OUTRAGE (2010)

  Director and star 'Beat' Takesh Kitano took a little break from these types of films for a few years to make more artsy/weird stuff but then returned to what people know him best for with this Yakuza flick. Fairly typical stuff here with some extremely violent scenes including devious use of a dentist drill, a near decapitation involving a car and some rope and tons of gun-fu. Nothing unexpected but still an entertaining watch for folks into the mobster movie genre. 

 Might be the last Asian action movie Blu-ray I ever pick up at Big Lots since they just announced that they are going out of business.

BLOOD GAMES (1990)

  The Australian title of this as BASEBALL BIMBOS IN HILLBILLY HELL really perfectly sums up this dumb backwoods revenge flick. Our story involves a group of traveling baseball ladies, led by biker/action movie star Ross Hagen, who run afoul of some violent retarded rednecks(why there are rednecks flying confederate flags in California I'm not sure, but OK). Things get progressively more bloody and revenge-fueled as it goes on. We get a rape scene, lots of boobs(including a lovely shower scene) and countless ass-shots on display. A good trashy exploitation epic. 

 It was also nice to see George "Buck" Flowers in a big role not playing his usual drunken bum character but instead playing one of the stupid women-hating hicks.

ONIBABA (1964)

 While I'm more of a fan of Japanese director Kaneto Shindo's later KURONEKO, this one is certainly not too shabby either. It's main focus is on a couple of poor ladies stuck in wartime Japan who resort to killing passers-by to make ends meet. While there are some horror elements involving a demon mask(and stabbing samurais) this one really focuses more on the drama side of things than KURONEKO and plays more like an artsy flick that just happens to also contain ample nudity and murder to go along with your symbolism and metaphors. Check it out for an fine example of some classy Asian cinema.

SHOCKUMENTARY (2015)

 

 Total homemade garbage that fails at trying to emulate both a grindhouse movie(with all that dumb digitally-enhanced graininess) and a snuff film(with some exceptionally bad acting). Some actual scenes of death are inserted from one of those TRACES OF DEATH video compilations so if you like that stuff just go watch those instead. The fact that they found an actual operational video store in 2015 to shoot some of this in is pretty astounding. At only about 70 minutes long this is a very tough watch.

 Director Dustin Fergus has directed somewhere around 150 things according to IMDB which seems impressive unless they were all shot on a phone and look like home movies. AKA VIDEO KILLERS

THE VAMPIRE DOLL (1970)

  First in a trilogy of vampire films from Toho studios. This one features a gal who gets hypnotized into being a creepy vampire lady(though she mostly just acts like a ghost). Good atmospheric gothic horror, which is not something you normally expect from Japan. Does a good job at emulating 60s European horror flicks with some added blood. 

 This has quite a few alternate titles including FEAR OF THE GHOST HOUSE: BLOODSCUKING DOLL, THE NIGHT OF THE VAMPIRE, THE GHOST MANSION'S HORROR: A BLOODSUCKING DOLL and just plain old BLOODSUCKING DOLL. Released on video as THE LEGACY OF DRACULA.

Released in Mexico as THE DOLL THAT DRINKS BLOOD:

MR. MOTO TAKES A VACATION (1939)

  The final film in the Mr. Moto series starring Peter Lorre. After this a Japanese heroic detective character became pretty hard to sell to the American public due to a little event called World War II. This one's pretty forgettable, Moto has an annoying British man following him around and stops a bunch of criminals from stealing a priceless crown in Egypt. 

 There was a RETURN OF MR. MOTO made almost 30 years later featuring Henry Silva in the title role. I've not heard much good about it so I'm pretty sure it's not essential viewing. 

MR. MOTO IN DANGER ISLAND (1939)

  The 7th film in the Peter Lorre Mr. Moto series finds our Japanese detective in Puerto Rico, which I'm sure can be a dangerous island, trying to stop a diamond smuggling ring. He's helped out by a really dumb pro wrestler named Twister(Warren Hymer) which lead to some slapstick moments. There's only 1 more film in the series and you can see why since they seem to have run out of ideas by this point. This one was apparently originally supposed to be a Charlie Chan movie before they switched the fake Asian lead. 

LADY STREET FIGHTER (1977)

  Not to be confused with the Japanese SISTER STREET FIGHTER film this is an American action flick filmed in either 1977 or 1975 depending on what website you choose to believe but allegedly not released until 1980. The story involves a hitwoman(writer/producer Renee Harmon) who gets targeted by a gang of assassins who kill her twin sister. From there it's a revenge-o-rama which also shoehorns in a love story, a weird orgy scene where some celery gets fellated and lots of bad dubbing. There's not a whole lot of martial arts and this is one of those movies that becomes very entertaining in its awfulness. Highlights include a full grown woman playing a 5-year old girl, a man flipping the bird while being burned alive and Liz Renay(of John Waters' DESPERATE LIVING fame among other things) doing a striptease. A real gem of crap cinema!

 There was a sequel made in 1990, but not released until 2018, titled REVENGE OF LADY STREET FIGHTER but from what I read that was comprised of a whole lot of the original movie with only about 10 minutes of new footage inserted. Does not sound like essential viewing.

MANTIS UNDER FALCON CLAWS (1983)

  A princess gets captured by some bandits then one of her retarded servants ends up in a Shaolin temple learning kung fu to get her back. The bad guy uses the Falcon Claw and our hero learns Mantis style hence the title. Lots of comedy with dumb sound effects goes on and a good chunk of the movie is incomprehensible. AKA MANTIS VS. FALCON

SPIRITUAL KUNG FU (1978)

  Jackie Chan gets help from some ghost with bright red Raggedy Ann hair to get revenge for some nefarious deeds involving a Shaolin temple and other leaders of the kung fu world. As you would expect there are some goofy scenes involving Jackie in between the more serious bits. One memorable part has Jackie trying to write calligraphy with a giant pen as punishment for being such a screwup.

                          Released on video in the UK as KARATE GHOSTBUSTER:

THE BODYGUARD (1973)

  Sonny Chiba plays Sonny Chiba here except in this universe Chiba is not just an actor playing an ass-kicking karate man but also a super dangerous martial artist out to destroy gangsters who push drugs so he takes a job as a bodyguard which puts him into their sites. Doesn't really make much sense like most things that happen in this film. There's quite a bit of bloody violence including a guy who gets his arm ripped off, a decapitation and much bone breaking. Sadly the version I watched of this was a crappy pan-and-scan DVD from back in the day so I mighta missed a few things. Stick with THE STREET FIGHTER for a much better example of Chiba's skills. AKA VIVA CHIBA! THE BODYGUARD

 Quentin Tarantino ripped off the Ezekial 25:17 quote from the beginning of this movie like he rips off pretty much everything else he's ever done. 

DEATH RAGE (1976)

  Yul Brynner stars in this Eurocrime thriller as an American hitman in Italy out to get revenge for his murdered brother while taking on the mob and the police.  They also shoehorn a bit off an homage to THE MECHANIC with Brynner taking on a young apprentice(Massimo Ranieri) and showing him the ways of an assassin. Barbara Bouchet plays the lovely love interest and Martin Balsam plays the police chief. Car chases and gunplay are plentiful in this formulaic actioner. The version I watched of this seems to be missing a few minutes and is terribly panned and scanned though so perhaps I would give this a higher ranking if I could see an uncut/better-looking print.  

 Released on video as BLOOD RECKONING

                               Original Italian title was WITH ANGER IN HIS EYES:

RETURN TO THE 36th CHAMBER (1980)

  While this is billed as a sequel to MASTER KILLER(THE 36th CHAMBER OF SHAOLIN) it's really not but is actually just another kung fu flick featuring Gordon Liu that involves him ending up in the Shaolin Temple learning kung fu to take revenge. This time out the revenge is for his brother and friends who work at a dye factory, get treated like shit, and get their asses kicked regularly for complaining, by their terrible bosses. It hits all the expected beats but doesn't ever come close to the original classic. AKA MASTER KILLER II and RETURN OF THE MASTER KILLER 

 There were quite a few similar roles for Liu and some unofficial sequels(this one here being the most legit just because it was actually made by The Shaw Brothers even if it doesn't follow the same character).