ALL HAIL THE CLONES! (or: More fake Bruce Lee stuff)

I've just found a rare trailer for BRUCE LEE IN NEW GUINEA on YouTube. It was posted only a short while ago and since I have never been able to find one before this is def. cool.

Uhhh, in my "The ONLY real Bruce Le" post I only mentioned two of his films... and now it dawns on me that one of the films (GUINEA) actually stars Bruce Li. For Christ's sakes!!! Hahaha.



And check this brief video out. Mein gott! Talk about fanaticism!!! (which is quite alright in my book).

No, Lenzi didn't direct "Bruce Lee Fights Back From The Grave"

[VHS/Japan/English dub/Japanese subs]
[click scan for bigger size]

In Fred's comments to the "The ONLY real Bruce Le" post he asked about an Umberto Lenzi "directed" Bruceploitation film. The film in question is BRUCE LEE FIGHTS BACK FROM THE GRAVE (aka Bruce Lee Fights Back From Grave) and I thought I might as well post about it and dismiss the rumours/wrong info once and for all (and obviously because of the wide spread recognition of this blog every little fan will now stop calling it a Lenzi film).

In fact BRUCE LEE FIGHTS BACK FROM GRAVE is really a Korean film entitled VISITOR TO AMERICA from 1976 which was directed by Doo Yong-lee. According to Dvdmaniacs member James Lee it was US distributor Aquarius who spliced in the "Bruce Lee" opening where he returns from the grave. Btw, it doesn't actually star Bruce Le but Bruce K.L. Lea! One of the other Bruce Lee clones, haha.

I posted about the film over at Dvdmaniacs forum a couple of years back and one member (incidentally me mate in Valby, Copenhagen; Diabolik aka Hans-Jørn, collector extraordinaire of Danish ex-rental video tapes) dismissed the Lenzi connection. Hans-Jørn posted this (which I sincerely hope is alright to post here as well):

By Diabolik/Hans-Jørn [first posted on Dvdmaniacs forum]

A few years back I was corresponding with Alberto Farina (Son of Corrado 'Baba Yaga' Farina) regarding an interview with his father... I'd just found the 'Bruce Lee'-film in a secondhand shop and was puzzled by the Bert Lenzi-credit and the missing 'Lenzi-touch'... So I wrote to Alberto asking if he knew anything about this film... Being such a nice fella', he phoned Lenzi;

[...]OK, the first results of my research is that you can definitely rule out this title from Lenzi's filmography. I just had a brief phone chat with Mr. Lenzi himself and he denies any involvement with this title.

He said he'd heard about it already - I was not the first to ask.
However, although he has shot movies within almost EVERY movie genre that ever existed, he has never directed any karate movie. He only mentioned the movie he shot in the far East -"Il paese del sesso selvaggio", shot in Thailand (the working title was "L'uomo del fiume profondo") which, in his words, "would later spawn the cannibal subgenre", in which, I may add, Lenzi himself would have feasted in the 80's.

"Bert Lenzi" never existed as a Lenzi pseudo. He thinks it must have been one of those tricks played by ruthless video distributors to cash on his popularity.[...]

/HJ

For the original thread go here.

PS: Incidentally, there is also a HK movie entitled KUNG FU FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE. XD

Yay!!! More dark Hong Kong Horror

Oh man, it seems I'm practically stumbling over old 1980s HK horror flicks that I've been looking for for years!!! I just found (and purchased, obviously!) brand new editions (on VHS, these films have never been granted life on little shiny saucer thingies) of DEVIL SORCERY, BLOOD SORCERY (aka Curse) and HAUNTED MADAM:







EDIT (June 30th); Unfortunately no fucken "yay"!!! I just got an email from TaiSeng that says they don't sell video tapes anymore but even tho those three tapes are ON THEIR SITE and THEY ACCEPT PAYMENT they don't actually have the tapes in stock! Huh??? Actually, they have tons of video tapes for sale on their site but, well, apparently they just don't have the physical tapes! Go figure. Why the bloody hell don't them take them off the site then!!?? Anyway, as much as I'm annoyed about it I'm much more annoyed about not getting those three films as they're rare and I don't know where else to get them. Boo-hoo. I'm sure I'll find them at some bootlegger's place at some point but getting official releases sure beats getting a crappy dvd-r boot.
:( :( :(

EDIT (July 1st); I think it was our great present day philosopher Homer Simpson who said it the best: "Damn brain I thought we had a deal!" Argh, ffs! I'm doing some serious tiding up yesterday and what do I find in a pile of DVDs from Dragon Jester in Malaysia: DEVIL SORCERY!!! Argh, of course!!! When I saw that TaiSeng tape and looked up the film I'd totally forgotten that I actually found and bought the film on DVD some 8 months ago (or so). I forgot cos I never even watched the damn thing, it just went into one of the to-watch-later piles. Hahaha. Argh! I'm sure Patrick in Norway is laughing his ass off. :(

The ONLY real Bruce Le

There's great and serious kung fu movies like the old ones from the Shaw Brothers studios. And then there's the trashy fun ones like the ones that star one (or several) of the Bruce Lee clones! And if you're a regular reader you know what I think of those trashy flicks. Yeah, love 'em. You gotta! The best (or whatever) clone was probably Bruce Le. I'm by no means an expert on Bruceploitation but a couple of my favourites are BRUCE LEE IN NEW GUINEY and BRUCE AND THE SHAOLIN BRONZEMEN which I posted about a little while ago. Tonight I won THIS one:


Yay!!!
It's FIRE ON THE GREAT WALL about which our friend Wiki says:

Among fans of Bruceploitation movies, Ninja Over the Great Wall is often praised for its high production values and relatively fast pace - two things absent from nearly every other Bruce Le film. On the website Bruceploitation, "Keith" writes:

"While liberally borrowing from the Bruce Lee classic Fist of Fury, this Bruce Le vehicle is still quite entertaining. The fight scenes are lots of fun with Bruce taking on hordes of ninjas literally everywhere. Viewers should get a kick out of a scene where Bruce fights a ninja who is on fire. Talk about having control of your mind and body. Also, there is the requisite "You killed my teacher" Japanese dojo attack required by Bruceploitation Law. The end fight scene (shot on location at the Great Wall) is mighty impressive and brutal. What surprised me the most about this film is the pessimistic storyline. Pretty much everyone dies. Using the Japanese occupation of China as a backdrop, the filmmakers also inject a bit of political commentary (not saying the Fist of Fury was subtle though). If only Bruce Le had made more movies like this"

The tape I'm getting is a PAL tape from HK in Cantonese with English subs. Apparently, the only DVD version available (or not available as it's OOP) is a fullscreen English dubbed bootleg from those Ground Zero crooks. :D

Alright, it took a while but...

...I've finally found a place to order the spiffy new Italian DVD release of Bruno Mattei's incredible masterpiece CRUEL JAWS (aka Jaws 5). I mentioned the then upcoming DVD here but it's taken a while to find a place to order it from (i.e. to get my shit together, LOL) but I've finally found an eBay store in Italy that carries it. I've just this minute ordered my copy and it came to approximately $23 including postage worldwide. If you haven't read my old post do check it out as I also posted the trailer there.

Finally, while we wait why not watch the Cinema Snob's review of CRUEL JAWS!!



PS: No, he's not for real, it's a piss-take!! But he's pretty convincing and there's always 6 trillion subscribers who believe he really hates these movies, haha.

PS.PS: It's not a telly movie as he states. It was indeed made for cinema release, it just never played much in cinemas simply because hardly any distributors wanted to buy it. LOL.

For the DVD on Italian eBay go here (and no need to worry; it does carries the English dub).

Strike of a Hong Kong movie aficionado

I bought twenty HK films today, most of them on HK VHS (plus one UK tape and, get this, NOCTURNAL DEMON on dubbed tape from South Africa retitled "Enter the Lady Boxer"!! :-O ). A couple of the films I knew nothing about but I grabbed them anyway; "What the hell, could be great", right? One was GIRL WITH THE DIAMOND SLIPPER; So I look it up on HKMDb and it looks a tad too silly me thinks. Maggie Cheung is in it but, uhh, sorry Maggie, I love ya and all but this just looks too sappy!!). Anyhoo, I pull out the tape and discover the store people have actually put Stanley Tong's STONE AGE WARRIORS (starring Elaine Lui of the ANGEL films) inside the cassette by mistake. Much better! :D :D :D

Another floater in the (Cyberspace) harbour

Hardly anybody knows about this but I also do a blog about my "releases" (riiight. :-/ haha) but I never update it as I don't actually... release anything (haha, oh I kill me) so I never mention it. However, if you must you can check it out here.

Ahh, what Angels!

[ANGEL aka Iron Angels/Angels/Midnight Angels/Midnite Angels/Fighting Madam/Ultra Force, VHS/Japan/letterbox/English dub/Japanese subs]

It's common knowledge I'm an old Hongkongese. No, I don't hail from there but I've been an aficionado of their cinema for almost twenty years! And amongst the different HK film genres I enjoy three genres in particular; the dark and nasty horror films of the 80s (Seeding of a Ghost, Black Magic I + II, The Rape After, etc.), the heroic bloodshed films (A Better tomorrow I + II, The Killer, + 6 tons of copy cats), and last but certainly not least; the Girls kick ass genre, also known as the Girls with guns genre. In other words; the "Girls kick ass, shoot guns, and look cute" genre!!! LOL.

There are quite a few entries to the genre but the pinnacle to most fans is the ANGEL series. In their Westernised form retitled Iron Angels, and in northern Europe they're known as Ultra Force.

The first film in the series is great, the sequel is awesome, and the third one is... different, haha (it's more of a Spy/James Bond'ian film than a shoot 'em up extravaganza).

[ANGEL 2 aka Iron Angels 2/Angels 2/Ultra Force 2, VHS/Japan/letterbox/Cantonese audio/Japanese subs]

Unfortunately, until recently all three films were quite difficult to find in proper versions, either they're fullscreen, cut, or dubbed in English. The first film in the series was finally released on letterboxed HK DVD recently. Unfortunately, it's (slightly) cut. Very annoying!!! I have a handful of different version and today I received yet another one, finally a letterboxed uncut version. And the release you ask? Well, Japanese VHS of course! Haha.

I'm also the happy owner of the Japanese VHS for the sequel which sadly is only out on DVD as a cut, German dubbed DVD! For the third entry to the series there is a DVD in the US but it's both fullscreen and dubbed. Boo-hoo. As far as I know the only proper, letterboxed release is the Japanese VHS - which I unfortunately lost on the same auction where I won #1 (more and bigger BOO-HOO!).


[ANGEL 3 aka Iron Angels 3/Iron Angel 3/Fighting Madam 3/Hong Kong Police Madam 3/Return of Iron Angels/Midnite Angels 3/Ultra Force 3, VHS/Japan/letterbox/English dub]

Oh, did I mention these films star fave HK action babes such as Moon Lee (Lee Choi-Fung), Elaine Lui (Lui Siu-Ling), and Oshima Yukari. Well, they do! :D :D :D

PS: Incidentally, another Danish blog wrote about ANGEL just a few days ago.

Oblivians: "The Leather"

As one YouTube dude said:

this is the coolest thing ive ever heard

Yeah, sure is!!!

Onar interview

Marc Morris has just posted an interview with Onar Films head honcho Bill Barounis. You'll find it here.

PS: If you don't usually read these kinds of interviews with publishers cos none of 'em tell it to you straight... then this is the interview you OUGHT to read. Our friend Bill spills the beans like it is!