Lady Exterminator (the Hong Kong film!!!)

In 1977 Shaw Brothers made a sequel to their DRUG CONNECTION (on Celestial dvd as Sexy Killer) called LADY EXTERMINATOR (not to be confused with the Indonesian films Lady Exterminator or Lady Terminator). Some fans seem to believe THE DRUG CONNECTION and LADY EXTERMINATOR are the same film. But they ARE two different films, LADY EXTERMINATOR being a sequel to DRUG CONNECTION.

If you check the two films on HKMDb they have different separate entries, different posters, different credits, different Chinese titles, and different year of production.

Anyway, there is someone in Germany who has uploaded the first few minutes of LADY EXTERMINATOR to Youtube. The print looks like it's from a real cinema print. It's very scratched, dubbed in English and has two sets of subtitles of which one is Arabic! Maybe the uploader owns a real film print. I've written to him but haven't received any reply. Either he's away on holiday or he may want to keep his secret film to himself. I don't know but I'd love to get a copy. Do any of you have a copy of this film??? Or even just know anything about it??? Thanks.


Intro credits for DRUG CONNECTION aka Sexy Killer:






Director: Sun Chung
Script: Sze-To On
Producer: Sir Run Run Shaw

Cast
Yueh Hua
Chen Ping
Chung Wa (1)
Derek Yee Tung-Sing
Shirley Yu Sha-Li
Shut Chung-Tin
Wa Lun
Zheng Lou-Si
Jamie Luk Kim-Ming






Director: Sun Chung
Script: Ni Kuang
Producer: Runme Shaw
Cast
Chen Ping ... Gao Wanfei
Yueh Hua ... Deng Weipin
Tung Lam ... Corporal
Si Wai (2) ... He Jingye
Wang Hsieh ... Drug Lord
Tin Ching (1) ... Ma-Yuan
Chan Shen ... Long Tou
Yeung Chak-Lam ... Third Brother
Tsang Choh-Lam ... Ballroom Cleaner
Wong Mei (1) ... Thug
Hsu Hsia ... Thug
Wong Pau-Gei ... Thug
Lee Chiu (2) ... Thug
Corey Yuen Kwai ... extra
Kong Yeung (4) ... Sergeant Zhangze
Lee Pang-Fei (1) ... Leifan
Chin Chun ... Doctor Jin
Lin Wen-Wei ... Wei
Lam Fung (2) ... Chicken Leg
Ko Hung (2) ... Drug Producer
Lau Jun-Fai ... Thug
Lam Yi-Wa (1) ... Jingye's Mistress
Lau Kwok-Shing (1) ... Liu
Mai Laan ... Gao Wanjing
Angela Yu Chien ... Margaret
Lee Hang (3) ... extra
Sze Wan
Kong Chuen (3) ... extra
Man Man (3)
Unknown SB-Actress(2) ... nurse


And here for your amusement: A major fuck up from a bootlegger: The idiots have put out a bootleg dvd with the INDONESIAN film LADY EXTERMINATOR (starring Eva Arnaz) but they obviously got most of the pictures from HKMDb not realising it was a different movie from a different country, hahaha. Why they didn't discover the mistake (considering they actually not only have a picture of Eva Arnaz on the cover but also the alternative title for the Indo film I Want To Get Even) is... beyond me.

Live on oldskool cassette

I received this brilliant live cassette by THE UNDERTONES. It's entitled "Live 1980" and needless to say it's a bootleg tape. Some of you youngsters might not even know about this but in the old days there were no CD's, CD-r's, or even computers. All we had was cassette tapes! That's right; no dvd's, cd's, widescreen tv's, or even postal service. And we had no electricity in the houses. Anyhoo, I won this old rare live tape on eBay. In the description the seller said: "New inlay Card has been made - original lost or damaged", haha. Obviously I smelled a rat right away but I still placed a bid cos I wanted the recording. Now I've got the tape (which I won for very little) and sure enough; the tape is brand new and the ink on the inlay card is so fresh you can still smell it. LOL. Anyway, it's a way cool recording; there's really nothing that beats Fergal Sharkey when he rips into Teenage Kicks. The track has been covered by countless of bands (just try and make a YouTube search!) but NONE of them are worthy of washing the original version's underwear! Sorry, but the Green Day version might as well have been sung by a couple of sheep, that's how lame it is. The two live sets on the cassette were recorded in Amsterdam and London (1980) for radio broadcast.

PARIS THEATRE LONDON 1980

HARD LUCK
YOU GOT MY NUMBER
I GOTTA GETTA
MALE MODEL
TEARPROOF
GIRLS THAT DON`T TALK
JIMMY JIMMY
WHIZZ KIDS
MORE SONGS ABOUT CHOCOLATE AND GIRLS
THERE GOES NORMAN
THE WAY GIRLS TALK
HYPNOTISED
TOP TWENTY
MY PERFECT COUSIN
GET OVER YOU

PARADISO AMSTERDAM 15 MARCH 1980

MALE MODEL
TEARPROOF
TEENAGE KICKS
JIMMY JIMMY
THE WAY GIRLS TALK
THERE GOES NORMAN
GET OVER YOU
WHIZZ KIDS
FAMILY ENTERTAINMENT
TRUE CONFESSIONS
HERE COMES THE SUMMER
SHES A RUNAROUND
GIRLS DON`T LIKE IT
ROCK AND ROLL PART 1

And here's a blog edit.

Massacre Mafia Style

Moddarfukkar! MASSACRE MAFIA STYLE (1975) is coming out on DVD for the first time ever - but only in 500 copies! Check out this awesome (and very violent) opening scene (it's also aka The Executioner aka Like Father, Like Son).



The trailer:


And here's the cover for the Danish ex-rental VHS:

(Click cover for bigger size)

Apparently, Denmark is one of the very few places where MASSACRE MAFIA STYLE was released on VHS.

Thanks to Jared of Worldweird Cinema for the tip.

CATHARSIS - trailer

My mate Fokion Bogris has been working on his low-budget film CATHARSIS forever and it's finally finished. If you're in Greece go watch it next Thursday when it'll be showing at the Athens International Film Festival. Here's the trailer with English subs (they're not burnt in, you put them on by clicking the little arrow in the bottom right corner). It looks great and I wish I were in downtown Athens. :o(



Edit: Oops, due to Blogger not having adjusted the video window for widescreen it cuts off some of the right part of the screen. You're better off watching this on YouTube. :/

Esteban, a middle-aged ex cop, arrives at the city of Athens to stay with his uncle and look for a new job. He is broke and frustrated. A chance for a new beginning comes when the police chief tracks him down and asks him to take down the two of the most vicious crime syndicates in the city.

Starring: Kostas Stefanakis, Vangelis Mourikis, Christos Natsios, Vangelis Alexandris
Guest appearances: Yiannis Economidis, Kostas Xikominos, Tina Spathi, Nicholas Triantafyllidis.
Special Make Up FX: Disturbed Twins, Yiorgos & Roulis Alahouzos
Directors of photography: Bill Papas, Domenico Fusco Music: Cygnosic
Produced by Ground Floor Films
Written & directed by Fokion Bogris

Heey, it's my old SODS tape with Lydia Lunch!!!

In 1984 I taped a documentary off Danish TV (on Betamax tape no less) about the Danish underground band SORT SOL, back then also known as Sods. The docu is entitled OMKRING EN SORT SOL - ET PORTRÆT AF SODS. On Sort Sol's third LP, Dagger & Guitar, they had two tracks which featured New York no-wave queen LYDIA LUNCH. I've kept the tape all these years and last year some Lydia Lunch fan in Spain saw one of my posts on Dvdmaniacs where I referred to it and he wrote me and asked for a copy. He got the copy, never bothered to pay me or even say thanks, but now - lo and behold - some guy in CANADA has just uploaded the part with Lunch from my tape (yes, I recognise the worn tape, LOL). So despite the impolite Spanish dude it's nice that it's finally out for everyone to see.

Sort Sol (aka Sods) featuring Lydia Lunch on the track "Boy/Girl" from "Omkring en sort sol - et portræt af Sods" (from DR TV, Denmark, 1984)



The cover for the "Dagger & Guitar" LP from 1983.



(click the covers for bigger size)

True sons of Elvis (from Hell)

No explanation. This is the best there is.

Gritty Hong Kong

When people talk about Celestial's Shaw Brothers DVDs it's mostly the kung fu films they mention. But of course the Shaws made films in several other different genres; horror, comedies, musicals, a few slightly erotic flicks, and not least the gritty cop/crime movies. Some of them belong in the HK new wave genre of the early 80s (which I'm actually just learning about now, thanks Andras, Michael, etc).

A handful of the films Celestial put out a little while back is the THE CRIMINALS series. I must admit I've never paid much attention to this series as I was under the (obviously very deluded) impression that they were probably kinda crappy and dull. Well, someone mentioned the first film in the series on Dvdmaniacs yesterday and it sparked my interest but, uh, 'tis difficult to watch something you don't have and I don't have THE CRIMINALS 1 but I knew I had a couple of the later entries lying around somewhere and so I ended up watching THE CRIMINALS 3: ARSON - and like so often before I'm kicking myself in the head for having had something totally cool lying around for months without watching it!!

Was this gritty and brutal and didn't have any slapstick in it at all you ask? Well, yes, yes, and no!!! I was quite surprised I must admit! Flabbergasted you might add. xD

The film is made up of two separate stories and both were excellent. The main characters in the first one are two lowlife scumbags. We've seen that on film before but in Hollywood's polished version the crooks are often somehow cool and/or good, and at the end of the film they repent - or die after having done something really good. Not so in this one. The creeps are just creeps, however (again: in contradiction to Hollywood) we do get to see their human sides as well. Actually, with a little unfortunate deviation onto a side track we could easily become them. As horrible as it may sound.

A li'l deterioration in the moral judgement department maybe caused by an unfortunate social slide downhill - and we are suddenly them. We become them. Just as the mall zombies in DAWN OF THE DEAD are really us. Maybe not you or me but it happens all the time.

Since this is the only film out of this series' 5 films that I have watched obviously I can't talk about the other ones. Phantom of Pulp wrote about #5 here and he was quite exited about it, so check out his review. Episode 5 is partly directed by TF Mous who also made MEN BEHIND THE SUN and LOST SOULS and whom I wrote about here.

If you think you might like gritty and non schmaltzy film making then I can only urge you to seek out THE CRIMINALS 3. I think it's really good! The two episodes are directed by Hua Shan (who also among many other films directed Inframan, The Flying Guillotine Part II, and The Bloody Parrot) and Gwai Chi-Hung (who directed tons of other films; The Bamboo House of Dolls, The Killer Snakes, Big Brother Cheng, Hex, Bewitched, Corpse Mania, etc, etc, and not to forget: The Boxer's Omen!!! Phew, what a list of EXCELLENT films!).



By the way, did I forget to mention that the evil Chinamen at Celestial (all spawned by Dr. Fu Manchu) figured we didn't need DVDs for these films so they've only put them out on VCD (i.e. video-cd). Bummer, eh! I should point out there is a DVD for the first film but #2-5 are VCD only releases (there's also a VCD for film #1 if you need one to fit the other ones on the shelf, LOL). Anyway, forget what you've heard about the crappy VCD format and its "terrible" picture quality; Just like with video tapes VCDs come in many different shapes and forms. Some are extremely bad, i.e. pixelation hell, but actually the VCDs from Celestial are top of the crop. They are second to none, the picture quality is as good as it'll ever get on a VCD.

THE CRIMINALS 3 (and most likely the other ones too) is presented in the correct letterbox format and has easy to read English subtitles, and you can chose between Cantonese and Mandarin audio (Cantonese being the correct one and if you can't tell the difference it's the one in the left speaker). As I mentioned there's a DVD out for the first film but unfortunately it's getting difficult to find. When I looked for it online last night the only places I could find it stocked were at Sensasian.com (located in Malaysia, nice people, cheap prices) and at YesAsia.com (in HK, also nice folk and cheap too, their goods that is). You can get #2-5 from Hkflix.com (in Hawaii, top people all the way 'round). I ordered the three films I didn't have right away. I suggest you do the same, schmendrick.

The UNTERGANG of the Hong Kong film industry according to DANNY LEE

Danny Lee (who played opposite Chow Yun Fat in THE KILLER and who was also in the nasty UNTOLD STORY with Anthony Wong plus another 6 trillion cop movies in Hong Kong) talks about the downfall of the HK film industry in this interview.



Thanks to Ian F. for drawing my attention to this interview.

Sing along with your fave schlager singers, Merli, Nero & Testi

If you are into Italian genre films in any way and especially if you dig POLIZISCO films then... this is for you:

(there's about a minute of dialogue before the fun begins)


Grazie a poliziesco fan numero uno Johnny Redman di Love, Lock and Load for posting this on YouTube.