FURIE (2019)

   I've seen a lot of Asian movies, and also a lot of non-Asian movies, that are supposed to take place in Vietnam but I'm not sure if I had ever seen a Vietnamese movie made by actual Vietnamese folks in Vietnam before this one. What you got here is basically that movie TAKEN if the Liam Neeson character was a little Vietnamese lady(Veronica Ngo, who was in one of those new STAR WARS movies that I don't really care about). Full of whatever they call kung-fu in Vietnam but surprisingly not really a lot of bloodshed despite all the knives, axes and other assorted implements of destruction that are employed. Pretty basic stuff that might entertain you on a Saturday afternoon.  

 There is a prequel called FURIES that came out 3 years later. 

                         In Vietnam they just used the character's name as the title:

RUCKUS 2 (1987)

 Better known, if known at all, as ULTIMAX FORCE, since that's what it was released as in America. This has best been described as a Filipino version of Chuck Norris' MISSING IN ACTION mixed with AMERICAN NINJA. Instead of one Michael Dudikoff though we get 4 ninja masters heading back to 'Nam to rescue our POWs there. Plenty of explosions, gun-fu and other martial arts action ensue. Treacherous Viet Kong leader does treacherous things. It's about as predictable as can be and only really entertaining if you have the lowest of action movie expectations/standards. 

 Director Willy Milan was pretty prolific for over 20 years but most of his stuff didn't get released outside of The Philippines. 

 The first RUCKUS film was a sort-of a proto-FIRST BLOOD deal with Dirk Benedict as a Vietnam vet who gets hassled in a small California town and Linda Blair helps him. There's obviously no real connection between these 2 films.

TRAINED TO KILL: USA (1973)

 I've been a fan of Vietnam-Vet-revenge tales since I was 11 years old and first saw FIRST BLOOD in the theater with my mom. My favorite ever has to be ROLLING THUNDER but this one  here is a pretty decent slice of 70s exploitation where we even get a biker flick jammed into the last third. The bike gang is led by Sid Haig who is a real highlight as a shit-kicking, chain-swinging character named Pill Box. Why he's called this I'm not exactly sure except that perhaps it's because he deals drugs? He isn't the main villain though, that honor goes to Mr. BLACK SAMSON himself, Rockne Tarkington. He's exactly the opposite of SAMSON here as a badass murdering scumbag who takes no shit from anyone. The film ends with a great climactic massacre and a ballad that seems totally out of place after watching all that crazy violence.

 Originally released as THE NO MERCY MAN, which is also the title of the wonky tune that plays at the beginning of the movie,  and then re-released as TRAINED TO KILL and then finally put out on video as TRAINED TO KILL: USA so we can all be clear and proud of where all this carnage takes place.

                                                             

                                                           The glorious VHS!:

AMERICAN NIGHTMARE (1984)

 If you took the movie TAXI DRIVER and ramped up the Vietnam angle, made it extra gory, threw in a bunch of 'Nam flashbacks, the baby from ERASERHEAD, junkies, suicides, murders and made the whole thing even more nihilistic-feeling you would get something like this.  Better known under it's edited-down title of COMBAT SHOCK, this is the story of a crazy, screwed up vet who lives a shitty, seemingly hopeless existence, with his awful, nagging, fat wife and deformed, silly-putty-looking baby.  Despite the terrible acting it's done in a pretty realistic fashion(except for one completely absurd scene of a junkie whose blood-flow defies the laws of science) and in a very guerrilla-film making style that non-snobby cinema lovers should appreciate.  It also comments on the lower rungs of society in a way most films wouldn't ever care about doing.
 This film probably would have been a bit more of a success if not for it's misleading ad-campaign(thanks to Troma) which tried to fool people into thinking it was another big 80's war flick which it's pretty far from.  Then again this is overall a pretty big downer of a film viewing experience, not suitable for the mass of imbecilic, happy-faced drones that populate the majority of audiences.