THE VINEYARD (1989) Blu-ray/DVD Combo
Directors: James Hong and William Rice
Vinegar Syndrome

BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA's Lo Pan gets to grope more pretty girls in the New World Pictures horror film THE VINEYARD, on Blu-ray/DVD combo from Vinegar Syndrome.

Dr. Elson Po (James Hong, BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA) is a world-famous winemaker who has been sustaining his life for centuries with a formula whose principle ingredients are jade from a magic amulet and the human blood. When aspiring actress Jezebel (1982 Playboy Playmate Karen Witter, BURIED ALIVE) catches Po's eye, he arranges with her fey agent Paul (Karl-Heinz Teuber, AMADEUS) to bring her and some extra victims to his island under the pretense of auditioning for a film project to be shot in his mansion (the Dunsmuir-Hellman estate also featured prominently in BURNT OFFERINGS and PHANTASM). While Po grooms Jezebel to be his bride - after consigning his unfaithful spouse to his dungeon - reporter Jeremy (Michael Wong, ROYAL WARRIORS) investigates Po's background and his connection to a like-named nineteenth-century winemaker in the Yucatan who disappeared amidst controversy. Meanwhile, Po wreaks gory mystical havoc on the other guests - including some insect barfing that would have been executed with more grue and gusto in any Hong Kong exploitation flick from the same decade - seemingly just because he can since it would be easier to just drug them and chain them up if he wanted them for their blood, and the vineyard itself is full of the walking corpses of his previous victims whose restless spirits won't stay buried no matter how much "sacred earth" Po's minions douse them with.

With direction credited to Hong and production manager William Rice, New World Pictures pick-up THE VINEYARD exhibits quite a bit of evidence of having been heavily re-edited into its current form. The end credit features composing credits for individual soundtrack cues rather than songs while the opening credits cite only Paul Francis Witt as composer (Witt is better known as an orchestrator/conductor than a composer, collaborating regularly with Christopher Young on a handful of his early New World assignments). The film's few optical effects also bear a striking resemblance to the type used in HELLRAISER's climax (which also underwent heavy post-production when New World signed on as co-producer). Characters disappear for long periods and turn up abruptly, chunks of the story seem to be missing or simply glossed over, and at some point there seems to have been an attempt either to steer the tone towards black comedy or possibly away from it with more straightforward horror and slasher elements. Some characters also seemed to have been reconfigured with Jezebel's initial love interest Lucas (Lars Wanberg) spending far more time with her roommate Nancy (Cheryl Madsen), while Jeremy and Jezebel argue over his suspicion and possible jealousy of her flirtation with Po; and the fact that Lucas is supposed to be a martial artist doesn't lead to a showdown with Po's chief enforcer (the film's stunt and martial arts choreographer Michael Quion). The end result is not predictable and certainly never boring, and viewers may be curious or shocked to see Hong - the prolific go-to-guy for Hollywood film and TV's concept of the "oriental" long before his memorable turn in BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA - groping scantily-clad women and indulging in eighties horror clichés; although most will be unaware that his previous little-known directorial efforts were the seventies sexploitation films HOT CONNECTIONS and TEEN LUST, and he followed up THE VINEYARD with a DTV Shannon Tweed erotic thriller SCANDALOUS BEHAVIOR. Actress Witter is now married to TV writer/producer Chuck Lorre (THE BIG BANG THEORY) and Wong has made a name for himself in Hong Kong cinema despite not speaking Chinese.

Given scant theatrical release in Southern areas, THE VINEYARD went to video from New World Pictures and laserdisc by Image. Anchor Bay's 2001 DVD and Image Entertainment's 2011 DVD were barebones anamorphic transfers that got the job done. Vinegar Syndrome's 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.85:1 widescreen Blu-ray comes from a new 4K restoration of the original 35mm camera negative. The new transfer is a tad darker but the DVD versions look too bright now. The colors are richer but the make-up effects are not helped either way by the increased resolution. The DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 rendering of the Ultra Stereo track gives more of a sense of depth to the scoring and a few exaggerated sound effects while optional English SDH subtitles are also provided.

The handful of extras go a long way towards clarifying the film's origins and production history. In "Welcome to the Vineyard" (19:27), director/actor Hong and producer/actor Harry Mok who recall meeting at an Asian American advocacy in film meeting, their decision to make a horror film when they could not find distributors interested in a kung fu film, searching for locations in San Jose and spending money forming a corporation before they had a script, bringing in Rice to co-direct (the still-spry ninety-year-old Hong admitting that he grew tired shooting all day and night on the twenty-one day schedule), and the film's release through New World. In "Zombies from San Jose" (12:16), co-director Rice recalls hearing of a local production and being hired because he had directing and assistant directing experience, trying to push Hong to instead do a thriller he had written during the month of prep before shooting, and co-directing with Hong as well as cinematographer John Dirlam (FRIGHTMARE) who was invaluable in staging the scenes with extras and moving camera. Dirlam appears in "Sacred Earth and Restless Souls" (16:52) in which he recalls being recommended to Rice by Brian Rogers who was production manager at the time on THE DEAD PIT which was also shooting in the area and utilizing much of the local crew, allowing Dirlam to get assistant camera and gaffer/grip crew from Los Angeles. He recalls that the budget was so low that the camera package from Los Angeles was incomplete and he got San Francisco camera house Lee Utterbach to give him a deal on the rest of the equipment. He recalls that Hong asked him to co-direct with Rice whenever he would leave for the day, and the challenges of lighting the film's make-up effects and zombies. The disc also includes the film's theatrical Trailer (3:53). The disc comes with a reversible cover while a limited edition of 2,000 copies ordered directly from Vinegar Syndrome comes with an embossed slipcover designed by Earl Kessler Jr. (Eric Cotenas)

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