In the near future...The Tokyo Police force has been privatized and incorporated. The new force has their hands full with a new type of genetically engineered mutant stalking the streets and brutally taking human lives. Luca, the top level officer at Tokyo Police has special law enforcement skills but her dark past makes her vulnerable. She is determined to hunt the mutant known as “Engineer” until the day she can find and destroy the mysterious “Key-Man”.
We debuted the first footage from upcoming cult flick Tokyo Gore Police here at Twitch a while back, a four minute reel of footage cut together for use at Japan’s Yubari Fantastic Film Festival. True to it’s name it was nasty, gorey stuff, with Audition star Eihi Shiina hacking and slashing her way through a series of bizarre mutants. Only down side to that promo was that it was cut together early enough in the film’s life that it wasn’t entirely through post production yet and was still a little rough around the edges. Well, no more! The official trailer has just been released and the blood has been buffed and polished to a high sheen. There’s not really anything in the way of new footage in this one but things have been tightened up considerably with some of the more bizarre moments - hello, crocodile girl! - moved up front and center ... You’ll find both trailers in the Twitch Player below the break.
Continue Reading "Second TOKYO GORE POLICE Trailer"...
He seems like such a pleasant young man in person but then, that’s what they say about all sorts of deviants, now isn’t it? Canadian writer-director Karim Hussain has just announced his latest project, the aptly titled Filthy, a film revolving around garbage fetishists. And that’s fetish in the true, deriving-sexual-pleasure-from sense, I make sure to point out. Fresh of the success of their Pakistani splatter picture Hell’s Ground, Filthy is the first of a slate of new pictures to be announced from the Mondo Macabro lads and they’ll be touting the picture to prospective investors in Cannes with a nasty little promo teaser in tow. You’ll find details below the break and a larger version of the poster linked below.
Continue Reading "Karim Hussain Has A FILTHY Mind"...
Japanese cinema has a long history of female revenge films. As my knowledge of Japanese cinema grows it’s be interesting to find action heroines outside of those who I knew from industries such as Hong Kong with actresses like Michelle Yeoh. So color me interested when I hear about a new female revenge film, Hard Revenge, Milly, starring Miki Mizuno, that finished lensing recently and will screen this August in Japan. I just hope it is longer than the listed 44 minutes run time over at Eigepedia. If not, V Cinema is just fine by us.
At some point in the near future gun and weapon control laws are deregulated by public order. Because of this, Asia quickly becomes the epicenter of violent criminal activity in the world. In Yokohama City this violence becomes so extreme that the population quickly drops as ordinary people try to escape the criminal element that remain, leaving the northern part of the city as a haven of sorts to a particularly violent gang of four miscreants that call themselves The Jack Brothers.
When The Jack Brothers viciously murder Milly’s husband in daughter in front of her, leaving her to die, she vows revenge. She learns the art of sword combat from a master swordsman named Juubee, and eventually sets off to confront The Jack Brothers at their hideout in an abandoned factory.
Miki Mizuno is well versed in action cinema starring in Sasori, last year’s remake of Female Convict Scorpion, has a long history with martial arts training and apparently according to the report over at Tokyograph did all her own stunts. Chick’s hardcore!
The title of this article immediately gives away this DVD-boxset’s biggest draw: it contains the bundled version of “Planet Terror”, “Death Proof” and the famed fake trailers which was released in United States’ cinemas under the name “Grindhouse”.
For now this is the only DVD-edition which can boast that, and it is a sweet looking package indeed. Its six (!) discs also contain the longer international cuts of both “Planet Terror” and “Death Proof”, with loads and loads of extras.
No English subs, but hey, it’s all in English anyway, extras and all!
Now, a word of warning: even though we probably have enough reviews for these movies on the site already, I only saw them last weekend through this release and I cannot resist adding my 0.02 USD. This has made it my longest review yet. Heh.
To make amends I also included a picture of Rose McGowan somewhere, dodging a rocket in a spectacular way.
If you are just interested in the quality of the discs and the extras, skip to the end where it’ll say “On to the DVD”.
Read on....
Continue Reading "GRINDHOUSE Japanese R2 Complete Box DVD Review"...
I was given a heads up about two trailers on the official site of Julien Zenier’s shocking and ‘cutting edge’ Spanish short film SNIP. Having watched Zenier’s piece I found it to be a dark and very disturbing work with no shortage of blood. 12 minutes of helplessness and eventual self expression by the edge of a knife. Wow.
Glued to his TV set, a man channel-surfs frenetically, zapping from one stultifying show to the other. As he grows more and more indifferent to the constant stream of violent and crude images, he stands up and engages himself in an unspeakable act of self-liberation.
SNIP is Julien Zenier’s first shocking and cutting edge Spanish Short Film, starring Zoe Berriatúa (Bigas Luna’s Volavérunt, África...), featuring some extremely realistic body modifications FX by Quimera FX, and heightened by a stunning chiaroscuro cinematography by David Acereto (BackWoods, The Night of the Sunflowers...). The film also counts on a suffocating sound design made by the cult film maker Cesar Velasco Broca -aka Regis Muskiz- (Avant Petalos Grillados, Transharmonic Nights...).
You’re going to make sure that your knives are nowhere near the television remote after seeing them.
CAUTION: Suggestive scenes and nudity.
The Twitch website (yes, this one) got its highest spike in traffic last year when word got out that we were hosting the trailer for Noboru Iguchi’s “Kataude Mashin Gâru” (The Machine Girl). And very much rightly so because it was one of the most outrageous trailers in ages.
And as a good trailer should, it sure whetted the appetite for the main course…
I finally caught up with the movie itself this weekend at the Amsterdam Fantastic Film Festival, and it was a definite audience-pleaser. While it didn’t dislodge “[°Rec]” from first place it scored a very respectable 8.1 out of ten.
That should answer the question whether or not this movie delivers on the promises made in that yucky trailer: it does.
So what is it about?
Well, it’s an exploitation revenge flick of the highest (or rather lowest) order, with gore flying around by the bucket loads.
There Will Be Blood!
Read on after the break…
Continue Reading "AFFF 2008: THE MACHINE GIRL Review"...
I think it goes without saying we have a wicked bag of tricks ready for Fantastic Fest 2008. The first announced details for this year include announcing its retrospective sections of Japanese Pinku and Australian Exploitation films. Other highlights this year will include: a boat ton of badass Danish genre cinema and a amped-up, recreation of the classic William Castle Tingler gimmick! And yes there will be karaoke mayhem and Fantastic Feud craziness will once again spread throughout the festival. Todd alone has so much up his sleeve to delight, dazzle and thrill at this years fest that some will think he is a long lost relative of Merlin. Fantastic Fest 2008 will be pulling out all the stops to top 2007. Also be on the look out for a special June screening of Iguchi’s Machine Girl in Austin. More details after the link bump.
Continue Reading "First Details Emerge for Fantastic Fest 2008 - Japanese Pinku & Aussie Exploitation Retrospectives!!"...
A demented lo-fi tumble into dark surrealism, Robert Martin Carroll’s undeservedly obscure ’89 opus Sonny Boy plays like the institutionalized cousin of the Coens’ saccharine-by-comparison Raising Arizona. Anchored by a trio of outstanding turns from reliable genre thesps Paul L. Smith, Brad Douriff, and David Carradine (in drag and crooning over the credits), the film garnered relatively glowing critical praise and minor cult plaudits upon its initial release but has since faded into unjust obscurity. Last seen on laserdisc courtesy of Media and 20th Century Fox, the film was once the property of ‘80s VHS mainstay Trans World Entertainment, with some rights resting with HBO. Its exact whereabouts remain a mystery, a shameful fate for a film so consistently original and daring.
Continue Reading "Seldom Seen review | SONNY BOY"...
The good folks at the Alamo Drafthouse in Austin Texas are at it again with showings of classic genre movies and of course they got fantastic looking posters to go with them. Most notable is Tyler Stout’s The Thing poster, done in the same style as his sought after Big Trouble In Little China piece. Also up for sale is a Planet of the Apes poster by Todd Slater and The Car poster by Stainboy. As before the posters are all silk screened and extremely limited. The two posters I talked about last time sold out within 36 hours so act fast if you want a piece of this. The prints for The Thing and Apes come each with their own variant that is more limited than the regular version so they go for a slightly higher price.
This is a must for all fans of film and beautiful art so please check them out at mondotees.com.
For those who missed out on the 2001 poster I talked about last time and want one, you can go to artist Jay Ryan’s own website and order a copy.
**UPDATE** If you wanted that totally awesome King Kong poster that I talked about in the first poster alert but missed out I have good news. Burlesque Design are putting this bad boy up for sale at their website today at 2 pm CST. I don’t know for sure how many there will be but these went out fast the last time they were on sale so act quickly.
Nazisploitation? It’s back in Blitzkrieg: Escape From Stalag 69 and it’s got enough sex, violence and Nazi action to offend just about anyone. Yup.
Some last minute breaking news here for Toronto area cult film fans with word coming down of a late addition - late as in added late last night - to the upcoming Over The Top fest here in Canada’s land of potholes and seemingly never ending crappy weather. Noboru Iguchi’s The Machine Girl will be making its local big screen debut - in what I believe is the North American theatrical premiere, though I’ve not confirmed that - at Toronto’s Royal Cinema at midnight on Saturday, May 3rd. This is such a fresh addition that it’s not yet listed on the festival website, though advance tickets are available at the link below. And you can, of course, marvel at the insanity of the Machine Girl trailer below the break.
Continue Reading "THE MACHINE GIRL Coming To Toronto!"...
Curious to see more of ultra-splattery Japanese cult flick Machine Girl? Of course you are! Who wouldn’t want to see more of a movie built around an attractive teen girl with heavy weaponry for an arm? And thanks to our good friend at Bloody Disgusting, now you can as they’ve just landed an exclusive clip from the film. You can check the trailer here below the break and hit the link below to check the new clip.
Continue Reading "More MACHINE GIRL!"...
I’m throwing down the gauntlet on this one: Rolling Vengeance is a dyed-in the-wool minor lost classic in annals of ‘80s exploitation. We’ve been denied other superlative Reagan-era efforts like Night of the Creeps on DVD for some time but the thing is, people are calling for their re-releases - there are websites, even petitions. Vengeance, on the other hand, seems to have slipped past even the most meticulous DTV aficionados. Produced (in Canada, no less) at the height of monster truck mania in the go-go ‘80s, the film is a straight shot of over-the-top car crunching action and cheesy hard-rock ballads, the likes of which must truly be seen to be believed.
Part of the hicksploitation sub-genre (exemplified by Road House, beholden to Deliverance) that rears its gap-toothed head every so often with little rhyme or reason, Vengeance won’t sweep any retroactive award races and doesn’t fly in the face of genre conventions. What it does do is play all the right notes to their hilt, something much easier said than done when it comes to balancing the polar elements that make for a memorable sleaze fest. Vengeance has the great advantage of a script completely in tune with its roots, actors unafraid to give their all in intentionally outsized performances, and an oh-so-80s vibe throughout that’s tough to resist.
Continue Reading "Seldom Seen review | ROLLING VENGEANCE"...
Not only does Noboru Iguchi’s Machine Girl arrive on DVD June 3rd but apparently she’s a cheap date, too, Amazon currently offering the disc for under fourteen bucks. Having seen the film I can say that, yes, this is every bit as crazy and chaotic as the trailer would lead you to expect. It is sheer low budget, exploitative, splattery madness. And a whole lot of fun. Check the trailer below the break if you need to refresh your memory.
Continue Reading "The MACHINE GIRL Arrives On DVD June 3rd!"...
You gotta love Turner Classic Movies ("TCM") for respecting the breadth of the term “classic”, applying it equally to silent films as to countercultural indies. Case in point: tonight’s doublebill of Twitch favorite Jamaa Fanaka, whose Emma Mae (aka Black Sisters Revenge, 1976) and Penitentiary (1980) are boasting their late night TCM premieres tonight at 11:00PM and 12:45AM PT (3 hours later ET), respectively.
I recently ran into TCM’s Director of Programming, Charlie Tabesh, at the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival, and welcomed the opportunity to congratulate him on his continuing creative programming; not only the Val Lewton retrospective a month or so back, on which I piggybacked The Evening Class Val Lewton blogathon, but the Charles Burnett showcase, tonight’s Fanaka double bill, and their upcoming June focus on Asian and Asian American representation in film. Let it be said in print that Charlie Tabesh is guiding the art of exhibition right into the 21st century by championing films that might otherwise never be seen. Though Fanaka’s films might not align with everyone’s notion of “classic”, their historicity is unquestioned and their impact on independent filmmaking seminal. Kudos to Charlie Tabesh for recognizing same! And a loving shout-out to my man Jamaa for his television debut!
Cross-published on The Evening Class.
