When bootleg covers go wrong

Here's another terrible cover from a bootlegger who didn't bother to find out what he's selling. These films are by no means from China. CHINA DOESN'T HAVE A CATEGORY III RATING, hahaha. It only exists in Hong Kong.

The argument that China has now taken over Hong Kong isn't valid either as altho Peking has final say-so Hong Kong is a territory of its own with own Government, currency and flag. Oh, and the flag on this bootleg is the wrong one, hahaha. China's flag isn't used in Hong Kong. Not surprisingly the Hong Kong flag is used in Hong Kong.

Also, even IF we were to label Hong Kong film as being from China it would still be an invalid argument as these films were made before the Peking takeover in 1997. In other words they should be called BRITISH films as Britain ruled Hong Kong prior to 1997. But of course no one would do that.

I commented about it in connection with the cover on the bootlegger's Facebook page but I didn't get a reply (somehow I'm not surprised). LMAO.

Check my first post about a crappy bootleg cover here (that one is almost surreal!).

New book reprints "Punk magazine"

Now, why would you watch a two week old news programme from C4? o_O
Yeah, it's about punk! There's a new book that reprints the old "Punk" zine and there's an interview with Henry.

Oh oh oh!!! and there's a TOYAH interview!! Me and my cousin Ronny were huge Toyah fans (I was a member of the fan club, lol).

4th different edit of JUNGLE HEAT existing in Thailand???

LAST BREATH AKA JUNGLE HEAT (TAIWAN)


I'm already aware of thee different edits of the gory and trashy Taiwan war movie LAST BREATH aka Jungle Heat.

1) The original version (under the Last Breath title) is released on VHS in Taiwan and Hong Kong, and there's a tape released to the Chinatowns in the USA.

2) The international version, entitled Jungle Heat (a different EDIT with alternative footage shot for this version, i.e. n-o-t a cut & paste version!) is released on VHS and around the world and on DVD in the UK and Germany (and sadly both are cut!).

3) And finally we have the VCD from Mainland China which is basically a different edit of the Taiwan version (including using the Last Breath title) but missing 20 minutes of footage but also has new footage exclusive to this version. I own all three versions.


And then... someone in Thailand tells me there's also a Thai edit!!!!!!!!!!

He has never seen the film but he owns a poster (see above scan) and you can clearly see a famous Thai actor on it (I forget his name). The Thai collector claims that the actor is so respected in Thailand that they wouldn't have dared to put him on the poster if he weren't in the film and, although that's not proof of this versions existing it probably good indication that it probably does.

I'm hoping this version has at least made it to video-cd in Thailand. Unfortunately, Thai VCD's have a tendency to fly by by night never to return again. An American who lives over there told me there's so many VCD's being released all the time that it's pretty difficult to find a certain title once it's sold out. But I've been collecting long enough to know everything turns up if you wait long enough. Unfortunately, that often means many months and years of waiting, looking, asking, and asking again. In this case I don't even know if this version even exists. >_<

Did he say making fuck?

I rewatched CLERKS on VHS recently. I don't think I've seen the film since its original premiere in Australia in the 90s. I remember watching it at a cinema in Melbourne just after midday one afternoon and liking the film a lot. In the above scene there's a few lines from a "Russian" "heavy metal" track but I never thought it was made into a real song - but it has! Haha Check the full track in the video underneath.

If it's been done - undo it

A little while ago I caught the last 5 minutes of a GOSSIP gig on German TV. That final five minute clip is pretty awesome and fortunately someone uploaded that track to YouTube. Check it out! There's a wee German girl with more courage than most adults I know. It begins at 1:50 (but watch it all anyway!). Just brilliant, great band.

"It could hurt your brain"

I watched Code Red's DVD release of NIGHT OF THE DEMON (James C. Wasson, USA, 1980) last night. It's been described as the goriest Bigfoot film ever and sure enough it is definitely pretty gory. Not least the scene where Bigfoot rips off some poor biker's wang. Ouch!

Code Red couldn't find a real film print so they used a 1 inch video tape master for their DVD. It looks pretty good and, well, you gotta take what you can get. For some reason they didn't include the trailer on the DVD but at least we get a music video by Maria Kanellis who also introduces the film. I couldn't care less but if it sells some more copies then good for Bill Olsen and Code Red. The version I bought is a reprint with a different cover. The first one had Maria on the front. The one I got has Bigfoot and the poor feller with the missing wiener on the front. Haha.

Since I couldn't be bothered to do a proper review here's a link to a better one. It's pretty fun too (and the headline quotation is from there). If you look up the film make sure you find the right one, there's a bunch of other films that use the same title (and similar).

The DVD is available from Code Red's store.

OZ DVD the only way to get the original McCLOUD episodes!*

*Well, unless you take the iOffer route!

I ordered the first season of McCLOUD from eBay Australia last night. As I mentioned the other day, the Australian/New Zealand set contains the original 6 episodes as they aired in the USA in 1970. When American TV later reran them they edited the 6 episodes into 3 telly movies. The original episodes ran around 50 minutes each and the 3 TV movies are 2 x 70 min & 1 x 90 min. So it's obvious that a lot of footage was cut out and reportedly scenes were swapped around making a mess of it all. The Australian/New Zealand set from Madman contains both the 6 original episodes and the 3 telly movies (and the pilot).

Someone from Madman mentioned on a forum that it took them a full year to find the original versions and it was almost too late to include them. Luckily they did. I received the seven seasons on Danish DVD a couple of days ago (see my post from earlier this week) and it annoyed me to no end that they only contain the re-edited versions of season 1. I might also have to order the OZ/NZ season 3 at some stage. The Danish set omits a full episode (and completely lies about it on the cover as they claim the season is "complete"!!). One other annoying thing in regards to the Danish set is the episodes aren't presented in chronological order!! But at least we got season 6 and 7. It seems these last two seasons may not get an Aussie/Kiwi release.

In memoriam: Andy Copp - by Robin Bougie

(click and right-click a couple of times for full size)

Re-posted here with kind permission of Robin Bougie.

JOE STRUMMER: THE FUTURE IS UNWRITTEN by Julien Temple (UK/Ire, 2007)

I taped this almost two hour documentary film about The Clash's legendary lead singer JOE STRUMMER the other day and watched it tonight. I must admit I was never a great fan of The Clash, sure "London Calling" is great and so is "This is England" but I much disliked the LP "Sandinista" (a triple LP no less) when it came out and since it was my introduction to the band it kinda mandated my feelings towards the band (not even sure I still got the record). But THE FUTURE IS UNWRITTEN is a cool film and it tells Strummer's story all the way from the (his) beginning. There are old interview bits on top of old footage and there's comments from a lot of old friends, both famous and not famous at all (and there are quite a few well known faces that pop up in old footage but that aren't interviewed).

Director Julien Temple has done a lot of music videos but personally I remember him for his earlier (and great) documentary on The Sex Postols, THE FILTH AND THE FURY. I taped the film off the joint French/German channel ARTE TV and most of the dialogue is voiced over in German but altho this is a well made documentary I'm not so sure I'll bother to plunk down the dough for a DVD. This TV print will do. Highly recommended if you're a CLASH fan or just wish to watch a good doc on alternative music history.

The above screen grab is from Alex Cox's STRAIGHT TO HELL that Joe Strummer is in. I've only watched the film once, in 1988 at a "Punk all night" all-nighter at London's old and long gone Scala Cinema Club. What I didn't realise till tonight is that Courtney Love is in the film! It was the last film at the all-nighter and I have absolutely NO recollection the story other that some people walking in the desert. The other films were REPO MAN, DOGS IN SPACE and... hmm, I forget the last one.

Andy Copp - R.I.P.

It's with much sadness that I post this but it has been reported that fellow blogger, underground film-maker and YouTube film reviewer ANDY COPP passed away on Saturday night. The cause was suicide.

I didn't know Andy personally but I certainly knew of him through reading his blog, Exploitation Nation, and like me he was a frequent poster on AVManiacs/DVDManicas film message board. I came across his YouTube videos quite a while ago and enjoyed them very much.

Andy was well known in the horror/exploitation underground which he was a part of for many years. The news comes via Richard Doyle on Facebook and AVManiacs and has been confirmed by Don May jr of Synapse Films. Ironically, Andy Copp's last YouTube review 10 months ago was a presentation of a Synapse DVD.

R.I.P., Andy.