More Hong Kong madness: FURY OF THE HEAVEN

Thanks to Andras for posting this on Cinehound.

NB: I don't know if the title in Chinese characters read Gong Tau but this clearly isn't the English language title as GONG TAU is a different film by Herman Yau (and also the Chinese title for BLACK MAGIC). The title of this film is FURY OF THE HEAVEN and I just discovered I have it on one of my shelves!! I HAVE TOO MANY VIDEOS!!! Haha (no not really). Anyway, check out the clip, it's pretty WILD!!!

Hong Kong madness

I just won these two video tapes on eBay. The seller was an unlikely seller as it was a record store in the US that doesn't normally deal in HK video tapes so I guess that's why I'm happy to be able to report I was the only bidder! Yay!

The scan on top of this post is OPERATION PINK SQUAD 2 which is a film I remember from the old splatter fanzine days. It was one of the films that tape traders would swap as it was one of those crazy, wild and right out over-the-top horror flicks that splatter movie fans had just discovered at the time. Forget the first one, forget the (kind of) third one. This second entry to the series is where it's at!!
And needless to say I'm pretty stoked about getting this one!! I mean, it's on DVD and all but... you know... this is the original tape that you just couldn't buy in the old days!! It's pretty awesome!!!


Here's what Thomas Weisser said about it way back in the special "cinemasian" edition of the US fanzine Naked! Screaming! Terror! #4/5 (back when he had just discovered these wild films and he was still an entusiastic fan):

"The original OPERATION PINK SQUAD was a winner action/adventure film that featured beautiful girls with machine guns similar to the ANGEL series. This time, director Jeff Lau takes the girls, puts them into a horror motif and adds a touch of humor. The result is a remarkable excursion into the outlandishly bizarre. Especially enthralling is an awesome villainess who has the power to disjoin her head from her body. As her body continues to chase The Pink Squad through the corridors of the haunted castle, her head zooms at breakneck (pardon the pun) speed chomping, biting and nipping at everything in its path. The Squad then uses miniature helicopters to chase it and (in scenes reminiscent of the "ball" in PHANTASM) the copters eventually surround the head; however she chooses to self-destruct in an amazing explosion of blood and gore. And the FX are so good that one almost believes it all. There's lots more, including legions of "Living Dead-type" zombies and four Kung Fu mystics who arrive through a "door to heaven." These priests, armed only "with the power of musical instruments," go into battle against the creatures and (like an MTV video) kill them with music. This film is a must see extravaganza."

Thomas Weisser gave the film top marks of four stars. When he later reprinted the review in his Asian Cult Cinema book his enthusiasm had cooled off quite a bit as he lowered the marks to these wild horror films from what he had originally given them back in N!S!T! In the book OPERATION PINK SQUAD 2 only gets three stars and he omitted the line "This film is a must see extravaganza".

Unfortunately, I have a feeling he had "grown up" and somehow couldn't enjoy wild and crazy Hong Kong films anymore. I guess Japanese spanking films became what gave him his kicks (plus made up spaghetti westerns that never got made, LOL). Don't get me wrong, I love all his enthusiastic reviews and ramblings from the early years. I love them a lot actually. That issue of N!S!T! became like a bible to me and Weisser's and Timothy Paxton's ramblings were partly what got me off on a never ending trek for Hong Kong cinema's wildness and weirdness, a trek that lasts to this day. And for that I thank them wholeheartedly! (anybody know what became of Paxton and Dave Tordarello???).

The other tape I won is ENCOUNTER OF THE SPOOKY KIND 2. Yes, that one!! The sequel to ENCOUNTER OF THE SPOOKY KIND (aka Close Encounter of the Spooky Kind/Spooky Encounters) which has yet to be released subtitled to English on DVD (there's a beautiful French DVD but sans the English subs. Oh, and I have a very cool DVD-r of this version with added subs thanks to one very nice Cinehound member, Mr. White in the UK! xD!!!).

Dark Hong Kong: BLOOD SORCERY (1986)

aka THE CURSE



Ahh, yet another dark & nasty Hong Kong horror flick that'll be coming my way soon (I need to pay for it first, LOL). BLOOD SORCERY! This is one I've actually never seen so I have no idea of how good or bad it is. But, uh, I had to have it. I've been after it for a while (you might remember I ordered the TaiSeng version directly from the company a little while ago but it turned out they had tons of VHS titles listed on their site that they didn't actually have anymore!). It's directed by Do Gong-Yue who also did THE DEVIL SORCERY from 1988 which is out on DVD and which I quite like.

PHANTOM OF THE TOILET (1995)

I thought we'd seen it all with all the long dark-haired spooky girl films from Japan... but then comes this one along: a dark haired spooky girl... who... comes... outta... your... loo... arrrrggghhhhh

Crazy Japanese people, haha. Believe it or not this film is really called PHANTOM OF THE TOILET and it's Chiaki Kuriyama (you know, the lethal school girl killer chick from KILL BILL part 1. I haven't watched the film and may never get hold of it as the only English friendly release, believe it or not, is the OOP video-cd from Hong Kong (shown here). It's not even listed on IMDb which surprises me considering the legions of trendy fans of J-horror. However, someone wrote a review here.
Check out the screen grabs as well. I must admit it doesn't look too exciting but, hey, you never know.


And welcome to new subber Sehnzeleid. Spiffy blog there, dude! Basement of ghoulish decadence.

THE MAGIC CURSE (1977)

Brian (of the excellent Cool Ass Cinema blog!) asked if I've seen Tony Liu Jun Guk & Lee Tso Nam's THE MAGIC CURSE and yes I have. Lars Jacobson drew my attention to it a couple of years back (he told me he's so exited about it he always force feeds people with it. And thank you for that, Lars!) and I could have sworn I posted the cover scans here last year when I found and won the über über rare UK tape but damned if I can find the scans now. Oh, and to make it even MORE rare the tape I won is the INSANELY RARE Betamax tape!!!!! Either I didn't post them or I did but forgot to label the post and somehow it doesn't come up with the search function.

Oh well, here they all are anyway (and no it's not like I MIND showing off this tape, [I would have a big grinning smiley here if I could!]). Completely mint condition! I think someone bought it and put it in a drawer right away and never took it out again before they sold it off. It's an awesome tape; dubbed in English and letterboxed. I kept a close watch on it all week, every single day, when the auction ran last summer. I'm aware Miltos of Cinehound wanted it too. I'm aware there's both a French VHS and a DVD release but they are both dubbed in French which obviously is no good, LOL (this is info I have from French sites that I've checked anyway but you know how it is with Internet sites, sometimes they're not gonna list the English option if the webpage is intended for another market, however, the DVD probably doesn't carry the English track. But who knows unless you check :/ ). If you or anybody wanna look for the french tape or dvd the title is Au Pays de la magie noire.

About the film; The main character's uncle is reported to have crashed his plane over the jungle so he takes off on a rescue mission and encounters heaps of wild stuff. This film has EVERYTHING. It's completely whacked-out crazy! There's zombies, wild women, gore, nudity, insanity, all of it. Haha. No, I'm not gonna write a proper review but it's very entertaining, just take my word for it. I guess it was a product of Hong Kong's having been become tired of straight kung fu films and so they began to chuck everything else into the films to keep people's attention. Well, they certainly kept mine with this one, that's for sure.









The French VHS

- and the French DVD with a terrible, terrible cover!

[except for the French VHS cover you can click the scans for a bigger size]

THE KILLING OF SATAN (1983)

Two years ago I wrote an excited post on Cinehound because Efren C. Pinon's cool Filipino horror movie THE KILLING OF SATAN was finally being released on DVD. Unfortunately, it turned out it was a bootleg. A crappy bootleg I might add. So I began looking, and looking, and looking (and this is almost beginning to sound like one of Patrick's "I can't find that one tape which will make my hobo life complete" posts, haha) and for a long time to no avail.

But now, finally, two years down the line, I've finally got this much desired US NTSC video release of THE KILLING OF SATAN. Complete with the original intact cardboard box. YAY!! (well, that is I haven't actually got it yet as I only won it this afternoon). And mind you I almost lost it. I'd made a bid earlier today and then went off to a dinner party, came back this evening, forgot all about the auction, turned on the computer and saw the truly devastating eBay notification in my e-mail inbox: "You've been outbid, motherfucker!"!!! I clicked the link and it said 50 seconds left!!!!! Mein gott, I've never made a bid THAT quickly before! But all turned out fine and I made it just in time (I think it was about 10 seconds before closing time). I had won my golden nugget. xD
My apologies to whoever poor sod out there who thought he got it made. Haha.

I don't have a good scan of the NTSC tape other than the eBay one but here's a good scan of the Dutch release. Click the cover for proper size.



And here's the trailer fro the film (which by the way is uploaded by our good friend Pete aka Petcor80 from Cinehound).

Andrew Leavold's brief review from the Filipino edition of FHM from last year:

Greatest Pinoy Christian Gore Film: The Killing Of Satan (dir. Efren C. Pinon, 1983) On the surface a delirious Catholic horror - Ramon Revilla as a Jesus figure squaring off against a red-stockinged Satan! – but with much deeper roots in pagan folklore, and brimming with startling, primordial snake imagery.

Dark Hong Kong: CROCODILE EVIL (1985)

Check out this wild clip from the Hong Kong horror movie CROCODILE EVIL. Another horror movie you can't watch. LOL. It's out on a long (very long) gone VHS from Ocean Shores.





UPDATE (October 25, 09): Patrick (of Bearded man blog) found this great Thai poster for CROCODILE EVIL. Gee, should I buy it? Looks too awesome not to but, uhh, all that money. Boo-hoo, lack of money in these situations is enough to make a grown man cry like a wee Japanese school girl. :(


[click scan for bigger size]

L'OSSESSA (1974)

Ahh, what a wonderful world as Louis Armstrong used to sing in my home when I grew up (his records that is. Not that Louis Armstrong was actually in my house) and wonderful it is indeed. Well, the world of VHS hunting at least. Thanks to a very nice collector in Finland I'll be getting this soon...



...yes as I'm sure you're aware this is the UK pre-cert release of the Italian devil possession movie L'OSSESSA (aka The Obsessed/The Tormented). Needless to say it's an EXORCIST ripoff. And a very entertaining one at that.

The tape is letterboxed and dubbed into English. I have no idea whether it's uncut or not. It is as I mentioned the pre-cert release so I hope it's uncut. I also own the uncut Japanese VHS which is also letterboxed and has the original Italian dub! Check my old posts about it here.

Unfortunately, the only way of watching the film nowadays (unless you hunt down a VHS, obviously) is on a crappy, crappy DVD from the US; fullscreen, English dubbed + terrible picture quality. And under a retitling I'm not gonna mention here as it's so bloody awful I'll just puke my guts out (again).


(Click the two top scans for bigger size)


Thanks Kurt, yer da best! And thanks to Fred Adelman who provided the US ad mat.

The Fighters (1982)

Troma re-title: Ferocious Female Freedom Fighters



Here's the Greek cover for the highly entertaining Indo movie THE FIGHTERS directed by Jopi Burnama (who also did RAMBU aka The Intruder) and starring Eva Arnaz and Barry Prima. The retards at Troma re-dubbed the film and made it into a "funny" comedy (I fail to see the comedy) and cut a big chunk out of it as well. This version came out on VHS. It was later re-released on a DVD which includes both versions. The cover of the Greek VHS shown here is of a superior video version that not only carries the original Indonesian English title, The Fighters, but which is also letterboxed. It was on eBay last night and someone (a member of Cinehound, LOL) won it for the insane price of just over $200. I made what I believed was quite a bid but obviously it wasn't enough. :(

(click scan for bigger size)

The zombies at Troma also released a sequel, Ferocious Female Freedom Fighters 2, but needless to say this is yet another re-titling, this time of a film directed by Arizal (Stabilizer, Lethal Hunter, and many more) called TO BURN THE SUN. This film was actually made the year before THE FIGHTERS. It does however star Eva Arnaz and Barry Prima (and it's highly entertaining!). Fortunately, Troma left the original English dubbing as it were on the original export version. It's out on a fullscreen VHS (no DVD though). I also have the Malay VCD in my collection and from memory I'm pretty sure the Troma tape is uncut. However, the version to watch comes yet again from our friends in Greece where it's out on a letterboxed VHS. Unfortunately, I don't have that one eiher. Boo-hoo. :(

TO BURN THE SUN review from Trash-online:

More Indonesian insanity in this ultra-rare film by Arizal. Indan (Eva Arnaz) is captured by the killers of her father and is forced in a life of decadence and prostitution. Her fiancé manages to track her down and takes her with him. Her grandfather teaches her martial arts. The time comes when she is capable enough to face her tormentors... This is a truly bizarre creation which has a little bit of everything: over the top action, martial arts, melodrama, rape & killings, snake attacks, atrocious Indonesian disco, synthesizer and even country (!) music numbers and even a couple of gory bits. Plus the disastrous dubbing work that is expected from these films! It just has to be seen to be believed! From the maker of FINAL SCORE and LETHAL HUNTER! We carry a nice & clear, uncut and widescreen print. Probably the most bizarre female revenge movie ever made.

And welcome to Gary B (another dvdManiac I believe) who's now also one of my disciples. That's a cool blog ya got there, Gary. :D

Mga Reyna Ng Kagubatan

I'm looking for info on a Filipino flick entitled MGA REYNA NG KAGUBATAN over on one of my other 1001 blogs. If you have any info on this rare film please let me know. Thanks.
Go here.