STRYKER (Cirio H. Santiago, US/Philippines 1983) blu-ray/Kino Lorber

I'm just about to post about a new(ish) cool blu-ray release of one of Cirio H. Santiago's MAD MAX II clone flicks, and it occurs to me that it's been almost four years since I posted about Santiago's most recent post-apocalypse film, WATER WARS. A film which also, unfortunately, became Santiago's last film before he passed away. He didn't even finish the film shoot and Jim Wynorski had to take over directing the remaining part (go here for my old post).

During the three and a half years between then and now we have been blessed with a good number of blu-ray releases of cool Cirio H. Santiago US/Filipino coproductions filmed in the Philippines. Code Red have put out a handful of these films (cheers, Bill Olsen, you madman!) but the film I'm posting about here is from the good people at Kino Lorber (USA). STRYKER from 1983.

MAD MAX came out in 1979 but it's not really a post-apocalypse film, and it wasn't until 1981 that the genre took off as we know it thanks to MAD MAX II (which the American distributor retitled "The Road Warrior" to hide that it was a sequel to a film released by another label). When the Italians saw how popular MM II became they were quick to jump on the bandwagon and put out their own "MAD MAX" films (plural!) in 1982. And over in the Philippines Cirio H. Santiago thought, "Hey, I can do that!" and so in 1983 he made STRYKER! And just like the Italians made not just one clone but a whole series of MAD MAX clones, Santiago followed STRYKER with no less than six Filipino MAD MAX clones (knock-offs, rip-offs, call 'em what you want); RAIDERS OF THE SUN, DUNE WARRIORS, WHEELS OF FIRE, THE SISTERHOOD, EQUALIZER 2000 and WATER WARS (working title: "Road Raiders").

EDIT: I forgot one of Cirio H. Santiago's post-apocalypse films; He didn't do six other films but seven!! (eight in total). The last one is FUTURE HUNTERS. I urge you to read Andrew Leavold's incisive and info filled review here.


PLOT: We're in the wasteland. A narrator (in an Aussie accent, of course) informs us about the end of the world as we know it. Or rather knew it. It went into the toilet long ago and now the most precious thing is petrol, uh, I mean water!

When the film kicks off a gang of lowlifes are chasing after a young woman in the sand dunes - where she kinda lives (?). They want her ... water! She's then rescued by two good guys which both just happened to drive past. One of the guys is our main character and hero, Stryker, played by Steve Sandor. Sandor was once a bad guy in the cool exploitation flick BONNIE'S KIDS (1972) and he was also in heaps of psychotronic stuff on TV. Very odd to think of when you watch STRYKER; The thing is Sandor has the charisma and facial expressions of a tree log.

I'm not going to bother going into more detail of the plot line. Santiago wrote it on the back of a half burnt matchbox and I've already said more than what was on said box of matches. There are some bad guys, some good guys, there are some sexy amazons (their leader was a playboy centrefold), they drive around, they fight, they take revenge, and they all wear Mad Max style clothes. And  Stryker is a loner. If you're familiar with Filipino cinema it won't surprise you when you see scenes of 20-25 dwarfs popping up out of the dunes to attack people. Those dwarfs were in so many films I've lost count. According to Andrew Leavold a lot of them worked at the same "dwarf restaurant" between making films. I'm not kidding you!

The film is probably made on the same budget that MAD MAX II spent on catering. On one day's worth of catering mind you. But kudos to Cirio and his inventive crew who made the cars, motorbikes, and other futuristic vehicles look so bloody cool.

I quite like STRYKER. It's a fun film. Some of the dialogue is slow and there's a couple of romantic scenes that are so schmaltzy you feel like you're gonna lose your lunch. Hahaha. 

If there's one thing I wish they had done differently it's to find another actor for the lead part. I dare you to find another actor in the film that has as few facial expressions as Steve Sandor. Even the Playboy centrefold has more!


THE BLU-RAY
If I wanted to watch the film before I got this new spiffy blu-ray release from Kino Lorber I had to dig out my old VHS tape from Greece. Worn, fullscreen and big Greek subtitles that cover a third of the screen. This new blu-ray (from 2017) is certainly a most welcome release (they also put out a dvd release). Unfortunately, in contradiction to say Code Red, Kino Lorber didn't bother to mention what source was used for the blu-ray. Was it a film negative, a 35mm print, a betamaster, or what? But in any case the print looks good. Slightly worn and the colours are kind of faint. But that's alright, it suits the film. There are a handful of trailers (for Santiago's other post-apocalypse films) and a commentary track by Jim Wynorski. The film has optional English subs. That's it!

Go here for a smashing interview Andrew Leavold did with Cirio H. Santiago in 2007.

Last MAD MAX 2 clone from Santiago now on DVD

I posted about WATER WARS, Cirio H. Santiago's last film, way back in 2011. The film is yet another MAD MAX 2 post-apocalypse rip-off (and yay to that!) from the Philippines. The initial title was Road Raiders but it was later retitled WATER WARS.

Unfortunately, Santiago passed away during production and apparently Jim Wynorski had to finish the film. It dawned on me a couple of days ago that WATER WARS is now on DVD in Thailand!! (I'm told it actually came out last year!). As far as I know, the Thai DVD is the only release worldwide. I placed my order last week but haven't received the film yet. According to the webstore in Thailand the DVD carries the English dubbing.

A few people have pointed out that WATER WARS uses quite a bit of footage from WHEELS OF FIRE, another of Santiago's post-apocalypse films that he shot in the Philippines. And that the film isn't all that great. Oh well, on this blog we (royal "we") often find great entertainment in pop-culture that the squares and mainstreamers discard as trash. Maybe it is trash but I've seen quite a few flicks in my time that delivered heaps of entertainment despite (or because of) their being trash. Let's wait and see. I knew I had to, simply haaaad to, order a copy when I found out the film had been released.

More info on the disc as I receive it. The DVD is available from eThaiCD. I've never had any problems with them and they've got free postage worldwide!

99 shiny pennies...

I won another copy of Rick Baker and Toby Russell's book "The Essential Guide to Hong Kong Movie" yesterday. Winning bid: 99 pence!!!

The seller described the book as being in a good condition. I've already got another copy but half of the pages have come loose so this was an excellent chance to get another copy in a proper condition. This new one probably won't have been signed by one of the authors like my old one is but I'll just see if I can survive that bit of misfortune (if you think you might detect a level of sarcasm here you're in the right. I really don't give a rat's arse about anybody's hand-scribbled autograph, no matter who they are - unless it's on a cheque made out to yours truly, lmao).

Hmm, now that I think of it I also bought another 99p book a couple of months ago, a hardcover edition of a James Ellroy crime book, and it had been signed by Ellroy!! Like I said, I don't care much for autographs but that incident was kinda fun cos you kinda get the idea that the seller really didn't give a shit about James Ellroy, hahaha.

When wonder women and the thirsty dead ones turn up at your doorstep

The Retromedia dvd of WONDER WOMEN has finally arrived at the Backyard Asia headquarters!!! If you've followed my posts about the release you'll know that the dvd has (most likely) been pulled back. At least it's gone from Amazon and taking Retromedia's dispute with Code Red into account I wasn't gonna postpone ordering the dvd any longer. I received it today and although I haven't watched the film in full yet the print does look heaps better than the old Something Weird Video dvd-r. And the extras look great.

A couple of days ago I posted about a new upcoming dvd release (from Vinegar Syndrome) of the Filipino film THE THIRSTY DEAD. However, the film is already out on dvd also from SWV and I wanted it for the collection (see picture #2). The second feature on the disc is the old Spanish horror film SWAMP OF THE RAVENS. A pretty good film but don't get the dvd for this film; The SWV print is cut! You're better off getting the fully uncut VCI dvd (which also contain a fully uncut and good looking print of I EAT YOUR SKIN - which SWV also released a crappy print of with noticeable missing footage).

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).

The original film that Joseph Lai CANNIBALISED for his INFERNO THUNDERBOLT

Thanks to Jesus Manuel of the way cool blog Golden Ninja Warrior Chronicles I learnt which film was the source film that Joseph Lai and his IFD label in Hong Kong used for their cut & paste film INFERNO THUNDERBOLT. The film is the Taiwanese THE ANGER and after having had it on eBay auto search for quite a while I finally struck gold a few days ago when the Ocean Shores VCD release of the film popped up. And tonight the auction ended with only one winner! LOL (altho the winning bid makes me feel like I pulled the short straw at the same time! Argh!). Check Jesus Manuel's post about the film here and see screen grabs.

No, that's not me but JESUS MANUEL of GOLDEN NINJA WARRIOR CHRONICLES blog!

Backyard Asia's latest film acquisitions: WONDER WOMEN

aka THE DEADLY AND THE BEAUTIFUL (Philippines, 1973)

I won the rare Dutch VHS release of Robert Vincent O'Neill's WONDER WOMEN (aka The Dead and the Beautiful) on eBay a few days ago (from one of Cinehound's Member-X's auctions). The film may have been released on video in other territories but I've never come across any other release. Something Weird Video in the US have released a DVD-R of the films. Their print is taken from a good looking 16mm print. I posted about it quite a while ago (you can see the cover under the film's real index entry here). Code Red (also in the US) have announced a DVD release but knowing that label I wouldn't hold my breath until the DVD gets here. Sometimes their releases take a long (like in loooooong) while to materialise. I'm certainly happy to have won this tape. Oh, and Vic Diaz is of course in there somewhere!

Here's the trailer for the film:

THE WOMAN HUNT - ntsc vhs

I wrote about Eddie Romero's Filipino movie THE WOMAN HUNT the other day. The film was slated for release from SHOUT! FACTORY but now it seems it may never get released from them. So like so often before we have to rely on old video tape releases. As I mentioned in the previous post, I already have the UK and Danish tapes but none of them present the film in a particular decent quality. The UK print looks washed out and the Danish video is simply too dark. I looked around for other versions and found the US NTSC tape on eBay. Unfortunately, these tapes aren't exactly popping up everywhere so I had to fight off other fans to get it (i.e. it wasn't all that cheap), LOL. But anyway it's mine now! I'll post info on the picture quality when I get the tape.

EDIT: I've received the NTSC tape now and watched it right away; And I'm happy to report that the picture quality is quite a bit better than the UK and Danish video tapes! In contradiction to the UK tape the picture is crisp clear and in contradiction to the Danish tape you can actually see what's going on during the night scenes! I still hope SHOUT! FACTURY are going to release the film on DVD but until that happens the US tape is so far the best option there is.

THE SISTERHOOD (Philippines, 1988)

dir: Cirio H. Santiago

VHS / USA / format? / English audio / no subs




Gee, wauw! Another unknown/forgotten/semi lost post-apocalypse film from the Philippines!!! This one has even turned up on DVD. :D

THE SISTERHOOD is listed as a strict American production on IMDb. I asked Henry Strzalkowski (who is in the film) about it on Facebook and he confirmed what I already suspected; The movie is made 100% in the Philippines!! Unfortunately, a lot of non-American films are listed on IMDb as American productions or co-productions if there's just one American actor in them. Needless to say this isn't correct. If it were the case about 75% of all American films would have to be listed as being British or European. The IMDb is all right as a starting point for research but it's not all that good on its own.

Henry Strzalkowski about shooting THE SISTERHOOD:

"Completely filmed in the Philippines, directed by Cirio Santiago. Great find, Jack! Haven't seen this one. That's me at 0:07 [in the trailer]. During a sword-fight rehearsal, [Lynn-Holly Johnson] accidentally struck one of our stuntmen. Actually she lopped off the end of his index finger. Since we were using dull aluminum prop swords, she more or less crushed it. The stuntman was Greg Rocero. I'll never forget seeing him just wince and stop. When he pulled out his hand, we realized what happened. He went straight to hospital and showed up about a couple hours later (with his severed finger in a bottle, I'm not joking). I asked him why he was back and he simply said, "I gotta drive my truck back." I asked him if it hurt and he said, "It just throbs a bit." What a guy... All in a day's work. The risks you take. Lynn-Holly was devastated. For the rest of the picture."
[Facebook 30/7/12]

THE SISTERHOOD is released on DVD in the UK and I believe the UK DVD is the only release on DVD. I haven't been able to find one single VHS release! It's available from Amazon UK. I've ordered a copy but haven't received it yet so I can't comment on the picture quality. The Amazon page lists the film as being in widescreen.

EDIT: SISTERHOOD was released on VHS in the US. See scan in the above. Thanks to GARY MILLER of DVDManiacs for the info and scan!

RAIDERS OF THE SUN (Philippines, 1992)

dir: Cirio H. Santiago

DVD / USA / fullscreen / English audio / no subs

SAVAGE SISTERS (Philippines/USA, 1974)

dir: Eddie Romero

Betamax / UK / format? / English audio / no sub / cut (according to the BBFC homepage)


1974 – Savage Sisters (Cinema Projects International/American International Pictures)

Director Eddie Romero Writers H. Franco Moon, Harry Corner Producers John Ashley, Eddie Romero Executive Producer David J. Cohen Music “Bax”/Les Baxter Cinematography Justo Paulino Editor Isagani Pastor Production Design Robert Formoso

Cast Gloria Hendry (Lynn Jackson), Cheri Caffaro (Jo Turner), Rosanna Ortiz (Mai Ling), John Ashley (W.P. Billingsley), Sid Haig (Malavael), Eddie Garcia (Capt. Morales), Rita Gomez (Matron Ortega), Leopoldo Salcedo (General Balthasar), Vic Diaz (One-Eye), Dindo Fernando (Ernesto), Angelo Ventura (Punjab), Romy Rivera (Raul), Alfonso Carvajal (Rutz), Robert Rivera (Rosso), Subas Herrero (Victor), John Plater (Peyley), Bruno Punzalan (Smiling Jake), Joonee Gamboa (Subas), Max Rojo (Hawk), Johnny Long (Juekal)

Credits lifted from ANDREW LEAVOLD's blog. Check his entry for the film, there's some very cool old programmes with heaps of info on the actors and the film. Go here.


I also have a good looking reg. 1 bootleg that presents the film in letterbox format (the publisher told me it's not a boot but that's obviously not correct). The print is really good and is probably sourced from a HD TV broadcast. The film now has a legit release from MGM but unfortunately only in their DVD-R line. However, I'm told the print looks great.

DEVIL AND MASTER (Taiwan, 1991)

aka THE TWILIGHT SIREN

I'm getting this VCD from Hong Kong. I've never seen the film before but YesAsia's description makes it sound pretty good;

YesAsia description:
"Directed by Ma Siu Wai, 1991 Taiwan horror movie The Twilight Siren (a.k.a. Devil and Master) stars a bunch of famous actors from Hong Kong, which include Wu Ma, Alex Fong Chung Sun, Lau Siu Kwan, and Ku Feng. The story opens with archeology students Luo and Liu going to the mountains on an archeological expedition. Liu inadvertently discovers a skull and a token, both of which are found to be relics from Ming Dynasty. Liu brings the specimens home. One day, Liu accidentally gets wounded at home, and blood drips into the skull, liberating the spirit Xiao Juan inside. Mesmerized by Xiao Juan's beauty, Luo doesn't realize that she is under the control of a vicious demon..."

.

The VCD is OOP and sold out at YesAsia but they stock the Malay DVD version which is described as being in the letterbox format. I have no idea what format this VCD is in. With my usual luck it's probably fullscreen, haha.

Wild Indo action on the wall

I received two gigantic French cinema posters yesterday. They're for the two Indonesian films LADY EXTERMINATOR ("Violent Killer" in France) and FIVE DEADLY ANGELS. I didn't realise just how big they are till I got them: 47 x 63" inches (120x160cm)!!! But they sure are nice to look at. :D
- not cheap either! :(

SABOTAGE & FLY ME

SABOTAGE aka SABOTAGE 2 (original title) / CHANTAGE A L'APOCALYPSE (France) / GEHEIMCODE DEATH-FORCE (Germany)

Thanks to Resonator of Cinehound I'm now the happy owner of the cool German hardbox VHS release of SABOTAGE. Credits and reviews here.


AND I WON THIS ON EBAY:

The (according to the BBFC homepage) uncut UK vhs release of Cirio H. Santiago's FLY ME!! As I reported not long ago it was released on reg. 1 dvd from SHOUT! Factory in the US but their print is cut (because it was the absolutely ONLY print they could find). A member on Dvdmaniacs forum, Ray R, specified the cuts to the dvd in a recent thread:

Ray R:

"Got my copy today and just watched FLY ME. The pluses. picture looks great (much better than the "collector's edition" DVD I purchased a few years ago), nice to see vibrant colors and be able to make out the dark scenes.

The minuses... most of the print damage is evident towards the end of the "first reel" (Toby's mother putting on night face cream by the mirror), the final bit of dialogue is missing where she warns Toby about traveling in Hong Kong alone and makes a slit-throat motion to tell her what could happen. Also a couple of MAJOR disappointments: Lyllah Torena's credit in the opening is missing (you can see her screen shot at the tail end of the trailer), and two scenes in the "fourth reel" are missing: immediately after Toby's mother goes to the police, the following scene was back at their hotel (Toby's mother is taking a pizza out of the oven, David sneaks into the bathroom via the window while Toby is preparing to take a shower... this is where Toby tells him about the "tour" and refers to the charter company as "South Seas" in an attempt to remember the name), also the scene where David makes his entrance in the club is entirely missing.

Overall not too bad and I'm glad they were able to do what they could with the material they had onhand, but looks like I'll be hanging on to the bootleg for a while. "

BACKYARD ASIA's latest film acquisitions

Fire of Vengeance


EDIT: this German tape isn't DEADLY ANGELS STRIKE BACK as I first posted!! I got the info from the German data base IDFB but this tape contains FIRE OF VENGEANCE which is an entirely different film!!! Somebody needs to correct the faulty info at OFDB!!!


And in further, related news...

I recently won this very-very-very rare US/Puerto Rican VHS release of 5 DEADLY ANGELS (incidentally the release I DIDN'T get in post #368!!). I already have the Dutch VHS but the chance of getting the only other English dubbed release was too good to pass by.

I haven't watched the tape yet but I knew the German tape is missing one scene, a "main female character cheers up a friend by singing a happy song on the beach" scene so I checked the new tape for that scene right away. And quite surprisingly it's also missing from the American tape!! I always figured it was just the Germans who didn't find this amusing. The Dutch tape is uncut.

And one more thing, the NTSC tape is recorded in the lousy EP speed. I never understood why the bloody hell American video labels used this crappy speed at all. Neither LP nor EP was ever used for factory recorded tapes in Europe. Anyway, it's cool to have the tape but it'll be the ol'e Dutch vhs I'll be watching when I pull out the film again from time to time. LOL.

Something Weird Video's DEVIL WOMAN is cut!!!

[Mexican lobby card for DEVIL WOMAN]

Today I finally got hold of the Filipino horror movie BRUKA, QUEEN OF EVIL which for years was thought to be lost. And before it was believed to be lost fans though it was an alternative title for MANDA aka DEVIL WOMAN. But it's not, they're two different moves (which Andrew Leavold has written extensively about here)

It's taken me about three and a half years to track down BRUKA and today I finally received it. Yay!!! Last year someone else got hold of a copy and shared it with friends, and copies off that copy are now doing the rounds in collector circles. I wouldn't be surprised if it's uploaded to torrent sites. Apparently, there's already some bootleg site that has got hold of it as well. However, I figured I'd get it directly from the person who provided Andrew's and everyone else's copy; i.e. the gwilo actor who got the film on vhs from one of the actors who starred in BRUKA and DEVIL WOMAN! The actor got the tapes directly from the films' producer. I'm really looking forward to seeing this film now!

But lets talk about the HEADLINE!!! In addition to BRUKA I ALSO received the Mandarin dubbed print of DEVIL WOMAN! In fact I got two different prints of the Mandarin dubbed version; One with English subs that originates from the film's producer (it says "Sample" on the print). And an un-subtitled print which is taken from an official VHS release from (I'm pretty sure) Taiwan!! He also sent me a Xeroxed colour copy of the vhs cover and I'll post it here once I get my arse in gear and a scanner organised! I think the two tapes from the producer are taken directly from 35mm or 16mm prints. These subtitled prints are not released anywhere on home cinema format. And BRUKA has never been released in any format to home-cinema anywhere in the world.

But BACK TO THE HEADLINE!!! [spoiler warning here!] My suspicion was right!! My suspicion which I've had all along THAT SOMETHING WEIRD VIDEO'S EDITION OF DEVIL WOMAN CUTS OFF TOO EARLY!!! I was right!!! In fact the SWV vhs is missing the entire ending after the snake woman falls off the cliff!! There's about a minute of happy children and the snake woman crying in pain while she's burning in the flames of HELL!!! I wonder why it's missing from the SWV print. And it's highly annoying as SWV's fully letterboxed print otherwise looks so much better than the two Mandarin prints which are both presented in the fullscreen format. Anyway, I haven't watched any of my new dvd-r's properly yet but I'll write up some more (better) info once I do (and can make a proper comparison).

All very exiting!

WITCH WITH FLYING HEAD (Cheung Yan-Git, Taiwan, 1982)

A few years back I watched a truly weird, wacky, wild, gory, and wonderful horror movie called WITCH WITH FLYING HEAD. Back then I thought it was from Hong Kong but it's actually from Taiwan, and it was directed by Cheung Yan-Git who also made the weird, wild and gory THE DEVIL (1981). He's made many more films but I haven't watched any of those (you can look them up on the HKMDB).

WITCH WITH FLYING HEAD is very rare as it's never been released on dvd or on any easy-to-find video tapes. The bootleg I got hold of years ago is the same version that everybody else has; it stems from a rare TAI SENG vhs that doesn't have any English subtitles. Until very recently I didn't think a subtitled print existed but then... someone on eBay put up a Mandarin language tape from TAIWAN that indeed includes English subs. I made a hefty bid on the tape but couldn't compete with the winner whose winning bid ended up on $155!! However, someone who had dealt with the seller before suggested I write to him and ask if he'd sell me a dvd-r copy instead. Fortunately, the seller said yes!

I watched my dvd-r tonight and what a difference it is when you can actually comprehend the WACKED OUT story line!! The Taiwan print is fullscreen and cuts off left and right but because it's also squeezed you can actually get it "down" in the correct ratio by using the 16:9 button on the remote. The film print that was used for the vhs is fairly scratched but, ugh, screw that! It's subtitled!!!