To Burn The Sun (1984)

1984 - Membakar Matahari (P.T. Parkit Films)

[International title “To Burn The Sun”, sometimes listed as “Burn The Sun”, and released as Poings D'Acier Contre Main(s) De Fer"; rereleased in the US as “Ferocious Female Freedom Fighters 2”]

Director/Story Arizal Screenplay Deddy Armand Cinematography Harry Susanto Music Gatot Sudarto Fighting Instructor Edy S. Jonathan

Cast Eva Arnaz (Bambi), Barry Prima (Barney), Bram Adrianto, Mathias Agus, Malino Djunaedy, Edy S. Jonathan, Husin Lubis, Ruth Pelupessi, Wenny Rosaline, George Rudy, Suhaimi Said, Tuty Wasiat

Synopsis (from the Troma website): They're back and they're more ferocious than ever!

This is the story of women. Women shattered by violence. Women left alone, the sole survivors of slaughtered families. Women sold into a vicious and brutal international crime syndicate. Women subjected to poverty, horror and brutal sex. Experience a secret glimpse into the erotic realm of the Asian underworld, where women are a high-priced commodity and anything is available... for a price.

Pushed to the farthest limits of sanity, and battered beyond ordinary human capacity, there is one woman who decides to fight against her destiny. She's tougher than a rabid canine! Braver than a battalion of Bruce Lees!

With vengeance pulsing through her veins, she journeys back into her past, kicking anything that gets in her way, settling the ultimate score... swiftly and permanently! Her task is to terminate the misery and sexual torture of her soul-sisters in slavery. She and her fighting female friends are out to topple the power pyramids of the Asian underworld! Fighting ferociously, with fists and feet flying, these females are out for revenge!

Bergola Ijo (1985)

1985 - Bergola Ijo (Virgo Putra Film)

[Fourth in Barry Prima’s five-film Jaka Sembung series]

Director Arizal Writer Halim Bachitiar Producer Ferry Angriawan Cinematography Harry Susanto Music Gatot Sudarto

Cast Barry Prima (Jaka Sembung), Eva Arnaz, Enny Beatrice, Piet Burnama, Hendra Cipta, Darussalam, Malino Djunaedy, Pong Harjatmo, Edy S. Jonathan, Nasrul, Henky Nero, Benny G. Raharja

Special Silencers (1979)

1979 - Special Silencers (company unknown)

Director Arizal Writers Deddy Armand, Djair

Cast Barry Prima (Hendra), Eva Arnaz (Julia), W.D. Mochtar (Gumilar), Dicky Zulkarnaen (Gundar)

Tonight we ask the question, “Have you ever seen a tree grow out of a human torso before?” If the answer is no, then I'm happy to say tonight is your lucky night, as we unspool the Indonesia ultra-weirdness of Special Silencers.

Indonesia's peak export period for its genre films was from the early Eighties to around 1992, grinding out cheap direct-to-video exotica for a world market already saturated with kung fu and jungle-bound action films – but with the added ingredients of bizarre fantasy and horror, genuine tropical locales, and always with ridiculous death-defying stunts and action sequences. For me, Indo cheapies are always a pleasure and never a guilty one, and part of the pleasure is watching their incongruities and extreme thrills kicking a film's weirdness level to the next building. Special Silencers stars Indonesia's B King Barry Prima, a staple in Indo-horror, fantasy and action cinema, and his would-be Jackie Chan hair helmet and fight moves define the landscape of one of the wildest, if little-seen cycles in Asian cult filmdom. Call it Indo-nausea or Satay Splatter, or whatever sticker you want to put on it, I GUARANTEE you will not have seen anything like it before.

By 1979, Prima was already comfortable in his blow-dry coiffure and denim suit to call himself Indonesia's Number One Action Star. Here he plays young buck Hendra heading for his classmate Dayat's village, meets a pretty girl along the way just happens to be Dayat's sister Julia (action star and Prima's ex-wife Eva Arnaz), and attempts to woo her from his motorbike. Smooth. Unbeknownst to both of them, Dayat's uncle and mayor of the village has been usurped by a black magician who has his evil eye on the mayor's chair, using a secret weapon, a vial of little red pills – those “special silencers” hinted at in the title – to take over the village. Once ingested by the hapless victim, fully grown trees shoot out of their stomach. I repeat: TREES, complete with branches and complex root systems, BURST from their victims' stomach. Hendra uses his considerable martial arts skills to help Dayat and Julia defeat the arch-villain, his army of thugs, and his “black commandos” - a squadron of hungry rats (alright, they're mice coloured with textas).

Special Silencers is a typical South East Asian genre film, a cheerfully simple-minded tale of revenge and retribution, with its inherent rough-as-guts production values and atrocious dubbing. Don't forget, it's an Asian film from the Seventies, so there's kung fu. A LOT of kung fu. What sets Special Silencers and its Indo ilk apart from most B-fare are its jaw-dropping money shots. Try for instance Julia's torture sequence where she's forced to smell someone's gym shoes. Just kill her, you fiend! Or the villain trying in vain to ram his severed leg back onto the stump... Then there are the film's money shots, those pesky little red pills doing their assigned task, which surely must rank amongst the most absurd moments ever in film horror AND horticulture. Indo-nausea indeed!