THE SNAKE QUEEN - composite print on ultra limited DVD

I've just finished watching my new THE SNAKE QUEEN dvd. It's limited to 20 copies!!! (pressed, not dvd-r). I own the Greek vhs version but this one is pretty cool; it's a fan composite that mixes the Greek vhs and the Indonesian versions (off an Indonesian Betamax tape and an Indonesian VCD). Both Indo versions contain alternative edits of the film. We all thought the Greek tape was uncut but, nope, it's missing quite a few scenes. No violence or gore, but still. The Indo bits are subbed in English.
The film is awesome. Made in Indonesia in 1982 and stars Suzzanna, Barry Prima, George Rudy and some more familiar faces. Needless to say, like 99% of all old Indo flicks it's never been released on dvd. You can read about it in Pete Tombs' "Mondo Macabro" book.

"Queen of Black Magic" director passes away

According to Ekky Imanjaya over at Finding Jaka Sembung blog, Lilik Sudjio, the director of the cool Indonesian horror film QUEEN OF BLACK MAGIC (starring Suzzanna) has passed away. This is sad news indeed. To read his post go here.

Arizal - RIP

Unfortunately, I've learnt today that Indonesian film director extraordinaire ARIZAL passed away this morning. He was 71.

Arizal was an important film director to anybody who loves wild no-holds-barred world-weird action films.

He made tons of films that never made it to international shores but some of his well known films ("well known" to fans like us anyway) that were released on VHS in English dubbed form are: SPECIAL SILENCERS, FINAL SCORE, THE INTRUDER (aka Rambu), STABILIZER, and LETHAL HUNTER.

Here's an article by EVIETA FADJAR about his passing from the Indonesian online newspaper Tempo.co. I translated it with Google so don't expect a proper translation nor proper grammar. My Indonesian readers (yes, I have some) can check the original version at the bottom of the page, or you can check the original newspaper post here.

TEMPO.CO , Jakarta - Directed by Arizal , 71 years , died on May 18, 2014 at 11:00 pm . Men born Indragiri Hulu Indonesia is known as a director who is able to make films and soap operas from a variety of genres .

He has been the director of high school and Gita Love Puspa Indah Taman Hati starring Rano Karno and Yessy Gusman . Arizal also made films starring Warkop humor and became the best-selling films in the 1980s and 1990s .

After graduating from high school in New Week , Arizal continuing higher education at the University of Indonesia and then West Coast Institute of Management & Technology , Perth , Australia .

Arizal also known as a journalist . He began his career as a caricaturist in magazines Selecta . He later he joined the editorial staff at the magazine Mayapada and Panorama .

Film career began when he became assistant artistic Walt Disney cartoon at Universal Studios , Los Angeles , United States . After that in 1971 he became an assistant director on the film Hell to the chase .

In 1974 he was appointed as director of children's film Smiles and Tears . This film won the Citra award as best children's film . In the late 1970s , he made many dramatic movies .

The film Arizal , Gita Love from high school and Puspa Indah Taman Hati be one much-loved film community . In the 1980s , Arizal also working on comedies . Together Warkop group , Arizal successfully made films humor when it has not been appearing .

Some films such as smart - smart comedy Dumb and Forward Backward Kena Kena become the best-selling movie in Indonesia . Thanks to his success in comedy , director Arizal be one of the most expensive in Indonesia . His ability to make films in various genres , such as drama , comedy , and action , the lifting popularity.

In soap operas or glass screen , working Arizal Because of PT Multivision Plus in 1992-1993 with Lydia Kandouw player , Jimmy Gideon , Gideon Zion , Pitrajaya Burnama and Nani Wijaya . Then , the soap opera nonsense of PT Multivision Plus in 1993-1995 with players Nurul Arifin , Rudy Regards , Kiki Fatmala and Fuad Alkhar .

He also directed soap operas and Jun Jin from PT Multivision in 1996-2001 with players Syahrul Gunawan , Mira Asmara , Misye Arsita , Baraja and M. Fuad Amin . There are also soap operas and Miss Yul Toyol in 1997-2002 with 270 episodes Onny players all, being Slamet Joyo and Dominiq Sanda .

He also made a television commercial for Unilever soap Lux 1978 Citra Jakarta Traffic with Widyawati models . In addition, the Arizal also known as the author of the song . His work is Unread You Goda - Ernie Djohan , 1967, Why - Alfian in 1967 , the song Smiles and Tears , starring Rano Karno , 1974, the song in the movie as sincere Heart , starring Elly Tanty Yosepha & S in 1975 and the song Main Movie , starring Benjamin S in 1975.


ORIGINAL VERSION OF THE ARTICLE IN INDONESIAN:

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Sutradara Arizal, 71 tahun, meninggal pada 18 Mei 2014 pukul 11.00 Wib. Pria kelahiran Indragiri Hulu ini dikenal sebagai sutradara Indonesia yang mampu membuat film dan sinetron dari berbagai genre.

Ia pernah menjadi sutradara Gita Cinta dari SMA dan Puspa Indah Taman Hati yang dibintangi Rano Karno dan Yessy Gusman. Arizal juga membuat film-film humor yang dibintangi oleh Warkop dan menjadi film-film laris di tahun 1980-an dan 1990-an.

Setelah menamatkan SMA di Pekan Baru, Arizal melanjutkan pendidikan tingginya di Fakultas Ekonomi Universitas Indonesia dan kemudian West Coast Institute of Management & Technology, Perth, Australia.

Arizal juga dikenal sebagai wartawan. Ia memulai kariernya sebagai karikaturis di majalah Selecta. Ia kemudian ia bergabung menjadi staf redaksi di majalah Mayapada dan Panorama.

Kariernya di dunia film dimulai ketika ia menjadi asisten artistik kartun Walt Disney di Universal Studio, Los Angeles, Amerika Serikat. Setelah itu pada 1971 ia menjadi asisten sutradara pada film Pengejaran ke Neraka.

Pada 1974 ia dipercaya menjadi sutradara film anak-anak Senyum dan Tangis. Film ini meraih penghargaan Piala Citra sebagai film anak-anak terbaik. Di akhir dekade 1970, ia banyak membuat film-film drama.

Film garapan Arizal, Gita Cinta dari SMA dan Puspa Indah Taman Hati menjadi salah satu film yang banyak digemari masyarakat. Pada tahun 1980-an, Arizal juga menggarap film-film komedi. Bersama kelompok Warkop, Arizal sukses membuat film-film humor yang ketika itu belum banyak muncul.

Beberapa film komedinya seperti Pintar-pintar Bodoh dan Maju Kena Mundur Kena menjadi film terlaris di Indonesia. Berkat kesuksesannya dalam film komedi, Arizal menjadi salah satu sutradara termahal di Indonesia. Kemampuannya membuat film dalam berbagai genre, seperti drama, komedi, dan laga, semakin mengangkat popularitasnya.

Di sinetron atau layar Kaca, Arizal menggarap Gara-gara dari PT Multivision Plus pada 1992-1993 dengan pemain Lydia Kandouw, Jimmy Gideon, Sion Gideon, Pitrajaya Burnama dan Nani Wijaya. Lalu, sinetron Ada-ada Saja dari PT Multivision Plus pada 1993-1995 dengan pemain Nurul Arifin, Rudy Salam, Kiki Fatmala dan Fuad Alkhar.

Dia juga menyutradarai sinetron Jin dan Jun dari PT Multivision pada 1996-2001 dengan pemain Syahrul Gunawan, Mira Asmara, Misye Arsita, Fuad Baraja dan M. Amin. Ada juga sinetron Tuyul dan Mbak Yul pada 1997-2002 sebanyak 270 episode dengan pemain Onny Syahrial, Slamet Joyo dan Dominiq Sanda.

Ia juga membuat iklan televisi sabun Lux untuk PT Unilever 1978 Jakarta Citra Lintas dengan model Widyawati. Selain itu, Arizal juga dikenal sebagai pengarang lagu. Karyanya adalah Usah Kau Goda-Emie Djohan 1967, Mengapa-Alfian 1967, lagu Senyum dan Tangis, dibintangi Rano Karno 1974, lagu di film Setulus Hatimu yang dibintangi Tanty Yosepha & Elly S pada 1975 dan lagu Main Film, dibintangi Benyamin S pada 1975

Almarhum disemayamkan di Perum Kranggan Permai, Jalan Borobudur, Jati Sampurna, Bekasi.

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! :(

War Victims - trailer

Original title: KAMP TAWANAN WANITA



Here's the rare trailer for Jopi Burnama's Indonesian war/WIP movie WAR VICTIMS. There's no official DVD release but it's released on VHS in the US, Holland, and Japan. I believe both the US and Dutch versions are fullscreen. The Japanese tape is letterboxed.


Director: JOPI BURNAMA

Cast:
MARISSA HAQUE
BOY TIRAYOH
AVENT CHRISTIE
MANGARA SIAHAAN
JEFFRY SANI
DJOKO WAROK
ANEN WIJAYA
USMAN EFFENDY
SIMON PS
FARIDA YASMINE
WATY SIREGAR
NINA ANWAR

Credit info from CITWF.

Thanks to Member-X for the YouTube upload!

Rumah Dara - new Indo horror!

Info from some site:


Darah (2010)
a.k.a : Rumah Dara / Macabre / Blood

Sinopsis

HORROR HAS A MOTHER

Darah tells the tale of a most horrifying night for 6 friends. Two newly weds Adjie and Astrid, along with 3 of their best mates decide to have an interstate road trip as a last attempt to reconcile Adjie with his estranged younger sister Ladya. Their drive is, however, cut abruptly when they run into Maya, a strange girl who wanders aimlessly out of nowhere into their path. "I've been robbed" is all she has to say. The friends unanimously decide to give her a ride to her isolated house in the deep of the woods. This is when the night turns into a crimson-hell for the 6 friends. They find themselves trapped and hunted by Dara and her three deadly protégés who have been born and raised to systematically eliminate unsuspecting passerbys for one nefarious reason. One by one they are slaughtered. Everybody will bleed. The dark of night has never looked so red.

Awards
Leading actress Shareefa Daanish won the 2009 Best Actress award at the Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival (PiFan 2009) for her role.

Macabre, international title for Rumah Dara (Indonesian title), and in Singapore titled Darah) is an Indonesian horror/slasher film in 2010. The movie tells about a group who attempt to escape from a house that owned by mysterious lady named Dara and her family. And later is known that the family are killers and cannibal for getting immortality. The film was created based on Dara short film and character. This film cited by the directors as the long feature from the short film, and the short, will be the spin-off to this movie.

Before screened in Indonesia. This film had to screened in many festival and in 2009, Rumah Dara played in Singapore which got rating M18 (for Gore and Violence). Then, Rumah Dara played in Indonesia widely at January 22, 2010. The distribution to North America and Europe do by Overlook Entertainment.

In official twitter web for Rumah Dara, cited that this film is banned in Malaysia because its violence. The film is the first Indonesian film which banned in there

Cast:
Ario Bayu ... Adjie
Shareefa Daanish ... Dara
Julie Estelle ... Ladya
Ruly Lubis ... Armand
Daniel Mananta ... Jimi
Mike Muliadro ... Alam
Arifin Putra ... Adam
Dendy Subangil ... Eko
Imelda Therinne ... Maya
Sigi Wimala ... Astrid

Directors: (The Mo Brothers) Kimo Stamboel & Timo Tjahjanto
Genre: Horror / Slasher
Runtime: 95 mins

Language: Indonesian
Subtitles: English / Chinese (idx/sub)

Certification: Singapore:M18 / Indonesia:Dewasa

Crazy Indonesia: "From fighting in the streets to fighting in the sheets"

Trailer for the Indonesian colonial war movie DAREDEVIL COMMANDOS (1985) starring Barry Prima, from Rapi Films.





The cover scans are both Danish. The cover text reads: "An exiting 5 star action movie from the inhumane war hell of the jungle", haha. Five star film!? o_O

Crazy Indonesia: Samson dan Delilah on DVD!!!

How utterly awesome!! It's come to my attention (thanks to Kothar, another hardcore Indo film collector!) that Sisworo Gautama Putra's Indonesian movie SAMSON DAN DELILAH (1987) has been released on DVD in France! Actually, it seems it's been out a while and there are no less than two DVD releases and a VHS release! Gee, sometimes you think these world-weird films aren't available anywhere other than on Malay VCD and then they turn up on Euro DVD!

As I said, SAMSON DAN DELILAH is directed by Sisworo Gautama Putra who also did THE WARRIOR (aka Jaka Sembung), THE SNAKE QUEEN and SRIGALA. Check his filmography here (a much better film base for world-weird cinema than the bloody IMDb!!). I have never watched the film but I remember reading about it on Günter Müller's cool (and sadly long gone) site WEIRD ASIA. I think I might have his review on my old computer. I'll check and post it here if I do. According to the credits on CITWF the film stars none other than Indo horror queen Suzzanna! (from QUEEN OF BLACK MAGIC, SNAKE QUEEN, SUNDEL BOLONG (aka Ghost With Hole), and tons more Indo horror films).

The French title is La Revanche de Samson and you don't need fluency in French to figure out it means "the revenge of Samson" in English. The DVD is available from eBay France and not surprisingly it's not English friendly. I don't know if it carries the original Indonesian audio. However, my collector friend has informed me that the DVD is both widescreen and fully uncut! In fact it runs 6 minutes longer than the Malay VCD! Needless to say, I've ordered it right away! YAY! SPIFFY!!




Plot description translated by our friends at Google:

Samson, aged 11, sees his mother murdered by a soldier from the Netherlands. Now he feels an implacable hatred for the invaders in his heart. His grandfather sends him supernatural powers and makes him invulnerable. As an adult Samson is ready for revenge and no force can stop him. He survives the worst violence and the occult powers of his enemies. His actions win the sympathy of the people. Then the sumptuous Delilah decides to seduce him. Spells of love they have reason to Samson?

I tried to correct it somewhat but, uh, I think I'll just leave that last bit there. No idea what they mean. LOL.

EDIT: Holy fuck!!! Check out this clip from the film that I found on YouTube (you'll need to turn the sound down first as it's very loud):



And one more scene...



Video-cd/Malaysia/fullscreen/Indonesian audio/no subs/cut by 6 minutes!

Thanks to Peter (Kothar) for all the info and the VCD cover scan!

First ever interview with LADY TERMINATOR star Barbara Anne Constable!!!

An interview with the star of LADY TERMINATOR, Barbara Anne Constable, was posted here about a week ago. It's the first interview she has ever done about the film. Oh man, this is so cool! I mean I've been a fan of this movie for sooo long and have dreamed of tracking her down to do an interview. Well, someone beat me to it (and I couldn't be happier for them!).

There's also a Lady Terminator Appreciation Group (which I believe is set up by the guy behind the interview). Go here and in the words of EVIL DEAD 2 join us.

LADY TERMINATOR review (Banned in Britain #2, 1994)

This is my review of LADY TERMINATOR which I printed in my zine "Banned in Britain" #2 from 1994. You can download the entire issue in the bar on the right. We also have a thread entirely devoted to the film over on Cinehound. Go here.

VHS/Japan/letterbox/English audio/Japanese subs/this is the fully uncut print which contains bits and pieces that are missing from the Mondo Macabro DVD.
[click scan for full size]


LADY TERMINATOR
Dir: Jalil Jackson aka H. Tjut Djalil (Indonesia 1988)
Cast: Barbara Anne Constable, Claudia Angelique Rademaker, Christopher J Hart, Joseph P McGlyn.

PS: Not to be confused with neither the Indonesian movie LADY EXTERMINATOR nor the Hong Kong Shaw Brothers film also called LADY EXTERMINATOR!

Uuhhh... this is a wet dream come true!!!
A perfect DVD release of the Indonesian gore & exploitation fest Lady Terminator!!!
All I can say to the good people at Mondo Macabro in England is thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

I’ve been hoping for a proper release of Lady Terminator ever since I rented a PAL copy off an American NTSC bootleg video tape a couple of years ago at a video rental in a seedy part of downtown Copenhagen. Obviously I made a copy off the rental tape and I reckon the version I was left with is a fuzzy 4th or 5th generation copy (on top of being a transfer from NTSC) - in other words not a brilliant copy, ha, ha.

Actually it was so unbelievably bad that I never even bothered to pull it out to watch again. I loved the film but thought it deserved to be watched in a better quality. And a version with a mucho better quality is exactly what I’ve got in my greasy paws now: The amazing brand new DVD from Mondo Macabro in the UK (although they chose to put it out on their US branch).

‘But what exactly IS an Indonesian film’ (well, apart from it being from Indonesia obviously) I hear you utter. ‘Is it like a Hong Kong movie or what?’ Well, I’ll tell you what, I haven’t got all day so why dontcha just rush out and get hold of Pete Tombs’ great book ‘Mondo Macabro’ and let him tell ya all about it, hah! (I’m so funny I kill myself). No, seriously, I’ve only got two pages left (pages that were actually earmarked for an incredibly cheesy BRMC interview but as soon as I got hold of THIS new release THAT interview went into the toilet!) so I’ll try and give you a crash course in Indo flicks but it’ll be brief and since everything I know about Indo flix I got from the Pete Tombs’ book anyway I still urge you to go get his book!

The Indonesian government was apparently mucho corrupto in the 1970s and what do you do if yer a corrupt government? Well, you slack off in the moral dep. and thus film censorshit regulations loosened up and the sleazy film exploiters that we all know (and whose products we fester on) from other parts of the world soon popped up everywhere in Indonesia too. Films with gore, action and (to a lesser degree) sex came out by the bucket load.

Well apparently cos I haven’t actually watched very many of these flicks myself, just a handful - but what a handful! And according to Pete Tombs’ book, the Indo flicks became more and more outrageous as the 70s switched to the 80s. But in 1988 a film came out that apparently was so crude it made the Indo film regulators choke and, sadly, introduce new censorship rules. That film was Lady Terminator! Actually, when the authorities found out how over-the-top Lady T is they banned it right away. But although it only ran for nine days at the cinemas more that 100,000 people saw it!

As I said before, I haven’s watched very many Indo flicks (as of yet but after having watched cool stuff like Lady T, Devil’s Sword, Mystics in Bali, Queen of Black Magic and a few other ones you can bet yer ass I’ll be tracking more down!) but so far it seems to me that some Indo flicks are very much like the early 80s HK horror flicks, just without the slapstick! And also, it may be hard to imagine but they’re done even more cheap!

If you’ve seen stuff like Black Magic With Buddha (which I reviewed in #1 ten years ago!), Blood Of The Black Dog or The Rape After then you know what I’m talking about. Well, some of the Indo flicks are like this while others are... different... ehh, well, mebbe this isn’t such a grand explanation - as I said, go get hold of Pete Tombs’ book (they have it at Amazon). By the way, there’s also a quite good documentary (from the Mondo Macabro tv series from UK tv) on the disc. Needles to say it’s compulsory viewing!!

The first time I encountered a bit of exciting Indo celluloid was when Discovery Channel showed a docu (sorry, don’t remember the title) on horror movies for Halloween some time back in the 90s. A short segment from a film showed a guy who suddenly pulled off his own head in gory detail in the middle of a crowd! The film was Queen of Black Magic (which, in some markets, is released as part 3 of the Hong Kong Black Magic series although it’s got nothing to do with those [totally awesome] movies) and it’s got gore, black magic and flying heads galore. See it if you can!

Anyway, enough of this babble, lets habla a bit about the damn movie itself then we can always come back to this pointless drivel later, shall we!
As you can probably figure out yourself Lady Terminator has something in common with the ol’ Arnie favourite, however, we’re not talking some mere inspiration here, we’re talking a fucken remake... a remake done Indo style - incl. a babetious 80s chick in Arnie’s role! And she isn’t even an android!!

VHS/Argentina/fullscreen/English audio/Spanish subs

The story goes a bit like this: 100 years ago there was a queen called ‘Queen of the South Sea’ who would lure scores of men to bed but none of them could live up to her expectations and they would all get killed ‘in the act’. Well, until man no. 1000 figured out the trick: when she would ‘ride’ her man a snake would slip outta her pussy and kill the unfortunate guy (ouch!).

However, man #1000 just grabbed the snake and pulled it out after which it turned into a kris (i.e. a dagger). After this, the horny queen was cursed to go the bottom of the sea for 100 yrs but, of course, just before departure she swore to come back after 100 yrs to take revenge on the guy’s great granddaughter.

Jump to the present (well, mid 80s!). A young, sexy American chick with big, curly 80s hair (actually she looks like a girl I knew once who, as it turned out, was trouble too, ahh) is in Indonesia to study the legend of the ‘Queen of the South Sea’. The legend says that soon after the Queen’s demise her castle went into the sea, and although the young, sexy American chick with curly 80s hair doesn’t believe the part about the Queen she oddly enough believes the part about the sunken castle (no, it doesn’t make sense - just don’t think too much about it and enjoy the film!).

The young, sexy... etc. soon finds some old geezer who owns a book about the whereabouts of the old sunken castle and to make a long story short she rents a boat with a crew, dives down and is possessed by the old South Sea Queen! This is when the fun begins!

The sexy chick returns from the sea, her own mind is now gone and she has fully become the incarnation of the ‘Queen of... etc.’ She puts on a leather jacket, a bra and an AK47 - and then she goes to work, i.e. looking for the doomed great granddaughter. The rest is a tour de force in over-the-top gory exciting exploitation action!!

The film is a remake of The Terminator - and it’s not! The plot is kinda the same, but most of the details are explained differently: No one comes back from the future, there is a terminator but it’s not a cyborg. The terminator pulls out it’s own eye but it’s not a mechanical one. The person behind the terminator doesn’t wanna change the future... she’s just royally pissed off because she couldn’t kill her fuck no. 1000!! And so on. The story-line is very much the same, the details are just very different.

Also, what is totally over-the-top fun are the scenes that are carbon copies of the original: The scene when the great granddaughter is attacked the first time in a bar and saved by a guy - in this version an American cop working in Indonesia (!!!) (for fuck’s sake, he even says the legendary line: ‘If you wanna live come with me’!!). And there is the police station scene where the terminator basically destroys the whole station and kills everyone except her main target.

On top of all this, Lady Terminator is both quite gory and there’s quite a few scenes where the sexy terminator takes her top off (uh, since this IS an Indonesian movie I guess I should point out that I don’t mean she takes her head off and it flies away - but that she takes her shirt off! Ahm...).

About the gore; there’s one totally rad scene at the police station in which Lady T guns down a cop, but hey, although he’s dead she’s not satisfied, so she shoots him again, in fact she blows him into a bloody pulp... but she’s still not happy, so she puts a last touch on killing him by kicking him in the balls!! I guess you’ll have to be a gorehound to enjoy films like this! (but hey, why else would you be reading this here mag?).

What else can you say about this awesome piece of gory exploitica. Well, heaps probably but unfortunately we’re out of space this time ‘round, but I URGE you to get hold of this flick. It is totally o.t.t. amazing and VERY enjoyable.
But before I finish off I just want to comment on a review in Oriental Cinema vol. 2, #9. Some fuck-face reviewer (not the overly cool editor Damon Foster, mind you!!) bitched about Lady Terminator being without any creativity and stealing ideas from an American film!

Firstly, I think it’s funny that this criticism comes from an American of all nationalities!! I mean, it’s not like we have NEVER seen or heard of an American film that bluntly stole everything from a foreign film, is it?! Like, it’s only happened a billion times!! At the moment, the Yanks are about to remake every motherfucken horror film ever made in Japan!! And how about Nikita!? How about Godzilla!? How about The Vanishing!? How about a zillian-trillian other Asian and European films!? They even remade Faulty Towers for fuck’s sake!!! Besides, this ass-wipe reviewer seems to forget that stealing from big blockbusters and remaking them for peanuts, adding tons of gore and sex THAT IS WHAT EXPLOITATION CINEMA IS ALL ABOUT YOU FUCKING MORON!!!

Anyway, enough of this (besides, the bloody wanker wrote that review eight yrs ago and has probably forgotten all about it by now, ha ha). Just don’t sit on yer arse and complain about my review being about a film from an uncool place like Indonesia or that it’s a remake. It doesn’t matter where a film comes from or whatever. What matters is whether a film is entertaining or not. I’ve watched Lady T five times and I’m gonna watch it again!
I’m off, see you next time. [new note: this was the last review in that issue, hence the farewell!]

Version reviewed: Mondo Macabro (US) [DVD, ntsc, reg. 0] letterbox, dubbed in English, uncut, 82 min. Extras: Docu from UK tv on Indo films, trailer, alternate scenes + quite a bit of reading material and previews of other Mondo Macabro releases.

Crazy Indonesia: Five Deadly Angels - clip

This awesome scene is from the rare Indo film FIVE DEADLY ANGELS. The film is originally entitled 5 Cewek Jagoan and there was even a sequel, DEADLY ANGELS STRIKE BACK/Cewek Jagoan beraski Kembali (which I've watched on Malay VCD, it never came out in English). The film stars Debby Cynthia Dewi, Yati Octavia, Dana Christina and Lydia Kandou who are no strangers to fans of Indo cinema! Btw, this scene is missing from the German VHS.

Read Fred Adelman's cool review here.

VCD/Malaysia/fullscreen/Indonesian audio/no subs

Thanks to Peter aka Petcor80 of Cinehound for the DVD-R and for uploading this clip.

When grown men weep like little Japanese school girls

Until yesterday I was certain of two things in life.

If I didn't know anything else at least I knew these two very important facts:

1) The wild Indonesian film 5 DEADLY ANGELS was released long ago on VHS in Holland.

And: 2) There was a rumour 5 DEADLY ANGELS might have had a VHS release in the US long ago.

Needless to say the Dutch tape is more rare than getting laid at a dike slumber party. I have never found a copy! Never! Ever! (but thanks to a nice Cinehound member I have a multo wonderfullo DVD-R copy!).

Yesterday, I found an eBay seller in jolly ol'e Canaduh who had a copy of the legendary American NTSC tape!!! And it came with a mint cover!!! And a "buy now" price!!!

Obviously, after having picked my shocked body up from the floor I clicked the "buy now" button right away. And then I waited for an invoice.

Today I got an eMail from the seller saying he... accidentally... dropped... a... hand-weight... on... the... tape...!!!

(insert shocked smiley here)

Let me just repeat that: the seller dropped a weight on the tape and it smashed!!!

I must admit I was kinda hoping his line would end with something like "but don't worry the hand-weight bounced off the tape and nothing happened. I just thought I'd tell you to better the relationships between our two almost identical countries" but, well, he didn't. :-(




I spent two years looking for this tape and then the only copy I've ever come across gets smashed by a fooking hand-weight!!!!!! Check the headline again for my state of mind.

Arrr, this is so truly, insanely, bizarrely, surreal'y, terrible I keep expecting a log lady to offer me some coffee. Haha. Oh well, C'est la vie as they say in some parts of Canada. If nothing else I asked the seller if I could get the cover and so at least I'll have that to look at while I cry into my cold coffee ("cold" cos I'll be too depressed to make a fresh pot).

Below is the cover scan (courtesy of Peter from Cinehound) from the Dutch VHS.

REVENGE OF NINJA (1988)

Original title: Gadis Berwajah Seribu

I watched the wild no-holds-barred Indonesian movie REVENGE OF NINJA tonight. It stars the Capo di tutti capi (the boss of bosses) of insane Indonesian cinema of the 1980s; Barry Prima!!! Other top names in the movie are Dana Christina and Advent Bangun. If you know your way around Indo flicks these names won't be alien to you that's for damn sure. LOL. And the whole non logical and fantastic mess is directed by Ratno Timoer who also among tons of other amazing Indo films made JUNGLE HEAT (which also stars Barry Prima and Mr Rambu hisself Peter O'Brian), DEVIL'S SWORD, and THE BLIND WARRIOR. This is not a review (I'll probably publish an incisive "Encyclopaedia of Over-the-top Indonesian Films" coffee table book at some stage, haha. Suffice to say if you liked THE DEVIL'S SWORD (out on a VERY nice DVD from Mondo Macabro) you're gonna like this one too. It's just as wild and the difference between the two is basically that REVENGE OF NINJA is set in the present. Or is it? I have a feeling the script writer kept forgetting that MINOR detail while he jotted the script down on the back of a beermat, haha. I own the rare Greek video release but the copy I watched tonight was a DVD-r from Trash-online.com (also located in Greece) which carries the Japanese version which is fully letterboxed. The Greek tape is unfortunately fullscreen. Needless to say there is no official DVD release of this and it's most unlikely there'll ever be any. Boo-hoo.

Despite the ninja on the cover of the Greek VHS this Indonesian movie is not to be confused with a film of an almost similar title: Revenge of the Ninja (directed by Sam Firstenberg and starring Shô Kosugi).

Now watch the trailer:

Description from Trash-online:

The stars of THE DEVIL SWORD return in another outrageous Indonesian adventure! An army of scumbags armed with machine guns and rocket launchers attack a magician who possesses a magic necklace. They mange to take it from him but later it proves that its not the real necklace. That's when all hell breaks loose... REVENGE OF NINJA hardly has any ninjas but is packed with non-stop trashy violence and delivers everything you can expect from an Indonesian action film: huge explosions, tortures, beatings, unbelievable fights and the usual atrocious dubbing that you can't help but love! Our print is an ultra-rare Japanese import and is fully scoped unlike the Greek fullscreen print. Not to be missed!

Crazy Indonesia: The amazing THE WARRIOR series

Mexican lobbycard for "The Warrior"

If you have never come across any of the JAKA SEMBUNG films starring Barry Prima you have been missing out on some WILD cinema!! The Jaka Sembung series, or THE WARRIOR as it's known in English, is a series of totally awesome and highly entertaining adventure films from Indonesia. Gory adventure films I might add! In short the series deal with the historical freedom fighter Jaka Sembung who fought the Dutch imperialists when they occupied Indonesia until fairly recently. A rather amusing detail is that one of the markets where the films have been most widely distributed on video is actually Holland. Indonesia's old scurge. :-D

The first film is THE WARRIOR (original title: Jaka Sembung Sang Penakluk) from 1981. It's directed by Sisworo Gautama Putra and stars Barry Prima in the lead role as Jaka Sembung. Also Eva Arnaz and Dana Christina are featured. Just like Barry Prima they starred in tons of genre films in the 80s. Barry Prima stars as the main character thru out the whole series. Here's a trailer for THE WARRIOR:



Fortunately, THE WARRIOR is easy to get hold of as it has been released on a spiffy wee disk by those gents from Mondo Macabro, Pete Tombs and Andy Starke. The first film is also out on a handful of different video releases, both in Greece, Holland, and the UK. There are also versions dubbed into other languages such as German. Beware of the UK tape as it's cut. It's missing no less than 31 seconds!!!

Unfortunately, the Mondo Macabro release is the only DVD of any of the films in the series. :-( Mondo Macabro were considering to put out the four sequels which would have been amazing not least since the last two films have never been released outside of Indonesia/Malaysia, nor have they ever been dubbed or subtitled into English. However, unfortunately the MM's DVD hardly didn't sell at all! According to Pete Tombs (from his posts on Cinehound message board) many "fans" were happy enough with downloading the film (illegally) from torrent sites. It's terrible to think that because of this we may never see proper DVD releases of these sequels.

Here's my VHS from Holland:



The second film in the series is THE WARRIOR AGAINST THE BLIND SWORDSMAN (original title: Si Buta Lawan Jaka Sembung). Directed by Dasri Yacob, 1983. The film was released on VHS in Greece, Holland and the UK. The UK tape is cut by 5 seconds. Check out the trailer here:



As the title suggests Jaka Sembung teams up with the blind swordsman character (it's a slightly odd title as they're actually not fighting each other but teaming up against the oppression!). The blind swordsman later returned in the spin-off sequel simply entitled THE BLIND WARRIOR (more on that later).

And here's my Dutch VHS cover for the film:



The last English dubbed THE WARRIOR sequel (unless you count the spin-off as a sequel) is THE WARRIOR AND THE NINJA (original title: Bajing Ireng Dan Jaka Sembung). Directed by H. Tjut Djalil (1983) who also directed LADY TERMINATOR, MYSTICS IN BALI, and many more. Some sources claim THE WARRIOR AND THE NINJA is aka The Warrior 2 but my Dutch VHS release clearly labels THE WARRIOR AGAINST THE BLIND SWORDSMAN as films #2. But whether the two films were swapped around in some territories I don't know. But my gut feeling tells me it's merely a fuck-up by fans who didn't spend enough time on their research.

EDIT: After I wrote this article and originally posted it on my other blog it has come to my attention that there's a good chance THE WARRIOUR AND THE NINJA is indeed film #2 in the series. It doesn't matter that much tho in regards to viewing enjoyment as they're totally unrelated in their plot lines.

Here's the trailer for NINJA:



And here's my Greek VHS release which is the one to go for as it's letterboxed. There's also a letterboxed tape from Australia but finding that one is probably more rare than getting laid at a dike slumber party (to coin an old Damon Foster joke, haha). Unfortunately, all the video versions I've seen are too dark during the night scenes. The best version (during the night scenes) is actually the Malay VCD where you can see what the bloody hell is going on, LOL. Unfortunately, it's in Indonesian, it's fullscreen, and pixelates all over the place. There are als Dutch and UK releases. Amazingly enough the UK tape is uncut according to the BBFC. :-O



The last two sequels are BERGOLA IJO , dir: Arizal (1983) and JAKA SEMBUNG DAN DEWI SAMUDRA, dir: Atok Sugiarto (1990). None of them have English titles and I haven't been able to find any trailers for them, nor do I have any scans of the VCD covers. But anyway, regardless of how rare these films are (apart from #1) or that two of them aren't in English, if you enjoy wild and crazy movies then you really ought to check out the JAKA SEMBUNG / THE WARRIOR series.

And finally, the bastard 6th film in the series; the spin-off sequel THE BLIND WARRIOR (original title: Neraka perut bumi) in which the blind warrior character from THE WARRIOR AND THE BLIND SWORDSMAN makes a return. Directed by RATNO TIMOER in 1987. Timoer also did THE DEVIL'S SWORD (also released by Mondo Macabro, and highly recommended!) and many more. In contradiction to the "real" THE WARRIOR sequels this was actually released on DVD - twice even!! In the UK and Germany (both DVD's carry English and German dubs). Unfortunately both DVD's are long out of print but at least you have to chance of getting a copy from a friend. There was also a German dubbed VHS and an English dubbed VHS was released in Hong Kong (with Chinese subs). If you can find a copy of that video you're one lucky fellar cos it's very rare.

The German VHS which basically uses the same cover as for the German and UK DVD releases.
[click scan for full size]

There's no trailer for THE BLIND WARRIOR on YouTube so here's a clip from the film instead. It's... over the top - as is the entire series!!! You should try and find them.



THE WARRIOR AGAINST THE BLIND SWORDSMAN and THE WARRIOR AND THE NINJA are available from Far East Flix (yes, they are boots off Dutch video tapes). The picture quality equals VHS quality.

Crazy Indonesia: Satan's Slave / Pengabdi Setan trailer

Here it is! The trailer for the (sort of) PHANTASM inspired Indonesian horror movie SATAN'S SLAVE aka Pengabdi Setan. The cover is from the rare Japanese VHS. And no, sadly I don't own it. :(

Crazy Indonesia: BLOODY VENGEANCE & LADY EXTERMINATOR

[VHS/Greece/fullscreen/English dub/Greek subs]

Here are two trailers for the wild Indonesian Barry Prima and Eva Arnaz films BLOODY VENGEANCE (aka Darah Perjaka) and LADY EXTERMINATOR (aka Barang Terlarang)!!! Needless to say they are high on entertainment value!! Watch them both if you get a chance (the two trailers are joint together in one video)

The only English dubbed release of BLOODY VENGEANCE is the Greek VHS shown in the above. It's also out on Malay VCD but my Indo buddy (in downtown Germany) Kothar tells me his VCD clocks in much quicker than my VHS so it's either cut or runs at a quicker pace.



[VCD/Malaysia/fullscreen/Indonesian audio/no subs]
The VCD cover comes courtesy of Kothar.

[Pakistani poster]

Here's my Danish VHS release of LADY EXTERMINATOR. It's also known as I Want To Get Even and Violent Killer. For some reason the narrator in both the trailer and the film keeps calling it Violent Assassins every time the title Violent Killer is onscreen. :/

[VHS/Denmark/letterbox/English dub/Danish subs]
[click scan for bigger size]

[VCD/Indonesia/fullscreen/Indonesian audio/no subs]


And how's this for weirdness!! :-O
This is the Pakistani poster for the Japanese girl gang film GO FOR BROKE (which needless to say doesn't star Eva Arnaz in her Lady Exterminator outfit)!!!

[French poster]

RAMBU: Forceful Impact

[VHS/Greece/fullscreen/English dub/Greek subs]

It's been a while since I last posted about Peter O'Brian and his films but tonight I'm as happy as happy can be cos I've finally won the last O'Brian film I didn't have: FORCEFUL IMPACT which (to the best of my knowledge) only exists on VHS in Greece! But it wasn't an easy win lemme tall ya that! And altho I don't know who my opponents were I have my suspicions, LOL.

Trash-online's description:

Here comes another Indonesian rarity from the producers of THE INTRUDER, and yes, more Peter O'Brian madness for your viewing pleasure! Benson (Peter O'Brian- RAMBU) takes control of a mafia family after Don Giovanni's (Mike Abbott of FINAL SCORE) demise. A mafioso's widow is desperately seeking revenge for her husband's murder- apparently the killer Benson. The plot is a mess here although there are quite a few good reasons for anybody to watch this: Cameo by Mike Abbott. Peter O'Brian constantly saying "fuck" (at least 3 of them in each of his sentences). Peter O'Brian in funny underwear taking part in a sex scene, then raping another girl. Nudity- that's something you rarely see in an Indonesian production. Over the top action with gunfights, sadistic torture and huge explosions! Lovers of Indonesian trash cinema should grab this without thinking twice! Watch FORCEFUL IMPACT and see what the O'Brian phenomenon is all about!

There's no trailer for FORCEFUL IMPACT on YouTube but my mate Lefteris has uploaded one from another Peter O'Brian film; LETHAL HUNTER (aka American Hunter). O'Brian is actually only in the film for about 3 minutes, LOL, but it's totally awesome nonetheless (he IS in the trailer!).



Chris Mitchum plays the main character in LETHAL HUNTER and here's a trailer for another over-the-top and no-holds-barred Indonesian film starring Mitchum; FINAL SCORE. Both films are VERY recommended!!!

Satan's Slave / Pengabdi Setan

Argh!!! Here it is... the big ass full cover for the Japanese VHS release of the Indonesian horror movie PENGABDI SETAN, known in English as Satan's Slave. It's kinda inspired by the truly amazing American horror movie PHANTASM (it's not a straight remake though). Click the cover to see its full size.

Thanks to Steve Gladwin at Cinehound for providing this. Cheers mate!

Yes, there is a DVD of SATAN'S SLAVE from BCI, HOWEVER it is a crappy, crappy DVD that not only has a black bar over a third of the picture (to cover the Japanese subtitles!! Yes, Brentwood used a Japanese video tape for their DVD release!!!!!!) but the picture also keeps disappearing in fucking pixelation hell!!! It does however have English subtitles which the Japanese video obviously doesn't (in contradiction to most other Indonesian and Filipino films on VHS in Japan SATAN'S SLAVE isn't presented in an English dubbed version but is in Indonesian).

EDIT: Chris from Cinehound mentioned to me that the original Japanese subs may have been placed in the black bar under the picture so the new black bar to cover up the subs didn't actually cover any of the picture. I haven't seen the Japanese tape and thus can't make a comparison but he could very well be right.

Satan's Slave / Pengabdi Setan

Congrats to whoever won the Japanese video release of the Indonesian horror movie SATAN'S SLAVE, known in Indonesia as Pengabdi Setan. The tape went for $162 which was far more than what I had in my pockets. Boo-hoo.

Belgian QUEEN OF BLACK MAGIC

[VHS/Belgium/letterboxed/English dubbed/French & Dutch subtitles]

It must be 7 or 8 years ago since I bought this rare Belgian VHS release of the Indo horror movie THE QUEEN OF BLACK MAGIC starring Suzzanna. And still to this day I think it's one of the coolest cover designs. I even have this as a poster (also from Belgium). Apart form a flying head, Suzzanna becoming an evil witch, and women eating maggots, the film also contains an amazing scene where a man suddenly, while walking in a crowd of people, pulls his own head off! You don't see that too often in movies these days. LOL.