aka DER RACHER DES KHAN (Germany)
I watched the Turkish adventure film KARA MURAT SEYH GAFFAR'A KARSI last night. It stars Cüneyt Arkin as a hero fighting an evil dictator. The film was the last part of an ongoing series that ran between 1972 and '76. The series contains these films:
1. Iki Esir (1971) Turkish/Iranian (Persian) co-production
2. Fatihin fedaisi Kara Murat (1972)
3. Kara Murat denizler hakimi (1977)
4. Kara Murat devler savasiyor (1978)
5. Kara Murat: Fatihin fermani (1973) aka "Karamurat: The Sultan's Warrior" (Mondo Macabro UK TV title)
6. Kara Murat ölüm emri (1974)
7. Kara Murat Kara Sovalyeye Karsi (1975) aka Der Heilige Krieg (German VHS title)
8. Kara Murat seyh gaffar'a karsi (1976) aka Der Racher des Khan (German VHS title)
[this list needs some fine tuning as I think there may be a couple more entries to the series + I need to check the production years]
Mostly you're left in the dark as to what's really going on in Turkish genre films as so few of them are dubbed or subtitled into other languages but fortunately KARA MURAT SEYH GAFFAR'A KARSI has been released on VHS in Germany so for once I could actually follow the plot closely.
Anyway, this isn't a review so suffice to say the film contains lots of action, violence, nudity, and Cüneyt Arkin doing what he does best: ridiculous stunts!! LOL. In one scene Arkin is fighting two crooks. He knocks one of them unconscious but the other one tries to escape on a horse. Arkin picks up the unconscious guy and throws him at the guy on the horse (and hits him even though he was riding away at full speed!!). Haha. Great stuff. In other scenes Arkin flies thru the air as if there's no gravity laws. Very enjoyable! :D
Next up in the world of wild flicks from Turkey at Casa J cinema is LIONMAN (aka Kilic Aslan) which I recently scored on English dubbed NTSC VHS. Yay!
Thanks to Ayman Kole for info about the Kara Murat series. And also thanks to "Joe" for the info on the Turkish/Persian co-production (they are both Turkish Aussies and they both live in Sydney and yet they have never met, haha.).
Re-post from 2009. If you wish to check my Turkish posts on the old blog I've collected them here.
hi there jack, it's me again !! I'll give facebook a bit of a rest for a while,writing and posting on it is a waste of time.Yes there are 8 or 9 films in the series and one of them seems to be lost in Iran according to the creator of the comic strip and advisor for some of the movies.not sure if iki esir (two captives) is in the series. I've got them on bootleg dvd but they aren't compatible to play on a dvd player and only on a computer. i'll have to convert them somehow ?!?! the quality on these varies some are very good and others are just acceptable. also have karate fighters in istanbul or ninja killers which also needs converting.that poster i posted onar films facebook was off the dvd.
ReplyDeletejoe the fearless warrior
Hey Joe,
ReplyDeleteFB is a waste of time? LOL, I could have told you that! It's fun for a quick laugh but nothing more. And info is lost the next day. Digging out old posts is very time consuming!
IKI ESIR maybe not part of the series?? Mate, it was YOU who mentioned the film to me and said it belonged on the list, haha.
There are 10 titles on Sinematurk but I suspect at least the "Istanbul" one doesn't belong:
http://www.sinematurk.com/bul/tumu/kara%20murat/
You've got those films on boot dvd. Cool! You can convert them to dvd by using whatever programs. You'll probably have to ask your daughter to help you again, LOL. I've got the international version of NINJA KILLERS but it'd be fun to see the original version. I have a (bad) boot copy off a German VHS and I believe the that version is probably close or identical to the Turkish edit.
ReplyDeletei must've been unclear about what i said. the lost persian/iranian version mentioned by the that creator of the kara murat series could be the one that the comic strip creator was talking about since that is an iranian/turkish co-production.never mind the bloke was a bit unsure himself.that makes sense 9 karamurat films plus iki esir makes 10.
ReplyDeletehaha. ninja killers is a separate thing altogether i should've mentioned that in the message.haha
joe
better still i'll get my ten year old nephew to do it. his up to speed with all the new technology.hahaha !!!
ReplyDeletei think it must be the jet lag i just got off the plane a few days ago after a 41 hour flight and waiting at airports. you mean't the serdar gokhan kara murat Istanbul flick doesn't belong !!!! hahaha
ReplyDeletethere's also another one with a non turkish title i wonder which one that is in turkish !?!?
Hahaha, yeah it was the other Kara Murat "Istanbul" film I meant. xD.
ReplyDeleteYeah, those flights are a killer. I did them 5 or 6 times to Melb. (in the 90s) and I was always jet-lagged for days.
Which one with a non Turkish title do you mean? One you saw online?
ReplyDeletealso haven't slept in about 3 days and i've been on that bloody facebook thing and no one replies to those questions i put forth on the onar films page and elsewhere.I've had to delete about 40 posts.hahaha. also i had some people request to be friends and then you ask them something and they don't reply back and people nicking my clips and photos i do the same too hahaha what am i complaining about.
ReplyDeleteKara Murat, La Belva Dell'Anatolia (1976) it has a sheik gaffari in it so i guess that it's the same titled one you've got above.
ReplyDeleteHaha, then go get some sleep, you dill!!
ReplyDeleteKara Murat, La Belva Dell'Anatolia! I guess there's a good chance the same international versions were bought by several different countries. A country like France had quite a few Turkish (and Indonesian) films that didn't come out in English dubbed versions but also exist in Germany.
ReplyDelete