Sounds delicious doesn't it?
Saturday, March 30, 2013
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
Sleazy Samurai Sunday
In 1970's Japan, the samurai genre had undergone a transition from pure swordplay to gory exploitation. Still, only one director was combining the genre with even more bizarre and graphic grindhouse staples from the supernatural to the skin flick: Teruo Ishii.
This coming Sunday, March 31st, we're hosting a special showing of two of Ishii's bizarre swordplay tales beginning at 7:00pm with
Blind Woman's Curse (1970): Despite killing a rival gang leader and serving a long prison term, Akemi is released to an ongoing street war in this bloody Yakuza/samurai tale. As the members of her gang are cut down (and flayed) she soon begins to suspect something more evil is at work.
Bohachi Bushido (1973): A wandering and despondent ronin is hired to eliminate the rivals of Yakuza brothel The Forgotten Eight. The women who work in the brothel are also trained swordswomen, and more than willing to participate in the graphic elimination of their opponents.
Be warned, both feature graphic swordplay (which means mutilation and blood) and the latter has some strong sexual content (which means rape and breasts) and both are Japanese language with subtitles. Unless you looked for them, these films would likely never hit you radar screen, but they will be on The Sunset big screen on March 31st for this special Kung Fu Grindhouse event.
Go poke it with a stick at FaceBook...
Thursday, February 28, 2013
Hamburger: The Motion Picture
From the fevered brain responsible for The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Movie comes this 90's distillation of 80's Buddy-Cop god Axel Foley, Cop And a Half. After he inadvertently witnesses a crime, the mob targets 8 year old Devon Butler for elimination. It will be up to hard-boiled grumpy cop Burt Reynolds and his moustache to resurrect a career, save a kid and learn to giggle again in this heartwarming tale directed by Happy Days own Fonz. If you were lucky enough to be "of age" you might have been one of the stalwart few who got to witness this siege on the senses in an honest-to-dog theater. If not, well, that's why we're here.
The 80's being a time of frantic commodity fetishization, the very "food" we ate took on iconic status, even at times its own personality. Following the smashing success of his script for Hot Dog the Movie (1984,) screenwriter Mike Marvin decided to break out on his own as a director with 1986's surefire hit Hamburger: The Motion Picture. Who doesn't like a hamburger, they're an American passtime, or so claims the catchy theme song of this forgotten classic. Starring the questionable talents of nobody you'd recognize except perhaps Dick Butkus, Hamburger is a smorgasbord of visual and verbal atrocities so great and nefarious that it was denied entry in to the world of digital media.
From our hearts to your eye-holes, Kung Fu Grindhouse delivers only the "finest" in media entertainment on March 18th at The Sunset in glorious downtown Ballard, Washington.
Show starts at 6pm
FREE
21 and over.
Poke us with a stick over at FaceBook for obnoxious updates.
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Band of the Man from the Hong Kong Hand Toast
Rad show folks, mostly anyway, sorry! We'll see you on March 18 for a fresh round of rotten cinema!
Thursday, February 7, 2013
The Band of the Man From the Hong Kong Hand
This February 18th at the Sunset we're bringing you two amazing movies that were waaaayyyy better then we could have hoped.
First at 6pm Phill brings you Awful Hour: the latest discoveries from the VHS morgue of history. I've had a peek at the offerings and I'm excited to take a trip down the memory alley...
Next, at 7pm we take a trip down to south Florida where a Vietnam Vet rehabilitates last-ditch juvenile delinquents with a crash-survival-course in the Everglades. 1986's Band of the Hand was a project conceived by the same brains that brought us the Miami Vice so it's no surprise that brash fashion in pastel colors will play a crucial part in the boys eventual victory over Laurence Fishburne.
Finally, clocking in at 9:00pm is Man From Hong Kong a coproduced Australian/Hong-Kong martial arts-espionage extravaganza from 1975. Legendary director Brian-Trenchard Smith mashes Bond-esque intrigue with the kung-fu stylings of the equally iconic Jimmy Wang Yu as a kung fu cop out to bring down the drug empire of George Lazenby (an actual former Bond). One of our favorites from among the all-too-brief Ozsploitation pantheon.
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
Billy Jack Attack!
Our first show in February comes on Monday the 4th when we'll be screening the first two films in the iconic Billy Jack series. 7:00pm - The Born Losers (1967) In his first screen appearance, Billy Jack takes on a nasty biker gang who has been terrorizing a small beach town. Despite kidnapping and violating several young women, the townfolk are too frightened to do anything and Billy Jack must take matters into his own hands.
9:00pm - Billy Jack (1971) After nearly dying in the first film, Billy Jack is back, this time with his trademark "Indian hat" and headband. While still just as racist and bigoted as before, these bad guys aren't bikers, just nasty rednecks out to shut down the "Freedom School." They'll have a tough time of it though, as Billy Jack's peace and love schtick apparently doesn't apply the use of violence against rednecks.
Just a Few Billy Jack Facts:
- As a Special Forces Vietnam Veteran, Billy represents possibly the first appearance of the vengeful 'Nam vet archetype that would flood 1980's cinema. Unlike those later vets who were all white and often fought against criminal minorities street gangs etc., Billy, a half-Navajo, kicks ass on behalf of hippies and Native Americans.
- A few years before the United States was introduced to Bruce Lee, there was Billy Jack. Choreographed by Bong Soo Han, who also body doubled for Tom Loughlin in some of the fight scenes, these films represent one of the earliest popular appearances of martial arts, in this case Hapkido, in popular American Cinema. Of course, Hapkido was also the style that Bruce Lee originally learned...
-Director Tom Loughlin, who also wrote and produced all four Billy Jack films also stars as Billy Jack. Loughlin has run for president three times, most recently in 2008.
-While the 60's were rife with biker films, The Born Losers predates Easy Rider, the film that 'blew-up' the counterculture movie heroes and outsider filmmaking.
-At the time that Billy Jack was first released in 1971 (somewhat unsuccessfully) the American Indian Movement was in full swing. Its re-release in May of '73 came just a month after the Incident at Wounded Knee, an event which in some ways paralleled Billy Jacks political themes and climax, perhaps helping make the film's "second coming" a tremendous success that led to two more films.
Come join us for this FREE special event at the Sunset and witness for Billy Jack for yourself! Crowd participation is encouraged and all attendees will receive a useless commemorative trinket!
Our second February show will be on the 18th. Until then, we'll see you on the 4th.
Don't forget to LIKE us on Facebook while you're waiting for the next show!
Wednesday, January 9, 2013
Challenge of the Tiger
At 6pm Phill brings you the latest from the VHS trash heap.
At 7pm we have Skatetown USA. Among the elite, but very small clique of late 70's and early 80's disco themed extravaganzas there was only one that featured the up and coming talents of Scott Baio and Patrick Swayze. Noxious comedy and roller-rivalry abound in this rare gem of cultural offal.
And finally at 8:30 it's Challenge of the Tiger in which two secret(ish) agents battle Communists for possession of a formula that just might sterilize the male population. Bruce Le and Richard Harrison may seem an unlikely duo, but their combined techniques will prove devastating to the Axis of Idiocy, and to your sense of taste.
We'll see you at The Sunset on January 21st for a new year's Kung Fu Grindhouse opener!
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