I love Lenzi's gialli offerings, or at least the one's I have experiences! I still need to see KNIFE OF ICE and A QUIET PLACE TO KILL. SPASMO and EYEBALL are some of my more favorite gialli viewings. Two very stylish yet, odd in nature but still very effective in the payoff!
It's been a long time since I first seen his SO SWEET... SO PERVERSE (1969), was that not just recently issued on DVD again??
I absolutely loved Freda's brilliant I VAMPRI! Now, what was the deal with Bava being uncredited for with this again? I know he had something to do with the overall direction, but what's the full story on that again?
Any opinions about this more recent giallo? I've heard some bad things but when I found it dirt cheap on eBay, I couldn't resist the temptation of picking it up. Figured I need to give some of the more recent horrer/thriller stuff a chance too. Still waiting for it to arrive and I'm not quite sure what to expect of it but at least it has a pretty good cast that includes famous transsexual Eva Robins from TENEBRAE (1982) and the good-looking Elisabetta Rocchietti, who has been cropping up in a lot of horror stuff like THE THREE FACES OF TERROR (2004), DO YOU LIKE HITCHCOCK? (2005) and THE LAST HOUSE IN THE WOODS (2006). Not to mention supporting roles by Florinda Bolkan and Franco Nero! Anyone here seen it?
Interesting looking film out of Italy with Irish/Spanish co-financiers. Directed by Italian SFX man Stefano Bessoni.
In the 1600s, long before the invention of photography, a scientist named Girolamo Fumagalli was obsessed with the idea of reproducing images. He discovered that by killing a victim and removing the victim's eyeballs, it was possible to reproduce on paper the last image imprinted on that person's retinas. He named this technique 'thanatography'. Today, the same kind of gruesome ritual and abominable crime recurs within the walls of an international school of cinema. -imdb.com
Also stars the daughter of Charlie Chapman, Geraldine Chaplin as well as her daughter Oona.
Well, it seems this is yet another Argento flick that is taking a beating in the review department. Even die hard fans are not too pleased with this outing. Anyhow, the PAL R2 DVD is now out via a Polish company that found it important to force the Polish subs!
Looks like this will be getting a UK release first via Arrow Films! I still haven't seen this, it was on my radar during last year's Midnight Madness during the Toronto Film Fest. The disc will be released March 15th..
I'd love to grab this, but for now I'm holding off on the Blu-Ray player for now, too unstable industry right now. Plus, the multi-region player are way too expensive!
(2008/Hong Kong)Review By-Paul Cooke/Director: Herman Yau/Starring: Lam Ka Tung, Kristal Tin, Andrew Lin & Charmaine Fong/Source : Fortune Star / NTSC All Region DVD / Wide Screen Ratio /Anamorphic 16:9 Presentation / DTS Sound / Trailers /Making Of /
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Review By-Paul Cooke Director: Herman Yau Starring: Lam Ka Tung, Kristal Tin, Andrew Lin & Charmaine Fong Source : Fortune Star / NTSC All Region DVD / Wide Screen Ratio / Anamorphic 16:9 Presentation / DTS Sound / Trailers / Making Of / English Subtitled
A near futuristic snapshot of a bleak society, where criminals are contained within a region walled off from the rest of the world. An environment where the strong rule over the weak and the despotic Crow reigns supreme. A lethal explosive device is attached to the ear of all inmates that will separate their upper torso, like a melon in a microwave set to high, should they dare to escape the prison perimeter !. This is the world of ‘Chaos’ !
With a deadly epidemic sweeping the land, losing your head soon becomes a toss of the coin consideration in order to live however !. The contagion arrives at the criminal containment city, along with a cop in transit with a criminal on route for processing. Andrew Lin is police officer Mickey, and Gordon Lam is his prisoner Tai Ho. Lam’s character forces the driver of the car off the road and through the wall into the city of criminals, fatally killing the officer behind the wheel, and in the aftermath leaving Mickey and Tai Ho at the mercy of the inmates. Action and carnage follows as Crow and his ‘cronies’ are challenged as to who is actually the cop and who is the criminal of the two unwelcome gate crashers !?. The third unwelcome, and initially insidious intruder, is of course the deadly virus brought in from the outside world with them. What follows is a frenetic fight for survival in a putrid pot hole of rancid ghetto grotesqueness, where the Crow is king until his subjects become revolting !.
Followers of Director Herman Yau’s work will be unsurprised by the gory excesses on display, nor the violence delivered with body squelching regularity. Indeed it will be expectant for his fan base, of whom a majority would have been stunned into a now desensitised state, having witnessed Anthony Wong delivering his meat man mayonaise in the bubonic blood fest that is ‘Ebola Syndrome’ (1996) . 'Chaos’ may not have the early manic madness of Yau’s then rising star Anthony Wong to lead, but here he still captures some of the intrinsic nausea of ‘Ebola Syndrome’. Entwining it with an ‘Escape From New York’ (1981) sub text, and a ‘The Running Man‘ (1987) adjunct, to actually embrace these elements into a package that will delight the hardcore midnight multiplex audience at any time.
Within the confines of the dingy low life society happens to be the wife of Tai Ho, Ling as played by Kristal Tan, and a young woman named Yan who, unbeknownst to him, just so happens to be his daughter !. Along with cop Mickey the four have to forget past prejudices to align together in order to try and escape their progressively unsafe predicament. With the contagion showing itself in human assault mode, serving up buckets of projectile vomiting and bloody emissions, the populace panic. In order for the four that the audience will be rooting for to have any chance of escape, however, they must first remove their enforced deadly ear devices, and for that they need to get to Crow, who holds the one and only device that can remove them safely !. Herman Yau takes full advantage of what is clearly a limited budget and an obvious dressed stage setting for the entire proceedings, one that never once shows the outside world or any shot of a location. Even with such restraints Yau serves up a volatile cocktail of destructive deviancy to delight fans of ‘B’ movie banality, garnished with all the necessary accoutrements to make proceedings move along at a welcomed big bang nihilistic swagger.
There’s Action aplenty amidst the dark lit backdrop, camouflaging the back lot warehouse this likely was shot in, with fights, gouging and head explosions galore in an environment where your neighbour is best forsaken !. It’s a mindless viewing experience but one that is best revelled in with a few friends and a large side order of beverages, of an alcoholic nature. What Director Herman Yau lacks in cohesive narrative structure he more than makes up for in outlandish on screen Action. You get what you pay for from his movies and this is no exception. A garish, gaudy pastiche of familiar movie arks, brought together like Noah gathering his stock in order to ensure there’s always two of everything we need regardless of its pedigree. Sure to become a tricky movie to track down in no short time, not likely appealing as a universal release title, the film is worth seeking out as it is one of those goofy flicks that gets a following. Great to see Herman Yau continuing to pour out such brazen slush puppy pulp. Long may such ‘Chaos’ reign !.
CHAOS
A near futuristic snapshot of a bleak society, where criminals are contained within a region walled off from the rest of the world. An environment where the strong rule over the weak and the despotic Crow reigns supreme. A lethal explosive device is attached to the ear of all inmates that will separate their upper torso, like a melon in a microwave set to high, should they dare to escape the prison perimeter !. This is the world of ‘Chaos’ !
daughter !. Along with cop Mickey the four have to forget past prejudices to align together in order to try and escape their progressively unsafe predicament. With the contagion showing itself in human assault mode, serving up buckets of projectile vomiting and bloody emissions, the populace panic. In order for the four that the audience will be rooting for to have any chance of escape, however, they must first remove their enforced deadly ear devices, and for that they need to get to Crow, who holds the one and only device that can remove them safely !. Herman Yau takes full advantage of what is clearly a limited budget and an obvious dressed stage setting for the entire proceedings, one that never once shows the outside world or any shot of a location. Even with such restraints Yau serves up a volatile cocktail of destructive deviancy to delight fans of ‘B’ movie banality, garnished with all the necessary accoutrements to make proceedings move along at a welcomed big bang nihilistic swagger.
