Product Details

• Actors: Eisei Amamoto, Steve Boone, Joe Butler, Frank Buxton, Mie Hama
• Directors: Senkichi Taniguchi
• Format: Color, NTSC
• Language: English, Japanese
• Rated: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: American International Pictures (AIP)
• VHS Release Date: September 4, 2001
• Run Time: 80 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (66 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6304785801
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #236,195 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

What better way for writer-star Woody Allen to cash in on the success of What's New Pussycat? than to write a quickie exploitation comedy that makes fun of quickie exploitation films? In some respects What's Up Tiger Lily? is a forerunner of Mystery Science Theater 3000, only instead of having actors sit back and make sarcastic comments about a cheapo movie, here they dub new dialog onto a ridiculous Japanese spy extravaganza. Allen's exquisite sense of the absurd is in fine form as espionage professionals pursue a top-secret recipe for egg salad. At one point during the planning of a break-in, a spy unfolds a map of their quarry's residence, explaining that the man "lives here." "He lives on that small piece of paper?" questions one of the henchmen. It's that silly. But it's often uproarious. Louise Lasser, Allen's former wife (and co-star of Bananas and future star of TV's Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman) is among the voice actors. --Jim Emerson

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

38 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars ."...a salad so delicious you could PLOTZ!", May 22, 2002

By 

Michael M. Wilk "Eccentric" (Howard Beach, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: What's Up Tiger Lily [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Thus utters "Wing Fat", Japanese gangster and Wayne Newton lookalike, in Woody Allen's "What's Up, Tiger Lily?" in reference to a much-coveted secret egg salad recipe.
"What's Up, Tiger Lily?" has, in my opinion, always been looked upon as Mr. Allen's filmic poor relation. To the yuppified, nouvelle cuisine-eating self-appointed Allen "aficionados", "Tiger Lily" is a cinematic Nathan's hot dog. What a shame, because it is a very funny, unpretentious, inspired piece of nonsense. Mr. Allen took a 1960s Japanese James Bond [pretend] film, wiped out the dialogue track and, with the help of some very talented performers (including his then-wife Louise "Mary Hartman" Lasser), dubbed in some of the funniest dialogue ever heard on screen. I can't even guess what the plot of the original film was (it's actually pretty [darn] funny without the dialogue), but after Mr. Allen finished with it, the drama centers around the coveted egg salad recipe. The recipe has been stolen from Raspur, a "nonexistent yet real-sounding country", and rival bad guys Shepperd Wong and Wing Fat both want it for their own sinister purposes. Hero Phil Moscowitz (played by Matt Helm [pretend] Tatsuo Mihashi) plays double agent in this mishigas (in between his womanizing shenanigans, unsuccesfully trying to seduce Japanese dolls Miss Teri Yaki and her sister Suki). One must wonder which filmmaker copied who, because actresses Mie Hama and Akiko Wakabayashi, who played the Yaki sisters, both went on to star opposite Sean Connery in the James Bond opus "You Only Live Twice" a few years later! I won't go any further into the plot line of this film, thin as it is, nor will I spoil the fun by quoting the dialogue, but I will simply say that the film is very, very funny and not for the slow-witted. The dialogue is a rapid-fire combination of Borscht Belt humor, and also prefigures the hilarious, brainy quips uttered by the 2 robots on "Mystery Science Theater". There's the obligatory cartoon violence (kick, punch, chop, shoot) and a somewhat superfluous musical score by John Sebastian and The Lovin' Spoonful, and footage of the 1960s rock group is interspersed throughout the film. Undoubtedly this was added to the film to attract the "young, hip" audience. At least the clothes, hairdos and dance steps of the "young folk" are worth a few laughs! And, of course, there are brief filmed interviews with Woody Allen himself, deadpanning and double-talking his way through all of this, making it even funnier, and a striptease by voluptuous China Lee, a former Playboy Playmate, providing even more Asian eye candy for the horndog viewers. "What's Up, Tiger Lily?" is a very enjoyable 89 minutes, but be warned-an hour later, you'll be hungry for more laughs again!

32 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars AVOID THIS VERSION AT ALL COSTS, July 20, 2001

By 

BOOBERRY MORNING (Reality, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: What's Up Tiger Lily [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Beware : this is an edited version of What's Up Tiger Lily. Some of the dialogue has been changed or erased, resulting in a far less funny movie than it originally was. I have no idea who is responsible for the butchering of this film - whether Woody authorized it or not - but it is not the movie I have seen 10+ times.

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Austin Powers, nothin'!, July 27, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: What's Up Tiger Lily [VHS] (VHS Tape)

A hilarious movie. Woody takes a horrible old film, sort of an Asian ripoff of James Bond, cuts out all the sound, and dubs over his soundtrack, his noises, and (most importantly), his voices.

If you're like me, you'd be happy to watch the original, un-Woodyfied film just because it's so bad; when Allen goes to work on it, the result is always entertaining and usually very, very funny. There are some great lines in this film that you just don't forget (shuddup or my mustache will eat your beard -- I guess you really have to see the movie for this to be funny, but trust me, it really is).

It's Austin Powers-like parody (kinda) and Mystery Science Theater 3000-eque satire (only better, 'cause they get to change the film itself) all rolled up into one. One of the best comedies I've ever seen.