[quote=“I…I…Idiot, post:159, topic:2162”]Heroes Two for me tonight.[/quote]I love the music in this one.
The music is of Japanese origin. I forget the source, though. Are you talking about the opening theme at the beginning, Aarron?
I always love that music too. I’m going to sample that for one of my next musical projects.
[quote=“Angel Face, post:162, topic:2162”]The music is of Japanese origin. I forget the source, though. Are you talking about the opening theme at the beginning, Aarron?[/quote]The one I.I.Idiot posted above.
Is it from a Japanese film then? I thought it was an original score for once!
[quote=“Yodlaf Peterson, post:164, topic:2162”]The one I.I.Idiot posted above.
Is it from a Japanese film then? I thought it was an original score for once![/quote]
I’ll see if I can find the info. A foreign poster at a kung fu movie site stated the source as so many were looking for it. Some of these movies do have original music. In some cases, it’s a cue or two mixed with cues from other sources. Depending on the production meant what kind of soundtrack the film got. As you know, some of Chang Cheh, Chu Yuan and Sun Chung movies (Wuxia stuff) got original music written for some of their films. Not sure about the indy films, but the Shaw’s licensed their cues. In regards to tunes from actual movies, they would have had to have gotten some form of permission (if not a small fee) since they had distribution deals with the big US studios at the time.
Watched Black Magic today and although I had some fun with it I would have to say it was for all the wrong reasons.
Really not sure what they were trying to do with this one. It’s obviously an attempt at horror but there is less blood and gore in this than in a regular Shaw action or martial arts film and the ‘scariness’ seems to be centred around creepy crawlies for the most part. Centipedes, snakes, maggots and the like. Obviously the title gives away the film’s main theme but it could just as easily have been called ‘Shaw Goes Mumbo Jumbo’ as the dominant action in regards to the black arts is chanting, waving your arms about and hanging dead chickens and clay figures in people’s houses. That and a series of nasty headaches. There’s also some whacky ingredients for spells thrown in which include the usual blood and hair but also, as a nice change, breast milk, juice from a dead girl’s lips and some rice packed around a live one’s chuff. All very weird but the most horrifying thing in the whole movie is the sight of Ti Lung wearing this god awful sailors hat :o
The climax then goes on to use the full range of state of the art 1975 video special affects which give the whole thing a crap cartoon / power rangers kind of vibe with fake lightning, power beams and blue screen induced storm clouds. All mingled with a lot of prerequisite head clutching as the powerful spells take their toll. This all sounds like a lot of fun of course and there certainly is some pleasure to be had in it but on the whole the film winds up being not good enough to recommend and not bad enough to be craptastic. Unless of course you utilise the old fast forward button. In which case it becomes a fifteen minute masterpiece. ;D
As a side note, this one is also clearly not shot in Hong Kong. Not the exteriors anyway. Not sure exactly where it is set but judging from the architecture and the clothing of the villagers my guess would be somewhere in Malaysia. If not that then Indonesia. Any of the experts out there know?
[quote=“Phil H, post:166, topic:2162”]Watched Black Magic today and although I had some fun with it I would have to say it was for all the wrong reasons.
Really not sure what they were trying to do with this one. It’s obviously an attempt at horror but there is less blood and gore in this than in a regular Shaw action or martial arts film and the ‘scariness’ seems to be centred around creepy crawlies for the most part. Centipedes, snakes, maggots and the like. Obviously the title gives away the film’s main theme but it could just as easily have been called ‘Shaw Goes Mumbo Jumbo’ as the dominant action in regards to the black arts is chanting, waving your arms about and hanging dead chickens and clay figures in people’s houses. That and a series of nasty headaches. There’s also some whacky ingredients for spells thrown in which include the usual blood and hair but also, as a nice change, breast milk, juice from a dead girl’s lips and some rice packed around a live one’s chuff. All very weird but the most horrifying thing in the whole movie is the sight of Ti Lung wearing this god awful sailors hat :o
The climax then goes on to use the full range of state of the art 1975 video special affects which give the whole thing a crap cartoon / power rangers kind of vibe with fake lightning, power beams and blue screen induced storm clouds. All mingled with a lot of prerequisite head clutching as the powerful spells take their toll. This all sounds like a lot of fun of course and there certainly is some pleasure to be had in it but on the whole the film winds up being not good enough to recommend and not bad enough to be craptastic. Unless of course you utilise the old fast forward button. In which case it becomes a fifteen minute masterpiece. ;D
As a side note, this one is also clearly not shot in Hong Kong. Not the exteriors anyway. Not sure exactly where it is set but judging from the architecture and the clothing of the villagers my guess would be somewhere in Malaysia. If not that then Indonesia. Any of the experts out there know?[/quote]
Chinese people are very superstitious and this movie was based around black magic rites and superstitions of Singapore and Malaysian origin. Portions of the film were shot there. It started a slew of imitators and like minded movies including BLACK MAGIC 2, BEWITCHED, it’s sequel THE BOXER’S OMEN, SEEDING OF A GHOST, RED SPELL SPELLS RED, CENTIPEDE HORROR, CROCODILE EVIL, BRUTAL SORCERY, THE DEVILS…also Indonesia got in on the act with movies like MYSTICS IN BALI and QUEEN OF BLACK MAGIC which was released in some territories as BLACK MAGIC 3. There was also a remake of the original BLACK MAGIC a couple of years ago in Hong Kong.
I really like BLACK MAGIC, I think Ku Feng was cast perfectly as the witch doctor (or whatever he was), granted it was spoiled a bit at the end with the effects but overall i think it’s quite a solid film.
I think it’s a solid movie, too. I like it more than the more popular sequel. I think he effects add to the overall quirky nature of the movie. Prior to 1983, SPX in HK movies was relatively poor. It was rare to see effects filled movies like MIGHTY PEKING MAN and SUPER INFRAMAN and things like that. It was rather ambitious for Shaw or any company for that matter to approach material such as this and give it a go. In the case of BLACK MAGIC, it was a film that held a lot of curiosity for Hong Kong’ers with its mysterious slant about forbidden rites practiced in the wilds of out of the way places.
Just watched Amazons and Supermen (Superuomini, superdonne, superbotte) and Italian co-production with the Shaw Brothers directed by Alfonso Brescia.
Starring Aldo Canti who is probably better know to Spaghetti western viewers as Indio in Sabata. (who was sadly found murdered in a park in Rome).
The two faces from the orient are Yueh Hua and Karen Yeh.
I enjoyed this for all the wrong reasons, it’s basically so shit it’s good ;D
and it’s got a crazy ass score by Franco Micalizzi
What;s the print like on this one, Aarron? I got the Italian DVD on the way. It’s got the English dub on there, too. Says it’s 2:35.1 also.
[quote=“Angel Face, post:171, topic:2162”]What;s the print like on this one, Aarron? I got the Italian DVD on the way. It’s got the English dub on there, too. Says it’s 2:35.1 also.[/quote]Shit, i’m also gonna get the Italian release.
This starts off at 2:35:1 and then changed to 1:85.1 or thereabouts
Okay that must be the one used for the US release. I thought I had heard it was shit, too. IT was only like $6 to $9. The Italian disc cost me $13 before shipping.
[quote=“Angel Face, post:173, topic:2162”]Okay that must be the one used for the US release. I thought I had heard it was shit, too. IT was only like $6 to $9. The Italian disc cost me $13 before shipping.[/quote]Where are you getting the Italian disc from and do they take paypal?
I was looking at just under 10 euros plus 5 euros shipping!
[quote=“Yodlaf Peterson, post:174, topic:2162”]Where are you getting the Italian disc from and do they take paypal?
I was looking at just under 10 euros plus 5 euros shipping![/quote]
Here, but that sounds about right. Before shipping it came to $13 US. Both that film and THE BARBARIANS is gonna cost me around $50 to ship. The guy that runs the site said up to 4 to 5 discs are this much in shipping. Yeah they take paypal.
http://www.videociak.net/customer/product.php?productid=24008&cat=2&page=2&more_pages=1
[quote=“Angel Face, post:175, topic:2162”]Here, but that sounds about right. Before shipping it came to $13 US. Both that film and THE BARBARIANS is gonna cost me around $50 to ship. The guy that runs the site said up to 4 to 5 discs are this much in shipping. Yeah they take paypal.
http://www.videociak.net/customer/product.php?productid=24008&cat=2&page=2&more_pages=1[/quote]Fuck that, i went through the motions and they want 12.50 euros shipping from Italy to U.K.!!!
Wow, I wouldn’t think it would be so high for shipping to your neck of the woods! I bought a bunch of those new Naschy discs and without shipping, the damn discs cost around $34 a piece!
That’s $50 total for the two discs including shipping. It was the only place I found that was selling the legit BARBARIANS disc.
Just ordered it from a seller on ebay 14.89 euros including shipping.
9.89 + 5.00
that’s better
Damn! I’m afraid to order movies from ebay now after all that trouble I had in the past. 