Best track ever on a Sunday

I wanted to check if Baby Woodrose's cover version of "Baby the World Ain't Round it's Square" (from their cover version album "Dropout!") might be on YouTube but instead I found this awesome version by the original band, The Savages. According to the Baby Woodrose booklet The Savages hailed from Bermuda. The uploader mentions that the (interesting) footage is from the Columbia university riots in '68 over the school's support of the Government's war in Vietnam.

Tiger Cage kicking Tiger Cage 2's ass

I received my new TIGER CAGE 1-3 DVDs from HK this week. They're brand new releases and have been mucho wanted for years by me and every other 1980s HK film fan on the block! A couple of weeks back I tried to watch my mainland China Zoke DVD of TIGER CAGE 2 but it kept freezing, stuttering and in the end it just gave up (or I did).

The Mandarin only audio was kinda annoying too. The audio was less than perfect, and also, due to mainland Chinese not being familiar with all the HK English expressions those are usually gone from Mandarin dubs (you know Hongkongese usually use a lot of English expressions in Cantonese, "Yes/no, madam/sir", "this is an order", "bye-bye", etc). And it kinda sounds unfamiliar not to have all those standard, English terms. To me it does anyway.

Anyway, so it was cool to finally be able to watch TIGER CAGE 2 all thru to the end. And since I'd already watched half of the Zoke DVD I started with #2 of the Fortune Star/Joy Sales DVDs. And that was a good thing too!! TIGER CAGE 2 is a great film, highly entertaining, violent, and funny. And it's got cute Rosamund Kwan in it too. But then I watched TIGER CAGE 1!!!

Before I watched #2 I thought it would probably become my favourite simply cos it has Cynthia Khan in it but, firstly, she's not in the movie very much, her part is nothing more than a meaty cameo, and secondly, I... watched #1 yesterday!! Whoah!! TIGER CAGE 2 is good but TIGER CAGE 1 is TWICE as good! Really!

TC2 is violent and it's full-on all the way but it's also light in tone thru out. The scenes of Donnie Yen and Romasund Kwan's characters trying to escape while handcuffed to each other are great fun. And the slapstick scenes of Rosamund spitting noodless in Donnie's face and Donnie-pissing-himself scenes are great fun but stuff like that is just absent from the first film. TIGER CAGE has a more serious tone and deeper character characterisations which the sequel just doesn't get near of.

When I watched TC1 I kept thinking "this is very good", and it really is! Very violent, gory, people die left and right (including characters who you think are gonna last to the end) and Simon Yam delivers (once again) a great performance as the bad guy. Arrrh, Simon Yam! "Look, I'm not gay but if I had to fuck a guy, I mean if I haaaad to fuck a guy, if my life depended on it... I'd fuck Simon Yam" [Clarence in TRUE ROMANCE, altho about Elvis]. I haven't watched part three and most reports are that it sucks but most reporters suck these days anyway so I'm gonna keep an open mind for that one too. It stars American Chinese actor Michael Wong.

I looked up the films in the Asian Trash Cinema book and good ol'e Thomas Weisser states these films are popular with chop socky fans (!!) but that "more demanding critics have complained over the simplistic story lines". Huh? Like, huh?? Did he even watch the films?? You never know what's gonna happen in the first film and the character and story development is far from being simple. Sure we're talking a violent crime/action film here but the alternative would be to not make a violent crime/action film. Weisser seemed to think films that had people fighting in them were automatically "chop socky". Well, they aren't.

To the best of my knowledge chop socky is a term used to describe old-skool kung fu films from the 60s and 70s. Not present day action films made in the 1980s! The fact that he states "Cynthia [Khan] was made for these kinds of roles" makes me think he really didn't watch TC2 or sat at the table and had his dinner while it was on cos this really isn't Cynthia Khan's film. At all!! She's in the movie for something like 6-7 minutes! The ATC book is cool as it includes most of the 80s films but plot descriptions and shit is just so off the mark that, well, it's off the mark.

About the DVD specs (as mentioned I haven't watched part 3 but I assume it's the same): The DVDs are kinda barebone releases but the remastered prints look great and that's what's important here! And one thing that has surprised everyone is they actually include the original Cantonese mono audio tracks as well as the bastard 5.1 mixes.

It would have been nice if TC2 had included the alternative end scene in the extras but I'm not surprised Fortune Star didn't. They're just not the people to bother with "nonsense" like that. We got two trailers on each disc (the original trailer and a new one made for this release) and some picture galleries. The subtitles are the old wonky ones but I can live with that, new ones would have been nice though. Someone who worked as a translator for Joy Sales said this on Asia Dvd Guide forum about Fortune Star's attitude: "Fortune Star actually laughed at the idea of a reworking on the English subs."


And lastly (and totally unrelated), check out this cool Tee!! I want one!! xD xD xD

Over My Dead Body (1983)

Thanks to a tip from Kenneth M. of Cinehound forum I'm now the happy owner of this cute baby! OVER MY DEAD BODY from the Philippines, 1983. It's ultra rare! And gee gosh golly it was mega cheap too! (well, "cheap" in the land of the serious ex-rental video collectors, LOL).



Credits from the seller's page:

IN ENGLISH WITH GREEK SUBTITLES

Director:
Arsenio Bautista

Cast
(Cast overview, first billed only)
Tony Ferrer
Bembol Roco
Efren Reyes Jr.
Raul Aragon (as Raoul Aragon)
Anna Marie Gutierrez
Lolita Marquez
Jing Abalos
Dave Brodett
Charlie Davao
Romy Diaz
Baldo Marro
Bomber Moran
Boy Padilla
Robert Talabis (as Bobby Talabis)
Vic Varrion

Country:
Philippines

Company:
Sunfilms International

Finally! The Ocean Shores VHS release of BRUTAL SORCERY is finally headed in the right direction!!!

BRUTAL SORCERY is one of the old dark and nasty Hong Kong horror movies that seemed to have a curse of its own! For the longest time I just COULD NOT get hold of that damn Ocean Shores tape!! Every time (which isn't very often as it's a quite rare VHS) it turned up on eBay some schmuck with more money would always beat me on the finishing line. But not this time, not last night, no sir'ee! xD xD xD

I'm rather skint at the moment but just out of principle I put 50 bucks on the tape as I knew with myself that I'd truly and utterly HATE my own guts if some schmendrick (who might not even know what the movie is) won it for 25 dollars or something - simply because nobody else placed a bid.

I "knew" that I wasn't gonna win it with 50 dollars but at least I could feel comfort in knowing I'd done what I could. I was so sure that I wasn't gonna win this most treasured Ocean Shores tape that I didn't even care to follow the auction. Well, lo and behold, I opened my email account today and the first email that I see says... "You won this item on eBay: BRUTAL SORCERY - rare Horror, Ocean Shores-demonic gore". Arrrgh! Auto winning bid: 43 dollars!!!

But needless to say there's always something else to worry about and I wasn't even sure the seller would accept my winning bid and he was in his full right not to do so. The auction was listed as: "Ships to: United States" so if the seller hadn't been happy with a winning bid of $43 he could have said "Sorry, buddy, you don't live in the US" and cancelled the auction. Fortunately he didn't and cheers to him for that. Whoever he is.

Ahh, BRUTAL SORCERY. Just try and say it slowly... BRRUUUTTTAAALLL SOOOORCEERYYY. Ahhh. And yes, it's the one where a possessed family man has a chicken and he... no, you really need to watch it. :D


PS: Unfortunately, there's never been a DVD release of the film. There's an un-subbed Ocean Shores VCD in Cantonese/Mandarin, and a Cantonese language VHS from Japan but that's about it I'm afraid. And both are just as rare as the OS tape. Click the label for the title if you'd like to check the covers for the two other releases.

Sort Sol documentary from 1984

Readers who are able to spell their way thru the lingo of the old Vikings and who're also into the old Danish band Sort Sol (aka Sods) might wanna check out my new review of the documentary film OMKRING EN SORT SOL - ET PORTRÆT AF SODS over in the Danish section.

The Danish SUAREZ connection

 My friend Hans-Jørn found this rare and VERY obscure trailer for Bobby A. Suarez' film HITMAN (aka American Commandos / Philippines, 1986) on a Danish ex-rental video tape! It's obscure not least because it plays out as a music video instead of an actual film trailer!! And an even more obscure twist is that HITMAN was partly backed by Danish financing as it was produced by Danish producer Just Betzer. Betzer is also credited as executive producer on Suarez' SEACHERS OF THE VOODOO MOUNTAINS (aka Warriors of the Apocalypse / Philippines, 1985). The music is composed by Danish composer Ole Høyer and the female singer is Danish/American Debbie Cameron who was "world famous" in Denmark thru out the 1980s. SEACHERS OF THE VOODOO MOUNTAINS on VHS from Denmark. It would have been fun to interview Just Betzer about his collaboration with Suarez but unfortunately he passed away a few years back. 

It's interesting to see that these films aren't even listed in his credits on the Danish Film Institute site. Danes who get famous for work overseas don't necessarily get any love for it on home-soil. The same goes for Anders Hove; Every little vampire movie fan in the US knows and loves him for his awesome vampire character Radu in the SUBSPECIES films. Nobody in Denmark gives a fuck about that and these films are usually not even mentioned when his films are listed on Danish film sites. Instead people talk about his work in TV Christmas calender shows for kids, etc. How very sad! 

And one more thing in regards to Just Benzer; Yesterday, I received DarkSky's new (very cool!) DVD release of Suarez ONE ARMED EXECUTIONER and CLEOPATRA WONG and in Andrew Leavold's interview with Bobby Suarez he talks about a Scandinavian film director who came over to visit him in the Philippines and who wanted to buy Bobby's camera (he didn't sell it tho). I wonder if that might have been Betzer? (VHS, Denmark) Thanks to Diabolik for uploading (and re-uploading) the trailer to YT for me! Cheers mate!! This is a re-post that was originally posted on WHEN THE VIETNAM WAR RAGED... IN THE PHILIPPINES blog in November, 2010.

NB: This post has been updated several times. 

Best ever MOON LEE dance scene on a Sunday night

PS: I have no idea if Moon Lee does her own singing here. I was about to say "probably not" but then again every film star in HK seems to have a singing career so why not Moon Lee. I mean Ricky Hui ("the human Droopy") has a singing career for Christ's sakes!! (Ricky Hui is the goofy and hapless helper in MR VAMPIRE and he's the guy in HAUNTED COP SHOP II who gets to utter the best line of all lines in all movies ever made from any country: "I'll always think of him when I urinate" [after a friend has been killed by electrocution]).

Killer Angels - trailer

Check this full-on trailer for the HK "Girls with guns" movie KILLER ANGELS! It's completely on level with ANGEL 1 & 2. It stars cute Moon Lee and it's completely no-holds-barred entertaining! For years the only copy I could get hold of was the HK VCD which is in Cantonese/Mandarin but doesn't have any subtitles (didn't keep me from watching it at least 10 times tho!).

Gee, that's not how they do it in Hollywood

Video-CD/HK/fullscreen/Cantonese & Mandarin/English subs



I watched the HK "Girls with guns" movie DEVIL HUNTERS last night (and again tonight, LOL). It stars Moon Lee and Sibelle Hu. It's not exactly in league with neither A BETTER TOMORROW nor ANGEL 1 & 2 but, uh, it stars Moon Lee... and Sibelle Hu... and they shoot guns and kick ass and look cute while they do it. That's good enough for me. :D

It's also quite gory and nasty in places as well. Plus it has thee most insane ending of all Hong Kong films ever!!! The three main characters get blown up... FOR REAL!!!!!!! In the last scene [SPOILER obviously] the bad guy shoots his gun into a gas container to commit suicide and take everyone with him. Well, the special effects people used way too much explosives and Moon Lee, Sibelle Hu and the male lead, Ray Lui, all caught fire and Sibelle Hu and Moon Lee got injured seriously and spent time in hospital.

Remember how Jackie Chan films always end with outtakes from the film? Well, it's kinda the same here but instead of OUTTAKES you see real Hong Kong NEWSPAPER CLIPPINGS from the incident and from the hospital. Insane! Only in Hong Kong!!! You can check that last scene in the YouTube clip in the above. Oh, and notice how the producers PAUSE the film and post a text on the screen to explain the incident (or to EXPLOIT THE INCIDENT, whichever way you see it!).

Unfortunately, the onscreen text is almost unreadable on the VCD and I'm not gonna spend three hours to try and depict what it says so here's the text from the guy who uploaded the clip on YouTube:

"The most precious and exciting shots ever on movie. At 7 pm on 19 May, 1989, Hu Wai Chung (Sibelle Hu), Li Sai Fung (Moon Lee) and Lu Liang Wai (Ray Lui) acted the explosion shots in person. They were challenging death with their lives. Unluckily, the gunpowder - -(illegilble) - - and the flames wrapped around them. Hu Wai Chung and Li Sai Fung were seriously injured. On behalf of our company, we are sending our best regards to Wu Wai Chung, Li Sai Fung and Lu Liang Wai"

Greek VHS release of DEVIL HUNTERS.

No "Games of Death" after all!

Terrible news, my friends. Heartbreaking in fact. It seems fans of Filipino cinema won't have anything to look forward to for this year's Christmas. It's gonna be a cold, cold Christmas without... GAMES OF DEATH! Boo-hoo.

Over on Kung Fu Cinema Forum one of the members suggested to Global that he could buy the Ramon Zamora film GAMES OF DEATH (aka Dragon's Mission) (plus two other rare HK kung fu films) off Global and sell them on DVD-R. He received the three films and here's what he posted the other day:

[...] I received the movies all 3
2 widescreen and 1 fullscreen ...

The [problem] is that what he send to me the material lacks scenes it's as if you would go and buy yourself a book and when opening the book there are torn (chapters) pages missing ...
That's the case with these 3 movies ...

For ex Martial Mates 59 min of the movie and the last 16-17 min are added to after THE END.
Taken from the middle somewhere so it's a total mess ... My guess is that he misses 35mm material either it's lost or it's damaged.

This is the case with all 3 movies so I told him that I would not go along with this and have incomplete movies sold. I don't want to have a bunch of angry [kung fu] fans on my neck ... It's not my cup of tea ...
He said ok no matter... Whatever ...

He has found another guy now whom he has known for some time and he will get into this and have them sold after Dec month ...

I asked him will you enhance re-edit the movies with full material? He said I don't have any more material what's there is there!!!!!
Well, then I told him good luck with the selling ... And that's about it.

So apparently the RAMON ZAMORA film is not complete!!! :-(
What a bummer. Boo-hoo.