A Japanese James Bond -esque spy flick reused and redubbed into the plot of a secret agent searching to uncover a recipe for the world's greatest egg salad in Woody Allen's directorial debut... Read allA Japanese James Bond -esque spy flick reused and redubbed into the plot of a secret agent searching to uncover a recipe for the world's greatest egg salad in Woody Allen's directorial debut.A Japanese James Bond -esque spy flick reused and redubbed into the plot of a secret agent searching to uncover a recipe for the world's greatest egg salad in Woody Allen's directorial debut.
Frank Buxton
- Vocal Assist
- (voice)
Louise Lasser
- Suki Yaki
- (voice)
Julie Bennett
- Vocal Assist
- (voice)
Len Maxwell
- Vocal Assist
- (voice)
Mickey Rose
- Vocal Assist
- (voice)
Bryna Wilson
- Vocal Assist
- (voice)
Tatsuya Mihashi
- Phil Moscowitz
- (archive footage)
Akiko Wakabayashi
- Suki Yaki
- (archive footage)
- (as Kiko Wakabayashi)
Hideyo Amamoto
- Cobra Man
- (archive footage)
- (uncredited)
Steve Boone
- Steve Boone - The Lovin' Spoonful
- (uncredited)
Joe Butler
- Joe Butler - The Lovin' Spoonful
- (uncredited)
Susumu Kurobe
- Wing Fat
- (archive footage)
- (uncredited)
China Lee
- Stripper During End Credits
- (uncredited)
Kumi Mizuno
- Phil's Date
- (archive footage)
- (uncredited)
Tadao Nakamaru
- Shepherd Wong
- (archive footage)
- (uncredited)
- Directors
- Woody Allen(aided & abetted by)
- Senkichi Taniguchi(original Japanese version)
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe addition of The Lovin' Spoonful was a studio imposition to bump up the running time. Woody Allen was so incensed by this that he threatened to sue the studio, although he later recanted when the film became a hit.
- GoofsWhen the Port of Yokohama is shown, the captions call it "Yokahama".
- Crazy creditsThere are no ending credits. Instead, the film concludes with Woody Allen nonchalantly lounging on a couch and eating an apple, while China Lee (who does not appear elsewhere in the film) performs a striptease. A slow-moving series of titles appear to the right of the screen reading: "The characters and events depicted in this photoplay are fictitious. Any similarity to actual persons living or dead is purely coincidental. And if you have been reading this instead of looking at the girl, then see your psychiatrist, or go to a good eye doctor." An eye chart scrolls by as Lee continues her routine, but as she prepares to remove her panties, Allen stops her and tells the audience, "I promised I'd put her in the film... somewhere". The scene freezes on this moment as a "The End" title card appears.
- Alternate versionsUK versions are cut by 8 secs under the Cinematograph Films (Animals) Act 1937 to remove a shot of a snake attacking a chicken in a cage.
- ConnectionsEdited from Kokusai himitsu keisatsu: Kayaku no taru (1964)
Featured review
One of the few Woody Allen films that doesn't work for me
Woody Allen gives a Japanese-directed James Bond-styled actioner a new soundtrack, including different dialogue telling a new story. Allen's changes turn the film into a spy versus spy quest for the recipe of the world's best egg salad.
I'm a huge Woody Allen fan. The idea behind this film is promising and the basic premise of Allen's story, grafted on to a pre-existing film, International Secret Police: Key of Keys (Kokusai himitsu keisatsu: Kagi no kagi), from 1965, by Senkichi Taniguchi, is funny, if silly. However, this is one of the very few Allen films that just doesn't work for me. The Taniguchi film seems chopped up to a point of incoherence (maybe it's presented here in its entirety and in the same order, but that would mean that its running time is around 60 minutes or less), although that could be a factor of the changed dialogue. I found myself wishing there was an alternate soundtrack that was a legitimate dubbing of the original film.
Although there are a few very funny scenes, one-liners and ideas in Allen's new story, most of it isn't very funny. Too many scenes seem like they may be serious translations of the Japanese dialogue. There are too many occurrences of silly vocal noises, but not enough to make that a motif so that it's funny. There are too many long sections where the film is mostly boring. The untranslated beginning goes on far too long. The mini-interview with Allen that explains the film's premise would only be funny if it weren't true. The Lovin' Spoonful scenes aren't funny, and perhaps weren't intended to be--they seem like a studio attempt to try to put more butts in theater seats upon the film's release by featuring a popular rock group. It doesn't seem like Allen spent much time on thisthe dialogue seems largely improvised and mostly disjointed. In short, the film is basically a mess, and only worth viewing for Woody Allen completist, and men with a serious Asian woman fetish (it's also worth noting that Taniguchi seems to share a foot fetish).
What would have worked better, and probably would have made the film much funnier, is if Allen would have written and directed both the film that we're seeing visually and a completely different story for the soundtrack. Much more time would have to be spent crafting each component to make them seem unrelated but coherent and funny. That's an experiment that remains to be done, to my knowledge.
There are enough positive aspects that the film doesn't deserve a 1--as I noted, there are times that What's Up, Tiger Lily is funny--but the best I can do is a 5 out of 10.
I'm a huge Woody Allen fan. The idea behind this film is promising and the basic premise of Allen's story, grafted on to a pre-existing film, International Secret Police: Key of Keys (Kokusai himitsu keisatsu: Kagi no kagi), from 1965, by Senkichi Taniguchi, is funny, if silly. However, this is one of the very few Allen films that just doesn't work for me. The Taniguchi film seems chopped up to a point of incoherence (maybe it's presented here in its entirety and in the same order, but that would mean that its running time is around 60 minutes or less), although that could be a factor of the changed dialogue. I found myself wishing there was an alternate soundtrack that was a legitimate dubbing of the original film.
Although there are a few very funny scenes, one-liners and ideas in Allen's new story, most of it isn't very funny. Too many scenes seem like they may be serious translations of the Japanese dialogue. There are too many occurrences of silly vocal noises, but not enough to make that a motif so that it's funny. There are too many long sections where the film is mostly boring. The untranslated beginning goes on far too long. The mini-interview with Allen that explains the film's premise would only be funny if it weren't true. The Lovin' Spoonful scenes aren't funny, and perhaps weren't intended to be--they seem like a studio attempt to try to put more butts in theater seats upon the film's release by featuring a popular rock group. It doesn't seem like Allen spent much time on thisthe dialogue seems largely improvised and mostly disjointed. In short, the film is basically a mess, and only worth viewing for Woody Allen completist, and men with a serious Asian woman fetish (it's also worth noting that Taniguchi seems to share a foot fetish).
What would have worked better, and probably would have made the film much funnier, is if Allen would have written and directed both the film that we're seeing visually and a completely different story for the soundtrack. Much more time would have to be spent crafting each component to make them seem unrelated but coherent and funny. That's an experiment that remains to be done, to my knowledge.
There are enough positive aspects that the film doesn't deserve a 1--as I noted, there are times that What's Up, Tiger Lily is funny--but the best I can do is a 5 out of 10.
helpful•1611
- BrandtSponseller
- Jan 14, 2005
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Details
- Release date
- Countries of origin
- Languages
- Also known as
- Woody Allen's What's Up, Tiger Lily?
- Filming locations
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Runtime1 hour 20 minutes
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 2.35 : 1
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By what name was What's Up, Tiger Lily? (1966) officially released in India in English?
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