MovieChat Forums > Yin shi nan nu (1994) Discussion > fish kill

fish kill

posted 11 years ago by tomtac
3 replies | jump to latest

I remember seeing this twice in the theater two decades ago.

In the opening scene, he takes a live fish out of the water, inserts chopsticks in its mouth, and then does a "karate chop" on the sticks to kill it. If you don't remember this, that may be because the current DVD cuts the scene short as he begins the chop.

But I remember a longer cut, which made what he was doing plain.

I am supposing that the distributors (either Ang Lee Productions or MGM Home Entertainment) decided to remove a particularly cruel dozen frames or so, but can't prove it without getting an old copy of the film.

Anyone out there remember this as well? Or has an old copy? TIA

[–] jcscharr 10 years ago

I just watched this from having recorded it while it ran on TCM a couple days ago. On this TCM version, which are typically never edited, they showed him putting the chopsticks in and hitting them with force to ram them in and kill the fish. It played just as you must have originally seen.

[–] evilplatypus 9 years ago

I just saw the DVD version from Netflix (as in I literally just ejected it after watching it) and it has the scene where he inserts the chopsticks, the fish's gills flare out a few times to show that it's alive, and then the camera changes. No karate chop. I had been wondering what the purpose of the chopsticks was.

[–] CatsHuman 8 years ago

rewatch today and only now notice plate of live frogs/toads ready for their part in feast!