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 On the DVD the missing footage has been replaced by a few inserts from a German VHS (also presented in widescreen).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.

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.

Fond memories of double bills

The very first time I saw HENRY: PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER, and at the same time also the very first time I saw THE STEPFATHER, was on a double bill in around 1990 at the old (long gone) Scala Cinema Club in London. It was in the afternoon and the cinema was almost empty. The first film was HENRY which just blew me away. How do you follow HENRY? You can't. And although I love THE STEPFATHER it was a let down on that particular afternoon. I should add that I came to love it when I rented it on VHS later on after I went to live in this Danish shithole that I'm still trapped in (please somebody, help me escape!! haha). After THE STEPFATHER finished I just stayed in my seat and watched HENRY again. It stayed with me and I dreamt about it several nights afterwards. That hasn't happened at any other stage in my adult life. I own several copies of both films on VHS and DVD now.


HENRY: PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER trailer



THE STEPFATHER trailer

New stuff from Bill Olsen

Bill Olsen and CODE RED have just released their latest DVD, a double feature with SEEDS OF EVIL (1972) and TOUCH OF SATAN (1971). Both films are presented in 1.78:1 (16x9). I haven't watched either of them and word is neither is a masterpiece but, hell, they're horror movies from the early 70s and one of them has "Satan" in the title. How could you not want to check them out (yes, I've already placed an order).

My two cents on the covers; Maria Karellis looks nice and all but I wish Bill Olsen would make proper covers instead. How about putting each film poster on each their side, i.e. using the back cover as a front cover as well (and lose the chick entirely). This way each poster would cover a full cover. As it is you can hardly see the details in the pictures. And then use see-thru cases and print the info on the inside of the cover. Much better (as these dvd's are only available via direct sale anyway it's not like there's a risk of losing the potential customer at stores due to their not being able to be grabbed by the spiffy cover text on the back).

Now, Bill, are you going to release LEGACY OF SATAN or not???

Sweet lovin' ... sweet Macumba lovin'

(click poster for huge hi res size)

Check this rad poster for the psychotronic movie MACUMBA LOVE from 1960! I've had the trailer sitting in the bar on the right for the last couple of years (and you should check it out, it's one coool trailer) but have kept forgetting to get hold of the film itself (too many films in this world!!). But, lo and behold, I've finally ordered it from a grey market seller in the US (actually, it was rather difficult to find a place that has it). Ahhh, sweet Macumba love.




The management of this theatre asks you to bow your heads in silence for 15 seconds in memory of those who have passed away while watching our next attraction. Please bow your heads.



NB: I got the poster scan from WRONG SIDE OF THE ART website. Check it out. It's run by just the one guy and there's tons of high resolution poster scans!

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). LMAO.

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

New book reprints "Punk magazine"

Now, why would you watch a two week old news programme from C4? o_O
Yeah, it's about punk! There's a new book that reprints the old "Punk" zine and there's an interview with Henry.

Oh oh oh!!! and there's a TOYAH interview!! Me and my cousin Ronny were huge Toyah fans (I was a member of the fan club, lol).

4th different edit of JUNGLE HEAT existing in Thailand???

LAST BREATH AKA JUNGLE HEAT (TAIWAN)


I'm already aware of thee different edits of the gory and trashy Taiwan war movie LAST BREATH aka Jungle Heat.

1) The original version (under the Last Breath title) is released on VHS in Taiwan and Hong Kong, and there's a tape released to the Chinatowns in the USA.

2) The international version, entitled Jungle Heat (a different EDIT with alternative footage shot for this version, i.e. n-o-t a cut & paste version!) is released on VHS and around the world and on DVD in the UK and Germany (and sadly both are cut!).

3) And finally we have the VCD from Mainland China which is basically a different edit of the Taiwan version (including using the Last Breath title) but missing 20 minutes of footage but also has new footage exclusive to this version. I own all three versions.


And then... someone in Thailand tells me there's also a Thai edit!!!!!!!!!!

He has never seen the film but he owns a poster (see above scan) and you can clearly see a famous Thai actor on it (I forget his name). The Thai collector claims that the actor is so respected in Thailand that they wouldn't have dared to put him on the poster if he weren't in the film and, although that's not proof of this versions existing it probably good indication that it probably does.

I'm hoping this version has at least made it to video-cd in Thailand. Unfortunately, Thai VCD's have a tendency to fly by by night never to return again. An American who lives over there told me there's so many VCD's being released all the time that it's pretty difficult to find a certain title once it's sold out. But I've been collecting long enough to know everything turns up if you wait long enough. Unfortunately, that often means many months and years of waiting, looking, asking, and asking again. In this case I don't even know if this version even exists. >_<

Did he say making fuck?

I rewatched CLERKS on VHS recently. I don't think I've seen the film since its original premiere in Australia in the 90s. I remember watching it at a cinema in Melbourne just after midday one afternoon and liking the film a lot. In the above scene there's a few lines from a "Russian" "heavy metal" track but I never thought it was made into a real song - but it has! Haha Check the full track in the video underneath.