Lost in the (Filipino) Vietnam jungle for 11 years!

Good grief! It has just dawned on me that this blog turned 11 yesterday!!!

Who would have thought I'd still be doing this after more than a decade. Oh well, it's not like I post all that often so NOT REALLY HARD WORK AT ALL, haha.

It's been fun, not least the one aspect which is different to my other blogs; the fact that I've met quite a few of the actors from those old B-flicks (met online at least). Actually, most of them found me, not the other way round. All good fun and a lot of hours spent watching entertaining B war flicks that never took themselves too seriously.

Too bad Nick Nicholson left us way too soon. Here's a toast to you wherever you are, sir. Thanks to everyone who ever helped out with info, films or even just posted comments on the blog and the fb page. Cheers.

Alright, pack up yer gear, let's get back into the jungle!

Hey there! 

It's been a while. Everything goes in circles - I'm not talking 'bout riding your bike. I'm being philosophical here. Yeah, philosophical on a site about trashy Nam war B-movies. Can you imagine. Everything in life goes in circles and that includes hobbies. Sometimes your hobby lasts for a year or two, or ten years, but at some point it goes into a standstill of sorts. When that happens to some people, usually when they're younger, they sell off their collection or simply chuck it in the bin. I realised long ago that often you'll regain your interest in whatever hobby you got bored with, and when that happens you'll be pissed off, kicking yourself in the head, and calling yourself a cunt and a motherfucker for having let your collection go. I've seen it happen to comic book collectors, film collectors and record collectors. They usually go, "Arr man, why did I get rid of all my shit - and I didn't even get any money out of it!" Haha. Well, enough babble, I've just watched my first Filipino Vietnam War flick for a really long time and here's a review. Hope you'll enjoy it. Welcome back! 

/Jack

Lost in action somewhere in a long forgotten jungle hell...

Alright, maybe not actually lost in action but I'm sure you've noticed the absence of my presence anyhow. I've been doing blogs for the past 6 years and before that print fanzines for much longer - and I feel a bit tired. So it's time to take a break. No need to worry, mate, this isn't the end but as I said a break. I've already shut down my other blogs and this here is the last one to go on stand-by. Do people even read blogs any more? There was certainly more interaction in the early days. But then again I never did When the Vietnam War Raged... in the Philippines for the sake of interaction but simply to cover a category of films that hardly nobody covered. Anyhoo, thanks to everyone who's helped me along the way. Be seeing you.

More VHS covers

Thanks to FRANK from Australian Video Covers blog I've now got a handful of new cool VHS covers from OZ (and thanks for the link!). Check them out, they're for these films THE EXECUTIONER PART II, WARCAMP, SIX SOLDIERS, SPYDER, HELL RAIDERS (Indonesia). I'd also like to send out a big cheers to everyone else who's sent me cool covers in the past (not least Simon, Jayson, Christian S, Hans-Jørn/Diabolik, several Cinehound members, people I don't even know, and everyone I can't remember right now). You guys rawk! (Twisted Sister music here or some such). Most of my own uploads are crappy scans from eBay and I've relied heavily on you guys to send me stuff. I've finally got a scanner again and I'll do scans of my own covers as well now. But still, if you've got covers that I don't have on here feel free to send me full scans of them. I'm not too interested in getting googled thumb sized covers or eBay covers but any old VHS covers in full size (and from other formats too, dvd / vcd / ld / blu-ray / betamax / video2000 / what-have-ya formats. And posters too) that you have is cool. I don't mind if the covers are from dubbed or cut versions, they're all interesting! And trailers! If you upload rare trailers that I don't have please let me know. Cheers.

Check Frank's blog here. He says there's 1500 Aussie VHS covers on there! My gawd!

Hmm, someone mentioned Tassie. ^_^ Back in the 90s I remember reading or hearing about when the police raided the Port Arthur Massacre guy's house and they found something like 2000 action films on VHS. A review somewhere (either in FATAL VISIONS zine or on EEEK! on RRR) mentioned that that was the reason BLOODSUCKING FREAKS was banned again after having been released. Not sure how much there is to that story but needless to say films don't make you an insane mass-murderer.

Overlooked and Ignored on home ground - but the Swedes love us!

In the past couple of weeks there's been much media focus on a new film festival right here in my own backyard called Filippinsk Film Festival. It's not all that obvious from the info on this blog but I'm located in Denmark (a small country in the south of Scandinavia - and in the north or Europe!).

The reason I'm mentioning this new film festival is that it's entirely devoted to Filipino cinema. However, you don't get a prize for guessing that it's not devoted to the kind of COOL and RAD Filipino cinema what you and I are into. Nope. No insane Filipino Vietnam action! So why mention the festival at all?? Uhh, in the wurds of miss Allen to have a little whine and a moan, haha. No, not really. I'm just a bit curious as to why we're being so totally and utterly ignored by the people behind this new Filipino film festival.

I would assume they know about this website. The mere fact that the ONLY site IN THE WORLD to fully concentrate on Filipino Vietnam war movies is from the same country as they are ought to have made them just a wee bit interested. Show some unity or some shit like that. Someone suggested they might not know about this here site but I don't buy that.

When the Stockholm Film Festival in Sweden ran a feature on Filipino cinema a couple of years back they had no problems finding this blog. They invited me to their festival and they've kept sending invites ever since. They invited me to their press section at the Cannes Film Festival for crying out loud! But this local film fest in my own backyard? Nada. Not a mention. Not an invite. Not a hello. Not anything. I didn't expect a fucking limo to pick me up or VIP treatment (although an intro a la this would have been nice: "and before we introduce tonight's film let us just have a round of applause for the creator of 'When the Vietnam...' without whom the Filipino film industry would have been buried and forgotten long ago", hahaha). Recognition would've been enough.

I wrote to them via their Facebook-page and received a blank stare. I'm rolling on the floor laughing here cos this is so typically Danish. They're in the same country as When the Vietnam War Raged... in the Philippines and yet they choose to ignore that - most likely cos theirs are serious films; The *new wave* of Filipino films. It's not important - but I just don't understand the attitude. If they're so into Filipino cinema that they'll go to the extent of putting up an entire film festival to honour these films I really don't comprehend why they would ignore the only website entirely devoted to Filipino war movies (one that's even located in their own fucking backyard).

Oh well, most of my readers are in the USA and elsewhere anyway so it's not like it makes much of a difference. I'm sure their festival is a mighty fine one and I wish them well. But needless to say I'm sure you realise I'd take a Ron Kristoff film any day over anything new. ^_^