Comparison between the cut British Laserdisc by MIA (Missing in Action) (BBFC 18) and the Original version on the Hong Kong Laserdisc by Star Video (Cat. III)


- 7 cuts
- Length: 33.2 sec.



Instead of using the shorter export version for the release in Great Britain, the original version with English subtitles was released on VHS and Laserdisc. But a look at the BBFC data base tells us that there've been some problems, 3 seconds were supposedly cut from the rated version. The following report also shows that half a minute, in comparison to the HK LD, was removed. Mostly shots in which drug consumption is depicted respectively cocaine is consumed from a naked woman's body were cut out of the sex scene at the beginning. A few minutes later there's another cut with a length of 3 seconds when the bullet wound on the chest is taken care of (a nice opportunity to show a naked breast...) Now this is just a speculation, but maybe the BBFC only demanded a change for the last mentioned scene and all further cuts had already been made by the distributor beforehand so they aren't mentioned in the entry.

Either way: even if some nudity isn't that important in such a movie, it still is a little turnoff. This is a pity, because the British version is superior to the Hong Kong Laserdisc in terms of quality (but actually none of the worldwide releases would win a prize for its outstanding quality). It also contains English subtitles in contrast to the HK Laserdisc.


The screenshots were taken from the Czech VHS, for the cut parts take place in relatively dark sets and the HK LD already was darkened a little bit so these parts are quite hard to see. The Czech VHS looks at least slightly better. It has to be mentioned at this point again that all the shots that were cut in Great Britain are contained in the shorter export version.



The runtime information is in the order
British LD in PAL / Hong Kong LD in NTSC



Thanks go out to Mr. White, who helped out with the comparison material!

Logos

The Star logo is shown only on the HK disc.
The UK LD has a logo of the label M.I.A. This is just to mention it, it's not counted as belonging to the main movie.

HK LD 19 sec. longer

04:28 / 04:58-05:09

There's depiction of drug consumption right at the beginning of the sex scene. Some kind of white substance, probably cocaine, is sprinkled on the breast of a woman. Then a man sniffs it in a close-up.

9.8 sec.

04:37 / 05:19-05:20

Another short close-up in which apparently some more cocaine is being put on the body.

1.4 sec.

04:38 / 05:21-05:22

There's an ugly jump cut in the UK version during the shot of the girl due to the fact that these are actually two separate shots of her and in the original version the breast with the cocaine sprinkled on is shown once more in between those two shots.

1.3 sec.

04:39 / 05:24-05:35

And only the original version goes on immediately afterwards: again the breast is shown, then a woman takes some of the cocaine with her finger and sniffs it with relish.

11 sec.

05:18 / 06:16

Again two separate takes were put together in the UK version. A shot in between those two takes was removed which causes a slight jump cut. Here it's not that obvious as it was a minute before.

There's an additional shot of the man and the woman in which the leg of the woman is put into the right position.

0.6 sec.

05:35 / 06:34-06:40

A further and slightly clearer shot of them having sex. The other woman joins them.

6.1 sec.

11:51 / 13:13-13:16

The girl keeps the bottle down slightly longer, then her injured breast is shown to which Lily, the killer, applies the instrument for the removal of the bullet.

3 sec.

39:31 / 42:07-42:09

The beginning of the tracking shot over the table with the candles is insignificantly shorter in the UK version.

1.5 sec.




Alternative
42:16-42:27 / 45:00-45:12

When Tong gets electrified, blue sparks are visible only in the UK LD version. Shortly afterwards when he gets an electric shock and is thrown backward (this scene was cut in the export version), the corresponding effect is missing on the Hong Kong LD.

For the UK LD is, apart from that, clearly based on the original version and contains the plot scenes which were removed for the export version, it can be supposed after this comparison that the effect simply was forgotten in the masters of the Hong Kong LD or it just hadn't been added yet and that this isn't an exclusive change for the export version.

no runtime difference

UK LD	HK LD