The never ending YUKARI OSHIMA search (part 2)

VHS/Taiwan/fullscreen/Mandarin dub/English & Chinese subs

The other day I wrote about one of Yukari Oshima's most recent movies LETHAL COMBAT (from 1999) which is also released on DVD in Australia as Lethal Combat: Techno Warriors 2.

What I... in a deliberate and most cunning way... left out was that the original title of the film is... DIGITAL WARRIORS!!! I know what you're thinking. Why would my friend Jack J leave out vital info of the utmost high importance like this? O_O Doesn't he love me anymore?? O_O

Well, dry your tears little ones, I do love you (please send more free money and lollies) but everything has a reason. As I wrote in my first post the Thai DVD that I ordered from Thailand is dubbed into English (more on that later) and I simply didn't want you to try and find a copy of it on eBay cos you would undoubtedly discover that a seller in the UK was running an auction for A MANDARIN DUBBED VHS VERSION OF THE FILM FROM TAIWAN!!!!! Who wouldn't want to own such a tape!!! Who wouldn't want to rip off their own arms if it could help them get such a fabulous and fantastic VHS!!!

The irony is of course that some schmuck beat me on the finishing line so I didn't even get the fucker!!! .>_<.

However, like so many other things in life it all panned out in the end, haha. I received my DVD from Thailand today and, lo and behold, it turns out the seller misread the info on the cover! It doesn't say dubbed in English but SUBTITLED in English. The DVD carries BOTH the Mandarin AND the Cantones dub!!! In other words, this print is (most likely) the exact same print as on the Taiwan video tape and I got to save a big pile of cash! Awesome!!

It would have been nice to own the VHS but, hey, there's more to life than Yukari Oshima films (he says with quivering lips). Of course, the question is whether the film has an original audio track or not. Hmm, they could actually have shot it in English but knowing how cheap the films Phillip Ko did with Yukari Oshima (aka Cynthia Luster down 'Pino way) in the Philippines I would say they most likely didn't record sound on stage but made all dubs in the studio afterwards.

As I mentioned there's also a DVD release in OZ and it probably carries the English dub. If you can get it cheap then go for it. This isn't a HK film and neither Cantonese nor Mandarin is any more of a "real" dub than English would be. It all comes down to preference. Personally, I can't stand watching Hong Kong films dubbed into English (there are a few exceptions) but when it comes to Filipino films I have no problem with it (and if I did I would REALLY have a problem as I don't think I have one single old film from the Philippines that isn't dubbed into English!).


Screen grabs from the DVD:

Hands of Steel - trailer

Danish title: QUERUAK





Thanks to Diabolik for posting this way cool trailer (uhh, the cover scan is his too!).

Angels Die Hard - the photo novel edition!

(click the cover for a bigger size)











The screen grabs are from my ultra rare Danish ex-rental VHS. It's the only known copy (to make it even more rare my copy even has a censorship rating sticker from the Faeroe Island on the back!). xD

Physical love is a dead-end. A dead-end.

Yet another record (CD single) I bought when I live in Melbourne in the early to mid 90s. It's an awesome rendition of, well, I'm sure you'll recognise it. On the single there's also another cover; "Bedazzled" which you can listen to here and the original version (originally recorded by Peter Cook and Dudley Moore) is here.

The oh so never ending YUKARI OSHIMA trek

Ahhh, more cinematic goodies with everyone's fave Japanese Hong Kong darling, Yukari Oshima. This time (and like so often before) sharing the celluloid stage with another favourite from the "Girls kick ass and look cute" films from the ol'e crown colony's film production in the 1980s (damn you to Hell, Maggie, for having handed it back to China!); Moon Lee (aka Li Choi-Fung).

My "new" film is BEAUTY INVESTIGATOR which isn't really new as I've had the US Tai Seng VHS for quite some time. I was really pleased when I won the tape on eBay (at the bid of a "whooping" 8 dollars!!!) because in contradiction to Tai Seng's fullscreen and English dubbed DVD this tape is letterboxed and sports the original Cantonese dialogue with English subs. Only problem is... the picture quality looks as washed out as your favourite 10 year old Iron Maiden T-shirt!

Anyway, lucky for me a seller in Hong Kong (or Hongkong if you will) had the mega rare LD up for auction and even luckier for me that no one else wanted it (which is extremely weird since some of these films sell like cup-cakes whenever they hit the bay). The LD has Canto and Mandarin audio + English subs. I didn't bother to ask if it's lbx so I'll just have to leave that surprise for later! Even if it should turn out to be FS I'd say it's STILL an upgrade from the LESS THAN PERFECT video tape.

The same cover as on the LD was also used for the VCD release which I'm posting below and which incidentally is listed on eBay Hong Kong right now. The "buy now" price is HK$140 and as much as I'd love to buy that one too I think I'll restrain myself for now. LOL.



The cover for my Tai Seng VHS (lbx, canto, Eng subs)



And finally... the glorious poster for the film from Pakistan! Retitled "Armed For Action". xD




And finally (again) a clip (in really good quality) of Oshima as a cool leather clad hitman:

The never ending YUKARI OSHIMA search

Trying to get hold of EVERY Yukari Oshima film ever made is more time consuming than trying to pick lice off a bum's bum. But last night I managed to get hold of one that I wasn't even really aware of (well, I was a bit; Someone told me about it but I looked out the window and said "yeah yeah"). I thiink it's one of the films she made in the Philippines with her hubby Phillip Ko. The title is LETHAL COMBAT, also released in Australia as Lethal Combat: Techno Warriors 2 (as an unrelated sequel to another Phillip Ko film called, well, TECHNO WARRIORS and also Computer Hero). The DVD I'll be getting is from Thailand (fullscreen + English dub).

Cast (from the seller's page): Darren Shahlavi, Kwang-su Lee, Yukari Ôshima, Monsour Del Rosario, Phillip Ko, Thorsten Nickel.

Best pop song on a Saturday

This used to be on TV all the time a few years back, it's pretty good. A lot of French rap is about life on the street instead of the pointless bling bling rap that American rap has turned into for a great part.


PS: I've never mentioned this to you before but I got (i.e. ripped off) the idea for my "Best pop song" posts from Todd's excellent Die, Danger, Die, Die, Kill! blog. If you only read one blog this ought to be the one. World-weird films galore! Go here.

When your dead neighbour comes to you in your dreams

I had another of those damn dreams that I remember for some reason. I was on my way to work (the employment situation is obviously better in the realm beyond the awaken state, I can barely remember the last time I had a job) but when I got there I discovered the ground in front of the building had gone. If I wanted to get in I would have had to try and climb in via a very narrow footpath. There were workers there and they were using the narrow footpath but I thought "No way!". I simply wasn't gonna risk falling down. So instead I went into the building thru a door at the other end. However, I discovered my work place wasn't there but instead it lead into a big second-hand market. Much better than going to work! So I looked around, and now my Dad was there too. I found an issue of an old Danish horror comic book called "Gru". Then we got into the car to go somewhere. Now there was a third man there as well, Benny. In real life Benny was my aunt's ex-husband from the 1980s. They lived in a house next to ours in the years before I moved away from home. I never liked Benny, he was crude, drank a lot, had prostitutes when he was away for work, farted, and smelled (well, back then I had the notion that he did but I'm not so sure anymore. Maybe it was just my main dislike of him that made me add that unpleasant feature to him subconsciously). But in any case, my aunt left him when he was away for work at some stage. She practically just got up and left (left the door open and all). Benny moved away many years ago and I never saw him again. I heard he died recently. Anyway, there we are in the car; me, my Dad, and Benny who in my dream more resembled the Danish sculpturer Ingvar Cronhammer, just with less beard (I watched a program on Cronhammer a couple of days ago). Outside the car it was a very grey day and the sky resembled something dark grey'ish that you would imagine Lars Von Trier had used in an early film he never finished. I checked out my issue of "Gru". It was worn (and there was a fairly big hole going thru the pages) and in my dream I thought I'd try and buy every duplicate issue I could find, then at some stage I would hopefully find one that was in a really good condition. These magazines came out in 1973-74 but I'm not sure the issue in my dream was a genuine issue or only existed there (the latter probably). I looked out the car window and saw two people just as they were about to walk into a supermarket. In my dream I felt they looked liked losers (i.e. not cool like me!) and I said "Look, those people are being attacked by birds". I think Benny said "Yeah, that's what happens around here". Actually they were just walking into the store, there were no birds and in my dream I probably made that up because I was under the "influence" of the horror comic book. I woke up, it was 2:00 in the morning. I went back to sleep and landed at home where I grew up. In front of the TV set (what a surprise). I was drinking coffee. From a couch at the other end of the lounge room my Mum (who also passed away fairly recently) asked if there was any more coffee in the coffee flask and I said yes. So she got up, came over, poured the last bit of coffee, and said "Do you want more coffee?" to which I said "Yes, please", and then she went back to from where she'd been sitting, got her own coffee flask and poured coffee into my mug! Why didn't she just pour herself coffee from her own flask in the first place? And why did I say yes to having more coffee poured into my already half full mug when I hate that in real life (why would I ruin a perfect mix of coffee and milk by pouring more coffee into it!). Then my Mum began walking towards the door, turned around and said "Aren't you going to bed soon?" I said "no" and that it was only half past 9:00 to which she asked why I wanted to stay up and I said "It's New Years Eve!". So she left and I stayed in front of the TV... and woke up.

Btw, it's kinda funny that I should wake up from sitting in front of the TV in a dream as I usually FALL ASLEEP in front of the telly! Haha.

I re-watched two old documentary films about hard-boiled crime writer James Ellroy the other day and in both films Ellroy said "Dead women rule my world". It seems dead people are hanging around in my dreams too.

Authentic news reel from the 1950s on how to fight the commie... eh, zombie scare

Nasty aliens attack!

Awesome cover! I'm positive this is how other lifeforms in outer space must look like (it's also how I picture certain members of certain message boards but that's a completely different matter). I found it on this cool blog.