Daiei Gothic Volume 2: Japanese Ghost Stories (1960 - 1970/Radiance Blu-ray Set*)/Eating Miss Campbell (2022/Troma Blu-ray*)/Furious Swords And Fantastic Warriors (1967 - 1983/Chang Cheh/Eureka! Blu-ray Set*)/Jolly Monkey (2025/Asylum DVD*)/Ms. 45 4K (1981/Arrow 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray*)/Three/Three... Extremes (2002, 2004/Arrow Blu-ray Set/*all MVD)

4K Ultra HD Picture: B+ Picture: B-/B-/B-/B-/X/B- Sound: C+/B-/C+/B-/C+/B- Extras: B-/C+/B-/D/B/C+ Films: C+/D/C+/C-/B/C+

Now for quite a mix of horror and thriller films....

Daiei Gothic Volume 2: Japanese Ghost Stories (1960 - 1970) offers a trilogy of highly stylized (think kabuki theater) horror tales that include Demon Of Mont Oe (1960, warriors vs. demon,) The Haunted Castle (1969, sister of blind monk kills herself to get her soul into a black cat, who then takes revenge on evil people) and The Ghost Of Kasane Swamp (1970, debt and murder collide when a money lender and woman selling her body to take of the 'balance' are killed and dumped in a swamp. They do not stay dead and get revenge when killers come of the money!)

Good for what they are, they are more effective visually than anything else and like the last Blu-ray set, are part of a legitimate subcycle. For fans, they'll love it, but for viewers like myself, they are interesting when they are on, but once they are done, do not necessarily stay with you. However, both sets are worth a look for those interested and its good to have them restored and in print.

Extras include a newly designed box and booklet artwork by Time Tomorrow

• Limited Edition 80-page perfect bound book featuring new writing by Amber T, Jasper Sharp, and Tom Mes, plus archival writing by Daniel O'Neill and original ghost stories The Goblin of Oeyama and The Vampire Cat

• Limited Edition of 4,000 copies presented in a rigid box with full-height Scanavo cases for each film and removable OBI strip leaving packaging free of certificates and markings

• THE DEMON OF MOUNT OE

• New interview with period film historian Taichi Kasuga (2025)

• Blade of the Demon Slayer: a visual essay by Tom Mes (2025)

• Trailer

• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Filippo Di Battista

• THE HAUNTED CASTLE

• New interview with J-horror filmmaker Mari Asato (2025)

• A visual essay by ghost story scholar Zack Davisson (2025)

• Trailer

• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Filippo Di Battista

• THE GHOST OF KASANE SWAMP

• New interview with J-horror filmmaker Norio Tsuruta (2025)

• Select-scene audio commentary by horror film scholar Lindsay Nelson (2025)

• Trailer

• and a reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Filippo Di Battista.

You can read more about the first volume at this link:

https://fulvuedrive-in.com/review/16520/Beast+Within+(2024/Well+Go+Blu-ray)/Creature+With

Eating Miss Campbell (2022) is a grotesque endurance test to see how long you can last watching a film full of pure hate and negativity. This lame attempt at modern day exploitation stuffs in Troma easter eggs and Lloyd Kaufman (the CEO of Troma Entertainment and creator of The Toxic Avenger) cameos, but it can't save this sinking ship. Shuffling as many hot button hateful topics as it possibly can which includes school shootings, suicide, disrespect to others, cannibalism, and just plan meanness, when the film isn't spewing toxic behaviors and ideals at you it attempts to gross you out any way it can. Being someone who enjoys a majority of Troma titles, I found this one a real chore to sit through and one that tries so hard to shock you that it forgets to tell a story along the way.

The film stars Lyndsey Craine, Vito Trigo, Charlie Bond, Emily Haigh, and Michaela Longden.

Beth Conner (Craine) is a lesbian vegan goth who hates her life and everyone in it. But when a new teacher gets hired that she develops a taste for cannibalism and tries to win the ''All You Can Eat Massacre'' contest at the school.

Eating Miss Campbell is presented in 1080p high definition on Blu-ray disc with an MPEG-4 AVC codec, a widescreen aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and audio mixes in lossy English Dolby Digital 5.1 and Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo. The transfer is fine for the film as it obviously had some sort of budget to work with as the digitally filmed cinematography has a professional look and feel to it. The sound mixes leave something to be desired, but this is a lower budgeted project so it is fine for this release.

Special Features:

Introduction from Lloyd Kaufman

Audio commentary

Making of documentary

Deleted scenes

Outtakes

Gore Reel

Raw B-Roll

Cast interviews

Frightfest Premiere

Behind the scenes footage

VFX reel

and Original trailers

Eating Miss Campbell is an uninspired romp that tries whatever it can to shock you. It will either succeed or bore you tears.

Furious Swords And Fantastic Warriors (1967 - 1983) is the newest and largest set yet of Chang Cheh Blu-rays with ten of his martial arts films, in a case of the older ones are better than the more recent ones as more humor comes into the writing and not for the better. The older films have humor too, but not to a fault like the latter, but that is typical of the genre in general.

Most of the films come from Cheh's 'Shaolin Cycle' and do show some changes beyond choices he and the producers made for each production, but you had better be a HUGE fan of this genre and his work to take on a set this big. Trilogy Of Swordmanship is included despite having three different directors, with Cheh joined by Cheng Kang and Yueh Feng. The films are:

Men From The Monastery (1974)

Shaolin Martial Arts (1974)

King Eagle (1971)

Iron Bodyguard (1973)

Fantastic Magic Baby (1975)

The Weird Man (1983)

Trail Of The Broken Blade (1967)

Wandering Swordsman (1970)

Trilogy Of Swordmanship (1972)

and New Shaolin Boxers (1977).

Most are set in the past, you get the usual formula, some good fighting, nice costumes and the usual revenge stories. Some would say these are like big screen soap operas with enough cliches, but fans will say there is more, but is that enough to sit through all of them?

Extras include a Limited Edition slipcase featuring new artwork by Darren Wheeling

• Limited edition collector's booklet featuring new writing on all films in this set by film critic and writer James Oliver

• New audio commentaries on each film by a selection of Hong Kong cinema experts including Frank Djeng, Mike Leeder, Arne Venema and David West

• New interview with Hong Kong cinema scholar Wayne Wong on the life and work of Chang Cheh

• New video essay by Jonathan Clements (author of A Brief History of China) on Iron Bodyguard

• and a New video essay by Jonathan Clements on Chang Cheh's Shaolin films

For more Chang Cheh, try these loaded Blu-ray sets:

Four Historical Epics

https://fulvuedrive-in.com/review/16564/A+Bridge+Too+Far+4K+(1977/MGM/UA/Via+Vision/Im

Magnificent Chang Cheh

https://fulvuedrive-in.com/review/16609/Magnificent+Chang+Cheh+(Magnificent+Trio+(1966

The Asylum presents The Jolly Monkey (2025), another film from the indie film studio that combines several elements of Hollywood blockbusters to create a soup of a movie that's not quite a parody as it takes itself seriously.

The Jolly Monkey is a fusion of The Monkey, Psycho, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Halloween. In the film a family owns a creepy hotel called The Jolly Monkey Hotel where a lot of murderous things have happened (it's basically The Bates Motel only with toy monkeys full of human souls around). Fast forward 40 years later and the family is split between one half wanting to keep the dilapidated hotel standing and the other half wanting to sell the land off for profit. Before you know it a serial killer dressed as a monkey starts killing off anyone who opposes the land be kept. There is also a strange connection to the killer and toy monkeys with leathery faces spread out all over the hotel...

The film stars Courtney Fulk, Jane Hajduk, Dominic Keating, Patrick Labyorteaux, Anthony Jensen, and Neirin Winter.

The movie's biggest problem is that the twist of the killer's identity is so painfully obvious that anyone who has seen any horror movie or even an episode of Scooby Doo can figure it out during the first act. Not only that but along with the reveal comes a lot of logic that goes out the window. The film has a few moments and shots that are kind of cool, but overall you can see what's coming from a mile away which can make the film drag on and on as it attempts to keep you guessing.

The only extras are trailers for other films from The Asylum.

The Jolly Monkey is fine for a late night one time watch, but borrows too many elements from stronger films that it becomes muddled with a twist that's way too easy to figure out.

Abel Ferrera's Ms. 45 4K (1981) is one of the great indie revenge films, more direct than Last House On The Left or House By The Lake, far more brutal than anything you'd get from Thelma & Louise or even The Accused, Thana (Zoe Lund (aka Zoe Tameris, as credited on screen) is mute and experiences a severe sexual assault that could have killed her. Surviving against all odds, she is soon targeted for the same treatment by a random burglar, but fights back, takes his gun and goes on a silent rampage against an endless series of men who think they can use women this severely and get away with it.

The peak of a trend in 1970s cinema where sexual assault was happening in hundreds of films (metaphor for Vietnam, et al,) this film put Director Ferrera further on the map and has since influenced many more films like Tarantino's Kill Bill. However, by making the lead mute, it forces itself to be more cinematic, speaking with images instead of one-liners that got to be played out as 1980s action films (most regressive and even increasing so as things went along) took over malls and other theaters as Hollywood regressed for over a decade.

What the film also speaks to as well now as ever, especially with what has happened to women in recent years, is that they are always in an isolated, vulnerable position for being in the society they are in and no matter what progress or rollbacks thereof. Thana's plight always remains and only an independent production could speak to this with any credibility versus a big budget production or Hollywood film. It is at least a minor classic of the thriller genre and one that deserves the top rate treatment Arrow is giving it here, a film always going in and out of print.

As for Ferrera, he has had more success later with the likes of Bad Lieutenant and King Of New York, unfortunate commercial failure in his underrated Body Snatchers remake, bold turns with The Addiction and Fear City, still making films today and more than a few documentaries and TV projects in between, he never sold out. There are not to many filmmakers like that today and when you see this uncompromising film, you'll see why.

Extras include a brand new audio commentary by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, author of Rape Revenge Films: A Critical Study and Cultographies: Ms. 45

• The Voice of Violence, a new featurette with film critic BJ Colangelo

• Where Dreams Go to Die, a new featurette with film critic Kat Ellinger

• Archive interview with director Abel Ferrara

• Archive interview with composer Joe Delia

• Archive interview with creative consultant Jack McIntyre

• Zoe XO, a 2004 short film directed by Paul Rachman

• Zoe Rising, a 2011 short film directed by Paul Rachman

• Theatrical trailer

• Image gallery

• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Sister Hyde

• Perfect bound collector's book featuring new writing by Robert Lund, previously unseen photographs of Zoe Lund, plus select archival material including writing by Kier-La Janisse and Brad Stevens

• and a double-sided fold-out poster featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Sister Hyde.

Three (2002) and Three... Extremes (2004) are ambitious anthology feature films that can be bloody, graphic and extreme, body politic or not, manages to get some key Asian directors to contribute.

The first film offers Kim Jee-woon (of A Tale of Two Sisters) Memories, with a husband and wife unable to grasp why their relationship fell apart, until a horrific return of the repressed kicks in, discover the terrifying truth behind their separation. Nonzee Nimibutr's (Nang Nak) The Wheel offers a puppeteer suspecting his marionettes are becoming possessed by people he had done wrong in the past. Then this set ends with Peter Ho-Sun Chan's Going Home as a widowed police officer and his young son move into a new apartment building, soon to discover the couple next door (including a comatose wife!) have something ugly going on.

The second film starts with a tale that was also released separately with more expanded footage; Fruit Chan's (Made in Hong Kong) Dumplings about an old actor discover that the dumplings she's been eating is battling the ravages of age, but there's a catch. Park Chan-wook's (Oldboy) offers Cut, about a rich filmmaker is caught in a bizarre situation as an actor who hates him takes his wife hostage. Then comes Takashi Miike's (Audition) Box, sees a former child circus performer-turned-author being beckoned back to where she used to perform a long time ago. She has a long lost twin sister, so something strange is imminent.

Sadly, the twists are do not always work and we have seen more than a little bit of this, but at least it is a set of anthologies from somewhere else besides the U.S. or U.K., so that difference alone will be welcome for some viewers, though most anthology releases of the last few decades have been duds and worse. Now you can see for yourself.

Extras are many and include a reversible sleeve featuring newly commissioned artwork for both films by Xinmei Liu

• Illustrated collector's booklet featuring new writing on the films by Stacie Ponder and David Desser

• Double-sided foldout poster featuring newly commissioned artwork by Xinmei Liu

• DISC ONE: THREE

• Cross-Pollination Horror Part 1, a brand new interview with producer and Going Home director Peter Ho-Sun Chan

• Recalling Memories, a brand new interview with Memories director Kim Jee-woon

• Making Memories, a brand new interview with Memories cinematographer Hong Kyoung-pyo

• Terror Without Borders, a newly edited interview with Peter Ho-Sun Chan, filmed in 2005 by Frederic Ambroisine

• Between Life and Death, a newly edited interview with Going Home star Eugenia Yuan, filmed in 2004 by Frederic Ambroisine

• Peter Ho-Sun Chan: Cinema Without Borders, an archival interview

• Kim Jee-woon: Memories from Beyond the Grave, an archival interview

• Making-of featurette

• Original theatrical trailer

• DISC TWO: THREE... EXTREMES

• Audio commentary on the segment Box by director Takashi Miike

• Cross-Pollination Horror Part 2, a brand new interview with producer Peter Ho-Sun Chan

• Cooking Dumplings, a brand new interview with Dumplings director Fruit Chan

• Something a Little More Beautiful, a brand new interview with Takashi Miike

• Taste, Taboo and Truth, a newly edited interview with Fruit Chan, filmed in 2004 by Frederic Ambroisine

• More Than Skin Deep, a newly edited interview with Dumplings star Bai Ling, filmed in 2005 by Frederic Ambroisine

• Making-of featurettes for each segment

• and Trailers for Three... Extremes and the feature-length version of Dumplings.

Now for playback performance. Despite its low budget, the 2160p HEVC/H.265, 1.85 X 1, Dolby Vision/HDR (10; Ultra HD Premium)-enhanced Ultra High Definition image on Ms. 45 4K is the best visual performer on the list, shot with distinctive grit, better color than you might expect, great compositions and more. A 4K scan of the original 35mm camera negative, that results is a film print look that really captures the film's nature and impact. The PCM 2.0 Mono more aged, but pretty much sounds as good as this film ever will.

Eating Miss Campbell is presented in 1080p high definition on Blu-ray disc with an MPEG-4 AVC codec, a widescreen aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and audio mixes in lossy English Dolby Digital 5.1 and Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo. The transfer is fine for the film as it obviously had some sort of budget to work with as the digitally filmed cinematography has a professional look and feel to it. The sound mixes leave something to be desired, but this is a lower budgeted project so it is fine for this release.

The 1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition scope image on all three Daiei Gothic and all ten Furious Swords movies look good color-wise for the most part, but the age of the materials used and limits of the anamorphic lenses used to shoot the films over the years have baked in flaws that cannot be eliminated and/or were permanently there to begin with. The Daiei films use the color to further extremes than the other films. The (Japanese and Mandarin respectively) PCM 2.0 Mono tracks also show the age and limited budgets of the films with older films a little rougher, but the theatrical mono sound in all cases is about as good as these films will ever sound. The combinations are fine for what they are and are as expected.

The 1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image transfers on the two Three films be a bit diverse in quality, but also more soft overall beyond style than they should be. They at least ambitiously go for style, so some some darkness and off shots are intentional. Both films also offer two soundtracks: DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless and PCM 2.0 Stereo mixes, though none of the segments stand out sonically, they are at least all competent, though most seem not originally thought of as 5.1 presentations.

The Jolly Monkey is presented in anamorphically enhanced standard definition (480i) on DVD with a 1.78:1 widescreen aspect ratio and a lossy 5.1 Dolby Digital Audio mix. The compressed image presents the film in a watchable manner with plenty of visible production flaws throughout. it is passable however for the nature of the film.

- Nicholas Sheffo and James Lockhart (Miss, Jolly)

https://letterboxd.com/jhl5films/