Wikipedia - for that thar info on Asian backyard cinema!

My gawd! I just noticed there's now being linked to BACKYARD ASIA from Wikipedia! Cool!! ^_^

Shopping tip: THE BEASTS

Gee, whiz! There's another copy of the very rare UK pre-cert video release of THE BEASTS on eBay.

The auction runs for another four days. If you have any interest in HK New Wave film or just plain video nasties then ... get this film!

Auction here.

EDIT: The auction ended at £35.

NB: I'm not the seller nor do I profit from the auction in any way. This is strictly a tip to fellow collectors of rare HK films.

TAXI HUNTER - Hong Kong vhs

I won the Hong Kong VHS release of Herman Yau's very cool film TAXI HUNTER a few days ago on eBay UK. The film stars Anthony Wong who is no stranger to fans of Hong Kong horror cinema. EBOLA SYNDROME. UNTOLD STORY. Need I say more. As quite a bit of a surprise I was the only bidder on the tape but, hey, who's complaining. Certainly not me. ^_^

TAXI HUNTER is also released on DVD in the USA (and Malaysia!) so there's no need to try and track down another copy of the rare VHS if you wish to watch the film.

WOMAN PRISONER NO. 407 part 2 - rare English dubbed version on Greek VHS

aka YEOSU 407HO 2 (org. title) / PRISONER 407 - part 2 / GIRLS IN THE TIGER CAGE 2 / RETURN TO TIGER CAGE / IM CAMP DER GELBEN TIGERINNEN

Director Sin Sang-Ok (S-Korea/Taiwan 1977)

I've just won this very rare Greek VHS release of WOMAN PRISONER NO. 407 - PART 2 at an eBay auction. There is ONE dvd release of the film but according to the German dvd comparison website Schnittberichte.com the German dvd is pretty awful. It contains two versions of the film, the completely censored German cinema print (missing a whooping TEN minutes) in the correct aspect ratio, and a fully uncut version in an over-matted aspect. Go figure!

And although the disc is English friendly in that it has English subs it only carries the German dub. The Greek VHS is fullscreen so hopefully at least it won't be missing picture info top and bottom, and it is dubbed into English. It should be uncut as well. I have NO idea of where to get the first film. I think it was released on a Chinese video tape of some kind.

Angels, guns, virgins, the apocalypse. It's here!!

"ANGELS, GUNS, VIRGINS, THE APOCALYPSE? WHAT A MESS!!" I HEAR YOU SAY. WAIT TILL YOU SEE THE FILM!!!

The new German dvd release of ANGELS WITH GOLDEN GUNS (aka Virgin Apocalypse / Terror im Frauenlager) has finally been released! Actually... it came out two weeks ago but I wanted to make sure I got hold of the limited "Cover A" before I told y'all about it, haha (sorry, but there's only a 100 printed!). But in any case, here it is!

I received it this morning and haven't had time to check it properly yet. The film is a wild mix of Girls With Guns/WIP/Girls Kick Ass And Look Cute/and-what-have-you film from Hong Kong 1988. I've previously watched it via a raw fullscreen copy off a vhs and I don't know what director ANG SAAN was on but he must have popped a lot of it to make the result so totally over the top wild and crazy as he did - while making absolutely no sense at all. Well, I kinda thought I had figured out what the hell the film is about but maybe I got the plot all wrong as other people (IFD expert Jesus Manuel being one) have watched it repeatedly and still don't know what it's about, haha.

ANGELS WITH GOLDEN GUNS has never been out on official dvd before and old vhs releases suffer from crappy fullscreen formats and/or having been dubbed into languages only spoken by little people in hidden away places. The new German dvd has been taken from a 35mm German print that I'm told was missing 1 minute of footage, however, the missing footage has been reinserted into the film from a German vhs (luckily the vhs was also in the right picture format). And don't worry, fellow English speakers, the dvd does indeed come with both German AND English dub.

Spannick, who provided me with the info via Cinehound forum, told me the German dub has totally cool music that isn't in the English version. So it would probably be fun to watch it in that version as well (maybe for the second viewing if you don't understand Deutsch). I'll repost the scene Spannick uploaded which is off the German print and definitely has a cool score. I do remember the music in the old vhs version as being pretty boring. Hmmm, come to think of it I don't even think it HAS any music in this scene. :/

The dvd also has a full extra film, COMMANDO FURY (aka Training Camp / Girls in the Tiger Cage / Aufstand im Frauenlager). The film is listed on various sites as being from HK 1986 but the HKMDB lists it as being from Taiwan 1983. The old German vhs release is heavily censored (check screen grabs of cuts here) but the new dvd is uncut. Unfortunately, the film is owned by IFD in Hong Kong and they didn't even have a proper print! All Joseph Lai could offer was a crappy fullscreen master with massive frame cuts. I'm told that most of their film stock consist of old crappy fullscreen video masters that were used for the old original video releases!

They don't even have 35mm prints in the correct aspect ratio any longer! That is so sad! It's not very often we're lucky enough that a label actually wants to have anything to do with these old cult films and when finally someone does wanna put them out on a proper dvd release ... they can't fucken do it because Joseph Lai didn't bother to keep original prints! Argh!! This is also the reason why the dvd release of KILLER ELEPHANTS is fullscreen (the lbx version was included off a German vhs). The German company decided to skip the fullscreen print and used a fully letterboxed Japanese vhs instead. The tape master is dubbed into English and subtitled in the black bar (I'm told the new dvd has covered up the subs).

The film is available from D&T MAILORDER in Austria. There are links to the handful of different covers here (it's become a trend in Germany to release the same film with multiple cover options). Alternatively, you can order it directly from Björn Niehüser who runs the label. Anyway, I'm off to the Frauenlager (women's prison camp)!! xD

- Insane girl fright scene:

Ahh, come to daddy

Here it is!! The ultra ultra ultra rare UK precert VHS release of Dennis Yu's ultra violent Hong Kong video nasty THE BEASTS. The film is from 1980 (some sources say 1981) and apart from being a legendary horror-rape revenge film it's also an important entry to the original Hong Kong new wave films. Very happy to have finally got hold of this tape. I wonder if it's uncut. o_O
EDIT: Yes, the UK pre-cert is uncut.


In regards to HK new wave films: It's a label used for first time directors who made gritty movies about life in HK around 1980. There's a Wiki article here (unfortunately, the author includes both John Woo and Wong Kar-Wai in that article and that's just silly! They probably did it because often in the west you get the impression those two directors basically CREATED the Hong Kong film industry. Kar-Wei didn't make his debut until 1988 for crying out loud! And the well-dressed gangsters of John Woo's films hardly portray real life lowlife crooks on the street).