Well done Romaine!
I have a lot of his Asian Trash Cinema, and later, Asian Cult Cinema digests. The earlier ones especially are riddled from front to back with erroneous informations and made up movies that do not exist. And a lot of them were movies that had just seen release whether to theater, or to video. As years went on, the digest became less and less fraudulent, but it seemed those negative energies were then channeled into the many books he would then release. He saw fit to have published books on genres of all Asian genres of film including Japanese sex films. Aside from the sex film books, all the others contain massive mistakes, just as monumentally pronounced as the spaghetti western tome. What’s even more amazing is his endorsement by Oliver Stone(!) who is a martial arts film fan.
Then, in a major slap in the face to his readership, a letter was sent by a fan asking why the HK film notices were disappearing and being replaced with reviews of Korean and Thai cinema, genres that still have yet to take a firm hold on a cult audience. Weisser’s response was that he was going to print what HE WOULD WANT TO READ.(???) I assume this was his way of getting away with making shit up again as few people would have been able to see some of the Korean or Thai movies he would make mention of. What is even most peculiar, is that Weisser is married to a Japanese woman, which makes his errors in his Japanese tomes all the more perplexing.
I bought a Halloween edition of his Asian Cult Cinema digest last year, the first one in several years, and it was right back to the stone age beginnings of his neolithic approach to film reviews; a lot of made up nonsense and incorrect info on movies that are fairly well known to ardent fans of the genre by now.
Also, misery loves company, and Weisser employs Ric Meyers as a writer for his digest. Meyers is the single most hated individual in the kung fu movie community. His lies are legend and outweigh most anything Weisser has ever dreamed up. It’s almost as if the two are in competition to who can sling their bullshit the farthest. It would require a book as thick as Weisser’s to list close to all the inaccuracies and eyebrow raising lies Meyers has forced upon fans of Asian cinema. Both men should be writing for the likes of ‘The Weekly World News’ and leave genre publications to those that have some modicum of respect for the genres in question.
Nicely written! As mentioned before i only had one of his books on Asian films and that was enough for me. He spent a good deal of it suggesting that several of the actors were gay…and that seemed more important to him than what was going on in the particular film! Makes you wonder why some people even bother…
I guess purportedly salacious info regarding the actors sexual preferences would boost sales for him, which is why both he, and Meyers should be working for the “publications” found at a local grocery check out counter.
I only ever bought the digests and the Asian Cult Cinema book figuring it would have corrected information, when in fact, it was far worse. I have a friend that has the Japanese books, and they, too, are just as error filled. Surely the man is aware of the disdain for his work, yet he continues to churn it out. I’m not sure if his digest is still in publication, but Meyers is still hard at it, spreading his gospel of falsehoods. He even gets hired to do DVD commentaries and spouts off lies there, too! Celestial even hired him to do plot synopsis for many of their Shaw Brothers DVD’s, and many times his synopsis had nothing at all to do with the movie on the disc. Amazingly, Meyers has won awards for his writings, not in film reference, but non fiction works.
And your statement, Silver, “Makes you wonder why some people even bother…” sums it up perfectly.
So I’m guessing that they do this not out of stupidity and incompetance, but out of lack of integrity.
Pathetic.
Or arrogance. Or maybe money. Either way it’s not fair for people who might sue their stuff as a guide. I had a friend who got interested in Asian films and used to get the digest and books. Of course once he started buying the actual films he wised up. Someone should do a site denouncing them…listing all their mistakes and telling people not to buy their stuff! Then again…it’s be a BIG site!
I think a lot of it was to promote his now defunct video company, Video Search of Miami. Apparently, Weisser even took porn clips and added them to the release of the HK version of LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT (originally called THE BEASTS), and even gave it a made up name entitled THE FLESH & BLOODY TERROR! I’ve not seen this bastardized version, but heard about it from those that did.
What is really needed is an alternative in English to Weisser’s book… At the moment none exist so the good people out there really doesn’t have much choice. Maybe an English translation of Bruckner’s book or of that Italian reference work would do.
Would be nice.
After reading so much about it, I actually would like to bother and get the book (since I already have all the German SW bibles: Kessler and Bruckner are galactical)! It’s 40,99€ at amazon though and I think that’s too much for a book full of errors which you can read for fun only !!!
There’s nothing on ebay 
!
Are you saying that Weisser owns Video Search of Miami?
They are not defunct. I ordered a dvdr from them recently. Maybe they are owned by someone else now?
While they use the name Video Search of Miami they are located somewhere in Georgia.
Thanks, Bill.
It says on the website that they usually respond to emails within three to five days.
I’ll post their response!
I was told he was trying to sell the company. It was his company for a number of years. That Euro trash guy, Craig Ledbetter used to be his partner, too.
I don’t know who owns it now, but it was his company for a long time…
Thanks. That’s all news to me.
Makes me feel kind of ambivilent about VSOM. I was feeling all warm and fuzzy about them 'cause I got a really hard to find disc from them and it was even better in quality than I expected.
Well, I should give 'em credit where credit is due. VSOM came through on that one
Weisser must not own it anymore. Haha
Well, I have never used the service when he had it. But I know people that did and they said he had the shittiest discs, and also that he had subbed many of the movies himself, and as expected, the subs didn’t match the dialog at all. He must not own it anymore because I checked one of his digests and he peddles his discs through asiancultcinema.com now. Here’s some interesting things, too…
http://www.tohokingdom.com/books/japanese_cinema_enc_hfsf.htm
http://us.penguingroup.com/nf/Author/AuthorPage/0,,1000040298,00.html
The first and third reviews are of interest here…
Very interesting, Angel Face !
Well, Mister Thomas Weisser seems to be a special kinda guy !
And yet he never gets any sort of serious criticism by anyone save for the fans that know better. I guess those that have a casual interest just don’t give a damn.
Well, I received a very nice reponse back from an editor at McFarland publishing regarding the email I sent about Weisser’s book.
It was a fairly well detailed answer and was not a boiler-plate response like I had expected (you know: “Dear Sir, Thank you for your interest…”).
The Editor asked that he and I keep our communication private as he is a little concerned that he and his limited staff might become inundated with emails from irate Spaghetti western fans. He must have checked out this thread I linked to!
Here is the gist of what he said in his reply:
- McFarland, as far as he can tell, has not received any complaints about this book prior to receiving mine. He expressed surprise at my complaints but was not at all defensive. He showed genuine interest in finding out more.
- He discussed the process by which a book such as this is published and the author vetted. This is the part that I found most problematic. He seemed to imply that the editorial staff are the ones who read submissions for accuracy. I had sort of assumed publishers will submit a publication like this to another authority for review especially if there is no internal expertise.
- If and when a list of errors is submitted he will share this info with Tom Weisser.
- He suggested that I offer a book proposal to McFarland as a way of correcting the dearth of (non-Weisser) English language material out there.
I, of course, declined, but told him I would pass his suggestion on to others more qualified than myself. Scherps? Phil? - He DID ask that I keep the communication private but I do not think I am sharing anything that is not appropriate. I would ask though that, to alay his concerns, we don’t inundate him and his staff with a flood of emails.
So, basically he was very receptive. But he has put the ball back in to my court.
I have to decide if I want to try for a “comprehensive” list of Weisser’s errors, or if I want to give them a “representative” list.
I would like to try for a comprehnsive list but, if nothing else, Weisser’s book has made me gun-shy about that term “comprehensive”.
In the time you create a comprehensive list of all the errors, you can write your own book. And that’s probably easier then to check Tommie’s book for all his shortcomings.