Love Taiwan!

Gee whiz!! One of my fave Hong Kong "girls with guns" flicks is KILLER ANGELS (starring Moon Lee). Unfortunately, it's never been released on HK DVD, VHS, LD, or VCD with English subtitles. Actually it's never been released on HK DVD at all, and if there are video tapes or a laserdisc releases I have certainly never come across them. All I've been able to find is an un-subbed VCD and an English dubbed American VHS (which I only have a bootleg off). I must have watched that VCD 15 times as it's such an entertaining movie. HOWEVER... last night... I stumbled over a DVD release from Taiwan... that says it has English subtitles!! Fucken brilliant!! I ordered it right away. It's from a well known eBay seller in HK (and he's got more copies if you want one!). It's listed as letterboxed and dubbed in Mandarin. I also bought MAD MAD GHOST (also on Taiwan DVD) and VAMPIRE KIDS (on HK DVD). Niice!

Ahhh, come to papa!

I have lost count of how many times I've lost the Ocean Shores VHS release of BRUTAL SORCERY. But now... NOW... I've finally won it on eBay. Surprisingly enough I was actually the only bidder. Someone suggested it's because everyone else who wants it has already got a copy now. Haha. I'm no so sure about that, it's still a quite rare tape. Maybe it was partly because the tape was listed on eBay UK. Anyway, I'm certainly thrilled to have won it (the picture in this post is from my scan archive, it's not the actual copy that I won).

The Ramones versus Spider-man

Ay, caramba!!! Check out this cool and rare Ramones Spider-man video!

Damn dreams!

I hardly never ever remember my dreams. This one I did.

I was at home where I grew up (and where my dad still lives). Three big men where in the lounge room torturing my dad who was tied to a chair. I was eating my lunch at the nearby dinner table. In the dream I thought to myself I'd just keep eating my lunch and then do something later. If I said anything they'd just jump on me as well. Then there was a time jump, they had finished with my dad who was now unconscious in the chair and they were also eating at the same table as I was. They were sitting on the opposite side. After a while they fell asleep. I looked at my dad who, in his unconscious state, had turned his had and I could now see his horribly scarred face. I got out a old-fashioned curved knife. I hesitated, I worried what if one of them woke up before I finished. But then I jumped up on the table and took on the biggest and meanest of the lot who was sitting on the left (from me) and cut his throat - and then went on and ditto'ed the other two. Then another place and time jump. I was going to the movies. There was a staircase downwards and a lot of video tapes, most of them sell-thru tapes, were scattered all over the stairs. I knew I needed to get them all otherwise they'd be lost so I pulled out two big plastic bags and one big see-thru garbage bag and began to collect the tapes. I got them all into the bags but then two people I knew arrived and met me halfway down at the stairs. We spoke for a bit and I put down the plastic bags. At some point I wanted to pick up the bags again but discovered that the garbage bag had gone. I was in shock. Where were my tapes. I thought about how they probably were sell-thru's most of them but there's always the chance of finding that one rare ex-rental tape. I wanted to get my garbage bag back from whatever creep stole it and began to search the building - but to no avail. And then I woke up. I can see how the second part of my dream has to do with my real life... but the first part??? O_O

Click the label underneath to read about previous messed up dreams. o_O

Sometimes you don't even go for the scoop - it just hits ya smack in the face

One of my fave TV stations is the joint French-German broadcaster ARTE TV. Around New Year's Eve they screened a series of Laurel and Hardy films. In addition to the old films ARTE also screened a new German documentary film about the duo and finally a bit of a curiosity; the last film they did together: ATOLL K aka Robinson Crusoeland (UK) / Utopia (USA).



Like everyone else I've always liked the old Stan & Ollie films but I'm not a fan as such and haven't collected the films. However, when I saw the German documentary which had quite a bit of coverage on ATOLL K, the last film they did, and I learnt about the struggle they had to go thru trying to make the film (they couldn't make films in the US any longer and were going to chuck in the towel when a French/Italian company asked if they'd do a film in Europe) I just knew I had to tape it!



ATOLL K looked to be quite a bit of a psychotronic film (keep in mind it was made at the end of their career, to say it bluntly they look like they're quite... beyond their expiry date! And the gages are the same stuff we've seen lots of times before, but usually younger and better, but the very same reasons made the film interesting enough for me to tape (i.e. dvdr). And now I'm thrilled I did! I checked the film on Wiki and discovered to my surprise that ARTE's print is actually the ultra rare international English language print that hasn't been shown since its cinema premiere in 1951!!! Wauw!



According to Wiki, there are no less than four different edits of the film: The French version called ATOLL K which runs 93 min; The Italian print (aka Atollo K) which clocks in at the 97 min. mark. The UK version (aka Robinson Crusoeland, re-titled Utopia in the USA) which runs a mere 82 min., and finally an English language international print that (as I mentioned) hadn't been shown since its cinema premiere in 1951.

Only one print of the international print, owned by a private collector, was known to exist. The film is out on various shitty public domain DVDs and video tapes in the US. However, the print that ARTE showed is the fully uncut, restored international version!! Very cool indeed!! I'm told the film is pretty bad but, hey, we're cult movie fans here. You and I know very well that "bad" films often take upon them a psychotronic quality of their own! I'm certainly looking forward to watching the rest of ATOLL K (so far I've checked the first 10 minutes and done up the screen grabs from the intro scene).

Heaven knows I was misserable

I had the flu! For almost a week! Well, actually it was a stomach bug. Nekoneko, one of my most fave bloggers suffered something similar recently and now it was my turn. From Monday thru to Thursday/Friday. A terrible ordeal. I got well enough to go to my dad's for the new year's eve weekend. I'm back at my place now and have many, many, many pages of emails and PMs to go thru so if you've been shaking your fist in my direction due to a lack of reply then... there's your reason. I'll reply all emails, PMs, and fan-mail (lol) but it may take a couple of days. I haven't logged in at Cinehound for several weeks but I'm aware of PMs hanging there waiting too.

Oh, and merry Christmas and happy new year to you all! Thanks for reading.



PS: Yes, the photo may very well be me outside my dad's house on new years eve. ^_^

Pointless post about some new stuff

I received a couple of multo spiffy flicks today! From Roger Corman's eBay store I got THE HAUNTING OF MORELLA (directed by Jim Wynorski which guarantees a high quality film. Or at least boobs) and THE NEST. The latter has a cool booklet/catalogue in the case. I got them cheap from Corman's own shop. HAUNTING OF MORELLA was only $14. On Amazon.com it's listed at 50 dollars! The cheapest second-hand copy is $27!! I also got CUT-THROATS NINE from Code Red. The DVD has a bonus film, JOSHUA, which I've been wanting to see ever since Swedish television had a season of blaxploitation films on back in the 90s. They included a docu on Fred Williamson in which he talked about JOSHUA.

And finally, I ordered two rare HK VCDs! CAGEMAN and MARIANNA. The first won a pile of Golden Horses at the HK "Oscars" a few years back (I couldn't find a DVD release) and the latter is a HK-Filipino co-production filmed in the Philippines. Also pretty rare (and with no DVD release afaik). Read more about it here.

Oh, and last night (actually sometime during the night, haha) I emptied the mailbox and discovered that I'd recived SHOUT! Factory's awesome releases of HUMANOIDS FROMTHE DEEP (aka Monster), PIRANHA, DEATHSPORT, and BATTLETRUCK! (which I reviewed many years ago in "Bloody Darlings" zine!). Oh happy days!

Big in Thailand

He may not be big in Japan yet but Fred and his ATTACKAFANT ENTERTAINMENT is making it big in the homeland of the debut film (i.e. Killer Elephants) from his company! When you're the head-story of Asia's biggest movie magazine it's clear you're certainly going places. Awesome, Fred!!

THE LOSERS (USA/Philippines, 1970)

aka NAM ANGELS




Directed by: Jack Starrett
Produced by: Joe Solomon

Cast: William Smith, Bernie Hamilton, Adam Roarke, Houston Savage, Gene Cornelius, Paul Koslo, John Garwood, Ana Korita, Lillian Margareio, Paraluman, Vic Diaz

Video release: Europa Film (Sweden), fullscreen, English audio, Swedish subtitles


To most fans of exploitation films THE LOSERS is probably seen as an American film. However, to me it's valid to list it as a Filipino film as it was filmed in the Philippines - and it has the one Filipino actor who was in about EVERY Filipino film in it. Yes, Vic Diaz is here! So obviously it's counts as a Filipino film in my book!




The Vietnam War rages. A CIA guy (played by the film's director) has been kidnapped by the red Chinese. The problem to the American army is that the Chinese are cooped up across the boarder in neutral Cambodia. What to do, oh what to do?? The American army could send in some commandos in the night to get him out. Or they could ask their well trained friends in the Mossad. Or they could suggest to the CIA that they get their own man out. Well, I'm sure you've already figured out they ain't gonna do any of that. No sirree, instead they call in a group of Hell's Angels bikers!!!




The Angels arrive and it soon becomes obvious that the army can't control them. As soon as they've got their bikes (sissy ass bikes, not their usual choppers) they start causing havoc in the local villages they ride thru, getting into fights, shooting guns, getting thrown in jail, get romantic and helpful with nice girls... no, wait... hmm, we're obviously dealing with a special branch of cinematic Hell's Angels here, hahaha. In fact they're not actually called "Hell's Angels" in the film but "Devils Advocates"!




I assume the film company didn't want to get into trouble with the real Hell's Angels (I'm sure Roger Corman spewed out a, "Fuck, why didn't I think of that!" after the Hell's Angels sued his company when he distributed Cirio H. Santiago's 1989 film NAM ANGELS!!). And you should think Corman had learnt his lesson; According to Michael Weldon's first Psychotronic book from 1983 Corman's company was sued already by the Angels when they made THE WILD ANGELS in 1966!!




Anyhoo, they plot and they plan how to get into the camp where the CIA guy is held captive. And they customise their bikes into MAD MAX style combat bikes (11 years before that kind of bikes were actually seen in MAD MAX 2!). The local Vietnamese mechanic is played by a young looking Vic Diaz. Gee, I wonder how many films he was in. It seems like he was in about EVERY American-Filipino co-production ever made! I'm not even kidding!!




The last half an hour of the film is all about the drive into Cambodia and the attack on the camp. If you've watched the Australian documentary film MACHETE MAIDENS about American-Filipino co-productions you might remember there's some scenes from THE LOSERS of the bikers attacking the camp and shooting off their machine guns and throwing hand-grenades and stuff.




THE LOSERS is great fun! Michael Weldon mentioned in his Psychotronic review that some people regard the film as the best biker movie there is. I don't know about that though; I mean it sure is a fun movie but that may be stretching it a tad too much. They don't actually ride around that much on their bikes and there's only five bikers in the film. But like I said it sure as hell is a cool flick. There's also a fair bit of gore (mostly from gun shuts) and some nudity as well. The almost pink blood looks silly but, oh well, it's not like you would think it were real blood even if it looked any better now would you. Although I argued for it being a Filipino film it doesn't really belong with the other Filipino Vietnam War movies from the 80s and early 90s. The main character is played by William Smith (who was Falconetti in RICH MAN POOR MAN aka To Brødre). Oh, and there's exploding huts too!




The version I watched is an old ex-rental VHS from Sweden. The tape is presented in fullscreen but it's not pan & scan and it looks alright. The print carries the original title, THE LOOSERS. At some stage the film was re-released in the US re-titled NAM ANGELS.




There's a fairly new DVD from Dark Sky and according to some message board and Amazon comments it seems it's a good release presented in the correct format and with some cool extras. But as I don't have this release obviously I can't judge how good it is. However, the film as such is highly recommended!

"The last group in England to be still angry?"

I've just discovered this fantastic Australian interview of THE FALL from 1982 (it contains a happy Mark E Smith!). I'm sure you know they're still around. Oh, and check the comments section for the usual Commonwealth love ("you Pommie bastard" was mentioned at least once, haha).