PRIMITIVES (1978)

  Indonesian action star Barry Prima stars in this very low-rent version of an Italian cannibal movie. You get some animal on animal violence that looks like stock footage from some other film, people eaten by crocodiles and some very hard to believe "cannibals". I put cannibals in quotes there since there isn't actually any cannibalism on display here even though it is implied. The one thing I always recall after watching this one is how sad the orangutan, that our primitve tribe keeps in a cage, looks. It's almost as if he knows how terrible of a film he has been cast in. 

 The opening title tune is supplied by(stolen from) the German krautrock band Kraftwork. AKA THE DEATH CRY OF THE SAVAGES

                        Known in the UK as SAVAGE TERROR:

Italian grand premier!:

THE RAID 2 (2014)

 Like most of these more modern Asian action flicks this one runs super long at 2 and a half hours but somehow they manage to pull it off here without inducing sleep and/or boredom. The fight scenes, just like in the first film, are pretty exceptional. The action set-pieces, including an amazing car chase sequence, are shot really well and the best part is they keep the stupid c.g.i. to a minimum which probably wasn't easy to do in these current times. There are a couple of more cartoonish characters, a double-hammer swinging lass and a baseball hitting fellow, that reminded me of something that Quentin Tarantino would have thrown into one of his films, but they work here nonetheless. I put of watching this one for a while because the first movie was so good and I expected to be let down by the sequel but this one is at least equal, if not superior, to THE RAID just by virtue of how they made the plot a bit more complex and opened the world up to our main character(Iko Uwais) so now we get prison violence, mobster hijinks, barroom slaughters etc and it's all done with plenty of blood flowing craziness. It was also great to see Mad Dog(Yayan Ruhian) back as another equally bad-ass character here who takes out a whole slew of Japanese assassins in a pretty epic battle. One of the best martial-arts/action flicks I've seen in a long time. AKA THE RAID 2: BERANDAL and THE RAID: RETALIATION

VIRGINS FROM HELL (1987)

 This Indonesian exploitation extravaganza starts out as a female biker gang takes on some evil mobsters. Very stylishly decked-out in bright short-shorts and leopard print they kick butt for a little while until they suddenly just give up. From there it becomes a more standard women-in-prison situation with some unique tortures for our inmates including sticking one of them in a bag with some unidentified rodent, another gal getting hung upside down and swung into barbed-wire, a roasting alive and, of course, the more common 'threatening a lady with some unwanted lesbianic-action' scene. The main bad guy is called Mr. Tiger(seemingly only because he has pictures of tigers in his office) who enjoys a bit of sadistic whipping and whatnot before he gets down to the raping antics. His goal, apparently, is to develop an aphrodisiac drug that he can make a fortune on(which doesn't really seem all that evil if you just ignore it's potential use as a date-rape drug). Eventually a scientist(who looks a bit like Indonesian action star Barry Prima, but isn't) helps our ladies get the revenge they've been craving since the beginning. Overall a pretty decent and goofy excursion into sleaziness(even though it strangely doesn't feature any naked boobs whatsoever for some reason) that's worth a look even though it gets a bit overly predictable towards the explosive finale. AKA MAIDENS REVENGE

                                                    Rapi films get rapey!!:


                                                              Exciting Japanese VHS!:

Known in Germany as VIRGINS OF HELL!: 

MERANTAU (2009)

 Modern-day Asian films(this one's from Indonesia) that I've seen tend to push it with the runtime. This one is no exception. With a pretty simplistic plot about an expert in a form of martial arts called Silat(Iko Uwais) trying to save a young gal(Sista Jessica) from a life in the sex trafficking trade this one really doesn't need to be stretched out to 2 hours. The main thing though is the fight scenes which are done really well and look amazing. It's all very well lit and shot exceptionally. The closest thing I would compare this to is something like fellow Indonesian actioner THE RAID (which also starred Iko Uwais) but that one didn't feel like quite the drudge towards the end like this. I'll excuse the c.g.i. blood since there really wasn't all that much of it and this DVD was super cheap so I don't feel ripped off. AKA MERANTAU WARRIOR

LADY TERMINATOR (1989)

 This is one of my favorite movies. Mostly because it's so completely batshit crazy. Basically it's an Indonesian rip-off of THE TERMINATOR but since it's Indonesian they threw in a bunch of wacky folklore about women with snakes that come out of there vaginas and bite off cocks and other odd stuff. The main character, of course, is completely badass and awesome and kicks much ass but she is slightly overshadowed by a white fellow with a mullet named snake who drives around on a tank and spouts out some silly dialogue like "fuckin' A!" and "eat it bitch" while battling our villainous lady demon. It's as if THE TERMINATOR met one of those eastern demonic possession flicks and they sprinkled in a little WAYNE'S WORLD just for the hell of it. Castrations galore, laser beams shot from eyes, lots of nudity, ample explosions and Indonesian punk rockers make for a good mix.
 Apparently the VHS release of this is cut and some scenes are repeated to pad it out so DVD is the way to go to get the complete experience. AKA NASTY HUNTER and SHOOTING STAR

ANGEL OF FURY (1992)

 This Cynthia Rothrock kung-fu/action flick starts out with a guy getting tortured. He gets something chopped off(a finger?) and almost gets a drill jammed into his mouth and then they bring in his young daughter to watch the good times. Then they threaten to do bad stuff to his little girl and I think they end up killing them both but this happens offscreen. It's quite the unsettling way to start out a kung-fu flick out. Also later on they shoot a different little girl. This movie isn't healthy for little girls!
 Rothrock here sports a new-wavey haircut and might look the hottest in anything I've seen her in. She does have a sex scene but it's very dark and/or sheets get in the way of actually seeing anything too gratuitous. As far as action goes this movie is jammed packed with ass-kicking and stuff (helicopters, cars, etc.) blowing up and the stunts all have that look like the stuntmen may have been seriously hurt while performing them. The main bad guy here is Peter O'Brian who was the hero in that Turkish RAMBO movie and THE STABILIZER which are both very absurd action films but he's appropriately menacing in this. AKA TRIPLE CROSS
 There is another Rothrock film known as ANGEL OF FURY from 1993 where Billy Drago is the bad guy that I haven't seen yet.

FEROCIOUS FEMALE FREEDOM FIGHTERS (1982)

                             "Bastard! You're a dirty, horny, perverted son of a whore!"

 There's a few different versions of this movie out there. The one I watched was dubbed into English but there's also another one that has an extra stupid "comedy" dub-job by Troma films. I don't think I need to see that one.
 This movie is pretty much wall-to-wall fighting which includes lots of kung fu and when that's not going on we get a bunch of lady wrestling action. It gets very repetitive after awhile and the dramatic bits in between aren't all that interesting either. Luckily things get super violent and bloody towards the end with an acid face-wash, multiple stakings with sharp bits of wood, eyes gouged out and bloody beatings with spiked knuckles. Also since this was made in Indonesia we get lots of gratuitous Barry Prima kicking ass complete with exploding flying stars! So if you want a fight flick that doesn't make much sense but delivers with the bloody goodness I guess this will do. AKA MAD FIGHTERS
 There is a FEROCIOUS FEMALE FREEDOM FIGHTERS PART 2 which also has Barry Prima in it, of course, but I have no idea if it has anything to do with this movie.

Dumb Troma trailer:

ESCAPE FROM HELL HOLE (1983)

 I'd seen this Indonesian women in prison film many years ago on VHS and the only thing I really remembered from my first viewing was that the main gal gets tied in an x-shape on a big spinning wheel and gets knives thrown at her. That's probably because if you've seen one of these Asian female prisoner flicks you might be hard pressed to tell one from the other. This one is the story of a country gal who's sold into a life of prostitution  and slavery but when she has the nerve to balk at this she is thrown into a filthy dungeon-prison. It hits all the expected notes; there's whippings, female mud-wrestling, a shower scene(with no visible bare boobs!), a tongue gets bitten off, and there's some attempted rape along with other abuses. There's also one strange music video-like scene where we're treated to some interpretive dancing to synth music. Pretty standard with nothing exceptional happening and what you would expect from something like this.

JUNGLE VIRGIN FORCE (1988)

 This starts out like some sort of jungle woman/Tarzan adventure then slowly turns into a full-on Indonesian cannibal movie. You get decapitations, kung fu vs. cannibals and people getting ripped apart and eaten. Amazing that this was filmed in 1988 since it looks like something from 1977 at the latest. The only thing that hints at this being in the 80's is the soundtrack which is comprised of horrendous repetitive synth music . The natives make strange child-like/retard noises to show how primitive they are, they use magical powers(the force?) to throw rocks, shoot energy beams and turn people into jelly and all the men act like complete morons. I would say there's some anti-male bias in this but most of the female characters aren't exactly rocket-scientists either. The female tribe, or Jungle Virgin Force as the title calls them, are the only effective group in this entire film. They eventually figure out how to use voodoo dolls to kill their enemies(the evil male cannibal tribe). Lots of insanity that doesn't make much sense and will only be appreciated by lovers of the craziest of Asian cinema.

THE RAID: REDEMPTION (2011)

  As usual if you want to see good modern films you have to forget about the U.S. and look elsewhere.  The few Indonesian films I've seen have been mostly very weird horror type things with floating head ghosts and that sort of thing.  This here is completely different than those and is a straight-up action/martial arts film more similar to something that might have come out of Hong Kong back in the 90's except there's way more bloody knife fights and no goofy bits.  You get kung-fu, gun-fu, machete-fu, axe-fu, knife-fu and a few other fu's I'm probably forgetting.  For an action movie this thing works amazingly well.  It's very well choreographed and keeps up the tension level throughout the run-time leaving very little room for boredom to ever set in. The plot is exactly what the title says, there's a police raid of an apartment building run by a crime-boss fellow.  I'm kinda shocked there's not a shitty Hollywood remake of this out yet but I hear the new Judge Dredd movie borrows a bit from this so there ya go.  Check out the original unless your allergic to ass-kicking excitement.

THE DEVIL'S SWORD (1984)

 If you took your typical kung-fu revenge flick and added in a bunch of mystical stuff and then sprinkled in some silly crocodile men in equally silly costumes plus a cage full of cannibals, an old witch and the flying guillotine this Indonesian action flick is what you would get.
 Barry Prima stars as our hero, as he seems to do in just about every movie from this country, and he gets a female sidekick to help him battle various ridiculous enemies on his quest to regain the titular Devil's Sword for his old grey-bearded master.
 For a martial-arts flick this one is pretty jam-packed with goodness(and wackiness) since you get plenty of bloodshed with decapitations, limbs chopped-off, impalement, super-hero/DRAGONBALL Z-type fight scenes, a witch that you can cut into pieces and she still fights you, a nymphomaniac crocodile-lady queen, a laser-shooting croc-statue, a cyclops, a magical umbrella and probably a few other oddball things I'm forgetting. The only thing lacking is some gratuitous nudity although there is one shot of a swimming man's asshole and balls on display if you're into those kind of things.
 Check it out for something quite bizarre that's good for more than a few laughs.