At the Green End

Hello everyone, how about reviewing a Tarzanesque oddball of a manga by the late Shinji Nagashima then? 

This is ‘At the Green End’, a strange Shōjo manga! The story starts with a teenage girl meeting a grownup Tarzan boy, and both will go on a fantastic adventure where they have to face a wizard with crooked teeth. 

Nagashima’s art style actually was in its early stages, trying a little too hard to imitate Mitsuteru Yokoyama’s own at first. 

Cowabunga

Mola

Amo

The Burmese Tarzan Spoof

Hello there people. Tonight’s instalment is actually a comic-based Tarzan spoof movie from military controlled Myanmar, this time it’s from the mid-late 1980s-early 1990s. Funnily enough, it’s more like a spoof on both Disney’s the Jungle Book and Adventures of Tarzan than a true Mockbuster. 

The little known film, likely based on a largely lost Burmese comic by an internationally unknown Burmese cartoonist and directed by Nyan Wai Htun, has the trademark infringing title of just Tarzan in contrast to its comic book source, but due to being a semi-spoof of both the first Tarzan the Ape Man film and Bollywood’s adults only Adventures of Tarzan, it deserves to attract more and more people (outside of Myanmar) into watching it. In fairness, it was most likely released in 1986 as noted by the use of Tin Zar Win Pyae’s Burmese cover (preceding Connie’s more famous breakout Burmese cover by a few months) of Aishwarya Rai’s breakout hit ‘Tarzan my Tarzan’. This means that Tarzan of the Jungle, a truer Mockbuster, might’ve been released a decade later in late 1997-early 1998.

It stars a cast of 1980s Burmese actors, all of them little known outside of their country except for Connie herself to an extent, because she’s unfortunately been unfairly imprisoned by the Burmese military for being both pro-democracy and definitely anti-coup. Toe Nyunt as the Tarzan Boy, Aye Nandar as the brunette woman, Tin Zar Win Pyae (Mo Zin Zan) as the photographer, U Hla Oo as the villainous Burmese logger and Daw Mya Tin as the hero’s mother are amongst them. 

Did it ride on the coattails of Adventures of Tarzan? Well, it’s actually a comic based Burmese spoof on the Tarzan mythos set in Burma, especially riffing on Bollywood’s Adventures of Tarzan, but with a more family friendly twist; the titular subject was just imagining a life filled with critter shenanigans.  

The story began with such a Tarzan-like young guy running around through the Burmese woods with his animal friends, but then a bunch of stereotypical tribals kidnap him for ransom. Meanwhile, his birth parents, were just tired of their son’s imaginary Tarzan friend having been missing in the jungle for so long.

Slipping between the beginning and the main plot are a line of comic book artworks which indicate that the movie is itself based on a rather little known Burmese comic book, basically an all-Burmese Tarzan Expy comic which spoofed both Tarzan and the Jungle Book in equal capacity. 

The main plot would start when the hungry tribals would harass a group of safari goers such as the brunette woman and her younger photographer friend, until the Tarzan boy rescued them from their would-be downfall. Then he had to lead them back into the city for safety reasons, so that they'll stay safe, but at the cost of greedy wood cartel loggers and their own sleaze of a boss trying to invade the hero's adoptive home. 

However, the safari photographer and her brunette best friend would rather get along with him better in the long run near the end, as the man behind the imaginary Tarzan friend snuck into his parents’ house and surprisingly reunited with them as always. 

This is frankly one of the least known yet queerest takes on the Tarzan boy archetype, a rather indirect Mockbuster and cash in formerly considered lost media until this year. Being from a pillaged backwater with an otherwise internationally underrated comic book industry, it’s still a hilariously lowish budget (comic book parody based), polyamory ridden teen film with Aye Nandar being its true star, even though it was Tin Zar Win Pyae’s acting debut after all. 

Wild and Tame: the Burmese Baruuba movie

Hello everybody, I’m introducing you to yet another Burmese tentacle ripoff of a Bollywood PR0N knockoff. 

The shoddy Burmese cringe fest of a schlock film is known as Wild and Tame, one of the most infamous Burmese adults only films that I’ve ever seen, due to the huge amount of harassment and dick swinging between male characters seen in it. 

Likely released in the mid 2010s to early 2020s, and perhaps in 2016 or 2020, chances are that it’s a Mockbuster for perverted otakus who wish that they’re kings of the adults only space. The cast is also largely unknown except for the main stars Danny and Suzali Oo, who themselves aren't as well known outside of their native country except for the Burmese diaspora. 

Is it a remake of Jungle Love? It definitely looks like a more hardcore one to both Bollywood and Nepalese versions, because the original Jungle Love is actually pretty tame by both Bollywood and Indian standards aside from lots of harassment (including implied cannibalism and implied SA) by male tribals and an adult Raja being breastfed by his lioness mentor. Not to mention that it even borrows some elements from the equally edgier Nepalese reboot with the late Jessica Khadka. 

The story begins with the Burmese equivalent of both Reiko Watanabe and Rita going into the wild rainforest, so she and her elephant mahout are watching out for gibbons, squirrels, monkeys and birds before coming to the fabulous golden temple. 

Meanwhile, flashing back to an earlier point in her life, the Burmese Baruuba, likely raised by a bunch of squirrels, monkeys and gibbons, lives a tough life in the rural wilderness. He gets into a fight between two warring clans in a village of stereotypical tribals, who are implied to be pretty much bigger harassers than both their Bollywood and Nepali counterparts in 2 fellow unofficial film adaptations of BaRuuba no Bōken. The differing clans mostly have dysfunctional and perhaps even drunk men who more often dominate over both their children and wives amongst fellow relatives. Then he suddenly meets an embarrassed Burmese Rita when she gets kidnapped by one of the guys later on. 

Initially they caged him up, but then they unwillingly sent him to fight a pair of Chinese gangsters whom Burmese Rita had known since childhood. The Burmese Baruuba is not happy with a bunch of such dudes, because they're just much worse than the rest! 

Afterwards, Burmese Rita is just becoming too tired of her lanky husband and his friends cheating upon her, and so her sister meets them in turn at a shabby cafe, suggesting a more interesting and unexpected turn of events will loom at large rather soon. 

The real plot will kick in when it's time for Burmese Grace to catch up with her sister, and thus brutal fights loom abound between a cheating man and the Burmese Baruuba. Even if so, one of the gangsters gets haggled by a lot of harassing tribals in a single mating rut! One of Burmese Rita's former friends is now so hurt in such a conflict between gangsters and tribals that he's almost dying, meaning that Burmese Baruuba instead spares the young woman out of kindness. 

However, here comes the otherwise dumb ending, which will warn you about the consequences of Netorare! After the haughty yet senile tribal chief unwittingly dies, the Burmese Baruuba will soon marry another woman, instead of the sad young woman who does grow to love him, but whose messed up husband has pretty much passed away. 

Seriously, it's just a pretty bad adults only movie, but given that its original script was basically a tentacle PR0N disaster which might've been worse off, let's say that it does have actors who do amazing Burmese martial arts, with Bando amongst them. 

The film’s soundtrack does have a strong list of relaxing open source songs, which isn’t too bad for a Mockbuster with much grosser writing than even the original Jungle Love and GoodTimes Entertainment’s Canuck-produced masterpiece of children’s schlock, Jungle Boy! 

Fola