Hey hey lets go it's Saturday so here's THE RAMONES

Live from 1995 from the end of their career. Short interview segment at the end.

Uhh, baby, come to daddy

I woke up with a blasted headache. Popped a headache table. Waited an hour. Felt fine. Got out of bed. Though I might as well log on and get it over with... i.e. look at the auction I MOST LIKELY did not win during the night. Logged on... and there is was... the ebay auto message, "You won this item, now pay up, fucker".

Gott im himmel!!! I can't believe I'm finally going to get the original Hong Kong release of the very multo mucho rare'o Taiwan film LAST BREATH. It's insane. I hardly place any money on this (in collector circles that is. Ordinary people would certainly think £45 ($71) on an auction for an old video tape is more than enough). The final bid came to £31 ($49).

The tape I won is the HK VHS in Cantonese with English subs. There's one other release, the Chinatown tape from the US. The film has never been released in any other format.

There exist two different cuts of the film, one made for the Chinese markets and an English dubbed version for the international markets. I should point out the English dubbed print is an alternative version they made at the same time that has different scenes with Gwilo actors in it - BUT it's not a cut & paste film! Both versions were official versions made by the film studio simply to cater to different markets. The international version is fairly easy to come by as it's been released on DVD (unfortunately the DVDs are cut, including the German one. And beware, I've seen bootleg sellers advertising copies off the German DVD as being "uncut". Well, it's not uncut!). The video releases are uncut and the best one is the Japanese tape with is fully letterboxed.

"The Girl in Room 2A" from Mondo Macabro

Here's the trailer for MM's new DVD, William Rose's THE GIRL IN ROOM 2A (aka La casa della paura, Italy, 1974). Certainly looks like something we'd like to watch around these shores!! ^_^

Hmm, reminds me I used to live in room 5A for about a year twenty years back. LOL.



Thanks to Jared for the screen grab. Posted on Cinehound.

Excuse me, miss; Do you speak Tamil?

YAVARUM NALAM

I'm not sure if the headline is a great pick-up line or not but in any case I've just ordered this bunch of Indian genre films. These films deviate from the Indian horror films I've watched previously in that they're not from the Hindi spoken Bollywood but from the Tamil language part of India. Originally I really just wanted to order the above film, YAVARUM NALAM, which is a horror movie that a Cinehound member posted about. However, altho the price of the DVD was only Rs.175 ($4.50) on eBay India, the postage to Euroland was Rs.800!!! But the seller said I could order more DVDs for the same postage fee, so I picked the other three out of which two of them are horror movies and one is a sci-fi movie. They all have English subtitles.

NANJUPURAM

ARUNDATHEE

ENTHIRAN

By the way, remember how they would sometimes make different language versions of films simultaneously in Hollywood in the old days? For instance, the 1931 version of DRACULA was filmed twice; During the day they would shoot the English language version starring Bela Lugosi and at night they'd film a different version for the Spanish language markets. This was before dubbing was invented obviously. However, they still do this practice in India! No, I'm not making that up! The horror movie YAVARUM NALAM was filmed twice at the same time, on the same set, and by the same director. The difference is one is in Hindi and the other - the one I bought - is in Tamil. But why not just dub them? Well, apparently religious and other customs are too different, a dub simply isn't enough.

The Hindi language version of the film is called 13 B and is also released on DVD. Actually the Hindi version is much easier to get hold of (hence my wanting the other dvd OBVIOUSLY! LOL). I intend to get hold of the Hindi version as well though. Oh, and there's even been some talk about a Hollywood remake.

Game of Death - promotional documentary

I've just discovered Bey Logan posted this on Facebook. It's his own upload to YouTube and what it is is a very rare early short documentary film that was made to promote Bruce Lee's GAME OF DEATH - but made after he had passed away.

A Book of Heroes - Yukari Oshima

After having waited much too long for my recent parcel from Hong Kong to turn up (the bloody customs kept it for two weeks!!) I've finally just got it, opened it, and marvelled at the wonderful VCD beauties! Yes, bloody VCD!! None of the four films are out on DVD anywhere so this was the only option. But, hey, I'm not complaining and if anything I am grateful that at least Fortune Star have released these films is any format at all.

One of the films is A BOOK OF HEROES (Taiwan, 1986) starring cutie & tough ass kicker YUKARI OSHIMA. Woo-hoo! Any new Yukari Oshima film is welcome in this house not matter the qualities (or non-qualities) of the film otherwise.

I haven't watched it yet (like I said, I've literally just new received the parcel) but it's directed by the same guy who made the highly entertaining FANTASY MISSION FORCE, PINK FORCE COMMANDO and GOLDEN QUEEN'S COMMANDO. Here's the description from Yesasia (big kudos to Yesasia for actually hiring a HK film aficionado to do their film descriptions!! The writer is Ross Chen from Love Hong Kong Film.

From director Kevin Chu, the madman behind such entertainingly incomprehensible oddities as Fantasy Mission Force and Golden Queen's Commando, comes A Book of Heroes (1986). Chu's talent as filmmaker may be highly suspect, but his "best" movies are tremendous fun despite (or because of) their thematic and technical shortcomings. A Book of Heroes has all the usual Chu earmarks: an impossibly convoluted plot, confusing editing, cartoonish humor uncomfortably coexisting with visceral violence, and a bevy of butt-kicking beauties (including Oshima Yukari in one of her earliest roles). This is one movie not to be missed by Mystery Science Theater fans, or those who like their action movies highly fortified with corn.

Rival underworld gangs from all over Asia are waging war for a treasure map and a bunch of gold, and it's Officer Hu Pai's job to intercept the loot. After failing miserably at his assignment, Hu finds himself demoted to directing traffic. But the down-on-his-luck policeman gets a shot at redemption when he crosses paths with a Japanese agent (Oshima) on the treasure's trail. Joining forces with a ragtag group of mercenaries - including Hu's wannabe-cop sister and the owner of the local gas station - the heroes pit themselves against a wild assortment of underworld fighters in a bid to recapture the gold.

Hmm, that YouTube upload does have a great picture quality but I haven't been able to find any info about any DVD releases. Meaybe it's from a laserdisc.

Oh Nina

I taped this song off the air sometime in the mid to late 80s. The difference is it was David Bowie's cover version. The same programme played an early Martin Hall track as well. Taped them both. Man, I must have played and re-played that cassette tape over and over again. Now some 20 odd years later I finally hear the original version. It's probably good it took so long, I wouldn't have liked Nina Simone's version back then. Now I love it.

Nina Hagen - Ziggy Stardust

The East German queen of punk doing Bowie's "Ziggy Stardust" on Swedish TV in 1980. Awesome! Me and my cousin Ronny were big Nina Hagen fans back then. Unfortunately it seems she's had too many smokes in the years in-between. Oh well, we'll always have Rio, ehh, YouTube. ^_^

Rammstein - Das Modell

Here's RAMMSTEIN with a cover of that old KRAFTWERK fave "Das Modell" (aka The Model). The video is pretty cool! xD

La Muerte Incierta (Jose Ramon Larraz ,1973) - trailer

La Muerte Incierta (José Ramón Larraz) - Funny bloopers R us

Another movie that was believed to be lost but isn't. However, as of now it makes no difference as it's still unreleased. Boo-hoo! Would love to see it.