Red-Barracuda I'm so used to low budget Hong Kong movies from the 70's being chopsocky martial arts flicks, that I was very surprised with how Breakout From Oppression panned out. As opposed to being an action film, this one is in fact quite clearly a horror-thriller. The story centres on a girl who is released from prison after serving time for a serious crime. On release, she is given a job at a newspaper. She starts a relationship with her new boss which leads to jealousies from a couple of her female colleagues, one of which turns out to be more than a little bit psychopathic.While I would never claim this film was especially good – it's really no more than mediocre – it did make for a very welcome change to see a non-martial arts Hong Kong flick from this era. The story is quite functional but there are moments of interest sprinkled along the way such as a crazed woman with a knife, a man imprisoned in the basement of a house, another man beaten to death by a wrench, a spring roll laced with broken glass being fed to a child, a bar of soap replete with razor blades and that old staple – the push bike with no brakes! The complex events eventually come together and climax in a demented finale on a beach, which includes a cat fight and a beheading. So, there is certainly a reasonable amount going on in this one, so even though it isn't executed especially well, it does benefit from going down a psychological route as opposed to another Hong Kong flick about people kicking and punching each other.

Bezenby Production designer: Godfrey Ho. Script: Benny Ho (also Godfrey, I'm led to believe). Tangerine Dream on the soundtrack. This is surely a Godfrey Ho film, right? I've got to admit, it is rather cohesive if it is him.There's no ninjas here. This is a dark thriller about a girl who gets out of jail after eight years (for murdering someone), and finds herself a job at a newspaper. It becomes immediately clear that something isn't right, however. Someone puts razor blades in her soap, for instance, which leads to flashbacks to the abuse she endured in prison. She makes cakes for a bake off but glass ends up in the mix, leading to a kid spewing up blood! But who is responsible for this? Is it the assistant editor of the newspaper? The photographer? Someone from her prison life? And where is the editor of the newspaper, who offered her the job in the first place? I'm not saying, but you should check it out, as the film has hanged monkeys, maggot ridden corpses, stabbing and a beheading as all part of the fun. Tangerine Dream's Phaedra plays heavily through the last half of the film and it works really well. I'm sure Edgar got paid for this, right? This is a dark, dark film, and well worth a watch, I'd say.

capkronos Fresh from an eight-year prison stint after falsely being convicted of the the murder of her married lover, Fonda Chiu (Fonda Lynn) gets a new job as assistant editor of a newspaper, moves into a nice house in the country and tries to have a fresh start, vowing to keep her criminal background a secret. Everything's looking up for her socially, professionally and romantically, as she's making new friends, doing well at her job and begins dating her nice and understanding boss Simon (Alan Tam). Unfortunately, Fonda has also attracted the attention of a vengeful psycho who goes out of their way to make her life a living hell. Said nutjob is a jealous 17-year-old psycho-bitch named Sheena (Lona Chang), who works for the same newspaper as a secretary, victimizes her wheelchair-bound granny and tortures a male prisoner (the missing newspaper president) in the cellar of her home! Sheena also twists the head off her doll, kills animals (including chopping off chicken heads and hanging Fonda's pet monkey), tries to seduce Fonda's new man, beats someone to death with a flashlight, beats another guy over the head with a wrench, stabs a guy to death with a butcher knife and feeds a child a spring roll laced with broken glass! To make matters worse she's clever enough to implicate Fonda for her crimes, turning friends and coworkers against her.The version I saw was the one released on one of those 50 movie packs by Mill Creek Entertainment. The dubbing is pretty awful and the picture quality is equally bad, as they used a flat-looking, washed-out VHS-level print. However, the story itself is entertaining enough to make this worth watching regardless. It's also very fast-paced and seldom drags. The weaving of the current storyline with flashbacks is confusing at first, but the film adequately ties up all the loose ends by the end and is done with some competence. In other words, it all starts to makes sense if you hang in there long enough. The film also boasts quite a few entertainingly weird moments, such as when a shrieking monkey appears out of nowhere or when Fonda and a photographer (Jacky Lim) visit a crime scene and are suddenly attacked by some random madwoman with a butcher knife.Perhaps the most startling thing about this film is that if it were indeed made in 1978 then a very famous slasher movie completely ripped off the ending and hasn't been called on it. Ever heard of Friday THE 13TH? Here we get the female lead vs. the psycho on a beach. There's an overturned canoe nearby. They fight with oars. The psycho gets on top of our heroine and starts beating her head into the ground, and finally the leading lady grabs a machete off the ground, runs up to the psycho and chops her head off. The shots, editing and even use of slow-motion are completely identical and Fonda is even seen floating in a canoe the next morning when the police arrive! If I had to venture a guess, I'd say the year for this film is incorrectly listed here. I even think I heard snippets of Pino Donaggio's DRESSED TO KILL (1980) score being used, so this film was likely made sometime in the early 80s as opposed to 1978.

Flowbeer I found this title on a 50-pack of 'Drive -In' thrillers distributed by Mill Creek Entertainment. At first, I was disappointed because it seemed to be bad quality right from the start. The dubbing IS pretty bad and the lines & scenes happen so quickly, you're not sure what is happening, they just go from one thing to another, and you're supposed to be following the plot line, as fast as it goes! But the plot starts to become more obvious and you realize that the female lead, who just got out of prison, was given a job working for a newspaper. There is animosity from 2 other female co-workers, one who feels she got her job because of her looks and the other, who is jealous that the boss is asking the new girl out instead of her! So, there are some catty moments, but they scream so quickly in the English dubbing, it really takes concentration to hear all their lines - which usually end with a 'Hummpph!' in that cute 'Asian way' that we've come to expect from Chinese/Korean/Japanese ladies in many films. The boss is enamored with the new gal/ex-con, while the jilted employee seethes and plots some sort of destruction on one - or both of them! You will have to watch it to find out! But really, it's not a bad plot and the soundtrack is quirky, in a 70's kind of way. The direction isn't as bad as I thought at first, in fact it's typical of some of the newer Korean directors currently out there, with some dramatic imagery & effects. All in all, I thought it'd be crap but it turned into a neat little story worth finding, if you can! I doubt it's on DVD solo, I have mine on the 50-Drive-In set I bought off ebay for $18.99! I give it a 5 out of 10 ***** As in, average!