YOUNG THUGS: INOCCENT BLOOD (1997)

  Japanese director Takashi Miike has made some enjoyable extremely violent films that I've enjoyed like FUDOH and ICHI THE KILLER and then there are the weird films(VISITOR Q for one) that I found interesting even though they seem pretty pointless beyond just being weird. A film reminiscing about youth in Japan with tumultuous relationships is probably not exactly what I would want to see from him. It is mixed with the usual hyper-violence so things don't fall too much into the romantic chick flick mode  but still one of my least favorite Miike films so far. 

 There was a follow-up to this called YOUNG THUGS: NOSTALGIA the following year, which is actually a prequel, but I'm in no hurry to see that one. There's also s 1996 film titled BOYS BE AMBITIOUS which is supposed to be part one except it takes place in the 70s and wasn't helmed by Miike.  

THE PRODIGAL SON (1981)

  Sammo Hung directs and acts in this kung fu tale of 2 affluent kids whose paths cross. There's a pretty convoluted plot here that takes all kinds of twists and turns including a bloody massacre that involves necks being slashed left and right and then jumps right back into goofy-ass comedy bits with Sammo and his fat fu antics. If you can handle the jarring narrative jumps it's a pretty entertaining martial arts flick and even though it's over 100 minutes long it moves pretty breezily. AKA PULL NO PUNCHES

DOOM ASYLUM (1987)

  Did they mean DUMB ASYLUM? This is one of the stupidest things I've seen in a while. The "plot" deals with a car-crash victim who somehow comes back alive on an autopsy table and becomes a psychopathic zombified killing machine. This was filmed inside of an actual abandoned medical facility so they make the most of that. There's a female punk band led by a Wendy O. Williams wannabee(Ruth Collins who allegedly was paid $100 for showing her boobs here) that sounds like Diamanda Galas when singing. There's some decent gore FX including a drill in the head and a saw to the cheek that look convincing enough. There's also a bunch of sad attempts at humour that makes things pretty cringey. 

 This film is notable as the first features for both Kristin davis(who would go on to be one of the main gals on SEX AND THE CITY) and Patty Mullen(who would go on to star in FRANKENHOOKER, a slightly better stupid movie.)  

ORGAN (1996)

  Well this a gross Japanese gore movie directed by and starring a Japanese lady(Kei Fujiwara). Puss, blood, puke and other various bodily fluids are the main features of this tale of a couple of cops trying to infiltrate a organ harvesting syndicate run by a perverted brother and sister duo. The plot is a bit hazy as to what the purpose of anything is so I assume the sole purpose of this film is to just be extremely goopy and gooey. Also I wasn't too sure why these detectives don't bother to have any backup before barging into a crime scene, but whatever. Check it out if your idea of art is a bloody pap smear. 

 The Japanese theatrical version of this was cut down(which was probably an improvement since it's almost 2 hours long!).

 The DVD I have of this contains a bunch of scenes allegedly from ORGAN 2 but I don't know if that was ever completed.

                            Gross trailer with dumb 90s techno!:

THE SWINGING STEWARDESSES (1971)

 If I've gained nothing else from watching a bunch of Swedish/Swiss sex films recently I now appreciate the beauty of Ingrid Steeger more than I ever did before. She's really the main draw of most of these films and this one is no exception. Not really any sort of a plot to speak of here. Some stewardesses get naked and get laid. Most of the movie doesn't even take place on a plane so it's really just the most basic standard soft-core sex flick that's a series of sexy scenes strung together. Has a bunch of AKA's including STEWARDESS REPORT, SWEET SENSATIONS and NAKED STEWARDESSES

          Rated X when shown in America but this was still before X was hardcore and explicit:

SUPERSTITION (1982)

 What we got here is a Canadian-made 80s supernatural slasher flick. Since it's supernatural, dealing with a witch coming back after almost 200 years to get revenge for being executed, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense. If you just want to see a few cool kill scenes though this does deliver those goods. You get a flying sawblade death, various killer inanimate objects(including a microwave, an elevator and a window) and an old decrepit witchy monster with long-clawed fingers. There's unfortunately also a couple of stupid kids but luckily this movie isn't afraid of kid deaths, so that's something. Overall a pretty dumb flick for slasher fans that have seen everything else already.  AKA THE WITCH

Goofy-ass trailer that I think is narrated by Brother Theodore:

Known in Italy as THE HOUSE OF MARY:

CARNIVAL ROCK (1957)

  This one's a pretty early Roger Corman-directed teen epic involving just what the title says, a carnival that has some rocking' acts play. The Platters are the biggest names featured but being a big fan of rockabilly myself I really dug seeing Bob Luman & His Shadows. The film itself is a weird mix of highly melodramatic scenes dealing with the owner of the carnival(David J. Stewart) losing his business along with his girlfriend and boppin' parts with teen dancing and bands tearing it up. It's all really drawn-out for such a shallow story so unless you really dig 50s music give this a pass. 

JAIL BAIT (1954)

  Ed Wood, after directing GLEN OR GLENDA and before doing BRIDE OF THE MONSTER, would give the world this film-noirish tale of a young man(Clancy Malone) who's led into the criminal underworld. His dad just so happens to be a plastic surgeon that's forced to do some facial reconstruction work to fool the coppers. Complete with stupid twist ending. Steve Reeves would get his start here before going on to become Hercules and other muscular hero-types in a few films. Wood's galpal, Dolores Fuller, returns from GLENDA in an equally clunky role. Despite the not so great acting a good slice of 50s crime melodrama.

This doesn't have anything to do with alluring underage gals so I'm guessing that term meant something else at the time. The posters make it seem that the female characters have much bigger roles than they actually do in the film itself and before viewing this I always thought it was one of those girl-gang epics.

 The VHS I own of this cuts out a blackface sequence for being politically incorrect, which is pretty lame but they did restore a striptease bit which is nice of them.  AKA HIDDEN FACE

FRIGHTMARE (1974)

 This Pete Walker-directed journey into insanity sure makes for a swell Mother's Day flick. Of course you have to be the type of person who enjoys watching surgery on corpses with a drill, a hot poker into the guts, eyeballs smashed out of skulls, cannibalism and that sort of thing. This was rated X in England and while most of the nastiness is not shown in very lurid detail, for the time and country this was made this was pretty cutting edge in the gore department. I really need to watch more Walker films soon.  AKA COVER UP, ONCE UPON A FRIGHTMARE and, best of all,  BRAINSUCKERS

 

                                            Known in Spain as SPEECHLESS TERROR!:

  

ZATOICHI MEETS THE ONE-ARMED SWORDSMAN (1971)

  If we want to remember just one scene from this Japanese samurai film(and perhaps the whole Zatoichi series!) it's got to be the epic moment when our hero, Zatoichi, is trying to get busy with a prostitute and is rudely interrupted by some peeping-tom's peeking through some paper windows at him and he responds by letting loose a nice fart right in their faces. Truly a heroic moment if there ever was one! Besides this you get a fairly standard 70s samurai flick with the inclusion of our one-armed Hong Kong hero(played by Jimmy Wang Yu who would also go on to star in the great ONE-ARMED BOXER). Zatoichi definitely came off looking to be the superior fighter in this to me but that's mostly because he's the main focus of the film and this seems more like a Japanese production overall. 

 An interesting experiment mixing two existing franchises(it's the 22nd Zatoichi film and the 3rd ONE-ARMED SWORDSMAN movie with Wang Yu) that's worth a look for Samurai or kung-fu fans. 

AKA THE BLIND SWORDSMAN MEETS HIS EQUAL and ZATOICHI MEETS HIS EQUAL