ANGEL 3 fully letterboxed & longest version finally released!

aka IRON ANGELS 3 / RETURN OF THE IRON ANGELS / MIDNITE ANGELS 3







Check this scene from ANGEL 3! Argh, awesome. I have two versions of this (reg. 1 DVD and Japanese VHS) and they both suffer from being dubbed into English and fullscreen (and apparently missing scenes). Wauw, this Cantonese language, 2.35 anamorphic print looks just awesome! And fortunately for you and me it's been released without any English subs what-so-ever over in the Czech Republic. No, wait, haaay! Haha. No, not good at all. No subs and difficult to get hold of but AT LEAST IT'S FINALLY OUT THERE! I'm sure it's only a matter of time before someone puts fan subs on it.


Japanese VHS


Oh, and talking 'about Angel ripoffs that followed in the footsteps of the original series, I've just got hold of this COOL Greek VHS which sports an English dubbed print of the TRULY AWESOME film KILLER ANGELS (which also stars Moon Lee). I must have watched that un-subbed Hong Kong VCD (in Cantonese/Mandarin) at least 15 times!



KILLER ANGELS was retitled Ultra Force for some of the European markets. Very confusing as the same title was also used in some other Euroland territories (like Denmark and Germany) for another "girls with guns" flick called ROYAL WARRIORS (aka In the Line of Duty). The sequel to Ultra Force (in the "Greek" series) was not surprisingly Ultra Force 2 which was actually a retitle of DEVIL HUNTERS. The Danish/German Ultra Force 2 was YES, MADAM! (aka In the Line of Duty 2). At least all movies star Moon Lee!! :D

You win some you lose some.

VHS/Japan/fullscreen/English dub/Japanese subs

I've been on the hunt for ANGEL 3 (aka Iron Angels 3 / Midnite Angel) on Japanese VHS for quite a while. The film is part of a cool "Girls kick ass and look cute" Hong Kong series that star cute Moon Lee and equally cute femmes Yukari Oshima (in #1) (altho she's a bad guy in this one, LOL) and Elaine Lui (#1 & 2). I've been looking for a copy ever since one seller in Japan listed it as being letterboxed and with English dub. I went so far as to bug two sellers repeatedly to find it for me and finally I got it this week! The thing is, I already had a fullscreen & English dubbed DVD from the US and a letterboxed, German dubbed VHS dupe but the thought of getting a print that was both letterboxed and English dubbed made me search high and low for the tape. And why wouldn't it be letterboxed. The seller listed it as being lbx, and besides that, both ANGEL and ANGEL 2 (which I both have) are letterboxed. So why wouldn't it be! Well, it wasn't!!! The first seller's info was incorrect: the tape is sadly ugly fullscreen!! Boo-hoo!!!

Oh well, at least I've got a complete set of ANGEL tapes now and I only paid $20, not $76 which was the selling price the first time. I'm sure whoever won it back then was real "happy" when he discovered it was foulscreen! :/

PS: This is not a scan of the tape I got but from an earlier auction.

Ahh, what Angels!

[ANGEL aka Iron Angels/Angels/Midnight Angels/Midnite Angels/Fighting Madam/Ultra Force, VHS/Japan/letterbox/English dub/Japanese subs]

It's common knowledge I'm an old Hongkongese. No, I don't hail from there but I've been an aficionado of their cinema for almost twenty years! And amongst the different HK film genres I enjoy three genres in particular; the dark and nasty horror films of the 80s (Seeding of a Ghost, Black Magic I + II, The Rape After, etc.), the heroic bloodshed films (A Better tomorrow I + II, The Killer, + 6 tons of copy cats), and last but certainly not least; the Girls kick ass genre, also known as the Girls with guns genre. In other words; the "Girls kick ass, shoot guns, and look cute" genre!!! LOL.

There are quite a few entries to the genre but the pinnacle to most fans is the ANGEL series. In their Westernised form retitled Iron Angels, and in northern Europe they're known as Ultra Force.

The first film in the series is great, the sequel is awesome, and the third one is... different, haha (it's more of a Spy/James Bond'ian film than a shoot 'em up extravaganza).

[ANGEL 2 aka Iron Angels 2/Angels 2/Ultra Force 2, VHS/Japan/letterbox/Cantonese audio/Japanese subs]

Unfortunately, until recently all three films were quite difficult to find in proper versions, either they're fullscreen, cut, or dubbed in English. The first film in the series was finally released on letterboxed HK DVD recently. Unfortunately, it's (slightly) cut. Very annoying!!! I have a handful of different version and today I received yet another one, finally a letterboxed uncut version. And the release you ask? Well, Japanese VHS of course! Haha.

I'm also the happy owner of the Japanese VHS for the sequel which sadly is only out on DVD as a cut, German dubbed DVD! For the third entry to the series there is a DVD in the US but it's both fullscreen and dubbed. Boo-hoo. As far as I know the only proper, letterboxed release is the Japanese VHS - which I unfortunately lost on the same auction where I won #1 (more and bigger BOO-HOO!).


[ANGEL 3 aka Iron Angels 3/Iron Angel 3/Fighting Madam 3/Hong Kong Police Madam 3/Return of Iron Angels/Midnite Angels 3/Ultra Force 3, VHS/Japan/letterbox/English dub]

Oh, did I mention these films star fave HK action babes such as Moon Lee (Lee Choi-Fung), Elaine Lui (Lui Siu-Ling), and Oshima Yukari. Well, they do! :D :D :D

PS: Incidentally, another Danish blog wrote about ANGEL just a few days ago.