Kinji Fukasaku (Battles without Honor and Humanity, Battle Royale) adapted Goro Fujita’s gangster novel of the rise and fall of real-life gangster Rikio Ishikawa, a man who lives up to the lack of honor or humanity references by Fukasaku’s other film.

How horrible of a person is Ishikawa? Within minutes of the opening credits, he steals money from the Aoki gang, robs a Sangokujin gambling den with Imai, stashes his gun with a geisha named Cheiko, gets arrested and returns for his gun and to assault the girl.

Meanwhile, the leader of his gang is running for Japanese parliament and the out of control antics of the film’s protagonist are too much for them. Despite a talking to by the family boss, he blows up the leader’s car. This unpardonable crime leads to the gang telling him to slice his fingers off in the ritual of yubitsume. He refuses and goes to the cops before leaving Tokyo for 18 months, drifting to Osaka and a drug-filled haze.

Of course, the first thing he does when he heads back to Japan — ten-year exile or not — he comes back for a whole other round of mayhem, which includes battling two Yazuka families and the police all at the same time, followed by driving Cheiko to suicide and, inevitably, cannibalism, a sword battle in a graveyard and suicide.

Noboru Ando, who appears in this movie, was an actual mob figure for some time, saying “In Japanese, the only difference between yakuza and yakusha (actor) is one hiragana character.” Very noticeable by the knife scar on his cheek, he appeared in plenty of mob-related movies, including movies directly based on his life, such as his sexual experiences while hiding from the police (Ando Noboru no Waga Tobou to Sex no Kiroku) and life of crime in Takashi Miike’s Deadly Outlaw: Rekka.

You can get this movie as part of the Graveyards of Honor set recently released by Arrow Video. It comes with Takeshi Miike’s 2002 version of the movie, as well as new audio commentary by author and critic Mark Schilling, a new visual essay by critic and Projection Booth podcast host Mike White and an appreciation of the director. Like everything Arrow releases, this is a great set.

Taken from footage of Super Robot Mach Baron — the sequel to Super Robot Red Baron — this Hong Kong version predates the notion of using native actors within a Japanese show that Power Rangers would perfect a decade or more later.

Stranger still, this was released in Spain as Spain Mazinger Z – El robot de las Estrellas, even though Go Nagai’s famous robot is nowhere to be found.

The Universal Rescue team and their Super Iron Robot struggle to battle the evil that is within the Bermuda Triangle in a movie that smashes together an entire season of a TV show into 86 or so minutes. So you know that it’s going to make no sense — and therefore be awesome — before you even start playing it.

Stephan Yip, who directed Lady Exterminator, acts in this, as does Godfrey Ho, who is probably better known for his multiple ninja movies and insanity like Robo Vampire, Scorpion Thunderbolt and Kickboxer from Hell.

This was originally directed by Koichi Takano, who did the puppet effects in King Kong vs. Godzilla before doing the effects for several Ultraman series, including Ultraman: Tiga, Ultraman Towards the Future, Ultraman 80 and Ultraman Leo.

To see a modern version of this, the movie BraveStorm has recently come out in the U.S. on blu ray.

You can watch this on Tubi.

Honestly, this movie is crazy. I have no idea how Ken Russell talked people into giving him money for this.

Actually, I do. David Puttnam’s Goodtimes wanted to make six movies about composers with Russel, with the first being 1974’s Mahler. He also planned to make films of Vaughan Williams, Berlioz and Gershwin, which was to star Al Pacino.

There was just a 57-page script and Puttman and Russell weren’t always on the same page. Seeing Liszt as the first rock star — the term Lisztomania refers to the sexual mania that female fans felt when in his presence — led to Russell making a movie where he eventually felt that “The symbolism…is a bit too relentless and the fantasy sequences tend to submerge the reality of the characters.”

Well, yeah.

Based somewhat on the book Nélida, a story in which Marie d’Agoult — played by Fiona Lewis in the movie — wrote a barely hidden confession about her affair with Liszt, the movie is barely a narrative and more a series of misadventures, starting with d’Agoult’s husband catching her in bed with the composer and the duel that ensues. After leaving the two trapped inside a piano on the train tracks, the movie quickly moves to the start of his rivalry with Wagner (Paul Nicholas), who hates the showmanship that Liszt uses to win over crowds.

Liszt is now married to Marie and constantly battling with her over his infidelities, unable to write music. He hopes to meet Satan so that he can sell his soul to be inspired again, a fact that his daughter Cosima prays for.

This makes him to Russia, where Princess Carolyn and her court seduce him into growing a ten-foot-long erection, which is taken to a guillotine, where he must give up his carnal needs if he is to create again.

How does one explain what follows? That Wagner is a vampire that uses Superman for propaganda and attempts to suck the musical soul from Liszt? That the Pope is Ringo Starr, who demands that our hero — who has failed at being an abbott of the church because he sleeps around — must stop Wagner and his daughter Cosima and their Reichian zombie death cult? That Rick Wakeman plays Thor? That a zombified Wagner — armed with a symbolic electric guitar machine gun — kills all of the Jewish people while Cosima uses a voodoo doll to kill Liszt, who goes to Heaven and reunites with all of his lovers — as well as his daughter, who has a change of heart in the afterlife — and flies back to Earth where he destroys Wagner and flies into space in his spaceship?

I have no idea what I just watched, but I loved it.

In the future, music is banned from TV. That leads to Hero (Peter Denyer) and his driver Mr. Rockbottom (Freddie Jones, The Baron from Son of Dracula, as well as appearances in Goodbye Gemini, The Satanic Rites of Dracula, Krull and many others) turn an ice cream truck into a Group Detector Van that can find pop groups that they want to play at a big concert that will save rock and roll.

If you’re a fan of the British glam scene of 1975 — including bands like Mud, Slik, Hello, The Glitter Band, Slide, The Rubettes, Scott Fitzgerald, Bob Kerr’s Whoopee band and The Silver Band — then you’re in the right place. In fact, Slik also has a very young Midge Ure before the days of Ultravox and Visage. Ure also wrote Thin Lizzy frontman Phil Lynott’s song “Yellow Pearl,” which was the theme for Top of the Pops, and co-wrote “Do They Know It’s Christmas?”

Mud are pretty fun, what with their wacky trousers and dance moves. And you may not know Hello, but you definitely know their song “New York Groove,” which was covered by Ace Frehley. The Glitter Band were also known as The Glittermen and were, of course, the back-up for Gary Glitter (the same creative team that made this movie also were behind Glitter’s film Remember Me This Way). The Rubettes were a studio band that had two hits, “Sugar Baby Love” and “Your Baby Ain’t Your Baby Anymore.” Their keyboard player Bil Hurd was in Suzi Quatro’s band. Bob Kerr’s Whoopee Band was an offshoot of the Bonzo Dog Band. Finally, Scott Fitzgerald represented the UK in the 1988 Eurovision contest — alongside Jigsaw’s Des Dyer, Julie Forsyth and her husband Dominic Grant — coming in second to Switzerland’s winning entry, “Ne Partez Pas Sans Moi” performed by Celine Dion. He’s best known for his song “If I Had Words,” which is in the film Babe.

This is one of those movies where my mother-in-law walks in and says, “What weird movie are you watching now?” and I find myself explaining how amazing mid-70’s British glam is to someone who has no idea what I’m talking about. Oh mama, weer all crazee now. And so crazee for it that we reviewed it twice, during our first “Rock ‘n’ Roll Week.”  Yeah, it’s that fun!

The joy of Turkish cinema is that it allows you to relive movies that you already enjoyed, like Death Wish. And, well, Death Wish 2.

Orhan — the Turkish Paul Kersey — and his wife Filiz, along with his sister Sevgi and her boyfriend Jahit, have just come back to Istanbul from an escape to the country. Moments after that peaceful time ends, some drugged-up bad guys assault the women, killing Filiz and leaving Sevgi in a coma, much like Paul’s daughter Carol in the original. The police won’t be able to help outside of taking statements. Now, it’s up to Orhan to get the revenge that no one else will for him.

Director Memduh Ün may have been inspired by Michael Winner, but like all the best cover songs, he realizes that he has to put his own touch on the material. Serdar Gökhan seems more like an everyman than Charles Bronson. When Bronson’s Kersey pukes after his first night of being a vigilante, we’ve associated death and destruction so much with the actor that we realize he’s going to get over it. We want him to embrace the angel of death. Instead, we see Serdar’s take slowly descend from a man willing to attend to an injured dog in the midst of his vacation to someone willing to toss a man to his death. Somehow, this movie remakes the original and premakes the sequel, all with probably a tength of the budget.

You can watch this on YouTube.

The first — and as far as I know only — horror film shot using American Sign Language, I’ve been looking for Deafula for a long time to see just how weird it is. The good news is that it’s totally strange and exactly what I hoped that it would be. In truth, it’s also the first ASL film ever made.

It was written and directed by — and stars — Peter Wechsberg, using the stage name Peter Wolf. As a student at the deaf-friendly Gallaudet University, he went on to be in the National Theater of the Deaf. In the world of Deafula, everyone is deaf.

Steve Adams (Wolf) is a theology student who starts to believe that he’s a vampire. His best friend, a detective, has hired an inspector who has already battled — and defeated — Dracula to discover who is behind the 27 murders that have already gone done.

Man, there’s so much weirdness in here that I barely know where to start. Steve has always been a vampire and his preacher father has been able to feed him with his blood until his heart gives way. Steve’s mother also left his father for Dracula and sleeps in his grave, while her mother’s best friend Amy — who disappeared many years ago — has a magic ring that tells her when Steve is a bat. Where has she been? Oh, she’s just been living with a handless servant named Zork.

This is the only movie I’ve seen where a vampire prays to God to forgive him.

While this movie was originally silent, they later dubbed it for hearing audiences, adding a really bad Bela Lugosi impression for Dracula.

Wechsberg signed an agreement with the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare to receive twelve copies of the film to show it to audiences. They would eventually bootleg the movie and start sending out VHS tapes, so the creator of this film had to sue the U.S. government for stealing from him.

This is worth tracking down if only to see how a deaf creator sees vampirism.

There is no Anthony Dawson, despite what the credits of this film would lead you to believe. That’s Antonio Margheriti directing this western, starring Jim Brown, Fred Williamson and Jim Kelly in their second of three films together (Three the Hard Way and One Down, Two to Go complete the set).

If you’re making a Western, who should you get to be in it? Lee Van Cleef. Credit to Margheriti for bringing him in.

Pike (Brown) used to work for cattle rancher Bob Morgan (Dana Andrews, Lt. Ted Stryker in Zero Hour!), but now his boss is dead and he has to deliver eighty-six grand to the man’s widow. Helping him is the gambling man Tyree (Williamson), a prostitute (Catherine Spaak, The Cat o’ Nine Tails), a karate fighting Native American (Kelly) and an orphan. They’re all chased by a bounty hunter (Cleef) and a sheriff (Barry Sullivan, Planet of the Vampires).

Toss in Charles McGregor (Fat Freddie from Super Fly), Robert Donner (Exidor from Mork & Mindy), Western actor Harry Carey Jr. and Buddy Joe Hooker, who Burt Reynolds based Hooper on and you’ve got an action-filled romp.

You can watch this on Daily Motion.