PHILIPPINE SOLDIERS: The Action Films of Teddy Page (with Andrew Leavold)

 

Alright, things are moving at a snail's pace here but at least I've got something GOOD for ya this time 'round: Simon Miller over at EXPLOSIVE ACTION blog and YouTube channel (with help from Andrew Leavold) has put together an awesome documentary video about Teddy Page's Vietnam War flicks. The doc runs just under an hour and you should check it out right away. The film actually had a (very) limited DVD-R release but needless to say it sold out right away. 

- Jack

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Description from Explosive Action: 

"TEDDY PAGE (real name Teddy Chiu) is one of my favourite trash film directors. Throughout the 1980s he made some of the most entertaining, low-budget, explosive action jungle films you will ever see. 

With the help of certified Weng Wengologist and Filipino film expert ANDREW LEAVOLD ("The Search For Weng Weng"), I explore the English language action films that Teddy churned out between 1983-1995.

My interest in Teddy Page's films started with Phantom Soldiers on Japanese VHS in 2010, and the obsession has only increased over the years, encouraged by the writings, documentaries, blogs and conversations with people such as:

Andrew Leavold: Bamboo Gods and Bionic Boys + The Search for Weng Weng

Paul Cooke (RIP): Ballistic Blood Bullets

David Zuelo: Tomb it May Concern

Jack Jensen: When the Vietnam War Raged... in the Philippines

This film was a passion project and labour of love over five months, and is my most detailed and intricate video yet with a lot of editing and sourcing of footage."

- Simon Miller

Thanks for the mention, Simon! 

And here's Andrew Leavold's description from his web-shop

"Filipino action fans rejoice! Our good friend in Sydney, Simon Miller (Explosive Action) has made this awesome mini-documentary on Filipino Z-grade action director Teddy Page (real name Teddy Chiu, aka Irvin Johnson etc)… and he invited me to participate! Almost an hour of blood, guts and exploding huts, with Simon’s commentary on each film (Blood Debts, Hunters Crossing etc), and me filling in the historical back-story of Teddy and Kimmy Lim’s no-budget action film factory Kinavesa/Silver Star. Simon has made ten hand-numbered copies on DVD – and Trash Video Archives has our exclusive mitts on numbers 6 to 10. So grab one now, as once they sell, they’re gone forever…"

- Andrew Leavold

Like I mentioned in the above they're already sold out!

Gutter Hunter #1 (Canada, 2021)

It's 5 in the morning here and I just ordered Robin Bougie's new zine, Gutter Hunter!! The first print run was sold out in five days from Robin's own website (in Canada), but a pile was sent by a slow moving steamboat to FAB Press in England. I've been waiting for two months for the zine to arrive and it's finally here - or rather there - at FAB Press' headquarters. Now I just have to wait to get it from FAB Press. Yah! Spiffy!! :D

Robin Bougie ran his zine Cinema Sewer for like 25 years or so, but last year he felt it was time to call it a day. The old mag dealt with 70s and 80s porn and exploitation films. This new zine is dedicated to underground comix.

As I write this the first issue is still available from FAB Press in the UK. £12 + pp. 100 pages.

Oh, and I just found some guy's cool review of the zine on YouTube. Check it out, cabron!

Nick Zedd - RIP

Nick Zedd passed away a few days ago at the age of 63. Way too young. I can't say I knew too much about him but it is always a loss when someone from the alternative world dies (yes, yes, it's always a loss, you know wha ah mean). Zedd was part of the Cinema of Transgression movement in the 80s. He made his own films and he was in films by Richard Kern. And he did heaps of other stuff. At some point he relocated to Mexico where he lived for many years. 

I think I first heard about Nick Zedd via an interview in Thomas Eikrem's fanzine Rage in the early 90s. Later I got some of the New York underground films by Kern and Zedd. Via tapetrading. Those films were completely impossible to get hold of over here on legit tape. Were they even officially released on video tape? I have no idea. If you wish to read more about Nick Zedd and the cause of his death I recommend you go here. On that page there are comments by people who apparently knew him. RIP, Nick. 

 Nick Zedd interview from 2007:

NICK ZEDD interview after showing in Harrisburg from moviate harrisburg on Vimeo.

THE LEATHER NUN - live at the Scala Cinema - cassette album (1980)

 Sometime in the early 80s I was listening to a rock programme on the local radio. On that particular night they were interviewing Jonas Almqvist from the Swedish underground band Lädernunnan which had changed their name to The Leather Nun in order to get on MTV, haha (no, not really).

Anyhoo, after the interview the radio show played a live recording which from memory ran for about 25-30 minutes. I was hooked from the word go and soon after I bought their album "Alive" - also a live recording (from Denmark). But for some reason I never followed the band or got their other records. I guess it comes down to being skint. And probably due to the then lack of a world wide web I never discovered that their first release was another live album - a cassette tape only release. But here it is: The Leather Nun live at the Scala Cinema in London. 

Poster for gig at the venue Saltlageret in Copenhagen, Denmark

I used to live in London and I used to hang out at the Scala, but needless to say this was years after the leather clad nuns played there. Thanks to the wonders of the internet (I truly reckon the internet conveys the true spirit of punk) we can now listen to and enjoy (or roll your eyes at - if being square is your thing) this early recording of Lädernunnan. Yes, it's crude and raw and I would be VERY surprised if any of you could actually write down the lyrics from listening to this! 

You get two choices; The tape is on YouTube (in two parts, side A and B obviously) but it's also available as an mp3 download from this post on the cool blog Die or DIY? Do notice the comment from the lead singer of the band in the comments section (posted in 2015)! 

Side A:

Side B: 

JOHN WATERS on Emerald tv (1977)

 

Yesterday, I posted a cool episode of the Joan Quinn tv show that had John Waters on it in 1997. And here's an even more fun show that John did for a local tv station. This one is right out gay (check the ads!) and great fun. Oh, and it's from 1977! Most of the John Waters shows/interviews on youtube are from way later. And it's cool to see a younger version on Waters. The interviewer is enthusiastic, the questions are good, and he isn't kissing up to John, which sometimes happens in later interviews and which irritates me.
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A sad bit of info from the comments section to the video:
"This show is introduced by handsome Frank O'Dowd, who sadly died of AIDS in 1988. Vito Russo, who interviews John Waters, died of AIDS in 1990." - DentalTech1000

JOHN WATERS and MINK STOLE on "The Joan Quinn Profiles" show (1997 + 2000)

 

 There's a ton of John Waters interviews to get lost in out there, and needless to say they're all great (at least if you're a fan - and quite frankly: I am), but then once in a while you stumble over one interview which is somewhat different. And this is one of them! 

I don't live in LA (or the US for that matter) so I'm really not familiar with Joan Quinn but from online info she has apparently been presenting a local (local in LA that is) tv show for the past 30 years. On her show she usually talks to two "celebs" (although I've never heard of 98 % of them) for half an hour. She's been doing this since the early 90s and according to IMDb she still does the show!  

I assume she liked John a lot cos as a rare occurrence she dedicated the full show to him. Three years later she also spoke to Mink Stole, which I'll also include in this post. Hardly anybody has seen these two interviews (on YouTube anyway) which is rather odd. 

MUTINEY! The Last Birthday Party (Heiner Mühlenbrock, West Germany, 1983)

NB: The video does work despite the black avatar!

I've been a fan of Nick Cave's old band THE BIRTHDAY PARTY for almost longer than I can remember, but it wasn't till this afternoon that I came across this documentary film about the recording of their last record, the EP "Mutiny" from 83. But cool that you can still be able to find "new" stuff you haven't seen before. 

The doc runs around 25 minutes and there's no narration in the film. Just the band (and Blixa Bargeld) recording. 

Dangerous Minds wrote about the film already back in 2017. Go here. 

PS: Yes, it's been at least a year and a half since my last post. Is anybody actually out there reading?

T.S.O.L – "Abolish Government/Silent Majority"

T.S.O.L doing "Abolish Government/Silent Majority":

Slayer's version of the track from their punk cover album:

Bummer! The YouTube channel that uploaded the T.S.O.L. video was closed down which means it was gone here too. And I forgot to download the original version! So here's another version copied off YouTube. This time I've uploaded the copy to Blogger. So sick of channels disappearing from YouTube and people changing their videos to "private". Oh well, here it is again. And if nothing else it made me download the Slayer video for whenever THAT channel owner decides to close shop. 

DAUGHTERS OF SATAN (USA/Philippines, 1972)

DAUGHTERS OF SATAN 
(USA/Philippines, 1972)
Director: Hollingsworth Morse

I've seen a lot of Filipino flicks but I must admit never to have come across DAUGHTERS OF SATAN before. Made as a US/Filipino coproduction in 1972 and directed by some guy called Hollingsworth Morse. The name did not ring a bell with this reviewer! A quick gander at IMDb makes me think this is probably his most interesting work. He made episodes in various TV series but nothing that stands out I'm sorry to say. I reckon this is his only horror film. 

An American businessman (played by Tom Selleck!) living with his American wife in the Philippines buys a painting from a mysterious antique dealer (played by Vic Diaz of course). The painting is 300 years old and shows three witches being burned alive. Charming picture to hang next to the dinner table! One of the witches looks exactly like his wife. The wife isn't too pleased with the purchase. She suffers from mental problems so having to look at herself being torched at the stake every day probably isn't her idea of cool interior decoration.

At some point while the husband is at work she encounters an evil dog, and an evil housekeeper turns up at her doorstep. Later there's another witch, more evil evildoers engaging in evil practices, and women getting flogged and hung over deadly iron spikes. 

DAUGHERS OF SATAN is odd and maybe it doesn't make too much sense but, hey, when was that a problem in horror movies!? I think the film is wonderfully odd and I much disagree with Ian Jane's 17 year old review from DVDManiacs (also copied by Andrew Leavold on his blog). He didn't think it was all that entertaining. Personally, I didn't look at the clock one single time throughout the film.
   
Ian Jane reviewed a UK DVD release in 2003 but I got the new (from 2018) blu-ray released by SHOUT! FACTORY. It doesn't mention if this release is sourced from a film negative or a 35mm print but it looks fabulous in any case. In contradiction to the DVD this release is in 1.85:1 widescreen. There's hardly any extras, a trailer and some still photos. The disc is subtitled in English. 

Final word: Highly recommended! (and I'd advise you get it sooner rather than later. These things have a tendency to go out of print fairly quickly these days). 

Apparently, the film played at US cinemas on a double bill with another US/Filipino production, SUPERBEAST. The trailer is for this double bill and SHOUT! have released both films on blu-ray (I own a terrible shit looking, censored bootleg DVD from ZDD. Needless to say, I have ordered the new blu-ray of SUPERBEAST but I reckon it's most likely stuck somewhere in traffic as so much stuff seems to be during these weird times we live in).



Trailer:
 

ABEL FERRARA - podcast

ABEL FERRARA - podcast (Filmwax Radio episode #453, 29:30 min, 21. May 2018)

Abel Ferrara is the guest on this episode of the Filmwax Radio podcast. It was uploaded two years ago and only has 22 hits! I don't know if this means that people don't listen to podcasts, or if they don't care about Abel Ferrara, or they just haven't discovered this episode yet. Give it a spin if you like Abel. I think it's a cool episode. They talk about his interest in documentary films and living in Italy.