KARATE GIRL (Turkey, 1974) [capsule review]

aka KARETECI KIZ (original title)
It's reportedly also release somewhere as "Golden Girl" but I haven't actually been able to find info of one such release.

Directed by: Orhan Aksoy
Main character: Filiz Akin

VHS / Norway / fullscreen / English dub / Norwegian subtitles
(click cover for full size)

Filiz Akin plays a mute flower seller who lives with her dad. One day her dad is murdered by scumbags. She hooks up with a sensei who teaches her karate after which she sets out to take revenge. Wild action ensues.  

KARATE GIRL is a highly entertaining movie and fortunately it's one of the (too few) Turkish films that were granted an English friendly release. In fact, the English dubbed version is released on video tape in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Greece, and possibly other places as well. If I remember correctly there's also a French dubbed tape. It's never been released on DVD and the video tapes are now hard to come by but at least you have the possibility of getting a dvd-r from a friend.

The original Turkish language version is also released subtitled on VHS in Greece (with a Greek title in Greek letters and the Turkish title printed on the cover). I would assume a domestic Turkish tape exists as well and maybe even one made for the huge Turkish market in Germany. The dubbed version has different music. The original version was posted in full on YouTube but has been removed because of a copyrights claim (not for the film but actually for the music. I doubt the Turkish film company paid for the music anyway).

If you wish to read a proper review of KARATE GIRL you're in luck as Fred Anderson just yesterday posted one on his blog.

VHS / Greece / fullscreen / English dub / Greek subtitles

VHS / Denmark / fullscreen / English dub / Danish subtitles

VHS / Sweden / fullscreen / English dub / Swedish subtitles

The small cardboard case version that was released from Westcon on sell-thru VHS in Denmark and Sweden (shown above) was also released in Norway with a similar cover. It carries a Norwegian title whereas the Video-huset AS release uses the English title.



The Norwegian and Greek covers are courtesy of Dag-Johnny and Miltos at Cinehound. Thanks, fellas. The Danish cover is my own, and the Swedish one was googled.

VAMPIRE HOOKERS (Philippines, 1979)

VHS / Denmark / format? / English dub / Danish subs

1979 - Vampire Hookers (Cosa Nueva)

[also released as Vampire Hookers Of Horror, Cemetery Girls, Ladies Of The Night, Night Of The Bloodsuckers, Sensuous Vampires & Twice Bitten]

Director Cirio H. Santiago Writer Howard R. Cohen Producer Robert E. Waters Music Jaime Mendoza-Nava Cinematography Johnny Araojo, Ricardo Remias Production Design Ben Otico Art Direction Laida Perez Head Prop Man Stephane Goulet

Cast John Carradine (John Peter Richmond), Bruce Fairbairn (Tom Buckley), Trey Wilson (Terry Wayne), Vic Diaz (Pavo), Leo Martinez (Julio), Karen Stride (Cherish), Lenka Novak (Suzy), Katie Dolan (Marcy), Lex Winter (CPO Taylor), Mark Campbell, Irving Glick, Erna Martha Bauman, Tiffany K. Neipe




Credits from Andrew Leavold's Bamboo Gods and Bionic Boys blog.

Thanks to Hans-Jørn for the scan of the ultra rare Danish VHS.

"Made in HK"'s THE KILLER ltd edition sell-thru vhs box set finally coming home

When I discovered the HK movie there was only one way to get the films; thru tape-trading with other fans. Some of those fans would live in cities that had Chinatown video stores; They'd rent films and dupe them onto a blank video tape. This was a time when you couldn't just BUY original tapes cos they didn't sell them anywhere. At least not the HK movies that some of us had wet dreams about. Feverish wet dreams.

Then something quite wonderful happened; In the UK two labels sprung up to distribute these films. One label was the (notorious? Infamous?) EASTERN HEROES label run partly by Toby Russell. The other label (and in my view the better one of the two) was MADE IN HONG KONG. Out of a sudden you could chuck out your 4th generation vhs dupe of A BETTER TOMORROW, THE KILLER or A CHINESE GHOSTSTORY. Now they came out on letterboxed and subtitled sell-thru vhs with cool box art and for the most part great info written on the inside of the sleeves.

Most of the films have since then been granted DVD (and now blu-ray) releases (altho some of these tapes are still the only/best way of watching the films!). But in contradiction to most other collectors I haven't got rid of the old MIHK tapes to make room for dvd's. To me they have value! These were the tapes that kind of SAVED the UK and Euro Hong Kong film collectors.

Anyhoo, quite a number of the tapes I never got hold of back in the day and so I'm actually buying them now. And one of the coolest releases that I never got hold of was the limited collector's editon box set edition of THE KILLER!! I got the ordinary (but still highly cool edition as it was subtitled and letterboxed!) MIHK release of the film. And before that I'd bought the fullscreen, English dubbed vhs (also from the UK). But now... a couple of decades down the line... I have finally got hold of said box set. Or at least I have won it on eBay UK and will hopefully get it soon - but of course you never know with mail these days. Let's cross our fingers and hope that I also actually RECEIVE the fucker! Hah!

WONDER WOMEN - trailer

Philippines, 1973

SAVAGE SISTERS - trailer

(Philippines/USA, 1974)

Trailer:

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! :(

CORRECTION!

EDIT: the German tape (Tödliche Engel Schlagen Zurück) that I posted about a few days ago isn't DEADLY ANGELS STRIKE BACK!!! I got the info from the German data base IDFB but the tape contains FIRE OF VENGEANCE which is an entirely different film!!! Somebody needs to correct the faulty info at OFDB!!! >_<

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.

A snake queen by any other name...

Hahaha, oh mein gott!!! An ebay seller is charging 300 dollars for three small lobby cards from a film he sells off as the Indonesian SNAKE QUEEN (starring Suzzanna) and his entire plot description is of the Indo film... B-U-T... his lobby cards are from an entirely different movie!!! Hahahaha. They're from a HK/Thai film of the same English title!!!

The Indo film is directed by Sisworo Gautama Putra. This joker's lobby cards clearly list a Snan Charussilp as the director, and the actors' names all seem to be Thai.

However... after having laughed at the eBay seller... (I know-I know, don't tell me, it's not nice laughing at people but 300 dollars for three small lobby cards and a seller who can't even be arsed to check the bloody movie the cards are from deserves to be laughed at. What a fucking ripoff!!!)... I must admit I'm very curious about the HK/Thai film now. I have NEVER heard of it!!! Do any of you out there in Cyberspace know this film?? Has it been released to home-cinema at any stage???

PS: notice the huge spelling mistake on all three cards: Eastman "coulor".

UPDATE:

James Marshall in Thailand sent me this scan of what is most likely a Taiwanese poster for the film!
(thanks, James!)

And I've just discovered there's a Hong Kong Movie Data Base listing for the film:


蛇國女王
Snake Queen (1974)
Country: Taiwan
Genre: Fantasy

Director: Choi Sai-Nam
Producer: Chan Leung-Kai

Cast:
June Chan Kei
Wong Fei-Lung
Lam Ping
Lee Tan
Chow Pan

Production Company: Great China Film Company H. K.
Production Manager: Wong Kai-Chun
Presenter: Ting Hui-Kuen

Note : 1974 is an estimated year.


And here are the full credit list from the lobby cards (none of the names actually appear to be the same!):


Main actor: Chaiya Suriyan
Main Actress: Aranya Namwong

Starring:
Metta Rungrat
Prim Prapaporn
Aurasa Isarangoon
Sasima Sirisilp
Lautog
Sritao
Sompong
Ruj Ronapope

Producer and director: Snan Charussilp

Snansilp Film Production

Distribution: Great China Film Co. (H.K.)
(236 Nathan Road B/F Front Block Kowloon, Hong Kong)


And finally, there's also an entry at the Hong Kong Film Archive but altho many of their films are listed in both English and Chinese this one is only listed in Chinese. And sadly the online translator tool I used just wasn't very good.

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!!!

ATTACKAFANT on the rampage in Thailand

(March 2012)
FRED ANDERSON (r) with his bf on the left and CHRISTOPH KLÜPPEL in the middle. Klüppel looks like he could crush them both in one go if he wanted to!


A while ago I posted about how Fred Anderson has recently set up his small DVD label ATTACKAFANT ENTERTAINMENT to release forgotten, overlooked, lost, and not least exciting worldweird films and that his first (and so far only) release is the wild Thai-Hong Kong production THE KILLER ELEPHANTS. In the past I have also posted and linked to Fred's interview with Christoph Klüppel, a big (very big) German actor who starred in a number of Thai action films many years ago.

The thing is Fred is a true fan of worldweird cinema and not least the crazy Thai action films. Not only does he watch heaps of these movies, he also reviews them on his blogs and, like I said, he has launched a label to release these forgotten films... but if you think it ends here then you'll just have to think again cos as we speak Fred has actually gone to Thailand to hook up with every soul and his brother who was anything in the old Thai action film industry!!!

Check the above photo; It's aforementioned Christoph Klüppel that Fred has tracked down and went to visit two days ago! Fred and his bf stayed with Klüppel for most of the day. But it doesn't end there; Like I said Fred's first DVD on the ATTACKAFANT label is THE KILLER ELEPAHNTS so needless to say Fred hooked up with Yodchai Meksuwan who played one of the main characters (and strings to meet with the director the next time Fred is down Thailand way have already been pulled!).

Fred with YODCHAI MEKSUWAN.

You can check out some of Meksuwan's many (over a hundred!!) films here.

And here's one more photo of Fred with a celeb who also practically starred in hundreds of Thai movies (and some HK productions); Pawana Chanajit (aka Lau Laan Ying in HK movies). According to Fred she's working as a broker these days. Check some of her films here.

Fred and PAWANA CHANAJIT (aka Lau Laan Ying).

- and finally... someone gave Fred THIS awesome book of mostly stills from GHOSTS OF GUTS EATER!!! No, I'm not green with envy here!




PS: Check my review of GHOSTS OF GUTS EATER on this site if you're not familiar with the film. The only place it's released outside of Thailand is actually on VHS in Sweden (but no, Fred had nothing to do with that ... I don't think. LOL).

Christoph Klüppel on the cover of the rare DARK DAY EXPRESS.

TNT JACKSON (Philippines, 1974) - trailer

Check out Video Junkie's new review here. Kewl, mate!

The confusing Turkish / Italian SUPERGUYS series

There's THE FLYING SUPERBOY film, and there's the SUPERGUYS series, and then there's the 3 FANTASTIC SUPERMEN films ... have you ever tossed and turned because you couldn't quite make the connection between the dots? No need to worry any longer! My friend Henrik Larsen, supreme editor of OBSKURIØST magazine, spent some time sorting out these films a while back and this is the info he came up with:

Henrik reckons THE FLYING SUPERBOY isn't a stand alone film but is related to the THREE SUPERGUYS series as Robert Widmark plays the same kind of character as in that series:

There are three official SUPERGUYS films + two unofficial entries. The first unofficial film precedes the series (and do notice that via the German title the film is actually related to the series on the German market! "Teufelskerle" = Superguys)

1. ZWEI TEUFELSKERLE AUF DEM WEG ZUR GRÜNEN HÖLLE (1974). Aka AMAZONS FOR TWO ADVENTURERS
-No Turkish involvement but Ernst Hofbauer who co-directed the film also co-directed the three official films. And "Robert Widmark" and Wolf Goldan play almost the same characters as they do in the first Superguys film. Widmark is in ALL the films so there's a connection.

2. ZWEI TEUFELSKERLE AUF DEM WEG INS KLOSTER (1975). Aka THE THREE SUPERGUYS
-German-Turkish production. Hofbauer is co-director and Widmark & Goldan play the main-characters.

3. THE FLYING SUPERBOY (1975) aka BAS BELASI
-Turkish production. Widmark plays the same kind of character again.

4. ZWEI TEUFELSKERLE AUF DEM WEG NACH ISTANBUL (1976). Aka THE THREE SUPERGUYS STRIKE AGAIN
-Cuneyt Arkin is in this one.

5. DREI TEUFELSKERLE MACHEN ALLES NIEDER (1977). Aka THREE SUPERGUYS IN THE SNOW


- Arkin was also in one of the THREE FANTASTIC SUPERMEN films (SUPERMENLER/3 SUPERMEN AGAINST GODFATHER) but other than that there's no connection between the two series.

aka Three Superguys in the Snow

German trailer for THE THREE SUPERGUYS STRIKE AGAIN:






Thanks to Henrik Larsen for the info and to the nice members of Cinehound forum whose cover scans I used.

Kothar's "Short reviews of weird movies"

I've posted a couple of Kothar's reviews on this blog before but here's a link to his thread on Cinehound message board. I'll probably re-post them here at some point but for now you really ought to check out the original forum postings. Like a certain kat girl on another rad blog Kothar is yet another fan who's been with us all the way from Gunter Müller's "Weird Asia" days (altho none of us "met" back in the day. LOL). For Kothar's reviews go here. His latest review (from today) is certainly one I'd like get hold of!

Sally Yeh's forgotten cannibal movie

I watched Cheuk Ang-Tong's MARIANNA tonight. It's a HK horror movie from 1982 mostly shot in the Philippines. One of the two female leads is played by Sally Yeh (whose most famous role is probably John Woo's THE KILLER). Yeh's character's husband goes to the Philippines on a business journy and "bumps" into a Filipino girl who's seemingly wanted by everyone; two tribes of blood thirsty savages and a horde of cannibal zombies are out to get her. There's tons of cool stuff and heaps of gore. I was highly entertained. The film is only released on a very rare HK VCD. The dialogue is a mix of Cantonese, Tagalog, and English (Mandarin is optional instead of Canto). The VCD has Chinese and English subs. Watch it if you can find it! Oh, the ending is terrible by the way, haha

DEADLY ANGELS STRIKE BACK (Indonesia, 1981)

aka Cewek Jagoan beraski Kembali (original Indonesian title)

Director: Danu Umbara

This is the sequel for 5 DEADLY ANGELS. In contradiction to the first film it's never been released dubbed into English.

TAKE NOTICE: The German data base OFDB has listed that the film was released on German VHS under the title of "Tödliche Engel Schlagen Zurück". This is INCORRECT information! The title for the German tape has the same meaning as the English title but it's an entirely different Indonesian film called FIRE OF VENGEANCE!!!

VCD / Malaysia / fullscreen / Indonesian / no subs

Category III horror: ETERNAL EVIL OF ASIA (Hong Kong, 1995)

Laserdisc / HK

DVD / Taiwan / alternative print

New German BIONIC BOY dvd is a bootleg

A few days ago I posted about what I called a new official DVD release of BIONIC BOY & DYNAMITE JOHNSON from Germany. Unfortunately I've just been informed by the son of Bobby A. Suarez, Roberto S. Suarez II, that the DVD is a bootleg!


Roberto S. Suarez II:

Dear Jack,

Thank you for your continued interest on my late father's movies. I have read in some thread about your fascination for his films. However, I believe that the DVD release of the two Bionic Boy movie is coming from an illegal source. Sad to say but as far as we are concerned the only territory that there is a legal right to sell Dynamite Johnson is MPI/Dark Sky Films who currently owns the North American territory for the said movie. Bionic Boy part 1 is owned by Intercontinental films.

------------------------------------------

That's too bad. Fred Anderson of Ninja Dixon blog has bought the DVD and he tells me the films look like they've come from a Beta-master and are presented in non anamorphic widescreen.

Too bad the company were too greedy to pay the copyright fee (probably not very much) to issue a legit release.

Thanks to Roberto for the info.

THE FLYING SUPERBOY (Turkey, 19??)

aka BAS BELASI (Turkey)

VHS / Norway / fullscreen / English dub / Norwegian subs

VHS / Denmark / fullscreen / English dub / Danish subs

VHS / Denmark / fullscreen / English dub / Danish subs

VHS / UK / fullscreen / English dub / no subs

Thanks to Diabolik & Dag-Johnny for the Scandinavian scans.

THUNDER KID (Thailand, 1980) - trailer

aka เจ้าพายุ (Thailand) [translation: Hurricane]
Stars: Sorapong Chatree and Nard Poowanai

Trailer from IFD's official YouTube page. Great picture quality and original aspect ratio!

POLICE FORCE 555 (Thailand, 1976) - trailer

aka CHOMPAE
aka ชุมแพ (Thailand)
aka Police Force (Sweden)
S: Sombat Metanee & Nard Poowanai

Rare trailer for rare movie from a rare Swedish Betamax tape! Posted on YouTube by Ninja Dixon/ATTACKAFANT ENTERTAINMENT's Fred Anderson.

EDIT: It seems Ninja Dixon deleted his upload so I reuploaded the trailer just for your pleasure! xD

BIONIC BOY and DYNAMITE JOHNSON finally on DVD!

Well, I ought to say they are finally on DVD again as they are already on DVD in South Africa but those two DVDs are long out of print and are very hard to get by now.

However, I've just been informed that the Bobby A. Suaerz produced BIONIC BOY and DYNAMITE JOHNSON (aka Bionic Boy 2) have been released on a single DVD in Germany (under the title Superboy 1 & 2) and (according to Amazon.de) luckily both films carry the English dub! And they are letterboxed!

I have no info on picture quality but seeing as the South African DVDs were pretty rough looking (direct off film prints and no care taken in regards to make the transfers look their best) chances are this DVD is gonna make the films look better than what they have before on home cinema format. If and when I get more info on the quality I'll be sure to post it here.

The Amazon Germany price is 21 euros + postage but some of the marketplace sellers sell them at around 10 euros. Amazon Germany do ship outside of Germany, some of the marketplace sellers do and some don't (like with all Amazon branches). Check the DVD here.


Thanks to Marc C. of dvdmaniacs forum for the info!!!

...

...

THEY CALL HIM CHOP SUEY - trailer

Mega-mega-mega rare trailer for Jun Gallardo's Filipino kung fu film starring Ramon Zamora. Produced by Bobby A. Suarez

HITMAN (aka American Commandos) - original trailer and rare Danish trailer

Directed by: Bobby A. Suarez (Philippines, 1986)

Original trailer: 

Rare alternative trailer made for the Danish market (HITMAN was a co-production with a film company in Denmark):

Thanks go out to Diabolik (aka Hans-Jørn Reimer) who dug out the Danish trailer from an old Danish ex-rental VHS.

RAW FORCE - trailer

(Philippines, 1982)

THE BEASTS - trailer

Directed by Dennis Yu (Hong Kong, 1980)



NB: THE BEASTS is the original version of the cut & paste film that Video Search of Miami used to sell as "The Flesh And Bloody Terror" (with HC porn inserts).

THE BIG BIRD CAGE - trailer

Jack Hill (Philippines, 1972)

 

THE BIG DOLL HOUSE - trailer

dir: Jack Hill (Philippines, 1971) 

 

SAVAGE - trailer

dir: Cirio H. Santiago (Philippines, 1973)

FIRECRACKER (aka Naked Fist) - trailer

Directed by Cirio H. Santiago (Philippines, 1981)

FLY ME - trailer (tv spot)

dir: Cirio H. Santiago (Philippines, 1973)



Trailer for Cirio H. Santiago's FLY ME is now on YouTube. Sure, it's a short one, but never the less a sweet one! xD

Sexy stewardesses and crappy kung fu!! Whoo-hoo!!!

I can't believe this is finally being released! As I've mentioned before, I'm only aware of two video releases and they're more rare than getting laid at a dike slumber party!!! (to coin an old Damon Foster joke from Oriental Cinema). And on top of that Shout! had decided NOT to release the film cos their print was too worn for their liking but it was the only print they could get hold of and fans (me being one!) kept bugging them about it. I have no idea if fan barracking helped but it's coming out now anyway. Whoo-hoo!! I can certainly live with the film looking like it was shot on celluloid (not everything has to look like it was shot on video if ya catch my drift. LOL).

Backup trailer:

Shopping tip for that thar rare world-weird horror movie

Spiralheadcase on ebay in Japan has the Japanese VHS of the rare HK horror comedy FIRST VAMPIRE IN CHINA up for auction! For the HKMDB go here. The tape is in Cantonese with Japanese subs. There's no DVD release of this film. There's an English subbed laserdisc from Hong Kong but it's very rare. The auction runs another day. Go here.

Edit: the final bidder won the tape at 31 dollars.

VHS / Japan / fullscreen / Cantonese audio / Japanese subs



PS: this is a genuine tip for fans of these films, I'm not the seller nor am I affiliated with him.

Review of Cirio H. Santiago's FLY ME & COVER GIRL MODELS over at "Rock! Shock! Pop!"

While we're waiting for SHOUT! FACTORY's upcoming release of Lethal Ladies vol. 2 which contains the two RARE Cirio H. Santiago films FLY ME and COVER GIRL MODELS you might wanna check out Ian Jane's review (and scans) of the set over at his Rock! Shock! Pop! site (the lucky bastard got a review copy quite a while back!).

PS: and yes, Vic Diaz is in both of them!

BLOOD THIRST (Philippines, 1966/71)

Here's the Filipino film BLOOD THIRST. It stars Vic Diaz and was originally made in 1966 but wasn't released until 1971. Something Weird Video have released it as both a 2-film DVD (the other film is the British horror movie BLOOD SUCKERS, starring Peter Cushing) and as a single film release. Do notice that the double film release is a real pressed DVD whereas the latter is a DVD-R. 

The Amazon description for BLOOD THIRST reads:

Filipino women found with their blood drained bring American sex-crime expert Adam Rourke to Manila in search of the killer. Armed with a lisp and a mannequin named Harvey, Rourke soon becomes prey to a "Golden Goddess" possessed of eternal youth, and a creature whose face looks like melted flesh.

Haha, great plot description there! I'm also posting the cover for the single film release which I actually prefer (the cover that is) but like I said it's a DVD-R. 



1966/1971 - Blood Thirst (company unknown)
[also released as "Blood Seekers" and "The Horror From Beyond"]

Director Newt Arnold Producer Newt Arnold Executive Producer Michael “Dupont”/Du Pont Writer N.I.P. Dennis Director of Photography Hermo Santos Post-Production Supervisor Lee Osborne Editing Supervisor “Tony”/Anthony DiMarco

Cast Robert Winston (Adam Rourke), Katherine Henryk, Yvonne Nielson, Vic Diaz (Captain Miguel), Vic Silayan, Eddie Infante, Bruno Punzalan, Judy Dennis, Max “Rojo”/Roio, Ching Tello, Minda Morena, Isidro Francisco, Felix Marfil

Let's have a "woo-woo" for Taiwan!!

Gee whiz!! One of my fave Hong Kong "girls with guns" flicks is KILLER ANGELS (starring Moon Lee). Unfortunately, it's never been released on HK DVD, VHS, LD, or VCD with English subtitles. Actually it's never been released on HK DVD at all, and if there are video tapes or a laserdisc releases I have certainly never come across them. All I've been able to find is an un-subbed VCD and an English dubbed American VHS (which I only have a bootleg off). I must have watched that VCD 15 times as it's such an entertaining movie. HOWEVER... last night... I stumbled over a DVD release from Taiwan... that says it has English subtitles!! Fucken brilliant!! I ordered it right away. It's from a well known eBay seller in HK (and he's got more copies if you want one!). It's listed as letterboxed and dubbed in Mandarin. I also bought MAD MAD GHOST (also on Taiwan DVD) and VAMPIRE KIDS (on HK DVD). Niice!

BRUTAL SORCERY Ocean Shores VHS

I have lost count of how many times I've lost the Ocean Shores VHS release of BRUTAL SORCERY. But now... NOW... I've finally won it on eBay. Surprisingly enough I was actually the only bidder. Someone suggested it's because everyone else who wants it has already got a copy now. Haha. I'm no so sure about that, it's still a quite rare tape. Maybe it was partly because the tape was listed on eBay UK. Anyway, I'm certainly thrilled to have won it (the picture in this post is from my scan archive, it's not the actual copy that I won).

Alapaap over at Ninja Dixie

Just to let you know Fred Anderson reviewed the obscure and rare Filipino horror movie ALAPAAP (aka Counds) over at Ninja Dixon. Also check out his recent review of the old dark and nasty Taiwan favourite THE DEVIL. Go here.

But I'm not at all sure why he wouldn't have heard about ALAPAAP before (as he states) as I've had an entry for it on BACKYARD ASIA for many months. LOL.

Rumbling elephants return to Thailand

How cool is this! Our friend Fred Anderson of ATTACKAFANT ENTERTAINMENT is featured on a two page spread in the new December (2011) issue of Thailand's Bioscope Magazine! So far Fred's wee one-man company has only released one movie but then again that move is the wild Thai production THE KILLER ELEPHANTS. Congrats, Fred!



From Bioscope Magazine, December issue, 2011.

STONE BOY - trailer

aka ROCO, ANG BATANG BATO (original title)

aka BOY GOD (USA vhs) 

Check out this trailer for the wild Filipino film ROCO, ANG BATANG BATO!! It's released on Australian VHS as STONE BOY and it's on video in the US as BOY GOD. Needless to say there are no DVD releases anywhere - and both video releases are very hard to come by. I received a copy of the Aussie tape a couple of days ago (after having had an automatic eBay search for what seems like forever) and like I said: it's a wild film! The main character is a 12 year old boy but this is by no means a kids' movie!