Gold Ninja

[Matt]

Gold Ninja, a horror/exploitation micro-label, is putting out a Blu-ray of White Zombie taken from a 2K scan of an unrestored 16mm print. It looks absolutely awful but I kinda love the idea.

It would be great as an extra, but $20 on its own? I’ve long been in favor of including unrestored film scans or VHS rips on releases of restored horror and exploitation titles, but this just seems the height of physical media decadence. I guess once you have lavish box sets of lovingly restored Andy Milligan, Al Adamson, and Doris Wishman films (most of which I own, thank you), where else can you go? And I still can’t get a Blu-ray of Humoresque!

[pianocrash]

Skip Tracer looks right up my alley, but I haven't picked it up yet (paging Canadian International Pictures, if you're reading this), but Gold Ninja's exceedingly popular Thrilling Bloody Sword release is getting a proper remaster from Error4444 this year (hopefully theirs won't be quite as limited as, say, Anatomia Extinction).

Got a few Instagram ads for the Star Wars Grindhouse edition (basically a scan of the original release cut, probably a well-worn dupe print?) that a grey area seller was hawking, though that was the only title that bore the re-scan technique (most others were ported from OOP releases, so not as fresh). There was another thread that mentioned this, I think, & how the possibility of a new release from Disney of the original seems likely in the future, but I cannot for the life of me remember if that was true.

Also, there seems to be a line of collectors selling old anime with purposefully added warble, jitter & drag on VHS (not enough to detract from the goings-on, but enough to get the feel of a worn copy), which is kind of hilarious to me, but for that I'll stick with these opening titles, for now.

What Brian Eno said so long ago has really come true (not that thing....the other one).

[pistolwink]

There was a music forum I once haunted (I forget the name) where a concept called "street vinyl" was briefly popular -- the idea being that you took some worn or even trashed copy of some fairly common record and converted it to digital to share. An alternative, I suppose, to the pristine sonics of CDs and new "280g, mastered at half-speed" vinyl (or whatever labels are touting most recently).

Not always such a silly idea ported over to cinema, when you consider how much Disney, for example, has "burnished" the digital versions of their classic animated titles to the point that they look decidedly different than they looked for generations of audiences (and lose many traces of the animation processes used to make them). Hard to imagine they wouldn't do something similar with the '77 version of Star Wars, so I'll cherish the digital bootlegs made largely from scans of vintage release prints. Indeed, considering how many "restorations" are botched in one way or another, a good scan of a release print in decent quality is often the option I'd prefer.

Anyway, I love Gold Ninja Video. Their releases have a handmade quality -- in the sense of obviously being put together by a couple of enthusiasts, for other enthusiasts. They do the best they can within their limited means. Their set of Jackie Chan ripoffs is a ton of fun.

[WmS]

Gold Ninja Video has been one of my favorite finds this last year.

They call it "bargain bin Criterion," piling on the extras. Justin Delcoux, one half of the Important Cinema Club podcast, does most everything and the other host, Will Sloan, joins some commentaries. The White Zombie disc looks like half the fun is in the "2 am public access broadcast" with the hosts dressed as monsters. Parasocial for sure, but they know their stuff and draw in the right people. Most releases have two films and some have a hidden feature film as an Easter egg.

As neither a podcast nor a horror guy, I found them through their releases of microbudget indie films. For example, Mangoshake, Unlucky Stars, and A Sweet and Vicious Beauty are three diverse films with interesting backstories and unusual lives. The last one is like a horror/action episode of Masterpiece Theater made by an alternate-dimension regional PBS affiliate in northern Virginia. By a filmmaker who shot five or six ambitious features and never did much with them. The disc has three of his feature films and a short. Mangoshake is a smart, formally daring Canadian anti-coming-of-age-film, with two cuts of the film, and Unlucky Stars a California indie kung fu throwback with great fights. On the director commentaries, Decloux's a very good interviewer whose experience directing two indie features sharpens his questions. Also, the Motern films are their own thing. Not for most, I would say, or even many, but I love them.

I should note that all the releases are BD-R, not pressed (alas) and shipping always takes a while.

[The Elegant Dandy Fop]

I stumbled upon them early last year when a friend made me aware of the Jackie Chan exploitation disc. Since then, I’ve purchased six of their discs as I’ve had a positive experience. My favorite release so far has been their Gary Graver set, which highlight some rarities in his career along with some great special features. This was actually my first viewing of his feature length, non-pornographic films (I’ve seen a few of the pornos), and found the films to be quite fascinating. Clearly, Graver had major ambitions! It also amazingly includes a full cut of his first feature provided directly from Graver’s estate.

There’s also been a big upgrade in the quality of their releases. I personally don’t mind watching dupe VHS rips of movies like their earlier releases knowing that’s all that exists, but all their recent releases have been proper 2K scans of theatrical prints. Sure, they’re covered in damage, visible splices, and scratches, but it’s the best these films are ever going to look.

[Penti Mento]

Got a few Instagram ads for the Star Wars Grindhouse edition (basically a scan of the original release cut, probably a well-worn dupe print?) that a grey area seller was hawking, though that was the only title that bore the re-scan technique (most others were ported from OOP releases, so not as fresh). There was another thread that mentioned this, I think, & how the possibility of a new release from Disney of the original seems likely in the future, but I cannot for the life of me remember if that was true.

I guess there are a number of these "vintage" Star Wars (and other films) scans available. You certainly shouldn't pay for them; search "puggo star wars" on archive.org and there they are. I believe the Puggo scans are specifically from 16mm prints. I think they are a lot of fun, and very well replicate the charm of seeing these movies in 2nd run theaters at the time. The group that put together the extraordinary (and extraordinarily important) 4K77, 80 & 83 also uploaded an interim "grindhouse" scan of Empire which I think is from a 35mm print, and of course is a much larger file size than the Puggos, and it looks amazing, scratches and reel changes and all.

[brundlefly]

As much as I root for can-do mulch-level stuff, going to caution against Dinosaurs in a Mining Facility , which I jumped on because it got a shout from Matt Zoller Seitz and because it is called Dinosaurs in a Mining Facility.

Dinosaurs in a Mining Facility has a well-digested sense of comic timing and mockable tropes that produces some goofball chuckles, but it rarely rises above the level of a bunch of stoner friends messing around after school with an iPhone and pirated f/x software. (Its core mythology – Dinosaurs in a Mining Facility has a core mythology – is apparently an offshoot of Dungeons & Dragons-style extracurriculars.) On that level, it is an accomplishment. “You’ll be eating generic cereal with a plastic spoon!” is one of Dinosaurs in a Mining Facility’s best lines and is also Dinosaurs in a Mining Facility’s general aesthetic. There is a staggeringly good Lynch parody/homage, nods at Space Ghost: Coast to Coast and Birdemic, and one shot I thought derided the very concept of good composition. “Make something of yourself!” is a constant refrain and you sense that also served as a motivational mantra behind the scenes.

Its charm is taxed by variable levels of commitment, a purposely but not purposefully toxic lead character, a pile-on of unforgivable puns, and enough low-key dead air that, by the time the credits roll at minute sixty-one (there’s also a bumper, and the threat of a sequel), promising whatthefuckery has been smothered into indifference. Nothing here approaching the sublimities of The VelociPastor.

To second WmS, Gold Ninja’s work is better than necessary. Maybe it’s a BD-R, but it’s a cared-for package with probably too many extras. The 2.5-hour run time on the “excessive” making-of doc caused my curiosity to evaporate. There’s even a printed leaflet containing storyboards; one of those is on lined composition paper, may have been done during study hall. And I didn’t think the shipping time was too bad considering it came from Canada, and that’s like placing an order through a portal to another galaxy.

[pianocrash]

Got a few Instagram ads for the Star Wars Grindhouse edition (basically a scan of the original release cut, probably a well-worn dupe print?) that a grey area seller was hawking, though that was the only title that bore the re-scan technique (most others were ported from OOP releases, so not as fresh). There was another thread that mentioned this, I think, & how the possibility of a new release from Disney of the original seems likely in the future, but I cannot for the life of me remember if that was true.

I guess there are a number of these "vintage" Star Wars (and other films) scans available. You certainly shouldn't pay for them; search "puggo star wars" on archive.org and there they are. I believe the Puggo scans are specifically from 16mm prints. I think they are a lot of fun, and very well replicate the charm of seeing these movies in 2nd run theaters at the time. The group that put together the extraordinary (and extraordinarily important) 4K77, 80 & 83 also uploaded an interim "grindhouse" scan of Empire which I think is from a 35mm print, and of course is a much larger file size than the Puggos, and it looks amazing, scratches and reel changes and all.

Thank you for the info! I was floored by the amount of commitment behind 4K77, et. al, and was happily also rewarded with the knowledge that other highly-booted fare like Liquid Television was similarly saved by kind souls on archive.org for posterity, even if they don't fit the logic of scanning film prints. I'll take Winter Steele in any format, honestly!

As much as I root for can-do mulch-level stuff, going to caution against Dinosaurs in a Mining Facility , which I jumped on because it got a shout from Matt Zoller Seitz and because it is called Dinosaurs in a Mining Facility.

Dinosaurs in a Mining Facility has a well-digested sense of comic timing and mockable tropes that produces some goofball chuckles, but it rarely rises above the level of a bunch of stoner friends messing around after school with an iPhone and pirated f/x software. (Its core mythology – Dinosaurs in a Mining Facility has a core mythology – is apparently an offshoot of Dungeons & Dragons-style extracurriculars.) On that level, it is an accomplishment. “You’ll be eating generic cereal with a plastic spoon!” is one of Dinosaurs in a Mining Facility’s best lines and is also Dinosaurs in a Mining Facility’s general aesthetic. There is a staggeringly good Lynch parody/homage, nods at Space Ghost: Coast to Coast and Birdemic, and one shot I thought derided the very concept of good composition. “Make something of yourself!” is a constant refrain and you sense that also served as a motivational mantra behind the scenes.

Its charm is taxed by variable levels of commitment, a purposely but not purposefully toxic lead character, a pile-on of unforgivable puns, and enough low-key dead air that, by the time the credits roll at minute sixty-one (there’s also a bumper, and the threat of a sequel), promising whatthefuckery has been smothered into indifference. Nothing here approaching the sublimities of The VelociPastor.

To second WmS, Gold Ninja’s work is better than necessary. Maybe it’s a BD-R, but it’s a cared-for package with probably too many extras. The 2.5-hour run time on the “excessive” making-of doc caused my curiosity to evaporate. There’s even a printed leaflet containing storyboards; one of those is on lined composition paper, may have been done during study hall. And I didn’t think the shipping time was too bad considering it came from Canada, and that’s like placing an order through a portal to another galaxy.

Annnnnnnd I'm souled (canadian!) - thank you for the great write-up!

[beamish14]

Got a few Instagram ads for the Star Wars Grindhouse edition (basically a scan of the original release cut, probably a well-worn dupe print?) that a grey area seller was hawking, though that was the only title that bore the re-scan technique (most others were ported from OOP releases, so not as fresh). There was another thread that mentioned this, I think, & how the possibility of a new release from Disney of the original seems likely in the future, but I cannot for the life of me remember if that was true.

I guess there are a number of these "vintage" Star Wars (and other films) scans available. You certainly shouldn't pay for them; search "puggo star wars" on archive.org and there they are. I believe the Puggo scans are specifically from 16mm prints. I think they are a lot of fun, and very well replicate the charm of seeing these movies in 2nd run theaters at the time. The group that put together the extraordinary (and extraordinarily important) 4K77, 80 & 83 also uploaded an interim "grindhouse" scan of Empire which I think is from a 35mm print, and of course is a much larger file size than the Puggos, and it looks amazing, scratches and reel changes and all.

Thank you for the info! I was floored by the amount of commitment behind 4K77, et. al, and was happily also rewarded with the knowledge that other highly-booted fare like Liquid Television was similarly saved by kind souls on archive.org for posterity, even if they don't fit the logic of scanning film prints. I'll take Winter Steele in any format, honestly!

God, I remember paying a guy I connected with through a Usenet like rec.arts.animation to get about 4 hours worth of Liquid Television material more than 20 years ago. There is just so much television, even from cable, that is simply lost in the ether. I still try to track down one-off airings from A&E (which used to be an incredible, almost avant-grade station that broadcast threadbare yet fascinating productions of contemporary plays like Ted Tally’s Terra Nova and Metropolitan Opera House productions) and Bravo

[Peacock]

Wow! I was confused and pleasantly surprised by how professionally made and entertaining Ron Ormond’s debut was. It’s poverty row so I didn’t expect huge sets and hundreds of extras but it still does well with what it has thanks to a short runtime, a fun whodunit plot which is unusual for a Western, some great cast members and an action packed story (including plenty of homoerotic whipping). No masterpiece, and a little hard to follow in places, but a fun ride nonetheless.

King of the Bullwhip follows Lash LaRue and his sidekick Fuzzy, a couple of marshals sent to a town of which its bank has found itself the target of a group of bandits led by a brutal and mysterious masked man. Because they aren’t sure who this villain is, Lash and Fuz decide to remain undercover about their identities as marshals but they quickly find themselves up against a group of thugs who don’t like strangers in town. Our heroes are hired to impersonate the masked villain and commit similar crimes in a bizarre scheme to lure the real mystery man out into the open. But will the plan succeed? And who can our heroes really trust?

As mentioned before this is a low budget western so we only get to see a small Western backlot, a small saloon and a couple of nondescript rooms. Otherwise we are outside. The budget was spent on stuntmen and horses it seems with barely any townsfolk to speak of. Due to the small budget you’d expect Ormond to spend more time on the human aspects of the story but instead he does the opposite and has the action firmly take centre stage (aside from the scene-stealing gags by silent-era actor Al St. John). Within the first 12 minutes of the film we have had three major action set pieces. Indeed the movie opens with back to back action scenes without any context of what is going on. Ormond knew what his audience was there to see and he delivers.

There’s no signs of a first time filmmaker here. Which is… perplexing. I can’t wait to read The Exotic Ones soon and find out how Ormond was able to shoot and produce this so easily, he must have been working with a very experienced cast and crew who knew how to make these kinds of pictures like clockwork. That said the visual style is mostly very straightforward aside from a couple of dolly moves and the blocking of the actors isn’t always great with people standing in front of background figures we should probably be watching.

Lash LaRue is an interesting fella. He definitely has a presence. And sounds so like Humphrey Bogart that it’s hard not to think of Lash’s character as a similarly world weary kinda guy. He is a little dull though but that’s because his character lacks any psychological depth or backstory. As mentioned before his sidekick Fuzzy is a scene stealer. It’s so interesting to see St John’s silent era performance style in this 1950s film. It works perfectly. Although sometimes his comedy is a little too distracting from the narrative.

Tom Neal plays a dodgy businessman and is great… he definitely takes his part seriously and doesn’t rein it in. Anne Gwynne plays Jane, one of the banker’s daughters. The movie sets her up to be significant but she has no bearing on the story at all, as if her storyline is as cut out at the last minute. Such a waste of the only female character in the movie.

I found the movie refreshingly unusual in terms of the mystery villain storyline. You know/hope it’s someone we have seen earlier in the movie but we really don’t get painfully obvious clues as to who it may be… the final climax on a cliff edge where two men whip each other for ages in a fight to the death is bizarre and kinky and sort of amazing.

Unfortunately the story lacks emotional and thematic depth, so we don’t really care about anyone here… But you can do worse than check out this one hour fun little western. I look forward to checking out more of Ormond’s work!

As a side note, the Blu-ray by Gold Ninja Video is great. There’s speckles of dirt and stuff but it’s a great print, good black levels, perfect amount of grain and stable. The intro and special features are decent too (it also includes like 5 other movies but they are SD and awful quality from what I’ve glanced at) - however I’d love to have learned more about how this film came to be made by Ron Ormond as his debut. Unfortunately it’s a BD-R rather than a pressed disc (Boo! Hiss!). But you definitely wouldn’t think that from the quality of it. Anyway! Highly recommended if you are interested in Ormond.

[therewillbeblus]

Looking through their catalog, this label feels a bit like Mondo Macabro, as a lot of their films don't seem to be available elsewhere - some not even on back channels. A lot of intriguing titles - has anyone been keeping up with them? I've been reading through the thread for some ideas, but I'm particularly curious about Honeycomb

[beamish14]

Looking through their catalog, this label feels a bit like Mondo Macabro, as a lot of their films don't seem to be available elsewhere - some not even on back channels. A lot of intriguing titles - has anyone been keeping up with them? I've been reading through the thread for some ideas, but I'm particularly curious about Honeycomb

Yep. Honeycomb is definitely worth a blind buy. I’m fond of the gritty, Vancouver-set Skip Tracer, Metal Detector Maniac, and The Other Side of Gary Graver. This label, like Mondo Vision, is truly a one man operation

[jazzo]

I don't know him personally, but I travel in the same local Toronto film/comic nerd circles as Justin, and he's all-in for everything he does, which includes not just this label, but books, podcasts, screenings. I honestly don't know how he finds the time.