Yik Yak is like Terry and the Pirates with tits… now, I wager a good many of you didn’t know you needed that in your lives, but you oh-so-fuckin’ do!
