Screw the dvd, hd and blu-ray. I want the VIDEO-CD!!

Someone over on ADG posted THIS scan today!! The Hong Kong VCD release of John Woo's masterpiece BULLET IN THE HEAD.

Rats!!! Why didn't I find this!! Yeah yeah I know; envy is an ugly thing but still!!!

- In case you're not familiar with the background for my desire to own this VCD (a desire I share with tons of fellow HK movie/John Woo collectors) let me just point out that this is the only release that contains the original version of John Woo's amazing movie BULLET IN THE HEAD. All other video tapes, DVD's, laserdisks, TV recordings, and what have you, do NOT contain the original version but altered versions!

Yes, unfortunately the only way to watch John Woo's original idea for this movie is via this low-quality format. And in addition to that it's close to impossible to find! Congrats to the guy on ADG who finally tracked it down.

NB: As a response to this post Phantom Of Pulp did another post here where he showed proper scans of the VCD and gave some more incisive info on the different versions. Check it out.

Skint/Alive!!!

Lissen, this goes out to my merry friends who often find me stuff: Please DON'T offer me rare stuff this month!!

I'm flat broke!! Skint!!! Without any dough whatsoever!!!

No, this isn't is question of "I don't have very much so I'm LIKE broke". Fuck no!! Usually I'm one pay-cheque from being on the street and this month my account is IN THE RED!!!

SO DON'T TEMPT ME WITH ANY RARE TAPES!!!

(but you can send me free money and lollies if you want)








PS: From today I have a flag counter so now I can see where everyone is from (only counting from today though, not from the beginning). What it doesn't show is that apparently some of my readers are without a country! Or located in countries without a name!! Haha, at least Google counter shows a number of readers with a blank spot instead of a country name. Bizarre!! Anyway, WAY COOL to see this crappy place has readers from all over the world. Not least from places I didn't even know existed let alone knew its location of. Nice to see you all! Well, most of you anyway. LOL.

Mordets Melodi (1943)

I've watched this Danish Bodil Ipsen directed horror/crime movie twice during the last two days and I almost wanna watch it again. It's a crime against all humanity that this film isn't released anywhere other than as a non English friendly Danish DVD. Anyway, for those of you who can enjoy it this shiny disc contains a beautiful crisp clear restored print (other Scandinavians might like to know it does have Danish subtitles).

The IMDb lists the English title as "Murder Melody" but I have no idea if that's the correct English title or a title translated by some Danish baboon who thought he'd provide an English title.

[click scan for bigger size]

AWE off the radar - update

I finally spoke to Another World Entertainment main man Jan Schmidt and it seems both he and Kenneth Eriksen were on holiday when their website, including blog and email, went down. Too bad. Good news is they have a spiffy new site:

Spiffy new site link.

It doesn't explain why Mr. Eriksen didn't state on his eStore front that's he's off for a lengthy holiday. If I were a customer who unexpectedly had to wait bucket loads of extra time without any warning I'd probably not be a happy customer, haha.

Anyhoo, do check out Messrs Schmidt and Eriksen's new site, as I said it's pretty cool. And I'm sure they would love it if you bought some stuff too. It's recession time folks and I for one wouldn't want an über-cool video company like AWE to bite the dust so please help them stay in the business. According to Pete Tombs (in posts over on Cinehound) Mondo Macabro aren't doing too well either and without these little companies that put out COOL stuff what would we have left. Would the bigger companies really put out weird little niche titles? Chip in a few dollars extra, buddy. Today. I'm not asking you! Don't make me come round to you house and sit on you!

Anyway, on to more important issues: Even though their link page doesn't include this here site (altho I barrack for their releases) on the other hand they do have a link for ONFILM.DK and that's obviously good! (altho those people know close to nothing about cult films and almost always trash AWE's releases). There's also a link to the cool EIGA.DK site and yay that's good too (altho that site hasn't been updated the past three years, haha).

Take my advise fellas and get yerself a link to Søren Jacobsen's very cool SKRÆK & RÆDSEL blog. He writes positively about your releases and he KNOWS WHAT THE FUCK HE'S TALKING ABOUT! No crappy NOFILM.DK (sorry, ONfilm.dk) "reviews" (and I use the term loosely) from his camp.

"...there's a blacksmith who knows a little about medicine..."

VHS/UK/fullscreen/English dub/no subs
(click scan for bigger size)

This afternoon I watched LION MAN (aka Kiliç Aslan) and it's without a doubt one of the most entertaining Cüneyt Arkin films I've seen! This really needs a DVD release that's for damn sure!! LOL. Oh, and don't get fooled by this "Steve" Arkin, haha. It is indeed good ol' Cüneyt Arkin. Actually, the last of his movies I watched, KARA MURAT SEYH GAFFAR'A KARSI (aka Der Rächer des Khan) had him credited as yet something else, "George" Arkin I think, haha.

The version I got hold of is an NTSC video tape that was released in the US back in 1983 - so obviously it's totally obscure and difficult to get hold of these days. But try and see if you can get a copy somewhere, it's totally worth it. The tape is dubbed into English and fullscreen. LION MAN was also released in Canada and the UK but needless to say those tapes are just as difficult to find.

The plot is like this; We're back in the days of the Byzantine Empire. The proud Turks have been overrun by nasty and cruel Christian crusaders. Yes, that's right! In this film the Christians (which are easily recognised by their big crosses on their chests) are bloodthirsty savages and the proud Turks are the heroes.

VHS/US/fullscreen/English dub/no subs

When you're someone who's born and raised on bloody Hollywood movies this is quite different. But never the less very entertaining and makes perfectly sense in my book. Just like you always root for the Chinese hero against the nasty Gwailos in a HK movie no matter how white you are. LOL.

Anyhoo, the Turkish emperor is killed by slimy Europeans (probably French people, or ze Englisch) but somehow his wife escapes and isn't killed until their son is stolen by a lion! (I didn't know they actually had lions in Turkey, lol, but maybe they did in the old days).

Anyway, much confusion later and the introduction of a dark-haired fair maiden (the same babatious chick who's name escapes me but who was also in THE BOY WHO KNEW TOO MUCH aka LITTLE EYEWITNES), and eventually the lion-boy becomes a mix of Robin Hood/Tarzan/Barry Prima (haha).

VHS/France/fullscreen/French dub
(click scan for proper size)

This is really entertaining cinema if I ever say any. Totally! And the film is quite gory too! The only down-point is the ANNOYING orchestral elevator music score! But I can live with that and I plan on watching this again. You should do the same. Apparently, the dubbed print is slightly different to the Turkish version (don't worry it's not cut) I haven't watched it but reportedly it's nothing serious.

By the way, the Turkish title for LION MAN is indeed Kiliç Aslan. Don't believe this "ASLAN ADAM" that the bloody IMDb will tell you! I have my info from this worlds biggest expert on Turkish cult cinema Ayman Kole (an Australian of Turkish descent).

PS: The headline is a quotation of some of the rad dialogue! I mean you have this scene where Cüneyt Arkin's character is truly and severely fucked up and some guy suggests they go to the blacksmith of the nearest village cos he knows a little about medicine, hahaha.

Thanks to Gokay of Ciko for the UK scan. Much appreciated!

Added French VHS scan (5/8/09): I love how the characters on the front cover look nothing like in the film, LOL. Thanks to Lurker of Cinehound forum for the French scan.

Multo Kewl COFFIN JOE box out now!!!

Woo-hoo, I have waited since 1964 for this!!! The mighty fine video company Anchor Bay has just released an equally fine collection of COFFIN JOE films from their UK branch! Yay!! Spiffy!!!


Obviously I don't need to tell you that Coffin Joe (aka José Mojica Marins aka Zé do Caixão) is Brazil's best... uh, no cross that out... Brazil's WEIRDEST film maker!! And certainly also the most INTERESTING (yeah yeah, he's also the only Brazilian film maker I'm familiar with but still!).

This mighty fine box contains 9 films, out of which one is a documentary;

At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul (1964)
This Night I'll Possess Your Corpse (1967)
The Strange World Of Coffin Joe (1968)
Awakening Of The Beast (1970)
End Of Man (1971)
Strange Hostel Of Naked Pleasures (1976)
Hellish Flesh (1977)
Hallucinations Of A Deranged Mind (1978)
The Strange World Of Mojica Marins (2001)

In addition to the box Anchor Bay has also simultaneously released Coffin Joe's newest film EMBODIMENT OF EVIL (2008) as a 2 disc release. If you read the (multo lame'o) comments from most of the Amazon UK buyers who bought it you'll notice they all hate the film, haha.


Well, I haven't bought it yet but having watched some of Marins' earlier work I can certainly figure out why they dislike it: Coffin Joe simply doesn't follow the same dozen of strict rules that almost every motherfucker in Hollywood does. How dare he make films that challenges the viewer. How dare he make horror films that don't hail NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET or FRIDAY THE 13TH as God's gift to horror movie fans everywhere. How dare he be different.

Do yourself a favour and check out his films and ffs keep and open mind. DON'T BE AN AMAZON CUSTOMER REVIEWER WANKER!!!!!


NB: Don't get me wrong I DO like NIGHTMARE and FRIDAY etc. but I do acknowledge they're not the ONLY way of making horror films.

A carefree film collector life soon to end

More crappy cell phone pictures from the past; This time it's Nils Markvardsen, editor of eXtase magazine, stoner/doom promoter and Denmark's spaghetti western aficionado #1 with a collection to boot!

In this photo Nils is standing in front of his DVD collection which soon will probably get ruined by little people and spat on and God knows what. Yes, Nils is becoming a daddy. Well, congrats Nils (I guess, haha).

AWE off the radar - update

I finally got a text message from AWE head honcho Jan Schmidt yesterday as a response to my inquiry about what's going on with their site, and why it's gone from Cyberspace. Jan replied they're sick of the website and from now on you have to send them an old fashioned letter (remember those ones?) if you wanna get in contact with them. I assume it's a joke.

Still, no website or blog online tho. Nor an answer from Mr. Eriksen. Oh well. Just good to hear they're at least not closing down despite their alternative way of running the company. Haha.


Ps: The bicycle chick has obviously noting to do with this post but is just there to liven up an otherwise dull entry. The piccie is clickable for bigger size too!

More obscure OCEAN SHORES oldies

I finally received two more WAY COOL video releases from the Hong Kong video label Ocean Shores; THE DEVIL AND THE ANGEL (starring Lo Lieh) and FLASH FUTURE KUNG FU (which I saw described online as a Blade Runner'ian kung fun movie set in the future!).



I got the two tapes from different sellers and it's fun how you never know what to expect when you buy something (fairly) blindly. One tape (Devil) was released in 1984 but the guy I bought it from might as well have bought it last week; That's how good it looks! Absolutely near mint condition. The other tape (Flash) was also released in '84 and obviously comes from a rental outlet and it certainly looks like it!



The inner see-thru plastic is cracked and some of it is coming off. The (probably) nicotine filled air in the store has made the same see-thru plastic completely yellow. And the outside box is totally sticky because it's so dirty from (I assume) hundreds or even thousands of hands that have touched it throughout the years. You wanna wash your hands after having touched it, haha. Buy hey, don't get me wrong, I'm really happy to have got both tapes! All the latter needs is a good scrub, LOL.

De Dødes Tjern (1958)

I finally watched Kåre Bergstrøm's excellent Norwegian horror movie DE DØDES TJERN from 1958 and... woh-hoah!! What an awesome horror film!!! This is a classic in Norway but is practically unknown in the rest of Scandinavia. My gawd, they should show stuff like this on Danish TV instead of those retarded reruns they keep force-feeding us with!!

The plot deals with a group of friends who stay in a cabin in the forest near a lake. The photography is great and the atmosphere is so thick you could slice it with a knife. But other than that description I'm not gonna spoil anything for you by revealing any more of the plot. But if you like spooky horror flicks then this is it! When you're a seasoned horror fan it takes quite a bit more to get a fright but... Gott im himmel!... I didn't even wanna go into my kitchen in the dark for more coffee during the film! I don't even remember the last time I watched such a spooky horror movie. Brrr. There are absolutely NO Danish horror movies, new or old, that come even close. It's an OFFENCE this isn't already out on internationally released DVD. And it's a pure crime to humanity that the upcoming DVD is a Norway only release. I just hope that at least it'll have subtitles in Norwegian (the accent was a little heavy in a few places but I understood most of the dialogue).
EDIT: the dvd has English and Norwegian subtitles.

DE DØDES TJERN is based on André Bjerke's book by the same title from 1942. There's a Danish edition from 1943, entitled De Dødes Sø.

Thanks to Dag-Johnny for getting me this on DVDr.


EDIT (28/07/09): When I raved about this film in my usual exaggerating manner over on Uncut.dk someone pointed out that the film NATTEVAGTEN (the original Danish version of NIGHTWATCH) is pretty good too. And I gotta admit; Yes, NATTEVAGTEN is definitely good! Actually, I bought it on UK DVD recently).
EDIT (29/09/09) Alright, alright, Lars von Trier's RIGET TV series is pretty damn good too!