BAMBOO HOUSE OF DOLLS

It's not Filipino at all but, well, being a war WIP flick from Asia (HK) I guess it is RELATED! So here's the pretty cool cover for the upcoming Danish release of BAMBOO HOUSE OF DOLLS starring Danish actress Birte Tove. The Danish title translates "Women's Prison in Bamboo Hell". XD.

[click for proper size!]

VENGEANCE SQUAD (Philippines, 1987)

aka KOMMANDO TIGER-FORCE (Holland)

VHS / Greece / fullscreen / English audio / Greek subs

Director Jett C. Espiritu Producer Teejay Executive Producers Lita Buenaseda, Baby, Ann & Thet Cinematography Arnold Alvaro Music Carlos Rodriguez Editor Oscar Dugtong Assistant Director Russel Castillo Assistant Editors Joe Ramirez, Joe Buenconsejo Props & Special Effects Boy Sto. Domingo Layout Bing P. Santos Titles Angle B. Corros Special Live Effects Francisco Espinosa Sound Supervision Gabby Castellano Fight Instructors Fred Esplana, Rey Solo Secretary Erlinda Tolentino Sales Manager Mario Cajucom General Manager Hildo Jose

Cast Jimmy Santos, Ronnie Valle, Gil Guerrero, Robert Talby, Robert Miller, Danny Riel, Charlie Blackspoon, Ronnie Patterson, James Gaines, Kristine Erlandson, David Light, Robert Marius, Fahed Rupp, Fred Esplana, Rey Solo, Tony Lao, Boy Ibaites, Boy Castellano, Tony Tacorda, Joel Dinero, Jay Grama, Amor Villa, Ramon Zamora, Franco Rivero, Liza Riosa


review by ANDREW LEAVOLD

Competing groups of Filipino "rebels" and foreign mercenaries are hired by Kewpie heiress "Mrs Robertson" (played with supreme indifference by Scandinavian expat Kristine Erlandson) to track down her husband's killer. Told via flashback, the holidaying couple are kidnapped by so-called rebel Gamorr; she is ravaged, he is tortured and shot. She mistakes her captor for his half-brother Godiss, a former cohort in the revolution who's since seen the light and returned to the side of goodness and order (read: the Marcos regime. Poorly disguised propaganda, or is the Philippines meant to be another miscellaneous South American poo-hole?). Rodrigo now heads Gamorr's former Goons, who had teamed up with the now-dead rebel Alexander and are now in league with the foreign devils led by balding soldier of fortune Blackwell...

And here lies one of the film's fatal flaws. Rogrigo? Alexander? Blackwell? Gamorr? There's way too many Goons competing for screen dominance, it's painful to keep up with who's who, let alone care - you cut off one head and another five appear. And yet each of those heads are infinitely more compelling than our bland, uninspiring hero Godiss: a relentlessly wordy and maudlin would-be-philosopher and Christ figure (God? Godiss?) with a not-so-subtle white cross painted on the back of his jacket.

Once Godiss is captured, Mrs Robertson settles on a Human Hunt, and offers $25,000 of her dwindling inheritance to the one who brings back his head. Not the smartest idea, pitting one group of relentless opportunists against each other, but it does give the narrative focus and and some poorly needed screen time for Blackwell's out of control chimp gang, described somewhere buried in the script as the "scums of the earth". They're native English speakers, yet they spit out strained dialog in staccato pigeon English like a constantly jamming rifle. Bobby Suarez regulars Robert Marius (Searchers Of The Voodoo Mountain) and Jim Gaines (from countless Kinavesa titles) help put the "cheese" in "macheesmo" with their few enjoyably D-grade tough guy lines, like "let's give them some sh*t!" Here's another flaw: there's just not enough cheese to go around. I don't expect much in life, but I DO want more from dumb action films - shameless, consistent, mind-blowingly entertaining dumbness. And some genuinely clever camera work from another Suarez veteran, Arnold Alvaro, can't disguise the fact that Vengeance Squad just isn't stoopid enough.

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Credits and review lifted from Andrew's blog here.


VHS / Holland / fullscreen / English audio / Dutch subs

DOUBLE EDGE (1986)

One rare flick that I did win a couple of weeks back is DOUBLE EDGE. It's not a trashy Vietnam war flick but it does feature Ron Kristoff and it is from the Philippines! XD

"Made in Hong Kong" index # list

I've begun to make a complete index list of releases from the "Made in Hong Kong" video label (UK) but I don't have all the tapes so either I'll have to wait till I get hold of them... or you write and tell me (that is if you have any of the tapes I haven't got. Obviously. LOL). The list is online over at Cinehound and you'll find it right here. If you're not a member there you can just post 'em here in the commentary box (or become a member at Cinehound, haha). Cheers.



Oh, and if anyone has a complete list of "Eastern Heroes" releases that would be VERY appreciated as well!!

New stuff

Ahh, I received a couple of cool Japanese tapes in the mail today; RESCUE TEAM and FIREBIRD CONSPIRACY!! I had both films already (on VHS from Greece and Finland) but this is way cooler!

VHS/Japan/fullscreen/English dub/Japanese subs
[click scan for a bigger size]

VHS/Japan/fullscreen/English dub/Japanese subs
[Click scan for full size cover]

Now, when you're done here why dontcha jump over to Paul Cook's spiffy blog Ballistic Blood Bullets and read his review of FIREBIRD CONSPIRACY here.

Updated posts

Hey, lots of new scans! Check the updated films here.

And watch Angela shoot a gun while she's wearing a bikini here:

SPYDER (1988)

VHS / Holland / fullscreen? / English audio / Dutch subs

VHS / Australia / fullscreen? / English audio / no subs

[click scans for full size]



Thanks goes out to Frank for the Aussie scan and to the Cinehound member who sent me the Dutch cover. Sorry, I forget who it was but, hey, if we meet at the airport let me know and I'll get ya a beer, mate. ^_^

DEADRINGER (1985)

aka LASER FORCE L'ARME ABSOLUE

KILLER INSTINCT (1987)

aka BEHIND ENEMY LINES
(Roger Corman retitled the film “Behind Enemy Lines” for its US release by Concorde-New Horizons)
Eastern Film Management Corporation/Premiere Productions

VHS/Australia/fs?/English audio/no subs

VHS/Holland/probably fullscreen/English dub/Dutch subs
[click scan for bigger size]


VHS/UK/probably fullscreen/English dub/no subs
[click scan for bigger size]


Director Cirio H. Santiago
Script "Joe"/Jose Mari Avellana
Producer Antony I. Ginnane
Music Jun Latonio
Director of Photography Ricardo Remias
Editors Pacífico Sánchez, Marc Tarnate
Production Designer Joe Mari Avellana Art
Director Ronnie Cruz
Makeup Teresa Mercader
Production Manager Honorato R. Pérez Jr
Assistant Director José Torres
Sound Effects Jun Cabrales, Rudy Cabrales
Boom Operator Dalmacio Dumigpi
Sound Supervisor Rolly Ruta
Special Effects Juan Marbella Jr
Stunt Co-Ordinator Ronald Asinas
Stunts Fred Esplana, Day Guerrero
Assistant Editors Jun Cabreza, Boy De Guzman
Assistant Camera Ricardo Dumigpi
Transportation Captain Geronimo Holandez
Camera Operator Benjamin L. Lobo
Gaffer Proceso Lázaro
Continuity Bobit Macapagal
Location Manager Aurelio Navarro
Still Photographer Nilo Odiaman
Local Casting Enrique Reyes
Script Supervisor Trinidad Sagarbarria
Casting Supervisor Cathy Santiago
Wardrobe Mistress Elvie Santos
Casting Assistant Henry Strzalkowski


Cast
Robert Patrick (Johnny Ransom)
Robert Dryer (Dmitri)
William Steis (Jacobs)
Morgan Douglas (Keller)
Lydie Denier (Capt. Dupre)
Barbara “Hooper”/Patrick (Terry)
Rey Malonzo (Sam)
Joe Mari Avellana (Tran Van Minh)
Henry Strzalkowski (Costello)
Anthony East (Townshead)
David Light (Nash)
Mel Davidson (Mathews)
“Willy”/Willie Williams (Brent)
Jeff Griffith (Ashton)
Townshead's Aides
Don Wilson
Tord Karlsson
Pierre Valderon
Jim Mackenzie
Vic Miranda
Steve Rogers
Leif Erlandsson

HEROES FOR HIRE (1984)

VHS/Holland/probably fullscreen/English dub/Dutch subtitles
[click scan for bigger size]

(Silver Star Film Company)

Director John Lloyd
Story/Screenplay Timothy Jorge
Producer “Silver Star Film Company”, [uncredited] K.Y. Lim Cinematography Vittorio “Abbot” [Anders?]
Music Patrick Wales
Editor Edgar Vincent
Production Design George Will
Art Director Tracy Gelber
Sound Effects Kenneth Little
Production Manager Bugsy Davidson
Production-In-Charge Roger Black
Production Assistants Dhel Mayer, John Crocker
Propsman David Pauley
Setman Archer Speers
Grip Mark Miller
Keygrip Peter McKillop
Bestboy Alexis Gelber
Dollygrip William Clark
Assistant Director Tom Coger
Assistant Editors Joseph Collins, Richard Collins
Assistant Cameraman Ron Young
Wardrobe Master Maynard Parker
Location Master Jeff Dallas
Transport Manager Larry Byrd
Assistant to the Producer John Witherspoon
Makeup Artist Anne Underwood
Stillman Lincoln Abraham
Wrangler Terry Johnson
Field Cashier Carolyn Friday
Scriptgirl Judith Fox
Propsmaster Peter Hackett
Focus Puller Robert McFarlane
Camera Operator Richard Allen Field
Soundman Ron Kennedy
Special Effects Leonard Wood
Sound Effects John Aaron
Sound Mixer Bob Barker
Stunt Co-ordinator “Gerry”/Jerry Bayron
2nd AD Billy Bates
3rd AD Bill Powell
Production Secretary Lynn Langway

HELL RAIDERS (Philippines, 1986)

NB: This is the Filipino film. There's a Barry Prima film from Indonesia with the same title. Go here for the Indo film.

VHS/Holland/probably fullscreen/English dub/Dutch subtitles
[click scan for bigger size]


VHS/Greece/probably fullscreen/English dub/Greek subtitles
[click scan for bigger size]

A bucketful of new bloody scans

I've now got ten tons of new cool scans. Not just tiny crappy eBay scans but some big muthers!!!

The new ones are:

Blackfire NL + 2 UK vhs covers
Commando Invasion NL + German
Crossbone Territory Thai poster
No Dead Heroes Jap, NL, Greek covers
Fireback NL + Swedish covers
Forgotten Warrior NL cover
Leathernecks NL + US covers
Intrusion: Cambodia NL cover + poster
Final Mission UK cover
Heroes for Hire NL cover
Hell Raiders NL + Greek covers
Jungle Rats NL cover
Jungle Wolf NL cover
Killer Instinct NL + UK covers
Kris Commando NL cover
Slash NL + UK covers
Rescue Team Jap. vhs

These are just the first ones, keep an eye on this post as I'll be uploading many more soon.

Big thank-yous go out to Sergeant Rock, Djponey, Gourmetsentai, Petcor80, Kothar, and Patrick B from Cinehound message board who all helped provide this new batch of very cool covers. Thanks mates!!!

Another family member returns home

I just won the Greek release of BLACK WARRIORS (1987) (aka Super Platoon). Woo-hoo! I already have the film as such and it's even one of the very few I have on DVD (a REAL legit dvd!) but it'll be nice to get this VHS cos it carries the English dubbed print! The DVD I have is from Germany and altho it does include English subtitles it's also only dubbed in German! Why didn't they just include the English dub as well!?

You can read my review here.

VHS/Greece/fullscreen/English dub/Greek subs

Directed by: Christ Hannah
Starring: Barry Hyman, Kevin Brooks, Sorapong Chatree and Kong Tao.

Onar-Bill's description of the film: SYNOPSIS: 1987 Asian gory sadistic war giant!! THE IMDB IGNORES IT!! CHECK OUT THE TORTURE WITH ACID AND SNAKES!! YECCHHH!!!

Bikini Girls with Machine Guns!!!

Oh man, check this video out!!! :-) :-) :-)

'Jungle Commandos on VHS'

[Click scan for bigger size]

Oh sweet mama!!! Check this new thread out over at Cinehound: The Jungle Commandos on VHS thread!!! The thread began only two days ago but it's already fulla tons, and I mean literally TONNES, of RAD, trashy Filipino war flick VHS covers!!!

There's also a bunch of Italian ones, and... the cover for the mofo rare CANNIBAL MERCENARY which I'm gonna steal right away (altho it's not really a 'steal' since the über-cool members there don't mind my using them!). Thanks to Sergeant Rock, Djponey, and Gourmetsentai for posting so far! Keep 'em coming!! :-)

All the scans are nice but I'm especially happy to see the cover for the Thai film CANNIBAL MERCENARY (aka Mercenary) which only exists uncut on VHS in the US (or should I say existed as it's practically impossible to find now!).

And here's yet another rare tape I got hold of a couple of days ago on Japanese VHS; Jun Gallardo's (aka John Gale) COMMANDO INVASION. :-) :-) :-)


Read Fred Adelman's review here.


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