Yukari Oshima

 

aka CYNTHIA LUSTER! YUKARI OSHIMA'S FILIPINO FILMOGRAPHY

Japanese-born but forged in Hong Kong, Yukari Oshima was married to actor and director Phillip Ko, who is also credited with discovering Oshima and helping to launch her action film career. They married in 1995 and remained together until Ko’s death from prostate cancer on March 30, 2017. While they were widely rumored to have married in secret during their careers and sometimes denied it publicly at the time, biographical records and film registries recognize them as husband and wife. 

Ko's action film career took him to the Philippines for much of the Nineties and Noughties, and Yukari - rechristened the more Western-sounding "Cynthia Luster" for the local market - followed. What follows is a list of films Yukari made in the Philippines, often with her husband as director or co-star...

1992 - Hard To Kill/Interpol Connection

1992 - Fatal Chase (released in a Tagalog version called Kakambal Ko Sa Tapang [1993], also featuring footage later edited into Guardian Angel [1994])  

1992 - Ultracop 2000/Magkasangga 2000

1993 - Lethal Panther 2/Magkasangga Sa Batas

1993 - Kakambal Ko Sa Tapang (edited from Fatal Chase)

1994 - Once Upon A Time In Manila

1994 - Pintsik

1994 - Deadly Target/Fatal Target/Walang Kasukat Sa Tapang  

1994 - Guardian Angel (uses footage from the Tagalog version of Fatal Chase)

1995 - Power Connection/Tapang Sa Tapang/"Courage For Courage"

1996 - Bulaklak Ng Dagat [TV Movie]

1998 - Leopard Hunting

1998 - Sgt. Hidalgo: Bala Ng Katarungan

1999 - The Golden Nightmare    

1999 - Digital Warriors/Lethal Combat/Techno Warriors 2/Xtreme Warriors 

Forbidden World (1986)

1986 - Forbidden World (ATC 3000)

[French "mondo" shockumentary partially filmed in the Philippines, original title Les Interdits Du Monde]

Director Chantal Lasbats Writer Monique Pantel Producer [uncredited] Benjamin Simon Cinematography François About Music Big Bucks Editors Sylvie Bourget, Éric Carlier, Dominique Cazeneuve, Bertrand Lepaysan Production Manager Léone Jaffin "Artistic Collaborator" Yves Ervalet Camera Operator Laurent Fleutot Sound Jean-David Curtis, Jean-Philippe Le Roux Electrician Nacer Saber [as Nasser Saber]

Cast Françoise Vatel (Narrator)

Synopsis (from Cinemageddon): One of the lesser known and more mild mondos. Being French (though this copy is an Italian dub), the focus is overwhelmingly on the sex with the gore being fleeting, perfunctory and marginalized. In fact, there are only three brief animal death scenes at the start of the film's journey in Togo: a frog geeking ritual, and a goat and chicken death as part of another ritual (with each scene only a few seconds long, showing the goat and chicken meet their respective ends before they're used as part of the ceremony).

The rest of the flick covers a chick visiting a brothel, a swinger orgy (both in France), animal mating stock footage, a German toilet sex slave dungeon, some rope bondage in Amsterdam's red light district, a mass trance ritual, a black magic sex ceremony (back in France), a drag queen striptease number in Rio, some morgue fucking in the good ol' US of A, coal walking, a group of flagellants in Manila, a night club striptease set with a cigarette-smoking coochie (still in the Philippines), and finally a drag queen wedding (back in France again).

What makes the flick stand out is the (relatively) minimal female-voiced narration and the fact that Jack Lang, France's Minister of Culture at the time, wrote a letter defending the film against impending censorship during its theatrical release.

THEATRICAL

FRANCE - as "Les Interdits Du Monde"

BELGIUM - as "Verboden Wereld"

VIDEO

FRANCE - VHS release as "Les Interdits Du Monde" via Fil A Film, in French with no subtitles

ITALY - VHS release as "Mondo Proibito" via Deltavideo, in Italian with no subtitles

GREECE - VHS release as "Ta Apagorevmena Tou Kosmou" via Hermes Video, in English with Greek subtitles 

JAPAN - VHS release as "Les Interdits Du Monde" via Toshiba

DIGITAL

HONG KONG - VCD release as "Forbidden World" via Universe Laser & Video, in English, with Chinese subtitles

MALAYSIA - VCD release as "Forbidden World" via Alfa Equity, in English, with Chinese subtitles

- mp4 file [in Italian with no subtitles]