What asian film/series have you just seen.. marks out of 5

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Re: What asian film/series have you just seen.. marks out of 5

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Magnificent Bodyguards (Lo Wei, HK - 1978): 3/5

Wacky period adventure featuring Jackie Chan, American indians, evil monks and music stolen from Star Wars, quite good fun.
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Re: What asian film/series have you just seen.. marks out of 5

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Female Prisoner Scorpion: Death Threat (女囚さそり 殺人予告) (Japan, 1991) [DVD] - 1.5/5
The first new Sasori film since New Female Prisoner Scorpion: Special Cellblock X (1977), this is a V-Cinema restart rather than a remake. This is actually a bold attempt at doing something original, and it shakes the franchise in ways that would not be acceptable in the modern fanboy era. The premise is as follows: retired warden Goda (yes, he's still alive in this version) sends a female assassin to prison to kill Nami who is now a middle aged woman! Cool, eh? Unfortunately the execution itself is lame as a bag of potatoes, starting from the god-awful disco pop cover of the original theme song. None of the political spark nor the visual style of the original series is here to be found (a bit surprising considering this was helmed by Evil Dead Trap director Toshiharu Ikeda). Now, for those who wish to read spoilers (since the film is not worth watching, nor will probably ever be available in English), here's how the storyline goes. The assassin, who now carries the number 701, kills her target but learns she's been betrayed. It was the wrong target and the real Nami died 20 years ago when she was murdered by Goda. Her spirit, however, lives and the betrayed assassin becomes the new Scorpion, assuming the name of Nami Matsushima at the end. Pretty cool. Too bad the film isn't.

Continental Drifter (大陸流れ者) (Japan, 1966) [TV] - 3/5
A ninkyo yakuza film shot on location in Hong Kong. The motif is a water refinery under construction to free the locals from having to buy their water from gangsters at extortionate prices. Honourable Japanese yakuza Minoru Oki, who is in charge of the construction, is killed by evil gweilo Osman Yusuf and his Japanese associate Tetsuro Tamba, who does evil yojimboing pitting the Chinese and Japanese against each other. Koji Tsuruta is sent to replace Oki and resolve the conflict. Initially, the film seems lacking since Tsuruta's character never encounters the moral conflicts that form the backbone of a good ninkyo film. It is however Tamba's character who begins to develop interesting moral ambiguity as the story goes on. There are other points of interest as well: the locale, the international cast, and the English proficient Tamba utilizing his language skills, all of which begin to manifest themselves once the film gets over the dullish first 30 minutes. There's perhaps a bit of inherent, unintentional racism with the Japanese getting the more heroic roles, but the film means well, and the exact same kind of storylines and characters appear in Japan set yakuza films with all Japanese casts as well.

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Re: What asian film/series have you just seen.. marks out of 5

Post by Killer Meteor »

Raging Rivals (1982) AKA Hard Bastard

Hwang Jang Lee plays a trumpet player in a travelling medicine show...no seriously. Decent fights, but lame "comedy", tedious "drama" and an unconvincing period setting do little to help. Gam Kei-Chu, the formidable headbutting antagonist of Shaw's King Boxer, is wasted yet again as a fat bumbling oaf

4/10



The Dragon, The Hero (1979) AKA Dragon on Fire

Godfrey Ho's head-on collision between the Secret Rivals flicks (John Liu and Tino Wong again playing rivals who team up to fight a greater threat) and Bruceplotiation (Dragon Lee is on the sidelines as Tino's brother) is far better then you'd expect, with some fantastic kung fu and truly bonkers moments, especially Chan Lau as a creepy pervert who looses his willy to a dog, and thus develops the "Mad Dog Technique!" Phillip Ko especially impresses.

Definetly reccomended

7/10
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Re: What asian film/series have you just seen.. marks out of 5

Post by chazgower01 »

Chinese Torture Chamber Story (1994) youtube 3/5
As a big fan of Hong Kong movies, right up through 1994, it sure took me a long time to see this. I'm not a big fan of torture, so I guess that had a lot to do with it, but I was entertained enough by this to give it a passable 3/5.
The reasons? Well, I actually grew to like the story and some of the ways the different characters played a part in making it move forward, though I'm still puzzled about certain aspects of it (though that should be no surprise in a Chinese movie). Like, where did Elvis Tsui and Julie Lee's characters go to after they were asked for help and accepted?
Lawrence Ng plays his usual character, always on the lookout for some additional prime booty, and this time it turns out to be 'Little Cabbage' played by the undeniably cute Yvonne Hung Yung. When they are framed for murder (they're innocent) we slowly learn the reasons and the whys and have to endure them getting tortured to admit their guilt. But for all the torture we have to endure (and it's not all that creative), we get plenty of nudity to make up for it. Ah, yes. Category III.
I mean, I can endure a little torture if it also includes 'Little Cabbage' getting her bare bottom spanked or helping her horse hung husband hilariously 'finish'; or Ng's wife Mai Ching having sweaty sex while Ng's sister is getting her lesbian groove on - and of course, the Hong Kong go-to girl for full frontal nudity, Julie Lee playing a supernatural being in the forest (along with Elvis Tsui) and having, of course, supernatural super sex.
A torture movie that's actually funny and sexy. I'll take it.

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Re: What asian film/series have you just seen.. marks out of 5

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Can't Stop My Crazy Love For You (1993) youtube 1.5/5
So I haven't had a chance to watch a whole lot of Asian Cinema lately, I needed some time off after all of those Amy Yip movies, but I saw Chinese Torture Chamber Story and thought...why not more? So I found another Cat III movie with Yvonne Yung Hung (or is it Hung Yung?) and the always enjoyable Simon Yam.
Oh boy, talk about a let down. Simon Yam plays the worst kind of stalker creep, and just annoys and creeps out Yvonne (a feature TV reporter) throughout the whole movie until... well until they have to put together a finale that is so wrong, it's not even funny. I mean... it's just terrible.
The only redeeming thing about it is the attractiveness of Yung Hung, but really they even ruin that, which leaves us with the subtitles which are unintentionally funny throughout.
It's pretty bad when I'm giving half a point FOR unintentionally bad subtitles.
And yet... I'm looking for another Cat III to watch...
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Re: What asian film/series have you just seen.. marks out of 5

Post by Markgway »

The BBFC cut 9:34 from this back in 1993.

The second most censored Cat-3 title yet to have been passed in the UK.

Raped By an Angel lost 11:02 back in 1997, although 6:20 of that were pre-cuts after two separate rejections.
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Re: What asian film/series have you just seen.. marks out of 5

Post by HungFist »

I saw A Chinese Torture Chamber Story about a decade ago and must say I found it to be a mean spirited bore. The girl was cute, though.

As for CAT III, I'm mainly familiar with the best known films, of which Naked Killer, Raped by an Angel, Sex and Zen 2 and the films of Billy Tang (especially Red to Kill and Run and Kill) are my favourites. And Ebola Syndrome of course! Never saw The Untold Story.

Cuts (especially by HK censors) are a constant irritation though (Japan may have had their no pubes policy, but at least it was clear cut and there are no multiple cuts or possible censored footage to be discovered in some Taiwanese potato cellar...).
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Re: What asian film/series have you just seen.. marks out of 5

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Sasori in U.S.A. (Scorpion's Revenge) (Japan, 1997) - 2/5
Another restart film, this time a theatrical release although I suspect this was produced for the video market and only given minimal theatrical run. In any case, it's a bit better than you'd expect, a passable b-film with some nudity, one explosion (yes, this actually has production values, minor they may be), a bit of action, and shot in USA. There are quite a few American actors as well, giving typical b-film performances that some people might describe as "bad". Nami (uncharismatic but passable TV star Yoko Saito, daring to show her boobs here) is this time a woman living in the US, falsely accused of murdering her husband and sent behind the bars. If you don't think of it as a Female Prisoner Scorpion film but rather a normal WiP flick it's quite watchable, and would be up another half star if the ending wasn't such a letdown with some very underwhelming action and car chase. The director is Daisuke Goto, better known for some watchable pink films (A Lonely Cow Weeps at Dawn, Blind Love).

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Scorpion: Double Venom (サソリ 女囚701号) (Japan, 1998) - 1/5
Unrelated follow-up to Sasori in U.S.A, scripted but not directed by Daisuke Goto. This time the film is set in Japan, with Nami (Chiharu Komatsu) a nurse who goes to prison for murder. This is a surprisingly inoffensive film, with a good amount of nudity and some lesbian sex but nothing sleazy at all, even the prison guards are nice people. Not so much a terrible film as one that ultimately doesn't leave any kind of impression at all. Tomoro Taguchi plays a villain and has one or two decent moments.
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Re: What asian film/series have you just seen.. marks out of 5

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Markgway wrote: 06 Jun 2018, 19:00 The BBFC cut 9:34 from this back in 1993.

The second most censored Cat-3 title yet to have been passed in the UK.

Raped By an Angel lost 11:02 back in 1997, although 6:20 of that were pre-cuts after two separate rejections.
Well that sucks. I hate sitting through a cut version of anything.
I watched a cut version of Amy Yip's China Dolls and got about half way through and thought, this is NOT a Cat III movie...

Currently looking for an uncut version of My Pale Lover (1993), though it seems ANY version is hard to find. Youtube has it all chopped up and missing all the good parts (rough sex, full nude thai strippers, lesbian sex)... what's the point of making a Cat III movie if theyre going to cut out what makes it that?
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Re: What asian film/series have you just seen.. marks out of 5

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My Pale Lover (1993) haiuken.com 2.5/5
I found an uncut copy. That was subtitled even!
Here's what I figure why: The opening scene has two Thai girls dancing on stage, touching each other. Then they take off the panties, and I guess the cameraman got carried away because one girl gives us a pretty good gynecological exam (see photo below). They also pop balloons with straws blowing darts from their coochies and the bartender opens a beer using one of the girl's vagina.
It's all tame of course, but for 1993 China, people's heads were probably exploding. And I found it kinda funny, in a mostly unintentional way, but also sometimes because it was so goofy (and sometimes inappropriate). 邢小路 Ying Siu-Liu character's name translates to Miss Cunt.
Lots of nudity and sex (and I mean a lot), and Chinese men acting goofy over it - goes on almost non-stop for the first 30+ minutes and then turns into a love story, I guess, and eventually Yvonne Yung Hung has a very NON revealing sex scene near the end. The second half isn't all a waste if you can appreciate a 5-minute lesbian sex scene with hot wax and an all-out orgy.
Somewhat entertaining, in a lurid, comical way.

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https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kNV7fR_3exQ/ ... 8%2BPM.png

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Re: What asian film/series have you just seen.. marks out of 5

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Sex and the Emperor (1994) Haiuken 3.5/5
The young Emperor (Sung Boon-Chung) falls in love with a chambermaid (Yvonne Yung Hung), who of course he can't marry, and an evil nemesis has her sent away....
At the same time, the narrator of the story is the Emperor's eunuch, who is only half castrated and is banging the hot little Chin Gwan, but the Emperor's nemesis finds out and...
All the elements are here to make a great movie, and it does look good- lots of attractive naked people throughout, but... in the hands of Wong Jing the ending feels a little unsatisfying. A LOT unsatisfying. Like the premise, like the story, like the characters.... hate the ending, which doesn't do enough to endure the bad that happens throughout the movie.
Sexy, humorous, and actually filmed well, it's not as popular with critics as it was with me.

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Re: What asian film/series have you just seen.. marks out of 5

Post by chazgower01 »

The Bedeviled (1975, Hong Kong) Haiuken 1.5/5
Reiko Ike late in her short career made a movie in Hong Kong about the rich rigging the system against a poor family in old China. Reiko plays the wife of the poor bastard that gets beheaded, in what is actually a pretty good scene in an otherwise slow and boring movie.
Reiko, of course, has a couple of nude scenes and looks great, but this is not a very entertaining movie.

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Re: What asian film/series have you just seen.. marks out of 5

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chazgower01 wrote: 08 Jun 2018, 14:07 The Bedeviled (1975, Hong Kong) Haiuken 1.5/5
Reiko Ike late in her short career made a movie in Hong Kong about the rich rigging the system against a poor family in old China. Reiko plays the wife of the poor bastard that gets beheaded, in what is actually a pretty good scene in an otherwise slow and boring movie.
Reiko, of course, has a couple of nude scenes and looks great, but this is not a very entertaining movie.
Agreed. It's just about the most boring film you could possibly get with the Ike + Golden Harvest + Horror combination.
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Re: What asian film/series have you just seen.. marks out of 5

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The Devil's Treasure (1973, Hong Kong) Haiuken 1/5
Wang Chun, played by O Chun Hung (the magistrate who gets haunted in the Bedevilled) plays an ass-kicking ocean diver that goes after sunken treasure for the mob. All hell breaks loose and he ends up running off with the treasure to his wife (Nora Miao).
Fast forward six or seven years later (they have a young daughter) and they're living a life of luxury in South Korea. Until the mobsters, with a young Sammo Hung (wearing a horrible fake mustache and eyebrows) show up and want the gold back. This happens at about the halfway point of the movie, which is a constant chase scene/gold search from then until the end. And I mean that in a bad way.
Sammo and O Chun Hung have a fight scene in the finale, which may seem even better than it is, because of how boring the rest of the movie is.
Not even worth it.

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Re: What asian film/series have you just seen.. marks out of 5

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Clan of Intrigue (1977, Hong Kong) Haiuken.com 3.5/5
Three masters are killed with 'Magic Water' and Chu Liu Hsiang (the always great Ti Lung) is framed for it. A somewhat complicated plot that moves along at a nice pace, has some good fight scenes, with each scenario adding to the mystery and giving us clues. The conclusion is satisfying and for the time this was made, in some ways surprising.
Nora Miao as Kung Nan Yen, Ling Yun as the mysterious Invisible Sword ('cause it's fast), Betty Ti as Princess Yin Chi, Li Ching as Black Pearl.
Really enjoyed this.

Obviously a cut version because of some weird jumps, I did find this picture online to give the Nora Miao 'lesbian kiss' theories some fire, but like most everything to do with Nora Miao in her movie career... not much fire behind that 'kiss'. There's also a hint that her 'kisser', Betty Pei Ti, had a little more revealing of a scene in the movie but that was cut as well I guess.
Maybe someday I'll find a copy....

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Re: What asian film/series have you just seen.. marks out of 5

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Ancient Chinese Whorehouse (1994) youtube 1.5/5
Man, when they get on a kick with something, they have no fear of overdoing it, do they? The jokes are getting thinner, the torture less fun, and the nudity fewer and farther between. And I can't even blame it on Wong Jing this time.
Some of the usual suspects are back - Yvonne Yung Hung, this time AS the madam (and giving us a beautiful full view from behind of her naked); Kent 'Fatty' Cheng with more of his usual shenanigans, King Yuen and more of HER usual shenanigans, and even a cameo from Elvis Tsui, in an ugly rape scene.
Newcomer (at the time) Ching Suet-Aan is sexy and naked a few times, to try and keep things interesting, but this is already an old idea that's been done so much better elsewhere.
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Re: What asian film/series have you just seen.. marks out of 5

Post by Markgway »

Celestial Pictures used a censored master for Clans of Intrigue.

I think the only way to see it uncut now would be an old 35mm print, unless Celestial can be persuaded to do a new version for HD.
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Re: What asian film/series have you just seen.. marks out of 5

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Romance of the Vampires (1994) xvideos 2/5
The story revolves around a vampire couple (Mondi Yau and Ben Lam) who come to Hong Kong, and a goofy escort agency that acts as a supplier of fresh meat for them.
Yvonne Yung Hung plays a blind girl, not a bad affliction to have for some of her movie roles, who is also a hooker for the agency. She's in the process of getting raped a second time in the first 30 minutes (this time a gang rape ordered by her ex, played by perennial bad guy Billy Chow), but she gets saved by the male vampire.
Of course she immediately ends up sleeping with him.
He wants to turn her into a vampire because she looks like his long lost love, and of course this makes his female vampire lover very jealous.
The nudity isn't as abundant as most Cat III's and they actually try to make the love scenes more erotic than sleazy, but it's just too silly at times to be taken seriously.
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Re: What asian film/series have you just seen.. marks out of 5

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Markgway wrote: 09 Jun 2018, 22:03 Celestial Pictures used a censored master for Clans of Intrigue.

I think the only way to see it uncut now would be an old 35mm print, unless Celestial can be persuaded to do a new version for HD.
Ah. Well it's certainly a good enough movie for that and popular enough.... we can only hope!
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Re: What asian film/series have you just seen.. marks out of 5

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A Fake Pretty Woman (1995) internet 0.5/5
Yvonne Yung Hung plays a waitress who is unhappy in life and unhappy with her looks and decides to get plastic surgery after talking to a 'sex bomb' that all the guys at her restaurant are gaga over.
They actually go through what feels like the entire consultation process! (Some of the translation is funny - "The second way is to go underneath the tits."). Her morals are immediately compromised once she has her new boobs and 'look', giving her celebrity fame, but at what price? And a big message of learning is sent to us all. :roll:
There's drama, of course, the plastic surgeon's perfect marriage is compromised, someone is burned in a fire and NEEDS plastic surgery, Yung Hung is in a car accident (hilariously comical).... but in the end, the plastic surgeon saves the day. Oh brother.
Lawrence Ng plays a sleazy director and King Yuen, who seems to be in every one of Yung Hung's movies, is a nurse's assistant and plays her part straightforward. No room for comedy in THIS serious drama!
The Cat III rating isn't for sex; there are few boobies here and there, Yung Hung examining her new breasts is mostly the only highlight here, but we do get REAL scenes of surgery. They are long and graphic scenes of real surgery. Ugh!
A real turd.

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Re: What asian film/series have you just seen.. marks out of 5

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All Of A Sudden (1996) internet 3.5/5
After all of the drek I'd been watching lately, this is like a gem.
The always enjoyable Simon Yam stars as a man who kidnaps a woman (Irene Wan) whose husband was sleeping with his wife before she killed herself. Or was she murdered?
Suspicions abound and information slowly surfaces leading up to a good ending.
At the time, the love scenes by Irene Wan were a big deal, as she was a successful TV star before this movie.
How this is a Cat II movie is beyond me, as it has plenty of nudity/sex, gruesome violence, and a scene with an infant that just dropped my jaw.
A great cast that also includes Dayo Wong playing a quirky detective who just can't keep snooping, and Alfred Cheung as the businessman husband.
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Re: What asian film/series have you just seen.. marks out of 5

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Crazy Love aka The Fruit Is Ripe (1993, Hong Kong) internet 3/5
For a movie with no real story that looks like an excuse to have Loletta Lee run around naked half the movie, I'd still rate this higher than most of the movies I've watched over the last few days.
A lot of people remember Loletta from the Happy Ghost series when she was 18, but my earliest encounter with her was as the rather cute, but plain ghost from the early Amy Yip film Jailhouse Eros two years later. Where'd she get boobies from?
Granted, the highlight of the movie is her opening full-frontal nude shower scene - it never gets better than that as far as HER, but the movie has it's funny moments as she 'discovers' herself and love or whatever.
I gave it a bonus half point because it's one of the few Asian movies I've ever watched where she fucks up her attackers BEFORE they can rape her, in what is the only serious scene in the movie.
Fluff, but attractive fluff.

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Re: What asian film/series have you just seen.. marks out of 5

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chazgower01 wrote: 10 Jun 2018, 05:20 All Of A Sudden (1996) internet 3.5/5
Sounds cool, gotta see if I'd manage to see it some day.
chazgower01 wrote: 10 Jun 2018, 09:38 Loletta Lee
My introduction to her was Mr. Vampire 4, after which I felt some strange need to see Sex & Zen 2 :lol:
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Re: What asian film/series have you just seen.. marks out of 5

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Exodus From Afar (1998, Hong Kong/Thailand) youtube 0.5/5
Holy smokes, I figured with Yvonne Yung Hung and Elvis Tsui in it, that it would at least look like a respectable movie, regardless of how stupid the story is. Boy was I wrong. This makes Fantasy Mission Force look like a masterpiece. Filmed on what looks like a budget of $100 this is the biggest waste of time ever. Tons of attractive nudity in it, but geez, you can find that anywhere.
Filmed in Thailand, it IS cool to see parts of Bangkok from 20 years ago (like Victory Monument), but it's not enough to keep me interested for the 83 minutes. It actually had a 6-minute sex scene with Elvis Tsui and two Thai girls set to some be-bop Jazz score that was more interesting than anything else in the movie. And I'm not sure it even had much to do with the story.
A complete mess.
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Re: What asian film/series have you just seen.. marks out of 5

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HungFist wrote: 10 Jun 2018, 12:47
chazgower01 wrote: 10 Jun 2018, 05:20 All Of A Sudden (1996) internet 3.5/5
Sounds cool, gotta see if I'd manage to see it some day.
chazgower01 wrote: 10 Jun 2018, 09:38 Loletta Lee
My introduction to her was Mr. Vampire 4, after which I felt some strange need to see Sex & Zen 2 :lol:
Oh yeah. 'Girls Unbutton' is another good one of hers!
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