Back in December we spoke about the fantastic Tiger Cops: Project A short- a love letter to the 90s Hong Kong/ Girls with Guns genre in which the titular heroine Inspector Tiger (Maria Tran) finally confronts the mysterious crime boss White Ghost played by none other than Hong Kong movie villain royalty Richard Norton (Mr. Nice Guy, City Hunter, Twinkle Twinkle Lucky Stars).
Richard Norton with “Black Bear” Sifu Damien Chauremootoo
Well, now we finally have the release date for the short film (spoiler: you won’t have to wait long) and the full trailer too. You can enjoy it bellow via Fideo youtube channel:
Starring: Maria Tran, David Hong, Wilson Zou and Richard Norton
And the fun doesn’t stop with Tiger Cop: Project A on the 17.03. because Norton also filmed a short cameo in Tran‘s next installment of her Echo 8 film series, Echo 8: Beyond that we can hopefully expect by the end of the year too. It’s a good time to be a Kung Fu movie fan for sure.
No Retreat No Surrender (1985) was at the time a rare hybrid of Hong Kong and U.S.A.– an attempt to bring Asian Martial Arts movies to American audiences. It was written by Keith Strandberg and directed by Corey Yuen (Dragons Forever, Yes, Madam) in his English language debut. (Yuen would go on to have a successful career in the west from No Retreat 2 to working on Jet Li‘s American movies like Lethal Weapon 4, Romeo Must Die & The Expendables as well as effectively launching Jason Statham as an action star with TheTransporter.) It also notably had remaining vestiges of 70s Bruceploitation genre by inexplicably having a main character being trained by a ghost of Bruce Lee (Kim Tai-Chung aka Tong Lung.)
Directed by Oliver Harper (In Search of the Last Action Heroes) documentary features interviews not only with the likes of No Retreat producer Ng See-yuen, original cast members such as Kurt McKinney, J.W. Fails, Peter “Sugarfoot” Cunningham as well as sequel’s Cynthia Rothrock and Matthias Hues but also with famous fans such as Scott Adkins(Undisputed, Ninja). The only one missing is The Muscles from Brussels himself, Mr. VanDamme.
As of now movie is over 40% financed on Kickstarter and if you want you can pre- order it right here. I have no doubt this will get to 100% in no time.
Fantastically named Urge to Kill (1989), the final movie of Derek Ford, produced by a WM regular Dick Randall (Don’t Open Till Christmas, Pieces) never got a proper release in cinemas (or even an official VHS) – but that doesn’t mean it’s not worth discussing. In fact it just might be the opposite.
Why is she green, again?
Movie starts with Peter Gordeno playing a hard- partying 80s record producer named Bono Zorro (!!!) who also has an unlikely interest in artificial intelligence (more about this soon).
During a late night working at the studio he finds a hot blond Melanie (Sally-Anne Balaam) hiding among the instruments (what are the odds), turns out she’s an up and coming singer hopeful that he would listen to her demo tape. He doesn’t but decides to take her home instead (after a bit of a striptease routine ofc).
Surprises continue as it turns out Zorro lives in a penthouse completely controlled by a state of the art (like we said) artificial intelligence Central Environment Control System aka S.E.X.Y. (acronyms aren’t his strong suit). Maybe one day people will learn we shouldn’t give all the control over to the machines.
After spending the night together Zorro rushes out of the apartment and leaves Candy alone- with a big remote controller for his A.I. She gets bored and calls her roommate Julie to come over.
She gives her some massage and a leaves her in a tanning bed while taking a shower all under the watchful (and jealous) eye of S.E.X.Y. That of course proves to be fatal. And if exploding boobs weren’t enough for her S.E.X.Y.burns Melanie turning a regular shower into an acid bath!
In the meantime Zorro visits his main girl Jane. He tells her he has a groupie back in the apartment and that he’d like her to meet her. Now, for a man living a life of debauchery Zorro seems enthusiastic about women like he’s a teenager. He tries to call her but S.E.X.Y. blows him over and says that it doesn’t compute.
When they arrive back (this movie isn’t rich with locations) they find an empty apartment but we do get his surveillance footage of two girls playing around. Plot important stuff for sure. Now, to help cure his disappointment Jane makes a call for some new bimbos and in no time a dominatrix lady Tiga and her subordinate show up, but honestly they are a downgrade compared to the first pair.
After their little performance Zorro takes a bubble bath with two of the ladies while Tiga goes to the bathroom and bizarrely gets killed by a electric toothbrush. This might be the first time I see something like that in a movie. S.E.X.Y. makes Zorro pass out and drown helpless Susan. Jane arrives in time to save him but then completely freaks out after finding detached female arms in the bath (happens to everyone)
S.E.X.Y. even manifests physicallyas a green, alien looking woman
Movie descents into madness with call girls having a cat fight with a mud- wrestling video in the background. Zorro loses his mind while Jane tries to escape by attacking the computer with a butcher knife (always a good idea). Unfortunately S.E.X.Y. doesn’t go down without a fight.
Verdict: If you’re into 80s synth music and aesthetic, sleazy and old SF this just might be the film for you. It definitely delivers on all of those fronts, now where it falters is long sequences of people just talking or making phone calls and at some point movie does get repetitive and starts to feel like a giant fever dream. But those are the limitation of Z level productions. Still, an (almost) single locationerotic horror centered around an evil computer is a hell of an idea– you got to give them that! Someone should definitely revisit that concept in the future.
...and I can’t believe this lady never made another movie!
PS In fact if Gene Simmons of KISS ever wants to get back to acting ( after Trick or Treat, Too Young to Die and cult Japanese Detroit Metal City) he should snap the rights for this one, I can totally envision him as a sleazy record producer B.Zorro and his wife Shannon Tweed as his main squeeze Jane.
After the news of the new Return of the Living Dead(1985) sequel ( expected Christmas 2025 ) it turns out there’sanother little thing brewing in the ROTLDuniverse and that’s the return of everyone’s favorite scream queen Linnea Quigley as the iconic punk redhead- Trash in Trash’s Revenge!
SHE’S BACK!
As always campaign is up and running, this time on CineBacker and you can check it out right here.
Not even a month after we got the final trailer for the long awaited Chinese Hercules documentary all the enthusiasm has seemingly evaporated. Bolo Yeung’s son David Yeung has decided to block the release of the documentary- supposedly acting on his father’s behalf.
“I am incredibly grateful to have such a loyal and supportive fanbase. However, I want to make it clear that I did not give permission to Hussar Entertainment Productions-or any other party-to create or release any documentary about me, including the recent trailer for Chinese Hercules…”
Why would he randomly decide to stop the release of the movie now when he seemingly did nothing for 5+ years of production is a mystery to me (and I doubt he was not aware of the work in progress for all these years). Now, all the hours of interviews of Bolo Yeung’s various co- stars including some who are no longer with us will be lost. And being a passion project of dedicated Bolo fans Chinese Hercules was to be released for free on their youtube channel, so there was no money to be gained either way.
Bolo & David Yeung
So, what exactly happened behind the scenes (don’t forget that one of the producers actually worked with Bolo on Diamond Cartel) and what really prompted this decision- we might never know.
Only, you don’t really need a permission to make a documentary about a public figure…
The early eighties were the prime time for slasher films. Friday the 13th kicked it off in 1980 and then the sequels plus countless clones. Enter a whole new sub-genre of stalk/slasher movies; the college/high school slasher. Films such as Final Exam, Graduation Massacre, Slaughter High, Cheerleader Camp, etcetera. The Dorm That Dripped Blood falls into this sub-genre nicely and has developed an infamous reputation as a video nasty in the U.K.Synapse Films came along and re-released the film uncut, so all the gore is intact. So let’s begin.
The director(s) wasted no time in introducing the gore as the real star of the film. The gruesome opening scene comes screaming in out of nowhere and A nasty machete through the hand jolt gets things off to a gruesome start…is never referenced again, but does provide a good jolt to get us going into the interminable credit sequence. After the credits we see a bunch of 30 years old students having a Christmas party. We soon learn that the college will be closed in near future. Five college students during Christmas break volunteer to clean up a dormitory prior to its demolition (probably because rainbow flag can be seen as decoration in the background). And that is basically the whole setup.
Mixed signals
The party winds down as Joanne’s (played by Laurie Lapinski) boyfriend and his friend head off for a weekend ski trip. After the goodbyes, one of the students scheduled to help with the cleaning finds out she instead must go home for the break to be with her family. On her way out she swings by the roof to get the inventory list, but our mysterious killer has other plans. Her parents arrive, and when she becomes tied up with finding the list, her dad decides it’s best to go up and get her. He meets the killer in the stairwell, and he promptly introduces him to a nail-studded baseball bat. Then he moves onto her mom and finally onto daughter herself. The whole family have nice Christmas reunion…in death.
Negan was obviously fan of this movie
After eventually dispatching of the entire family that night, everything appears normal the following morning… Except for the frizzy-haired weirdo, John Hemmit (played by Woody Roll). He has been staying in the dorm since it was closed down. He doesn’t seem violent, but his lurky-ness begins to creep the students out. Speaking of creep there is also Bobby Lee Tremble (played by Dennis Ely), a scrap dealer who’s buying the salvaged furniture. Resident prankster Craig (played by Stephen Sachs) lightens the mood by staging obnoxious practical jokes. But the first day of cleaning doesn’t go without incident- the janitor finds his power drill missing. Was this Craig’s doing? Another practical joke? Or something more is at hand? Anyway, the janitor gets his drill back. Literally.
Eventually the killer begins to off everyone left in the dorm using a pretty impressive range of implements, and of course everyone splits up to look for missing people, making it that much easier to narrow the population out. To make things worse, power company cuts off the electricity in dormitory much earlier than it was supposed to happen. Conserving the energy comes first! In all of that darkness and chaos first one to go is Craig’s friend Brian (played by David Snow) who, let’s just say, lost his head. The lady he was supposed to protect, nervous Patty (played by Pamela Holland) ends up boiled alive. She just couldn’t let the steam off.
So that leaves us with Joanne and Craig only. Everyone else is dead, right? Wrong! John shows up from nowhere, starts chasing Joanne under excuse of trying to save her. Of course, Craig comes along and somehow manages to beat poor weirdo. Now when it seems it is all finally over Craig picks the perfect timing to completely lose his mind and confess to Joanne that he was the murderer all along. What a twist! And why? I am not sure I understood his rambling. Something about no one has been taking him seriously. Doesn’t make any sense. Hey at least we got some gory murders. Motive is irrelevant. Anyway, creepy Bobby Lee shows up to save the day. Except he doesn’t due to his stupidity. He manages to get shot by police (I don’t know who called them, phone lines are dead) while standing next to already defeated Craig. Police just went home leaving behind a pile of bodies and Craig who can now finish the job with Joanne. That’s right, this movie breaks the ultimate final girl rule. No happy ending here.
Conclusion: The Dorm That Dripped Blood isn’t the prettiest of films. Shot on 16mm then blown up to 35mm, this transfer comes from a recently unearthed uncut 35mm print from the directors which they thought was long lost. Obviously, it is recommended to view this film via Blu-Ray because the DVD softens the grain via compression which makes the overall image a bit softer. Now the ending I just mentioned, well, it’s probably one of the best worst endings I’ve ever seen. I like how they tried to go against the grain and cliché, but god damn is this annoying. After the last line of the film, I almost expected to hear the “WHA WHA sad trombone” sound effect. Director(s) Stephen Carpenter and Jeffrey Obrow – along with their friend Stacey Giachino – knew well enough that low-budget horror was a popular route for budding filmmakers and a reliable industry calling card. On their commentary track for the discs, they admit that this feature was born when they saw Halloween and Friday the 13th and figured they could make a similar flick of their own. Too bad they failed. There’s another interesting bit of trivia in this film too–“What actress has since deleted this film from her resume?” The answer: Daphne Zuniga (Spaceballs)! In fact, she’s the only really convincing college student in the movie (she is younger than 30).
After a surprise reveal at the end of Episode 3 of the fantastic 90s Hong Kong tribute web series Tiger Cops our favorite Aussie ass- kicker Richard Norton finally filmed a full on fight scene for the upcoming Episode 4.
Maria Tran ( King of the Cross, Tracer) and the director Adrian Castro found the time in their busy schedule to not only film their new movie Echo 8 Trilogy but also the new episode of their cult Tiger Cops series too. Considering the last part of the series was released in 2017 (not counting the 2020’s Tiger Cops: Toilet Paper Hero and ’23 Tiger Cop: Yes Madam specials ) this is a quite a pleasant surprise. And the fact that they did it in only couple of days is even more impressive.
MARIA TRAN VS RICHARD NORTON
And a little tease of their fight scene. You can definitely see some nice fight choreography here.
Originally started in 2015 Episode 3 of the Tiger Cops series finally revealed that none other that Norton is the mysterious crime boss White Ghost. Considering both Norton and Tran are from Australia and that Norton was one of the most impressive gweilo villains in the Hong Kong cinema in the 80s and 90s it was a match made in Kung Fu heaven. I mean this is the man that went against: Sammo Hung, Jackie Chan, Yasuaki Kurata & Cynthia Rothrock just to name a few.
In the Previous Episode:
You can see the rest of the episodes on the Fideo Videoyoutube channel and as for Norton, we should see him next going toe to toe with Cynthia Rothrock like in the old days in the Black Creek in the first part of the 2025. You can still check out that project over here.
When people say Captain America today they almost certainly think of the decade long tenure of Chris Evans, from Captain America: First Avenger to Avengers: Endgame (and maybe beyond), but the original movie adaptation actually happened in the 90s, produced by none other than Cannon Films head noncho Mehahem Golan, staring Matt Selinger (yes, the son of the writer J.D. Salinger) and was directed by the WM Crew old favorite Albert Pyun ( The Sword and the Sorcerer, Cyborg & Nemesis).
Famously troubled production was started in ’89 by Cannon Films and continued by 21 Century Films (when Golan exited Cannon Films). Because of the budgetary concerns filming was moved to Yugoslavia (Jadran Film Studios, Zagreb & Dubrovnik) from the originally planed Italian location. In fact the budget got so thin at times that Pyun was supposedly forced to fake a full day of shooting without any film in camera (because they couldn’t afford any) just to keep the morale of the crew up! Man, what a trooper!
Plot was changed from the comics to include the Italian child prodigy becoming a Red Skull (made in an super- solder experiment mirroring one of Steve Rogers). Then we would get a version of classic Captain America sacrifice that ends with him frozen in ice for decades just to reappear in time to stop the Red Skull (now crime boss) from kidnapping the President of the USA.
When the movie first came out in 1990 it was met with overwhelmingly negative reactions and it didn’t even get a theatrical release in US. VHS release did fare better (and the movie did start gaining a bit of a cult status as the years went by).
But in reality Pyun had a much different, more mature and experimental vision for the movie, vision that as it often happens was compromised to keep the studio happy. Only he could never really let go of it and up to his last days he always carried the four original film reels with him wherever he went. It took him a long time to get reels digitalize and he unfortunately didn’t live to see the revival of his vision fulfilled. Well, until now.
Surprisingly over the weekend there were some rumbling of a surprise screening on Twitch that turned out to be the Original Cut of Pyun’s Captain America! And the reactions are overwhelmingly positive!
Movie is said to be a completely different animal than the released version- a 70s style paranoid thriller with a very melancholic mood, sharp contrast to the goofy action version we got. It seems in some ways Pyun was trying to do a Winter Soldier before the Winter Soldier (albeit on a shoestring budget of just 3 million dollars).
Now, I’m sure the Evil Disney Corporation will consider blocking this from ever being released but after all this time and effort I think the director deserves to have his vision seen, especially now when he’s no longer with us.
It’s been a long time coming (5 years!) but it seems that the fabled Bolo Yeung documentary is finallyready to go. And I must say I’m duly impressed.Filmmakers managed to interview practically every relevant co- star Bolo had through his 100+ movie career, from his Enter The Dragon (1973) co- star Bob Wall (R.I.P) to his Bloodsport (1988) and Double Impact (1991) nemesis Jean Claude Van Damme, Cynthia Rothrock (Tiger Claws 1, Tiger Claws 2 ), Matthias Hues (TC2000) and even Richard Norton(Ironheart). And that’s not even a half of it.
Weightlifter, Bodybuilder, Martial Artist and Actor
We also get a candid look at the man behind the on- screen villain persona with the mix of rare interviews, old photos and recording spanning all the way to his earliest days in the post- WWII China. Man’s got quite a story to tell and his journey takes him from China to Hong Kong to Hollywood, California and everywhere in between- I for one, can’t wait to follow along.
From the gritty streets of post-war China to the dazzling lights of Hollywood, Bolo Yeung’s story is one of resilience, transformation, and unrelenting determination. Known to millions as the iconic villain of Enter the Dragon and Bloodsport, his journey is far more profound than the characters he played.
Produced by Hussar Entertainment,Chinese Hercules: The Bolo Yeung Story is directed by Pavel Nyziak and is expected to debut in 2025.
After what seems like years of waiting the continuation of the Circuit MMA franchise– featuring the 90s action mainstay Olivier Gruner (Nemesis, Alien Interceptor ) as Dirk Longstreet. Originally conceived as a TV series by the producer/ director Jalal Merhi retrofitted The Circuit as a new trilogy of films, and the first one starring the Tae Bo legend Billy Blanks ( King of Kickboxers, Balance of Power) is out today on Amazon Prime Video!
This will be the third time Merhi has worked with Blanks after movies like Talons of the Eagle (1992) and incredibly entertaining SF/Action- TC 2000 (1993) and the first time working with David Yeung after spearheading number ofhis father’s BoloYeung‘s North American movies like Black Pearls, Tiger Claws and the aforementioned TC 2000. Yeung was of course also in another tournament movie with Blanks this year, 90s action homage– The Last Kumite (2024) and will next be seen in two-parts of Bond of Justice: Kizuna starring the late, great Sonny Chiba.
Samson a retired fighter has to get back to the Circuit fighting ring in order to save a young student, Samson needs to face the skeptics, re-affirms his faith and combine with his hard work
Worsemovies 