Thursday 13 January 2011

Last Warrior / Son Savasci (Turkey, 1982)



I've just finished watching the legendary Turkish action/ninja movie LAST WARRIOR (aka Son Savasci) starring the main pride of Turkish cinema, Cüneyt Arkin. The film was directed by another legend in Turkish cult cinema Cetin Inanc. I'm not gonna bore you with a list of his films, if you're into world-weird cinema you already know and treasure them, but the one title Inanc sure is gonna be remembered for is TURKISH STAR WARS (aka The Man Who Saves the World/Dünyayi Kurtaran Adam) which also stars Arkin and sexy Füsun Ucar who plays his love interest in both films (she's also in the follow up DEATH WARRIOR/Ölüm Savascisi).




This time Arkin is a Turkish cop with a past; He was in the Korean war (which ended in 1953 and LAST WARRIOR is set in the early 80s!!!) where he learnt the skills of a ninja. When the movie begins Arkin gets a phone call from his police chief asking him to go to Germany to help the German polizei who are having trouble with people being bumped off by... a ninja!! (I wonder how Danish or Aussie police would handle such a case?) and Arkin would obviously be the right man to fight the ninja as he knows "the way of the ninja" so to speak. xD




When Arkin gets the call he's on holiday with sexy (very sexy) Füsun Ucar but even tho she looks at him with those sexy (very sexy) Turkish eyes he's adamant, "A cop never be owner of ownself" as he puts it in the crappy subtitles. Once he's arrived over in Deutschland he experiences the carnage left behind by the brutal ninja and with the local police he sets out to put an end to this masterless criminal's reign of terror.




LAST WARRIOR is totally entertaining! There's not ONE dull moment in the entire film and you really don't want to blink because you'll just miss something. I referred to TURKISH STAR WARS earlier in this review and once again Cetin Inanc saves money by stealing left and right from an American film! This time obviously not from the original STAR WARS but from some film with lots of car chases in it! You'll see Cüneyt Arkin throw himself from side to side, frantically turn the steering wheel, and work that gear rod like there's no tomorrow - and then the camera angle jumps to an outside view of the car - or rather how the car looks in the American film, haha. I have no idea which films the scenes are from but, regardless, it adds to the awesomeness of the film that's for sure! :D

EDIT: The stolen scenes are from Paul Bartel's CANNONBALL (1976)!! Thanks to Jayson of "Basement of Ghoulish Decadence" blog for this info.





The DVD I got is from my friends at Ciko in Turkey; They actually asked Cetin Inanc if it were all right to release his films on DVD-R and they got his okay. However, that doesn't change the fact that this has the look and feel of a bootleg; The print is sourced from an old VHS and there's no cover or disc art (apart from the handwritten title, LOL). But in contradiction to earlier bootleg releases this DVD-R is actually subtitled in English (or something that resembles English anyway) and big kudos to Ciko for this! The quality of the print used for the original VHS is alright, I have certainly seen VHS prints that were far worse. There's also a trailer but in contradiction to the film print the trailer looks like it was downloaded from YouTube, in other words it's pretty crappy (and for some reason not subtitled!) but it's cool it's included.




I must admit I've seen enough Turkish and HK Chinese films that weren't English friendly to last me a lifetime and I'm happy to just get ANY kind of English subs. However, having said that, I should point out the subs are not very good TO SAY THE LEAST. They'll give you a fairly good impression of what's being said but to tell you the truth the subs kinda blow in a major way! And trust me, this isn't a question of me making a note of the few times there's a slight spelling error or some bad grammar; This is a question of making a note every time there's a correct sentence!!




Some of my film friends, especially in the US, have commented that the subs are alright but I disagree on this and I think it's partly due to a cultural difference; In the English speaking world films were rarely subtitled in the old days and so native English speakers weren't used to subtitles. But what they were used to was foreigners who spoke broken English. So somehow they just see subtitles in broken English as an extension of this.




In northern Europe on the other hand, all foreign movies have always been subtitled into the local lingo. And the way I see it, the characters in these Turkish films speak perfect Turkish so why would it be okay to have them translated into broken English? They don't speak broken Turkish so OBVIOUSLY the English subs ought to be correct too.




Anyway, forget about the less than perfect subs and get hold of LAST WARRIOR anyway! The DVD is available from Ciko's eBay store "Turkish Cult". Just trust me on this one! Hands down, it is a totally enjoyable piece of trashy Turko celluloid and the film shits all over 99% of EVERYTHING ever made in Denmark!!! Inanc made a sequel two years later, DEATH WARRIOR (aka Ölüm Savascisi), which also stars Cuneyt Arkin and Füsun Ucar.

For Ciko's Turkish Cult shop on eBay go here.

NB.
In regards to the English subtitles: in all fairness I should point out this DVD-R is one of their earlier releases and (reportedly) they put more effort into their translations now as the subs are being checked by a native English speaker.













And finally a girl... and a sniper... and a car... of which none of them knew they were one day going to take part in a Turkish film, LOL:




24 comments:

  1. nice review jack, don,t think i,ve seen this movie but is this the one with a climactic fight scene with a demonic martial arts fighter who burns up in flames, i,ve seen only that bit on you-tube ?

    joe

    ReplyDelete
  2. No, no demonic martial arts fighter. Just a ninja. Sounds very cool tho. Wonder which one that is. @_@

    ReplyDelete
  3. link for mentıoned film death warrior or olum savasci - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzaWJTOlca4

    joe

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hey Joe,
    Thanks for the link! And yeah that's the sequel. I asked Gokay about it and he says he'll put it out with subs when he gets the time, apparently he's working in Hungary at the moment. It looks wild! :D

    ReplyDelete
  5. i posted a comment twıce with a you - tube vıdeo link but it didn,t show up here, only on the side bar, don,t know what,s up with the net from this end ? did you see the you tube clip ?

    joe

    ReplyDelete
  6. It didn't show up here!! Very strange. The reason I could make a reply is not that I'm psychic but that I get the full comments as email notifications as well.

    ReplyDelete
  7. And yes, as I said in the above I did watch the clip and it's from the sequel. Apparently, Gokay is gonna put it out.

    ReplyDelete
  8. couple of nights ago there was a cuneyt arkin flick called sert adam or it translates to the tough man. the part of the film i saw looked like it was a remake of the gauntlet starring clint eastwood ie an armoured bus with cuneyt and a girl by his side breaking through a barrage of gunfire and mortar shells to get to a courtroom. nalso there was an interview with the creator of the kara murat comic strip he said that there were 8 or 9 kara murat movies made starring arkin and that one them is lost because it was sent iran and wasn,t returned.

    ReplyDelete
  9. i,ve got seven of the kara murat films off that bootleg seller, i previously mentioned but haven,t had luck in finding a computer with a dısc tray to view them on. so far i,ve purchased about 24 cuneyt movies and a documentary. i,m guessing that they are of vcd quality, similar to those downloads off the net ie 700 mb to 1 gb.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Hello,
    could I have the subtitles of "Last Warrior / Son Savasci" ?
    Or could you give a link to the video with the subtitles ?
    Thank you.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Hey unknown,

    Yes you can have them if you buy the DVD. As I mention it available from Ciko in Turkey. The subs are on the DVD. I don't upload or download or otherwise deal in loads so I can't help you. There's a link to their store here:

    http://stores.ebay.com/turkish-cult_Other_W0QQ_fsubZ1QQ_sidZ912849386QQ_trksidZp4634Q2ec0Q2em322

    If the film isn't listed you can write to them and ask.

    ReplyDelete
  12. ciko, the ebay store that doesn,t sell turkish films to turks. hahaha !!!

    joe

    ReplyDelete
  13. Haha, well, I think it's limited to Turks living in Turkey!

    ReplyDelete
  14. so he,s okay with turks living abroad... i guess with the turkish buyers being overseas he,s less likely to be punched in the face if the customer is unhappy with the merchandise.hahaha.

    joe

    ReplyDelete
  15. But you're an Aussie anyway. LOL. I think it's because he wants to avoid getting into legal trouble with the copyright holders in Turkey. Not because he holds a grudge against Turks. xD

    ReplyDelete
  16. yeah those bloody new australians, when will they ever learn to speak the queen,s english properly.hahaha.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Haha, I don't think Gokay is concerned about the way we habla English but whether he's gonna get angry Turkish copyright holders on his back or not. But in any case, if you've already got his films on VCD there's really no need for you to get his DVD-R's as well.

    ReplyDelete
  18. when gokay did those translations for those dvdrs was he channeling a legendary lost beatnik poet or something ???? you always getting girls with your cool behaviours.. time can,t redeem with deleting badness... he is a mortal magician he is bad for us ...i,m authorised to take you to a karate saloon...impossible for us this is officially sham cops... hahaha!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  19. A legendary lost beatnik poet. Hahaha. Could be. Could be. LMAO.

    ReplyDelete
  20. i need those cetin inanc flicks that ciko has these haven,t been released on vcd yet (except for SU)...

    joe

    ReplyDelete
  21. I forget what is out on VCD and what isn't. We can talk once you get back home.

    ReplyDelete
  22. !!! NO TURKISH BUYERS !!! !!! NO TURKISH BUYERS !!! !!! NO TURKISH BUYERS !!! !!! NO TURKISH BUYERS !!!
    !!! NO TURKISH BUYERS !!!!!! NO TURKISH BUYERS !!!

    What do we know about this Ciko guy ??? Why does he have a long standing grudge with Turkish buyers on Ebay ???

    ReplyDelete
  23. ANSWERS BELOW !!!!

    adsiz said ...
    On your ebay account you mention that you don't sell your merchandise to Turkish buyers. Does this include Turks living outside the Turkey too ? Do you have a problem with selling Turkish films to Turks ? lol

    TURKISH CULT said...
    We had some "no paid" experiences after shoppings with Turkish customers.

    Turkish people are acceptable for us if they're from abroad or overseas and if they pay without problem

    and there's already easilier web pages for Turkish people from Turkey such as gittigidiyor ;)

    Adsız said...
    Thanks Turkish Cult for the reply. I thought it might have had something to do with copyright laws there. Yeah ! that's a shame that people don't pay up when they order something,that would be a great waste of your time.
    In regards to the dvd & lobby card package deals, are any of those lobby cards original copies or just reprints ?
    Thanks, be hearing from you soon.

    TURKISH CULT said...
    Hi,

    Thanks for your interesting, Our lobby / photo sets include orginal lobby or photo's hq printout transfer on 200gr. flash A3 photo card because these're rare documents and hard to find again.
    Regards;

    ReplyDelete
  24. Hey Anonymous!

    Thanks for the info you found! I am aware of who he is as he's on Cinehound forum (like myself) but I'm not in contact with him as such. I figured it had to do with copyright holders but this explanation makes sense. At least he doesn't prevent Turkish buyers from outside of Turkey to buy his stuff. LOL.

    ReplyDelete