Sunday, April 19, 2009

Hey Eric, I bet you're happy you're not stuck on a bus in a Filipino jungle hell on your birthday, aye!!

Many happy returns to Eric Tsang who turned 56 a couple of days ago (on the 14th). No matter how choppier he looks now and no matter how many silly movies he's been in - when I think of Eric it's always the overlooked nasty masterpiece FATAL VACATION I think of!

If you like trashy Filipino war flicks but haven't watched FATAL VACATION then I suggest you get hold of it. 200% entertainment guaranteed!
It's available on DVD from Dddhouse for the ridiculous price of 40 Hong Kong dollars (5 dollars US!!).

(I got this news bit from the HKMDb blog)

8 comments:

  1. Never heard about Fatal Vacation, but boy! It seems like a blast!

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  2. It is! :-)
    Eric is a tour guide for a group of HK tourists in the Philippines but things don't quite go the way they were planned! I tracked down an OOP dvd a couple of years back and as soon as I'd bought it Fortune Star re-released it with better subs. Just my luck, haha.

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  3. Anybody who's into trashy Filipino war flicks but not convinced whether they ought to watch this or not need only read DDDHouse's descrpition:


    From DDDHouse:
    "This outrageous jungle-set actioner from Hong Kong filmmaker Eric Tsang brings to mind such campy spectacles as Ernst von Theumer's cult favorite Jungle Warriors in its straight-faced melding of naive politics and ludicrously unconvincing gunplay. Taking place in 1985, the film posits a group of vacationers from Hong Kong whose bus is hijacked by Communist guerrillas in the Philippines. This hijacking sets the stage for rape, mayhem, and a sadistic Deer Hunter-style game of Russian roulette before the tourist group (which conveniently happens to include some triad gangsters who know their way around firearms) stages a bloody and extremely loud escape."

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  4. Great to see this getting mentioned.

    It's a terrific film. Very brutal, at times, too.

    Nicely shot also.

    Interesting how Eric has gone from a high-pitched squealer in 80's HK actioners to hard-edged, low key crime boss in INFERNAL AFFAIRS.

    I think my least favorite movie of his was THE SNIPING.

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  5. I can't remember, but is FATAL VACATION CAT 2 or 3?

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  6. Patrick; it includes over-the-top violence, torture and rape! Yes, it's a Cat III film. LOL.

    Phantom; Thanks, and yes you're right. I haven't seen THE SNIPING so I don't know what I'd think of that. Oh, and he was cool in THE LAST BLOOD, too (which was retitled Hardboiled 2 in the UK, haha).

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  7. A Huge vote of approval for Fatal Vacation from me too. A great slice of Hong Kong brutality. How simplistically evocate & extremely Cool is that classic poster art for the DVD with the knife in the ground !?. Awesome stuff.

    http://ballisticbloodbullets.blogspot.com/

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  8. Fatal Vacation or no Fatal Vacation, I love Eric Tsang, great actor and director.

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