“Splish, splash!!” Our Mermaid fun continues here at the Litterbox with another of those odd little Indonesian Horror goodies that your Favorite Catgirl Princess just can’t seem to live without. Up this time out for our “Frolicking Under The Sea: Mermaid Fantasy Film Festival” we have 2011’s “Arwah Kuntilanak Duyung” or… if my Indonesian translating skills are improving “Demon Mermaid Spirit”. 😉
Our synopsis is as follows: “Linda and Ardo meet and fall in love on a beach. Ardo was so happy to have Linda, so he purchased a beach villa for his beloved wife. But the beach was haunted by the spirit of a murdered woman Ayshah who has become a mermaid demon who causes much mischief as she seeks out her killer to get revenge for her untimely death.”
Yep… it’s our old friend Dewi Perssik, Indonesian dangdut singer and wannabee actress donning the “Fins & Tail”still trying her darnedest to be Indonesia’s Top “Scream Queen” and horror movie star. Persistent lil’ lady isn’t she? Here’s hoping she’s managed to elevate this one above the usual “craptastic” standards that most low budget Indonesian horror seems to revel in. But… hey… Your Favorite Catgirl Princess isn’t holding her breath with anticipation, Hehehe!!!
With our August “Frolicking Under The Sea: Mermaid Fantasy Film Festival” currently chugging along in full swing here at the Litterbox, you Gentle Visitors just know this Catgirl Princess couldn’t pass up a chance to do her own review of HK filmmaker Stephen Chow’s latest romantic comedy “The Mermaid”, just available here on Region 1 DVD release. Sigh… Neko’s got a real soft spot for sweet magical romantic comedies…💖
Did somebody say synopsis? Yep, and it goes like this here: “Pretty, naive young mermaid Shan is sent to the human world on a secret mission by her people to play the part of a sexy temptress so she can assassinate Lui Xuan, a spoiled millionaire developer with a real estate project that threatens to destroy the last remaining ecosystem of her race. But despite her resolve to finish him off, Shan ends up falling in love with him instead. Can she put aside her feelings and save her people or will the mermaids fade away once and for all and become nothing more than legend?”
💕 Awwwwwww!!💕 Sweet adorable magical girlfriend romance movies… This wee lady can never ever get enough of those. Ghosts, Fox Spirits, Aliens, you name it… so why not one about one with a cute girl who is half human and half goldfish? Yeah… I’m there. The fact that this one is by the director of one of my all time favorite films, “Kung Fu Hustle” only makes me want to see it even more.
It’s a surprising smash hit in Asia, but will it live up to this wee lady’s hopes and expectations for movie goodness? Guess we’ll all find out…
So for our first entry to this month’s “Frolicking Under The Sea: Mermaid Fantasy Film Festival – August 2016”, I have for you a review of a 2011 Thai horror comedy that has been just about impossible for this wee kitten to pin down over the years since it first came out, “Gancore Gud” aka “Dead Bite”. Impossible to track down? Ha!! Not for a reeeeaallly determined Catgirl if she’s patient and sets herself to the task…
Our synopsis goes like this: “A Thai Hip-hop group, Gancore Club, traveling to a promotional photo-shoot by ship becomes stranded on reputedly haunted Mermaid Island, run afoul of strange aquatic zombies and the vicious locals who try to hunt them down as sacrifices to their mysterious and sexy island mermaid goddess.”
Ummmm? Crazy Thai Hip-hop guys? Oodles of pretty Thai girls in Bikinis? Killer islanders with butt loads of pointy weapons and a thirst for blood? Mermaids and zombies? All in the same movie? Heck yes!!! Neko is sooooo there! 😉
So. Wanna hear the crazy plot and find out if it’s maybe gonna jump to the top of your “Don’t Miss” list too? Then by now, Gentle Visitor, you know the drill…. 😉
Yep, another month has slid by, and in an attempt to revive my postings, I’m thinking it’s time for another themed Film Festival. I always seem to do better with my postings when I’m doing one of those. 😉 Our theme this time out? Well…. naturally first Yours Truly has to get herself really inspired…
Luckily for me, Life has done just that as a number of things lately have coincidentally conspired to tickle my brain and get the ol’ imagination humming. You know… this crazy Catgirl and her penchant for wild fantasies and goofy daydreams… Yep. For some unknown reason, Miyuki’s been hearing the siren call of the Sea these last few weeks. Soft breezes with the scent of the ocean blowing in my ear all the faint sounds of some exotic south sea conch shell… strange given that I still can’t swim a lick. 😉
Yes… yes.. Carolyn is still in there doing her best to try to get lil’ ol’ me to feel safe and comfy in the water. (💗 Personally… I think she just craves any excuse or opportunity she can find to get me in my bikini… the sly vixen… 💕)
We’ve visited the beach a couple of times the last week or so as time has allowed for some relaxing fun and even an evening cookout with friends. I’ve done some splashing around and floating about on an old inner-tube in the shallows drinking fruity margaritas, but real swimming has still been eluding me… must be my well honed Magical Catgirl instincts. Oh well. At least it’s been a great way to flirt with my sweetie and beat the heat… I even managed to get a slight tan rather than burning myself to a crisp. 😉
Anyways… combine this with some recent serendipitous smiles from the “Movie Fairies” in the way of a couple of long overdue foreign movie goodies finally falling into my clutches… all featuring Mermaids in some form or other… and it seems somebody’s trying to tell this wee lady something. “Psssst!! Miyuki!! You know ya wanna…. Come join us under the Sea!!! We all float!” Ummm? Wait a darn minute… Didn’t I hear an evil clown saying that in some movie? 🙂
Well… how about it, Gentle Visitors? Wanna venture beneath the waves with your Favorite Catgirl Princess for fun and frolics… and maybe even some horror thrills and chills too? Then feel free to jump right in and enjoy the next few weeks of our “Frolicking Under The Sea: Mermaid Fantasy Film Festival – August 2016” here at the ol’ Litterbox.
Oooooohhhh!!And to get you in the mood for what Neko has in mind, how about a couple of short films to get us all primed? Here’s “Kiss of the Siren”, voted Best Film at the 2014 International Fashion Film Awards and Alex Pearson’s short film “Bait”.
Time for another of our February festival reviews for our “Martial Arts Mayhem: Fighting Femmes Festival – 2016″, and this time one of those classics I told you I had on tap, 1985’s Hong Kong action fav, “Yes, Madam!” featuring the dynamic pairing of Michele Yeoh and Cynthia Rothrock.
Our synopsis? “Investigating the murder of a rich Westerner, tough Hong Kong Senior Inspector Ng is forced to team up with equally tough Scotland Yard Inspector Carrie Morris to track down secret microfilm evidence that contains complete details of a triad boss and his gang’s illegal activities, evidence which has fallen into the hands of a trio of hapless bumbling thieves. Bullets flying, fists and kicks exploding, it’s a race to the finish to see who will find the microfilm first with the lives of those low level crooks always hanging in the balance.”
This one’s an old movie from waaay back in the day, and probably the inspiration for the torrent of “Tough Lady Cop” movies that ruled the late 80’s and early 90’s HK movie scene. Yours truly caught it back when I was in college as part of the wave of HK action films that began showing up here in the US. While maybe not the best of them, it most certainly made it’s mark and cemented the careers of both Michele Yeoh and her co-star Cynthia Rothrock as the ruling queens of HK action cinema. Been some time since I gave it a watch, so with our current theme festival underway, I dug my old Mei Ah Region 3 release out and decided it was time to see it again. Wanna share my cinematic memories? Then, by all means, “Read On” o’ Gentle Visitors! 😉
Time for another Review, and this time yours truly scores a surprising lil’ gem from Hungary, the quirky offbeat 2015 Fantasy/ Romance/ Comedy, “Liza, A Rókatündér” aka “Liza the Fox Fairy”.
Our synopsis for it goes sorta like this:“Somewhere in a fanciful alternate 1970s Budapest that never was, a shy, naive, and lonely nurse named Liza lives in a bizarre fantasy world where her only friend is the ghost of a dead 50’s Japanese Pop star named Tomy Tani. Inspired by a steady diet of Japanese romance novels, Liza dreams of one day finding her true love. On her 30th birthday she decides to break out of her shy lonely life to find it at last, but as all her potential suitors die one by one in violently odd and extreme ways, she begins to fear the worst: that perhaps she is cursed and has really become a mythical fox fairy, tragically doomed to remain alone forever!”
Hehehe… as you all know, o’ Gentle Visitors, this wee lady loves her goofy Asian Horror movies… and her weird Turkish ones… and… well… pretty much most all horror movies in general. But honestly… I also like quirky, odd little romantic films too. You know the ones. The ones where it’s not too odd to find a ghost or an alien or even a monster or two thrown in the mix just to spice things up. Those are usually the sorts of films I end up getting all teary and emotional about and usually love most of all. Go figure… I’m just goofy like that.
So… when a crazy little Hungarian movie about curses and Japanese Fox Spirits and romance came along, naturally it was a given that I’d have to track myself down a copy. A little web surfing later and eBay came to the rescue with just such a DVD… even complete with those ever so necessary English subtitles along for the ride. Yay!
So, you wanna hear Neko tell you all about it, do you? Then watcha waitin’ for? 🙂
Time for another Review… a really waaaaay overdue one… and this time out, yours truly has herself another goofy “Hopping Vampire” tale from good ol’ HK, the 2014 Horror/ Comedy “Sifu Vs. Vampire” by prolific HK genre producer/ director Wong Jing. Expecting some more of the riveting Jiangshi horror we saw in “Rigor Mortis”? Ha!!! I said “Wong Jing”… so leave all expectations of serious Asian horror right by the door as you enter… Wong Jing don’t play that way… 😉
Our synopsis goes like this here: “Small time gangster Nicky and his friend Boo get the assignment of a life time, to threaten Charlie Jiang, a feng shui master into exhuming the corpse of the great grandfather of TV station tycoon Kelvin Chow. A new burial is said to bring Kelvin great fortune and prosperity but things take a turn for the worse when his great grandfather’s corpse turns into a deadly Vampire King and is let loose inside the TV station while a show about zombies is being filmed. Soon our heroes are up to their necks in both trouble and the hopping dead!”
Yep. From our trailer, looks like we’re going to get all the retro Jiangshi antics we HK movie fans know and love. Hopping Vampires… Taoist Vampire Hunters… a lovely romantic ghost girl… and two hapless boobs to scream and run around like idiots. Yep. They seem to have all the usual bases covered. So what the heck are you waiting for? Neko’s ready to spill the beans if you’re ready to “Read On”, o’ Gentle Visitor. Let’s get hopping!! 😮
Well, for our next foray into crazy horror films, we go from Halloween witches back to a perennial favorite here at the ol’ Litterbox… the zombie… with a look at the Region 2 UK release of “Zombeavers”. Ummmm?… Zombie beavers? Nope… your favorite Catgirl kids you not. 😉
Our synopsis goes like this here: “A group of college sorority girls having a “girls only” weekend together at a rural riverside cabin are menaced by a swarm of deadly zombie beavers created by an accidental spill of toxic waste. A weekend of sex and debauchery soon turns gruesome as the undead beavers close in on the girls and their party-crashing boyfriends. Isolated and unable to escape, the kids are soon fighting for their lives in a desperate attempt to fend off the hoard of crazed mutant beavers that attack them in and around their cabin.”
Yep. You’d be right in betting this one doesn’t set the bar tooooo high, plot wise. Sounds pretty much like a quick exploitative story with crude trashy humor, nudity, very little real coherent plot, and probably more bad “beaver” jokes than any film truly needs. So… not expecting greatness, let’s take a peek at the result and see if “Zombeavers” sinks or swims, shall we? At least I can tell my sweetie it’s an English language film…. 😉
Just when I thought all the witches were hiding this Holiday season and I’d have to rely on doing reviews of older films to fill out things here at the Litterbox, Spain comes to our rescue with the release of 2013’s “Las Brujas de Zugarramurdi”aka “Witching & Bitching” on Region 1 DVD. I’ve known about this one for a while, but given that the original Spanish DVD lacked subtitles, I’d resigned myself to a long search for the subtitles or a release that actually had reliable ones. And you know how those searches can be…. Luckily, somebody must have decided this wee lady needed her Halloween Treats early this year…. 😉
Our synopsis? Well it goes something like this. “When your marriage has you on the brink and your bank account in the red, it’s time to throw all common sense to the wind and rob a “Cash-for-Gold” shop. That hasty ill-conceived decision made by a group of desperate guys leads them into danger as they try to make their getaway to France in a hijacked cab whose route takes them through the impenetrable forests of Basque Country, home to legends of ancient covens and witchery. As fate would have it, they run head-on into a horde of crazed women who hate all men and feed on human flesh. Trapped in their mysterious mansion on the night of the greatest witches Sabbath in a century, our hapless heroes must pull together and win the ultimate “Battle of the Sexes” to save civilization as they know it from the cannibal coven and their ancient Goddess of Evil.”
Slapstick oddball comedy… goofy criminals… vengeful ex-wives… crazy cannibal witches… ancient giant fertility goddesses run amok… a sprinkling of sexy witchy shenanigans… and maybe even some subtle smart comments on the nature and problems of modern “gender relations”. Sounds like we’ve got it all. Wanna know how it all plays out smooshed together? Then ya know what ya gotta do… 😉
It’s not the “Witching Hour” quite yet, o’ Gentle Visitors, and although your Favorite Catgirl Princess is woefully behind things hereabouts, we’ve still got time for some Halloween Movie Festival Reviews. This time out… a wee peek at a classic from yesteryear, 1942’s witchy romantic comedy “I Married A Witch” starring the lovely Veronica Lake and Fredric March. Definitely a change of pace from my usual creepy fare, but it’s a Catgirl’s prerogative to shake things up now and again… 😉
Our synopsis? How’s this then? “As she burns at the stake, 17th century witch Jennifer, places a curse on her accuser, Jonathan Wooley, cursing all the future men in his family to suffer bad luck in love. When a lightning bolt strikes the tree she was killed on some three centuries later, she returns from the beyond and pledges to make the latest in the Wooley clan, Wallace, fall in love with her and torment him as none of his ancestors ever was. The only problem is that she accidentally drinks the love potion intended for Jonathan and swiftly proceeds to fall in love with him! But it is forbidden for a witch to ever feel love… curse or no curse.”
Hehehe…. sweet romance and a little witchy mischief. Just the thing for a “Movie Nite” with my sweetie. Sound like it could be your idea of Autumn movie fun as well? Then let’s all “Read On” and share the vintage movie memories….
An insatiably curious lil' kitten with admittedly odd tastes in film and music, addicted to spicy food and berry wine coolers.... generally playful but with a surprising fierceness when annoyed. But don't worry... she's had all her shots!