Holy shit. Maybe we should just call October "Filipino Action Comes to Fatso" Month! Not only is
For Your Height Only/Impossible Kid and
Machete Maidens Unleashed! coming from Vendetta Films, now we have Bobby A. Suarez's
They Call Her Cleopatra Wong and
The One-Armed Executioner due from Magna Pacific!! Both films were released last year as a
double feature disc by Dark Sky Films in the US, but are coming out separately here, and what's interesting, and possible cause for excitement, is that Aussie retail site
DVD Orchard lists
Cleopatra Wong as being a "16x9 Enhanced Transfer"... the Dark Sky DVD used a full-screen master, and in all likelihood, the version we'll be getting will be the same one, but here's hoping someone's dug up a nice scope print for this and it's not just a data error on DVD Orchard's part. As for the film itself, I have a soft spot for it because (1) it sports one of the catchiest titles around, and (2) that poster art.... goddamn, it's one of the best ever. Plus there are nuns with shotguns in it, long before any of that post-modern nonsense like
Machete and
this.
Notes:
- There seems to be THREE Cleopatra Wong-related films: The Bionic Boy, They Call Her Cleopatra Wong, and Dynamite Johnson (aka Return of the Bionic Boy). The latter is a favourite of mine, and if memory serves me correctly was the first VHS Vortex column I wrote for Real Groove a few years ago. Sadly, both Bionic Boy films are still unavailable on DVD (at least not officially anyway).
- A little background on Cleopatra Wong herself, Marrie Lee.
Dear Aaron,
ReplyDeleteThank you very much for the kind words for my late father's movies. If he is still around he would have thanked you personally. Kind regards and more power.
Roberto II