fighting femmes, fiends, and fanatics: LUNATIC FROG WOMEN (Taiwan, 1980-something)

Video documentary by Steve Mayhem (2010) 9 minutes



Here's Steve Mayhem's first episode of his cool video documentary series on fun, wild, and crazy world-weird films, Fighting Femmes, Fiends, and Fanatics! Steve starts off in grand style with a presentation of the crazy Taiwanese movie LUNATIC FROG WOMEN.


Disclaimer: I do not wish to take any credit for this video and I'm only re-posting it here as I want to share this cool video with you. I urge you to check out Todd's blog DIE, DANGER, DIE, DIE, KILL! You'll find the original posting here.

Steve Mayhem presents... FIGHTING FEMMES, FIENDS, AND FANATICS - introduction

One of my favourite world-weird blogs is Todd Statman's fantastic DIE, DANGER, DIE, DIE, KILL! blog and in 2010 Todd teamed up with my friend Steve Mayhem to produce an equally fantastic video documentary series on fabulous world-weird films. The series is called FIGHTING FEMMES, FIENDS, AND FANATICS.

The first video documentary came out in late 2010 and 11 episodes later it was all over. Why Steve Mayhem decided to end the series I don't know. Rumour has it he wandered into the jungle somewhere and last I heard he was seen trying to create a race of atomic supermen. But, man, those 11 episodes that we DID get are all totally rad and wonderful and highly recommended. You should watch them!

I'm including the trailer for the series in this post; It only runs for about a minute or so. Do check it out! All episodes cover fun world-weird films but since DIE, DANGER, DIE, DIE, KILL! covers world-weird films from a wider range of countries than I do on BACKYARD ASIA I'll just post the Asian episodes here (at least to begin with). The first one is on LUNATIC FROG WOMEN!!! The episodes run for about 10 minutes each. Oh, and one more thing, Steve has one of the nicest, deepest voices in YouTube home video, that's for sure!

VIRGIN APOCALYPSE to be released on dvd - fully uncut from 35mm print

aka Angels with Golden Guns / Terror in a Woman's Prison / Anger

Back in 2009 (almost to the date!) well known HK film aficionado Spannick mentioned on Cinehound forum that the German label he's working for, CINECLUB, was planning a DVD release of the rare VIRGIN APOCALYPSE. Now, 4 years later, it seems it's finally on its way! Yay! Spiffy!!

Spannick's info from today says the upcoming DVD is from a 35mm print and the film is presented in 2.35 anamorphic!! That's very good news indeed. It's well known that Joseph Lai's IFD company can't provide proper prints for most of their films. In fact, according to Spannick the print for VIRGIN APOCALYPSE was, "the IFD Master delivered was in Fullscreen and horribly framecut".

And Spannick adds the IFD master was also 4 (four!) minutes shorter than the uncut print. Although not quite as butchered as IFD's fullscreen master the 35mm is missing about a minute's worth of footage. On the DVD the missing footage has been replaced by a few inserts from a German VHS (also presented in widescreen). Fortunately there's no need to worry about English friendliness! The DVD will contain both a German and an English dub!

In the extras department we find the English language trailer and an entire extra movie: COMMANDO FURY! This film is included (in the extras) as it's sourced from a Japanese video tape (2.35 widescreen). Spannick's label wanted to release the film on its own but the master from Joseph Lai was "unwatchable Fullscreen".

This is certainly great news! VIRGIN APOCALYPSE is very difficult to find. The cover scan here is from the UK label 4-BIDDEN ASIA who released it in Holland (most likely cos they weren't allowed to release it uncut in the UK due to harsh censorshit regulations there at the time) many years ago. I don't know how many different VHS releases that exist but they are indeed all very rare.

The web isn't exactly spilling over with reviews. The one I did manage to find says about the plot: "Sound's pretty simple right? Well, it took me two sober viewings to figure this thing out."

No final release date has been published yet.

CANNIBAL MERCENARY REDUX

Check this out! It's a new VHS bootleg release of a composite print of the insane Thai Vietnam flick CANNIBAL MERCENARY!! And yes, I did say V-H-S. As in video tape. How cool is that! It's a very limited release and, lo and behold, it's already sold out! I've never watched this particular composite print and I have no idea what extra is in it compared to the uncut international print; I'll let you know when I receive my copy. I'm told there's some stuff from the Tomas Tang Hong Kong version (but I believe there's no scenes of gwilos!). Oh, and check the liner notes on the back! I thought being asked to do liner notes for this particular film was pretty cool (and they're my first ever so that's cool too). ^_^
When the Vietnam War raged... in the Philippines is my other blog.

The label behind the release is KING OF THE WITCHES that are located in Brockton, Massachusetts, USA. Check their Facebook page here.

SHOUT! FACTORY to cancel last three Filipino movies

Unfortunately, SHOUT! have just announced via their Facebook page that they're not going to release the last three Filipino co-productions that we've been patiently waiting for; SAVAGE, THE HOT BOX and THE WOMAN HUNT are not going to be release! Boo-hoo!!! I've been looking forward to those for what seems like ages (because it is actually ages!!).

All three films are released on VHS but it would have been pretty spiffy to get proper releases off the original negatives and in their original ratio aspect. Hopefully another company will pick them up and give them the same fine treatment that SHOUT! gave the other films. And maybe monkeys will fly out my butt. :(


THE TEN THAT MADE IT
Throughout the last couple of years SHOUT! Factory have released a whole range of ROGER CORMAN produced films in their "Roger Corman's Cult Classics" series. A few of those are of interest to this blog as they were filmed in the Philippines and have a number of regular Filipino actors in them.

So far SHOUT! have released...

THE BIG BIRD CAGE
BIG DOLL HOUSE
WOMEN IN CAGES
FLY ME
FIRECRACKER
TNT JACKSON
TOO HOT TO HANDLE
COVER GIRL MODELS
UP FROM THE DEPTHS
DEMON OF PARADISE.

Ten movies in total! And all of them in great shape and form (well, okay maybe except FLY ME which came off an old worn print but it was either that or no print at all so that's perfectly alright).

As a fan of these films I can't thank SHOUT! enough for finally give them their day in the sun. No longer do we have to settle for fullscreen reg. 1 public domain dvd's or old worn video tapes. So a big round of applause fly out to Cliff Mac and SHOUT for releasing these 10 films. I wish the last three could have been released as well but big kudos to SHOUT for the ones we did get. xD

 THE WOMAN HUNT on vhs from Denmark


If you wish to check the old posts about SHOUT!'s releases just click the "Shout factory releases" label at the bottom of this post.

A DAY WITHOUT POLICEMAN (HK, 1993)

Director: Johnny Lee Gwing-Gaai

SIMON YAM in a completely whacked out gore fest. In lunatic cinema there are two names you should write on your wall - and they are both hongkongese! Anthony Wong and Simon Yam! If you like RUN AND KILL then... track down DAY WITHOUT POLICEMAN at any cost. It's on VCD/VHS/LD and there's an okay reg. 1 DVD from Tai Seng.

This is definitely one of my favourite Simon Yam films and it's sadly an overlooked one - even by genre film fans. Yam plays a cop but in contradiction to most other cop flicks the main character in this one isn't a heroic tough one. He is in fact a coward! So altho the "hero" gets thrown into one violent scene after another it's a very different film. However, that doesn't keep the second half form becoming one long ride into bloodshed.

The vcd and dvd that I have both carry crappy English subs that are even worse than what we're used to but it doesn't distract all that much from the excitement of watching this cool flick. I would advise that you don't read the capsule reviews on HKMDB as most of them (three out of four if I remember correctly) piss all over the film. They don't seem to enjoy all that many Hong Kong films on HKMDB - which is kinda odd seeing as it's, well, you know, Hong Kong Movie Data Base!! Maybe most of the reviewers are Hongkongese and they simply don't get the same thrill out of their local cinema as gwilos like me do. o_O

I tried to find a trailer but there doesn't seem to be one anywhere. But anyhoo, if you're into old-skool heroic bloodshed movies from HK then you need to check this one out. Highly recommended!

I just checked YesAsia and they still have the Tai Seng dvd in stock.

HAUNTED COP SHOP - trailer

NB: the trailer does work even if there's no avatar! 
 
Here's the trailer for the wild, crazy and funny HAUNTED COP SHOP. It stars RICKY HUI so you know what you're in for, hahaha. And the sequel is even better! (I couldn't find a trailer for that one tho). HAUNTED COP SHOP is released on HK dvd (there are several releases and the latest Fortune Star dvd is sadly a bit cut but it's nothing that'll distract from the overall entertainment). HAUNTED COP SHOP II is only released on vhs and vcd (the vcd being the better option as it's fully letterboxed while the vhs is fullscreen). The sequel is on YouTube and the quality seems as good as the vcd that I have. It's subbed in English.

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THUNDER OF GIGANTIC SERPENT - trailers

Great picture quality and original aspect ratio trailer on IFD's own Youtube channel!!!

 

Alternative, shorter trailer (bad PQ unfortunately).

Attackafant SERPENT dvd not cancelled

The headline for yesterday's post originally read, "Thunder of Gigantic Serpent on its way - and cancelled!" - but Joachim Andersson informs me that the dvd hasn't been cancelled; it's just coming along very, very slowly. You can say that again! The dvd was scheduled for release in 2011. But in any case that is certainly good news. Thanks to Joachim Andersson and do check his own film blog here.

UPDATE (07.03.2016) - Unfortunately, the above turned out to be nonsense. After the fiasco of the first DVD Fred Anderson chucked his second release in the trash. THUNDER OF GIGANTIC SERPENT is NOT going to be released from Attackafant. The label doesn't exist any longer. Unfortunately, Fred Anderson also removed his trailer for the film from YouTube (and unfortunately I didn't download it, otherwise I would have re-uploaded it). Too bad.

THUNDER OF GIGANTIC SERPENT on its way - and [edit] not cancelled after all - EDIT EDIT EDIT CANCELLED CANCELLED CANCELLED!!!!!

UPDATE (2016) - Attackafant doesn't exist any longer and the release of THUNDER OF GIGANTIC SERPENT is cancelled for good! Dead!! Gone!!! Not coming out!!!!

Back in 2011 I wrote about Fred Anderson's (then) new video label, Attackafant Entertainment, and its first two releases; KILLER ELEPHANTS and THUNDER OF GIGANTIC SERPENT.

So far only KILLER ELEPHANTS has been released and a few months ago Anderson posted on Facebook about chucking in the video label due to very few sold copies. I asked about an official statement in regards to the label's future but Anderson's reply was that nobody would be interested anyway. I assume that means the label has been laid to rest. EDIT: although I have no info in regards to the future of the label as such there is a correction in regards to the release of SERPENT in the post after this one. Go here or scroll up.

Maybe a better distro would have helped or a direct sales option. Code Red is surviving altho Bill Olsen has chosen to only sell his releases via direct sales from his eShop. Bill Barounis kept his Onar Films label afloat altho at one point only one store wanted to distribute his dvd's. Like Bill Olsen, Bill Barounis also chose to do the direct sales thing (via eBay and a web-shop).

Anyhoo, I'm tired of waiting so today I've ordered the (seemingly) cancelled film, THUNDER OF GIGANTIC SERPENT, via a bootleg dvd from eBay. I'm aware Global Video in South Africa used to sell a dvd of the film at some stage but it seems it's completely impossible to order anything from that label nowadays. Their communication skills leave a lot to be desired (i.e. there is none!) which is a pity as their print is probably from a real film print. The eBay bootleg might very well be off a vhs.

EDIT: The eBay bootleg is sure enough off a vhs - and comes with big Greek subtitles, haha.

update

I noticed YouTube took down the TNT JACKSON trailer! Their reason was the usual retarded "third party has complained" baloney. Needless to say, I don't know if SHOUT! Factory complained about it (as they own the copyrights for the film) but in any case it's stupid to take down a trailer. I mean I fully understand the problem if someone had uploaded the full movie but a trailer is like an advertisement for the film. If people watch the trailer and then get so interested in the film that they go out and buy SHOUT's dvd or blu-ray where's the fucken harm? I fail to see the logic behind this.

Anyway, fortunately I had downloaded the trailer and have now uploaded it to another host. I see someone else has already uploaded it to YouTube again but if *someone* asked for it to be taken down once I'm sure they'll do it again. Check the trailer here.

FIREFIST OF INCREDIBLE DRAGON - uncut French dvd versus cut UK dvd

I've written about the longer French DVD release of the wild Korean film FIREFIST OF INCREDIBLE DRAGON before but I've never compared it to the shorter English dubbed version found on UK DVD. Fortunately, Cinehound member Resonator05 has done it for me now:

by RESONATOR05

I have now compared the French and UK DVD's of Firefist of Incredible Dragon and here are some infos:

The French DVD (French audio only) is a joke. The cover claims the picture has been restored - there is even a short featurette about the restoration (lol) - but the quality is extremely bad. Even if fully letterboxed (but 4:3), the picture is extremely dark (yes, so dark that sometimes you can hardly see anything), very corny and simply very bad, it looks like crap. The guys who restored this fucked it up big way.

Anyway the French DVD runs 87:58min, which is 12 minutes longer then the full screen UK cheapo disc (76:02). There are quite some dialogues and other stuff cut (maybe to save dubbing costs for the English export version), but also cuts to sexual violence (thanks to the BBFC I guess).

The main censorship cuts are at minute 30 (French DVD) when a woman is forced to sex and the biggest cut at around minute 39 (French DVD) when some women are bound and tortured, involving lots of nudity, full frontal nudity and women suffering. The torture is not seen in a gory way, it is mostly off-screen (a pin moved to a naked woman's body), but this scene which lasts 1-2 minutes has been removed completely.

So, that is it. I would prefer the UK DVD any day, simply because of the hilarious dubbing and the picture being much brighter (even if still shitty). Also it moves faster and all the gory scenes are intact. Have a nice day :-)

Big thanks to Resonator05!

When bootleg covers go wrong

Here's another terrible cover from a bootlegger who didn't bother to find out what he's selling. These films are by no means from China. CHINA DOESN'T HAVE A CATEGORY III RATING, hahaha. It only exists in Hong Kong.

The argument that China has now taken over Hong Kong isn't valid either as altho Peking has final say-so Hong Kong is a territory of its own with own Government, currency and flag. Oh, and the flag on this bootleg is the wrong one, hahaha. China's flag isn't used in Hong Kong. Not surprisingly the Hong Kong flag is used in Hong Kong.

Also, even IF we were to label Hong Kong film as being from China it would still be an invalid argument as these films were made before the Peking takeover in 1997. In other words they should be called BRITISH films as Britain ruled Hong Kong prior to 1997. But of course no one would do that.

I commented about it in connection with the cover on the bootlegger's Facebook page but I didn't get a reply (somehow I'm not surprised).

Check my first post about a crappy bootleg cover here (that one is almost surreal!).