mihk's THE KILLER ltd edition sell-thru vhs box set finally coming home

When I discovered the HK movie there was only one way to get the films; thru tape-trading with other fans. Some of those fans would live in cities that had Chinatown video stores; They'd rent films and dupe them onto a blank video tape. This was a time when you couldn't just BUY original tapes cos they didn't sell them anywhere. At least not the HK movies that some of us had wet dreams about. Feverish wet dreams.

Then something quite wonderful happened; In the UK two labels sprung up to distribute these films. One label was the (notorious? Infamous?) EASTERN HEROES label run partly by Toby Russell. The other label (and in my view the better one of the two) was MADE IN HONG KONG. Out of a sudden you could chuck out your 4th generation vhs dupe of A BETTER TOMORROW, THE KILLER or A CHINESE GHOSTSTORY. Now they came out on letterboxed and subtitled sell-thru vhs with cool box art and for the most part great info written on the inside of the sleeves.

Most of the films have since then been granted DVD (and now blu-ray) releases (altho some of these tapes are still the only/best way of watching the films!). But in contradiction to most other collectors I haven't got rid of the old MIHK tapes to make room for dvd's. To me they have value! These were the tapes that kind of SAVED the UK and Euro Hong Kong film collectors.

Anyhoo, quite a number of the tapes I never got hold of back in the day and so I'm actually buying them now. And one of the coolest releases that I never got hold of was the limited collector's editon box set edition of THE KILLER!! I got the ordinary (but still highly cool edition as it was subtitled and letterboxed!) MIHK release of the film. And before that I'd bought the fullscreen, English dubbed vhs (also from the UK). But now... a couple of decades down the line... I have finally got hold of said box set. Or at least I have won it on eBay UK and will hopefully get it soon - but of course you never know with mail these days. Let's cross our fingers and hope that I also actually RECEIVE the fucker! Hah!

PS: Check out the response post over on A hero Never Dies.

When you post about LYDIA LUNCH you don't really need a headline. Just watch the fucking videos!

WILL WORK FOR DRUGS/Lydia Lunch/ Book Trailer from TanKMutaTion on Vimeo.

The past few months I've been a wild and insane hunt for the old NO WAVE bands, the records, the people, the books, the stories, the rumours, the pictures - ohh, the pictures - and indeed the pictures of a young LYDIA LUNCH are nice to say the least. And talking of which, I stumbled over this trailer for a French translated edition of one of Lydia's books that was made public recently. The book is "Will Work For Drugs" (or Déséquilibres Synthétiques in the lingo of the frog eaters). I haven't read it. Or any other books by Lunch. But the pictures are nice and TEENAGE JESUS AND THE JERKS is mandatory listening.

And the VIMEO uploaded video lead me to THIS other video, a new(ish) music video from Lydia. Watch them both, they pretty cool.

Your Love don't Pay My Rent from TanKMutaTion on Vimeo.

PS: I realise the videos are a bit too big for the video space that this blogger layout allows and I could fix it but updating to one of the newer fancier layouts but screw that I'm gonna stick with this old one (that you can't even choose any longer as Blogger has deleted it in the layout section). Alternatively, go to VIMEO and watch the videos in their full size.

JEAN SEBERG, AMERICAN ACTRESS - trailer

Back in the day, documentary films were "real" films but along with their becoming a full blown genre of their own we now have 6 trillion shit documentaries that were made by TV directors using whatever old footage they had lying around in their stations' archives. Over the last couple of days I've watched JEAN SEBERG AMERICAN ACTRESS (Switzerland, 1995) twice and it's so cool to watch a proper doc.

Jean Seberg played the American girl in Jean-Luc Godard's BREATHLESS (aka À bout de souffle) from 1960. She made films in both the US and France. She was involved with the Black Panther movement and got the FBI and CIA on her back. In 1979 she was murdered in Paris and dumped in a car. The inefficient French police wrote it off as suicide. The documentary has a kind of sadness to it that goes well hand in hand with Jean Seberg's sad and ultimately tragic life. I don't know if the film is available on DVD or VHS, I taped my copy off TV.

The Sky Has Fallen - trailer

I've just ordered THIS film because of THIS review! ^_^
The film is on sale from the film makers at half price of what it is at Amazon (so it says anyway, I haven't actually checked it out). 15 dollars incl. postage to this forsaken hell-hole. It looks like an interesting different take on the zombie film. I recommend you read Jason's review at Cinezilla (that I linked to).

uhh, CHRISSIE...

The most forgotten rock band of the 80s is THE PRETENDERS. They released two fabulous LP's ("Pretenders" & "Pretenders II") in the early 80s after which half the band OD'd on smack and died. Lead singer CHRISSIE HYNDE never managed to get together an equally great band after that nor to release records that came no-way near those two original platters. It's a crime against all humanity that those two albums are now lost in the big abyss of the forgotten records.

Those two early LP's are great real rock'n'roll. Not the kinda plastic shit that otherwise polluted the 1980s; Shit like Shakin' Stevens that was deliberately so tame that every granny could swallow it with her afternoon tea without getting offended. And of course it didn't hurt matters that Chrissie Hynde had one of thee best voices in rock music - up there on par with Siouxsie Sioux if you ask me. Check this early live version of "Bad Boys Get Spanked" from "Rockpalast" from German tv. The picture quality sucks, the music does not.

The first time I learnt about The Pretenders was via an article in a Danish youth magazine (Vi unge). I was in my 7th grade and there was an article about the band and a photo of Chrissie Hynde. She looked tough. She didn't look like a typical '77 punk but she had actually previously been in The Damned. The article was mostly about Chrissie Hynde. It said, "Chrissie never wears anything but leather pants - and she doesn't wear knickers underneath". I knew I had to have their record.

Sick

I'm doomed to live a life in circles of having a migraine and not having a migraine. This is the first time for a week that I'm switching on my computer. I've had extreme headache attacks on a daily basis for over a week now. So far, today seems to be okay. Migraine isn't like having a mere hangover. It's the worst hangover times 25. I'd swap a migraine for a root-canal any day. Root-canals is kids' pains. And apart from the shitty pain it means I lose out on cool stuff and ... have 17 pages of new emails, tons of PMs, and unpaid bills. If you wrote to me I'll get back to you at some stage.

PS: If you're applying for my fanclub don't worry I've got people take care of that. Have your credit card ready.

Amazon launches "NEVER BEFORE ON DVD" store

It's been common practice among a few American film companies to release films in the DVD-R format the past couple of years. Now, while this is obviously not the best way to release films it does mean we get the chance to watch stuff that might not otherwise get a DVD release. And some of these films are presented in their correct ratio and remastered so we're not necessarily talking about copies off old VHS tapes that are quickly slapped onto a DVD-R (although reportedly not all releases look equally great).

However, so far it's been a bit of a jungle as to what has been available in the DVD-R format and what hasn't - not least since most regular shops don't stock these "releases". This week it all became just a little easier as Amazon has just launched a special store where you can browse all these titles!

According to this article the shop will list both old releases as well as new upcoming ones. You can browse either via genre or all films at once (the genres are listed on the left). Unfortunately, the DVD-R store is an Amazon.com store only, i.e. you can't access it via Amazon UK (I haven't checked Amazon Canada or the other branches but I wouldn't think they've put up similar stores either). A full-on kick in the nads to Eurotrash and Brits alike as this means higher postage rates and the risk of getting an extra customs fee slapped on top of the price. But is that going to discourage the fanatical film fan? Not at all, not at all.

For the new NEVER BEFORE ON DVD shop go here.

Alabama's Ghost (Fredric Hobbs, USA, 1972)

I watched Fredric Hobbs' ALABAMA'S GHOST tonight and what a wild and crazy film it is! Wauw, I mean... just... WAUW!!! It's part blaxploitation/crazy voodoo/magic/supernatural/ghost/what-have-you film all mixed into one. There's an insane Nazi scientist too (a woman this time). I'm not even gonna try and review it or explain the story-line but I'll just reprint FRED ADELMAN's (RIP) review from CRITICAL CONDITION here:

by FRED ADELMAN
ALABAMA'S GHOST (1972) - When Alabama (Christopher Brooks) accidentally drives a forklift through a wall in the basement of San Francisco's famed Earthquake McGoon's nightclub, he finds a hidden passageway that leads to a room that contains all the possessions of "World's Greatest Magician" Carter The Great (E. Kerrigan Prescott), who mysteriously died years before.

Alabama finds a box that contains the address of Granny (Ken Granthan), Carter's "sister". The box also contains some magical herb (called "raw zeta"), which he and Granny smoke in a pot pipe. Alabama is forced to team up with Zoerae (Peggy Browne), Granny's assistant, as he wants to become a master magician using Carter's found possessions. This leads Alabama on a weird journey that includes vampires, robots, voodoo ceremonies, ghosts, rock music, go-go dancers, a disappearing elephant, a biker gang, a disembodied heart and the occasional drooling fanatic.

Alabama puts on magic shows at Earthquake McGoon's, billing himself as "Alabama, King Of The Cosmos", to packed houses. He is picked-up by promoter Otto Max (Steven Kent Browne), who tells Alabama, "Surrealism is in. Surrealism is where it's at!" Otto books him on a tour across the United States, where he achieves much acclaim. Things start going wrong for Alabama when one of his female assistants is severely injured while he performs a sword trick (she also has two puncture wounds on her neck). More accidents happen which leads up to the grand finale: A world-wide televised showing of Alabama doing Carter's "disappearing elephant act", which will have dire consequences on anyone who watches it. How it ends: I'll never tell. I've barely scratched the surface on this off-the-wall, rarely-seen supernatural thriller.

Director/producer/writer Fredric Hobbs (ROSELAND - 1970; GODMONSTER OF INDIAN FLATS - 1973) has crafted an intricate, multi-layered film which can only be described as one-of-a-kind. Hobbs was way ahead of his time, kind of a David Lynch of the 70's. ALABAMA'S GHOST veers off into many different directions, but never disappoints the viewer. Watch it straight or stoned; it doesn't matter. It's a facinating experience no matter what state you're in. E. Kerrigan Prescott, Christopher Brooks and Steven Kent Brown have appeared in all three of Hobb's above mentioned films. Also starring Karen Ingentron as Dr. Caligula, Ann Weldon as Mama-bama, Ann Wagner Ward as Marilyn Midnight and Neena the elephant. With special appearances by musical groups The Turk Murphy Jazz Band and The Landing Zone and improvational group The Cockettes.

I've unofficially heard that Hobbs gave up film to become a sculptor after making GODMONSTER. That's filmmaking's loss. This film screams out for a re-release as it is now only available on VHS on the OOP ThrillerVideo label hosted by Elvira, who interrupts the film midway to do some of her shtick. Anchor Bay should do a restoration and release it on DVD so it can get the cult following it deserves. Believe it or not, this film was Rated PG when originally released. This is the strangest PG film you will ever view!

The copy I watched wasn't the VHS Fred mentioned but a bootleg DVD from ZDD in the UK. Their "release" uses an old TV broadcast as source. Fortunately that version came without the ridiculous comments from Elvira. I'm fully aware a lot of fans, especially in the US, are fond of Elvira (she does have nice tits) but I really can't stand someone making a name for themselves by mocking the psychotronic films I love. Boobs or no boobs (besides she's a third rate clone of Vampira and without the latter's '50s sex appeal). I certainly hope ALABAMA'S GHOST is gonna get a proper DVD release some day. More people need to see this wild & crazy psychotronic masterpiece.

Up your's to that guy who said music in the 80s was nothing but boring mainstream crap...

...you just had to dig a little deeper to find the good stuff (hence it being UNDERGROUND music).



In the 80s there were about five people in Denmark who knew about cool German new wave music (aka Neue Deutsche Welle). I wonder who the other four were. ^_^

Check all three videos, they're all great! xD






Draussen am Bahnhof liegt 'ne alte Pizza,
oh, die ist lecker, die muß ich jetzt essen.
Komm und nimm sie, iß die alte Pizza,
du hast Hunger, worauf wartest du?
Sie ist zwar nicht die jüngste und auch leicht verbogen,
doch ich habe Hunger, mein Bruder hat gelogen.
Es gibt nur diese Pizza, das sagt auch mein Magen.
Komm und nimm sie, iß die alte Pizza,
du hast Hunger, worauf wartest du?
Komm und nimm sie, iß die alte Pizza,
du hast Hunger, worauf wartest du?
Pizzas die sind lecker, das weiß jedes Kind,
d'rum ess' ich gerne Pizzas, weil die lecker sind.
Pizzas die sind lecker, das weiß jedes Kind,
d'rum ess' ich gerne Pizzas, weil die lecker sind.
Sie ist zwar nicht die jüngste und auch leicht verbogen,
doch ich habe Hunger, mein Bruder hat gelogen.
Es gibt nur diese Pizza, das sagt auch mein Magen.
Komm und nimm sie, iß die alte Pizza!
Draussen am Bahnhof liegt 'ne alte Pizza.
Komm und nimm sie, iß die alte Pizza!
Draussen am Bahnhof liegt 'ne alte Pizza.
Komm und nimm sie, iß die alte Pizza!
Draussen am Bahnhof liegt 'ne alte Pizza.
Draussen am Bahnhof liegt 'ne alte Pizza.
Draussen am Bahnhof liegt 'ne alte Pizza.
Draussen am Bahnhof liegt 'ne alte Pizza.

The only way to play surf... JACKIE AND THE CEDRICS... in glorious mono

This is, like, more awesome than awesome!! Wild insane surf music by the Japanese band JACKIE AND THE CEDRICS recorded sometime in 1997 (or some such). How often would you see stage diving at surf shows in the old days, ay. Haha. This is fucken rad! Burning instruments, wild guitars, crazy acrobatics, hot Japanese teen babes in skirts!!! (and do notice towards the end when one of the guitar players falls off the monitor, LOLZ.). Wild!!!