WEBVTT - Weirdhouse Cinema: Lady Terminator 0:00:02.440 --> 0:00:05.519 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:13.039 --> 0:00:16.239 Hey, welcome to Weird House Cinema. This is Rob Lamb. 0:00:16.079 --> 0:00:17.440 And this is Joe McCormick. 0:00:17.960 --> 0:00:21.119 For today's episode, I wanted to take our first steps 0:00:21.160 --> 0:00:24.720 on Weird House Cinema into the world of Indonesian cinema 0:00:25.079 --> 0:00:29.240 as I just recently returned from Indonesia. I'll share more 0:00:29.240 --> 0:00:31.720 about that trip on subsequent episodes of Stuff to Blow 0:00:31.760 --> 0:00:34.280 Your Mind, because I did get to experience some things 0:00:34.280 --> 0:00:38.560 to tie into our core science episodes. But now having 0:00:38.640 --> 0:00:41.879 enjoyed the natural beauty and hospitality of the Indonesian isles, 0:00:42.080 --> 0:00:44.120 I also knew it was time to watch some of 0:00:44.159 --> 0:00:45.240 its weirdest movies. 0:00:45.680 --> 0:00:47.640 You picked a real winner for us today, Rob, and 0:00:47.640 --> 0:00:50.400 I'm not going to spoil it before you finish your 0:00:50.440 --> 0:00:53.640 introduction to the film. But it's hard to imagine the 0:00:53.680 --> 0:00:56.160 cinema of any country could get much weirder than the 0:00:56.200 --> 0:00:57.480 movie we're talking about today. 0:00:57.840 --> 0:00:59.560 Well, you know, I think there's a strong case to 0:00:59.560 --> 0:01:03.880 be made for weirder examples of Indonesian cinema, but this one, 0:01:04.080 --> 0:01:06.319 I don't know. It lines up in several unique ways. 0:01:07.200 --> 0:01:08.720 I mean, I'll go ahead and mention it here for 0:01:08.720 --> 0:01:10.760 anyone who hasn't looked at the title of the episode 0:01:10.760 --> 0:01:15.520 we were talking about the nineteen eighty eight Indonesian folk car, Mockbuster, 0:01:15.959 --> 0:01:18.720 Lady Terminator. Yes, it is all of those things. 0:01:19.120 --> 0:01:22.399 It's like if you wanted James Cameron's Terminator but you 0:01:22.800 --> 0:01:26.160 thought it didn't have enough ancient deep sea sex goddesses 0:01:26.200 --> 0:01:26.479 in it. 0:01:27.000 --> 0:01:30.560 Exactly, yes, And you might also think to yourself, Terminator 0:01:30.640 --> 0:01:33.360 is good, but are there enough machine guns? Could there 0:01:33.440 --> 0:01:36.679 be more machine guns? And you know, I dare say, 0:01:36.720 --> 0:01:40.640 without actually going back and rewatching James Cameron's Terminator, I 0:01:40.640 --> 0:01:42.160 think this film has more machine guns. 0:01:42.319 --> 0:01:44.480 I think that's without a doubt. And in fact, you 0:01:44.560 --> 0:01:47.200 could you could sense moments in this movie. There's almost 0:01:47.240 --> 0:01:50.880 like an anxiety you can feel going scene to scene 0:01:50.920 --> 0:01:53.840 where it's like you since the filmmaker's wondering if they've 0:01:53.840 --> 0:01:57.280 put enough gunfire into the scene yet, and so like 0:01:57.320 --> 0:01:59.680 something will happen, characters will be talking, and then more 0:01:59.720 --> 0:02:02.720 people will run into frame and start shooting guns again. 0:02:03.120 --> 0:02:08.440 It's crazy. Yeah, there's a point about between halfway and 0:02:08.440 --> 0:02:11.000 two thirds into the film where it's just gonna be 0:02:11.080 --> 0:02:15.639 machine guns for the duration and it never gets boring. 0:02:15.720 --> 0:02:18.440 Like to their credit, I've said this on the show before. 0:02:18.480 --> 0:02:20.800 I can get quite bored with a movie that's just 0:02:20.840 --> 0:02:23.320 shots of people shooting guns at each other like that 0:02:23.560 --> 0:02:28.400 can get really tedious. This maintains a hilarious level of 0:02:28.480 --> 0:02:32.480 novelty throughout all of the Act two and Act three 0:02:32.520 --> 0:02:37.720 gun fights. It stays weird and it stays funny, and yeah, 0:02:37.919 --> 0:02:39.919 it did not get boring for me at all. 0:02:40.480 --> 0:02:44.519 Yeah, we tend to talk about exploitation films and b 0:02:44.720 --> 0:02:48.320 films that are cut above the rest, so it is 0:02:48.360 --> 0:02:51.560 worth stressing that exploitation cinema is exactly where you tend 0:02:51.560 --> 0:02:56.080 to find excess taken to the level of boredom, like 0:02:56.639 --> 0:02:59.280 films that have a lot of nudity, for example, But 0:02:59.520 --> 0:03:02.320 it's just meaningless and boring after a while. And the 0:03:02.320 --> 0:03:04.760 same with violence, the same with gore, the same with 0:03:05.360 --> 0:03:09.520 profanity or whatever flavor you happen to be over indulging in. 0:03:09.840 --> 0:03:12.600 Yeah, it's very easy as a filmmaker to make them 0:03:12.800 --> 0:03:16.280 to have the mistaken belief that like, violence is exciting, 0:03:16.360 --> 0:03:19.359 and it's not true. Drama is exciting and violence can 0:03:19.440 --> 0:03:22.920 be a form of drama. But but yeah, so a 0:03:22.919 --> 0:03:24.760 lot of movies kind of go down that the wrong 0:03:24.840 --> 0:03:28.760 path of just like lots of close ups of and 0:03:28.880 --> 0:03:31.079 it just goes on, never really feels like it's building 0:03:31.120 --> 0:03:37.080 to anything. This movie's action sequences are so bonker they 0:03:37.160 --> 0:03:41.680 are bananas, and the dialogue during the action scenes especially 0:03:41.920 --> 0:03:44.120 is some of the funniest stuff I can think of, 0:03:44.160 --> 0:03:46.320 and I've seen in a B movie in a long time. 0:03:46.840 --> 0:03:50.240 Some aspects of the story might be confusing at times, 0:03:50.400 --> 0:03:54.040 character motivations and so forth, but there were multiple points 0:03:54.080 --> 0:03:55.920 during my rewatch where I really had to stop and 0:03:55.920 --> 0:03:58.480 remind myself that, you know, this action scene is totally 0:03:58.480 --> 0:04:01.480 sticking together. Though like I'm I'm totally invested in the 0:04:01.520 --> 0:04:04.920 physical action that's happening on screen, they are totally delivering 0:04:04.920 --> 0:04:07.680 when it comes to the action, all right. At this point, 0:04:07.680 --> 0:04:09.800 I do want to take just one step back and 0:04:09.840 --> 0:04:13.760 just briefly talk about Indonesian cinema with more of an 0:04:13.800 --> 0:04:18.280 emphasis on some of the exploitation cinema that perhaps more 0:04:18.360 --> 0:04:21.160 weird house cinema listeners are familiar with. But of course, 0:04:21.200 --> 0:04:24.800 the Republic of Indonesia covers some seventeen thousand islands in 0:04:24.880 --> 0:04:28.960 Southeast Asia and Oceania, entailing multiple ethnic groups and the 0:04:29.000 --> 0:04:31.360 fourth largest population of any country on Earth. 0:04:31.600 --> 0:04:32.120 There are a lot of. 0:04:32.080 --> 0:04:36.839 People there, and as discussed in a documentary on Indonesian 0:04:36.880 --> 0:04:41.039 exploitation cinema on the Mondo Macabro disc that I watched 0:04:41.040 --> 0:04:44.000 the film on, they point out that, of course everyone 0:04:44.000 --> 0:04:46.760 in Indonesia loves movies, as it can be said for 0:04:46.760 --> 0:04:49.080 pretty much every country on Earth. Like movies are fun, 0:04:49.160 --> 0:04:53.680 people get into them, and so distinctly Indonesian cinema I 0:04:53.720 --> 0:04:56.599 was reading elsewhere dates back to the nineteen twenties, with 0:04:56.720 --> 0:05:00.200 various domestic productions of note, but then heading into the 0:05:00.279 --> 0:05:04.880 nineteen seventies, the market is dominated by foreign imports, films 0:05:04.880 --> 0:05:07.640 from the West, from India, from East Asia, and so 0:05:07.720 --> 0:05:10.359 during the nineteen seventies the Indonesian government decreed that in 0:05:10.440 --> 0:05:13.840 order to import films, you also had to fund domestic productions, 0:05:14.320 --> 0:05:18.040 and by nineteen seventy seven, according to that Mando Macabro documentary, 0:05:18.320 --> 0:05:20.839 you had to make one Indonesian film in order to 0:05:20.920 --> 0:05:23.679 import five international pictures. 0:05:23.880 --> 0:05:25.920 Wow. I was not prepared for there to be a 0:05:26.040 --> 0:05:30.000 policy backstory to us talking about Lady Terminator. 0:05:30.279 --> 0:05:31.600 I mean, you know, there are a lot of factors 0:05:31.640 --> 0:05:33.919 that go into a movie like this coming together and 0:05:34.160 --> 0:05:36.560 obviously a lot of passion. I mean, there are so 0:05:36.640 --> 0:05:39.160 many examples of films that have been made because of 0:05:39.760 --> 0:05:41.839 some element of how they came together is because of 0:05:41.839 --> 0:05:46.279 tax breaks or some economic production factor, some sort of 0:05:46.279 --> 0:05:49.560 slush fund or what have you. But yeah, so this 0:05:49.680 --> 0:05:52.640 is just one wrinkle to where we end up entering 0:05:52.680 --> 0:05:55.320 into what many people describe as a Golden Age of 0:05:55.680 --> 0:06:00.320 Indonesian genre film. A lot of these pictures were, you know, 0:06:00.440 --> 0:06:03.600 just definitely aimed at the working class and then you know, 0:06:03.680 --> 0:06:07.960 and then a young folk. They often included plots that 0:06:08.160 --> 0:06:14.120 entailed mystical adventure, action, horror, maybe a little bit of sexuality, 0:06:14.440 --> 0:06:17.560 and a lot of it was often colored by traditional folklore, 0:06:17.960 --> 0:06:23.240 Indonesian history, Dutch colonialism, and of course international film influences 0:06:23.240 --> 0:06:26.880 that range from American blockbusters and Hong Kong action films 0:06:26.880 --> 0:06:30.679 to Bollywood musicals. And so the nineteen seventies and nineteen 0:06:30.680 --> 0:06:34.200 eighties end up providing this rich hall of genre films, 0:06:35.240 --> 0:06:38.400 and many of these would go on to be distributed internationally, 0:06:38.640 --> 0:06:43.719 developed cult followings internationally, including pictures that a number of 0:06:43.720 --> 0:06:46.560 you've probably are probably familiar with nineteen eighty six is 0:06:46.600 --> 0:06:50.880 The Hungry Snake Woman starring Susanna who's like often described 0:06:50.880 --> 0:06:54.239 as the as the scream Queen of Indonesia. Nineteen eighty 0:06:54.240 --> 0:06:58.440 one's The Warrior starring Barry Prima, who's kind of often 0:06:58.720 --> 0:07:00.880 talked about. I don't know who you'd direct compare him to, 0:07:00.960 --> 0:07:05.320 but he was like the big the big male action 0:07:05.520 --> 0:07:09.200 star of this time period. And then another major selection 0:07:09.320 --> 0:07:13.280 from this era is nineteen eighty eight's Lady Terminator. Now, 0:07:13.360 --> 0:07:17.520 as we've been talking about here, Lady Terminator isn't just 0:07:17.600 --> 0:07:20.280 a mockbuster ripoff of nineteen eighty four. It's the Terminator. 0:07:20.320 --> 0:07:21.560 I mean, it definitely is that. 0:07:21.920 --> 0:07:24.440 It very much is that. I mean in like recreating 0:07:24.520 --> 0:07:27.560 scenes and moments from Terminator, like line for line or 0:07:27.600 --> 0:07:29.960 shot for shot, sometimes right right. 0:07:30.400 --> 0:07:34.000 So it is definitely a Terminator mockbuster. But on the 0:07:34.000 --> 0:07:37.920 other hand, it is again a a a horror movie 0:07:37.960 --> 0:07:43.280 based on to some degree on Indonesian folklore, specifically tales 0:07:43.320 --> 0:07:48.720 concerning the South Sea Queen. And I believe my apologies 0:07:48.720 --> 0:07:51.880 if I'm mispronouncing this, but Naia e row row Key 0:07:51.960 --> 0:07:57.040 Duel is I believe the Indonesian name for this specific entity. 0:07:57.640 --> 0:08:00.480 And I was reading some other material about the South 0:08:00.520 --> 0:08:05.119 Sea Queen one a Princess from Sunda published in Asian 0:08:05.160 --> 0:08:08.400 Folklore Studies back in nineteen ninety seven by Robert Wessing, 0:08:09.040 --> 0:08:13.240 and this author describes this entity as an exiled West 0:08:13.320 --> 0:08:16.320 Javanese princess who then goes on to become the spirit 0:08:16.440 --> 0:08:20.160 queen of the Indian Ocean. And as you might expect 0:08:20.200 --> 0:08:22.320 with any kind of folklore tradition, she takes on different 0:08:22.400 --> 0:08:25.239 roles and different tales and traditions. But in this film 0:08:25.320 --> 0:08:27.360 we see are sort of boiled down to the form 0:08:27.400 --> 0:08:33.280 of a vengeful sexual oceanic entity, almost perhaps a demon, 0:08:33.320 --> 0:08:36.199 perhaps a divine force. I mean, the lines between these 0:08:36.200 --> 0:08:37.960 distinctions are often grayed out. 0:08:38.160 --> 0:08:43.800 Kind of a super powerful saltwater succubus, like a sex 0:08:43.880 --> 0:08:47.680 goddess witch who prays on men and commands all the 0:08:47.720 --> 0:08:49.000 powers of the eel. 0:08:49.400 --> 0:08:53.520 Yes of the eel of the snake. Wessing does compare 0:08:53.520 --> 0:08:57.760 her to various other traditions in this region and neighboring 0:08:57.800 --> 0:09:00.880 regions concerning things sort of like mermaid aids and certainly 0:09:00.960 --> 0:09:03.520 serpent women and the like. And I should also add 0:09:03.520 --> 0:09:05.960 that in various other Indonesian films from this time period, 0:09:06.240 --> 0:09:09.840 other you obviously you have hungry snake queens, you have 0:09:09.880 --> 0:09:13.440 crocodile queens. So this does feel like it's perhaps a 0:09:13.440 --> 0:09:18.360 familiar trope in Indonesian folklore and certainly in exploitation cinema, 0:09:18.440 --> 0:09:21.640 based some degree on those folk tales. All right, well, 0:09:21.720 --> 0:09:23.920 elevator pitch for this one. All I have to say 0:09:24.000 --> 0:09:26.480 is the south Sea Queen cannot be reasoned with. She 0:09:26.520 --> 0:09:29.960 doesn't feel pity or remorse or feared, and she absolutely 0:09:30.040 --> 0:09:33.560 will not stop ever until you're dead. 0:09:33.720 --> 0:09:36.000 Or until her machine gun jams. And then she has 0:09:36.040 --> 0:09:37.000 to make a poudy face? 0:09:38.320 --> 0:09:40.000 Does she do that? Does she make a powdy face? 0:09:40.360 --> 0:09:42.320 To be fair, that's not actually the south Sea Queen. 0:09:42.440 --> 0:09:46.080 That is the embodiment of the south Sea queens magic, 0:09:46.240 --> 0:09:49.080 or I don't know, you tell me. Is the south 0:09:49.160 --> 0:09:53.640 Sea Queen herself inside the body of the Anthropologist that 0:09:53.720 --> 0:09:56.520 is possessed and becomes Lady Terminator? Or is that just 0:09:56.559 --> 0:09:59.079 sort of her magic is a curse place? Do you 0:09:59.160 --> 0:10:03.559 know what I'm asking? Yeah, the south Sea Queen physically 0:10:03.640 --> 0:10:06.360 there in the body of what's her name. 0:10:06.720 --> 0:10:09.800 Yeah, it does seem like she is being puppeted to 0:10:09.840 --> 0:10:13.800 some degree. Yeah, the character of what Tanya. I believe 0:10:13.840 --> 0:10:15.400 that is her name, Tanya. 0:10:15.800 --> 0:10:18.520 The Anthropologist, the anthropomon is the Lady Terminator. 0:10:18.600 --> 0:10:21.880 Yes, yeah, I think this is a fair point. I 0:10:21.880 --> 0:10:24.400 feel like maybe the South Sea Queen is not directly 0:10:24.400 --> 0:10:28.240 inside there, but is like at a distance, the puppet 0:10:28.280 --> 0:10:30.360 master of this vengeful avatar. 0:10:31.200 --> 0:10:34.080 The other thing is, does the South Sea Queen actually 0:10:34.120 --> 0:10:38.440 turn her into a robot like the T eight hundred Interminator. 0:10:39.120 --> 0:10:41.480 There are reasons for thinking that. For one thing, she 0:10:41.559 --> 0:10:43.920 shoots lasers out of her eyes and seems to have 0:10:44.000 --> 0:10:47.920 some kind of technological powers, like she gets at one point, 0:10:47.920 --> 0:10:50.800 she kind of gets her her skin melted and seems 0:10:50.800 --> 0:10:54.320 to have some kind of exoskeleton thing going on underneath there, 0:10:54.520 --> 0:10:58.840 like in Terminator. But also there's no otherwise, there's no 0:10:58.920 --> 0:11:01.360 technological tie in with the South Sea Queen. It would 0:11:01.400 --> 0:11:04.520 seem to be just a magically possessed being. Yeah. 0:11:04.720 --> 0:11:08.160 I get the impression that via magical possession, her body 0:11:08.240 --> 0:11:11.560 has taken on various supernatural aspects that make it immune 0:11:11.600 --> 0:11:15.880 to bullets, not completely immune to massive explosions as we'll see, 0:11:15.920 --> 0:11:19.719 but somewhat immune. And then also at some point I 0:11:19.880 --> 0:11:22.240 beams come into the phraser. 0:11:21.800 --> 0:11:25.680 Eyes Okay, yeah, those are magic laser eyes, not high 0:11:25.679 --> 0:11:26.400 tech laser eyes. 0:11:26.440 --> 0:11:29.720 Right, that's magical energy. That's like, I don't know, radiant 0:11:29.760 --> 0:11:32.360 damage or something. All right, let's go ahead and listen 0:11:32.400 --> 0:11:34.439 and just just a little bit of the trailer here, 0:11:34.480 --> 0:11:36.080 not the whole thing, but just a little bit to 0:11:36.080 --> 0:11:39.200 give folks a taste. 0:11:41.120 --> 0:11:45.559 Sometimes the past should be left to memory, to gather 0:11:45.720 --> 0:11:47.920 dust within the covers of recorded time. 0:11:53.920 --> 0:11:56.240 In one hundred years, I'll have my revenge on your 0:11:56.240 --> 0:11:57.119 great granddaughter. 0:11:58.880 --> 0:12:01.280 One of the funds the secret of the South Sea 0:12:01.360 --> 0:12:03.920 Queen will live in great danger of a song. 0:12:04.320 --> 0:12:07.160 Oh yes I will. But how is she to know? 0:12:09.160 --> 0:12:14.360 Meet Tadya, an American anthropologist who travels to Indonesia. 0:12:13.600 --> 0:12:14.800 In search of truth. 0:12:16.760 --> 0:12:19.280 What she finds is that the legend of the South 0:12:19.360 --> 0:12:24.360 Sea Queen is more than a story. It is her fate, 0:12:27.640 --> 0:12:34.440 a tale of possession, revenge, insatiable desire, and an evil 0:12:35.280 --> 0:12:36.400 that will not die. 0:12:36.880 --> 0:12:53.720 Thank you, Erica. That woman cannot die. 0:12:57.440 --> 0:13:00.000 All right now, If you want to watch Lady Termine, 0:13:00.600 --> 0:13:02.319 you can catch a stream here there. But the best 0:13:02.320 --> 0:13:04.400 way to see this one, as of this writing, is 0:13:04.400 --> 0:13:08.320 on the DVD from Mondo Micabro. We've talked about Mondo 0:13:08.400 --> 0:13:12.880 Micabro releases before they put out a lot of great films. 0:13:13.360 --> 0:13:16.080 I rented it here from Atlanta's own video Drum, which 0:13:16.120 --> 0:13:18.560 has a nice little selection of Indonesian horror films. 0:13:19.080 --> 0:13:21.760 I've got that disc. There is also a stream on 0:13:21.920 --> 0:13:24.360 archive dot Org. I was checking out part of But 0:13:24.679 --> 0:13:27.079 it's nice to have the packaging because then you get 0:13:27.120 --> 0:13:31.560 to see the extremely classy tagline for the film, which 0:13:31.600 --> 0:13:34.880 is first she mates, then she terminates. 0:13:36.200 --> 0:13:39.439 It rhymes, So I can't really argue with it, though 0:13:40.000 --> 0:13:42.720 one does wonder how much mating she's actually doing in 0:13:42.760 --> 0:13:43.240 this picture. 0:13:43.360 --> 0:13:45.640 Yeah, I guess somewhat less than expected. That's sort of 0:13:45.640 --> 0:13:48.920 front loaded in the first half of the movie, but 0:13:49.400 --> 0:13:51.160 there's plenty of terminating, I guess. 0:13:51.280 --> 0:13:54.320 Yeah, she's generally happy to skip the first part and 0:13:54.360 --> 0:13:55.520 just get to the extermination. 0:13:55.880 --> 0:13:57.160 Mostly she terminates. 0:13:57.240 --> 0:14:01.000 Yeah, all right, Well, let's jump into the behind this film, 0:14:01.480 --> 0:14:03.280 though I do have to stress that this is one 0:14:03.320 --> 0:14:05.800 of those cases where there's not a lot of information 0:14:05.880 --> 0:14:09.440 about everyone involved, and in some cases maybe I just 0:14:09.520 --> 0:14:11.800 wasn't privy to that information or wasn't able to find it. 0:14:12.280 --> 0:14:14.880 But let's start at the top with the director credited 0:14:14.960 --> 0:14:19.200 as Jaliel Jackson. It is h Chehut Jaliel, who lived 0:14:19.280 --> 0:14:22.240 nineteen thirty two through I Believe twenty fourteen. His death 0:14:22.320 --> 0:14:24.600 date isn't listed on IMDb, but I've seen his death 0:14:24.680 --> 0:14:29.200 date listed elsewhere. Indonesian director Active from I Believe nineteen 0:14:29.200 --> 0:14:33.000 seventy four through nineteen ninety four. Director of numerous cult 0:14:33.000 --> 0:14:36.920 favorite films, including nineteen eighty one's Mystics in Bali, a 0:14:36.960 --> 0:14:41.800 horror movie full of Indonesian folkloric elements, including the penanglan 0:14:42.440 --> 0:14:46.080 floating heads with entrails, which if you haven't some of 0:14:46.120 --> 0:14:48.880 you may be familiar with it from seeing Mystics in Bali, 0:14:49.360 --> 0:14:53.120 but they're often given us fair amount of attention in 0:14:53.240 --> 0:14:56.840 various monster books and folklore treatments and so forth. 0:14:57.560 --> 0:14:59.760 Oh, I just had to google it. Yeah, I think 0:14:59.760 --> 0:15:03.160 I've seen screenshots from this before where it's like it 0:15:03.200 --> 0:15:05.440 looks like a doll's head floating and then just some 0:15:05.520 --> 0:15:06.960 stuff dangling out of the neck. 0:15:07.280 --> 0:15:08.680 Yeah, this is one of the big ones that I 0:15:08.760 --> 0:15:10.960 haven't seen it yet. This is this is my first 0:15:10.960 --> 0:15:14.560 foray into in Indonesian horror, so I'll have to get 0:15:14.600 --> 0:15:17.280 to that one. His other films include nineteen eighty one's 0:15:17.320 --> 0:15:20.280 The Warrior in the Ninja starring Barry Prima, eighty six 0:15:20.400 --> 0:15:24.880 is Satan's Bed, nineteen eighty eight White Crocodile Queens starring Susannah, 0:15:24.920 --> 0:15:28.960 and nineteen ninety two's Dangerous Seductress. This was apparently his 0:15:29.000 --> 0:15:32.120 biggest budgeted film up to that point, and I've read 0:15:32.160 --> 0:15:36.520 that it did great business domestically before it was banned subsequently, 0:15:37.000 --> 0:15:40.640 and I think there are different stories too about like 0:15:40.640 --> 0:15:42.880 how did it get banned and somebody like essentially stab 0:15:42.920 --> 0:15:46.520 it in the back? Was it importers of Western films 0:15:46.520 --> 0:15:49.960 that were upset that this film was outperforming various international 0:15:50.000 --> 0:15:53.080 pictures in Indonesia at the time. I'm not sure where 0:15:53.080 --> 0:15:55.160 the truth lies in any of that, but of course 0:15:55.200 --> 0:15:58.560 it would go on to earn its cult status internationally 0:15:58.720 --> 0:16:02.720 as an import, and I mean it's been screened ultimately internationally. 0:16:02.840 --> 0:16:06.080 So that's another point about watching this film. It's very 0:16:06.120 --> 0:16:08.560 possible you might catch a rare screening of it on 0:16:08.560 --> 0:16:09.120 the big screen. 0:16:09.160 --> 0:16:12.560 Here there. I'm trying to imagine what so like American 0:16:12.600 --> 0:16:15.600 distributors are, like, nobody's going to the theaters to see Cocktail. 0:16:15.640 --> 0:16:20.000 They're just buying more more tickets to see the Lady 0:16:20.080 --> 0:16:23.480 Terminator again. We've got to do something about this. Yeah, 0:16:23.520 --> 0:16:26.440 I don't know, but what else came out in the 0:16:26.440 --> 0:16:27.800 eighty eight Three Men and a Baby. 0:16:27.800 --> 0:16:32.200 It looks like, yeah, this is yeah, this is nothing 0:16:32.240 --> 0:16:34.680 on the same level as Lady Terminator, all right. The 0:16:34.720 --> 0:16:39.480 credited writer here is one car Kruleinos. This is his 0:16:39.520 --> 0:16:42.440 only credit on any of the movie databases that I 0:16:42.480 --> 0:16:44.920 was able to look the film up on. He also 0:16:44.960 --> 0:16:47.200 has a camera credit on this picture. I don't so 0:16:47.320 --> 0:16:48.640 this is one of those where I have to flag 0:16:48.920 --> 0:16:49.840 is this a real person? 0:16:51.200 --> 0:16:52.040 Is this is? 0:16:52.840 --> 0:16:55.560 I have no idea. Evidently someone did write it. There 0:16:55.640 --> 0:16:56.280 was a script. 0:16:56.720 --> 0:17:00.160 Yeah, And while we should mention I guess that if 0:17:00.160 --> 0:17:02.880 we haven't already said this. The dialogue in the film 0:17:03.240 --> 0:17:06.800 is dubbed. In all of it is dubbed, but it 0:17:06.880 --> 0:17:10.159 does usually match what the character's mouths are saying when 0:17:10.200 --> 0:17:13.800 they're moving, so it's not live sound. But it does 0:17:13.840 --> 0:17:17.040 appear that the dialogue is mostly as written and performed 0:17:17.040 --> 0:17:18.879 by the actors in the scene, though there are some 0:17:19.040 --> 0:17:22.240 very funny moments of what feel like lines subbed in later, 0:17:22.520 --> 0:17:26.760 like especially lines directly from Terminator. They just kind of 0:17:26.760 --> 0:17:28.919 get come in from somebody speaking off screen. 0:17:29.600 --> 0:17:31.840 Yeah, Like there's one part we'll probably go back to 0:17:31.920 --> 0:17:34.639 where you get the feeling where they that they were like, 0:17:34.640 --> 0:17:36.239 oh we didn't we forgot to put in come with 0:17:36.240 --> 0:17:37.399 me if you want to live, and so they just 0:17:37.440 --> 0:17:39.439 kind of throw it in after an explosion, Come. 0:17:39.280 --> 0:17:41.640 With me, if you want to live. Yeah, it happens past. 0:17:41.680 --> 0:17:44.800 I don't do we see the guy's mouth. I don't remember. Yeah, 0:17:44.840 --> 0:17:50.359 we don't. 0:17:55.200 --> 0:17:57.920 All right, let's talk about the cast here. Oh, the star. 0:17:58.200 --> 0:18:02.080 The title character, Lady Terminator, or before she becomes Lady 0:18:02.119 --> 0:18:05.520 Terminator Tanya, is played by Barbara Ann Constable. 0:18:05.680 --> 0:18:07.920 This is a classic case of don't you hate when 0:18:07.920 --> 0:18:11.359 you go scuba diving in order to complete research for 0:18:11.400 --> 0:18:14.560 your anthropology PhD and you get turned into a terminator? 0:18:15.600 --> 0:18:19.480 Yeah, go scuba diving by yourself. My wife was quick 0:18:19.520 --> 0:18:21.119 to point out, Oh, she has no buddy. This is 0:18:21.440 --> 0:18:24.479 you always go scuba diving with a buddy, even if 0:18:24.480 --> 0:18:27.320 you're checking out mysterious ruins on these on the seafloor. 0:18:28.320 --> 0:18:30.680 So who's Barbara Ann Constable here? All right? 0:18:30.920 --> 0:18:34.280 She well, she's one of a kind. Australian dancer, turn model, 0:18:34.320 --> 0:18:37.760 turn actress. This is her only credited film role on 0:18:37.800 --> 0:18:40.200 any of the databases as far as I could tell, 0:18:40.240 --> 0:18:43.000 though I've seen a couple of interviews with her print 0:18:43.040 --> 0:18:46.080 interviews where she says that prior to this she shot 0:18:46.200 --> 0:18:49.679 some sort of Chinese film in Shanghai. I think she 0:18:49.720 --> 0:18:52.040 said it had ballet in it, but she didn't know 0:18:52.080 --> 0:18:54.399 what the name of it was, and I don't know 0:18:54.440 --> 0:18:56.320 that anyone has ever been able to track it down. 0:18:57.040 --> 0:18:59.480 So there may be another film out there in which 0:18:59.480 --> 0:19:02.120 she appears to some degree, But for the most part, 0:19:02.160 --> 0:19:06.240 it's one and done, like this is her picture, and 0:19:06.280 --> 0:19:08.360 I mean credit where credits do. I think she does 0:19:08.359 --> 0:19:10.920 a great job here, at least once she's the Terminator. 0:19:10.960 --> 0:19:13.520 I mean, she's less believable as a human lady, but 0:19:13.640 --> 0:19:18.560 once she is Lady Terminator, I absolutely buy into it. 0:19:18.720 --> 0:19:21.879 She was watching Terminator and taking notes like she's got 0:19:21.920 --> 0:19:24.560 the physicality down. She does the kind of like three 0:19:24.640 --> 0:19:26.960 point turn with her body really good when she's going 0:19:27.000 --> 0:19:30.399 around corners and the police station. The scenes are so 0:19:30.560 --> 0:19:35.920 many scenes of her running around chasing the Erica or heroine, 0:19:36.359 --> 0:19:38.880 and just like kicking down doors in the police station. 0:19:39.040 --> 0:19:41.000 The kicking motion it really sticks with me. 0:19:41.400 --> 0:19:45.600 Oh yeah, yeah, I think she's tremendous here. I totally 0:19:45.600 --> 0:19:49.080 buy into everything she's doing on the screen. So, based 0:19:49.119 --> 0:19:50.680 on a couple of interviews, I was able to run 0:19:50.720 --> 0:19:54.000 down her casting came out of some international modeling work 0:19:54.000 --> 0:19:56.919 that she was doing while traveling around Asia, and she 0:19:57.080 --> 0:19:59.199 agreed to this picture assuming that it would be a 0:19:59.200 --> 0:20:02.480 purely domestic film and not something that would ultimately screen 0:20:02.760 --> 0:20:06.400 anywhere else in the world. But yeah, as far as 0:20:06.640 --> 0:20:10.000 amazing one and done B movie performances, I think she 0:20:10.080 --> 0:20:11.960 might top the list. I can't think of anybody else 0:20:12.040 --> 0:20:14.560 like this who just comes out of nowhere and then 0:20:14.680 --> 0:20:19.520 also and then subsequently vanishes that excels to this degree. 0:20:19.560 --> 0:20:22.520 Like the closest I could think of is Warhawk Tanzania 0:20:22.720 --> 0:20:25.080 in Devil's Express But even he had like one other 0:20:25.560 --> 0:20:27.760 part in a film I think prior to that. 0:20:28.119 --> 0:20:30.240 Oh okay, but I agree. I mean, if you see 0:20:30.320 --> 0:20:33.000 Lady Terminator, you are not going to forget Barbara Ann 0:20:33.000 --> 0:20:35.119 Constable's perfore she's going to be in your brain. 0:20:35.720 --> 0:20:38.400 Yeah yeah, I mean she has all the screen time 0:20:38.440 --> 0:20:42.159 in the world here, and you just have to imagine 0:20:42.760 --> 0:20:46.159 an alternate universe where she followed this up either with 0:20:46.520 --> 0:20:50.399 other Indonesian films or perhaps internationally, like maybe ended up 0:20:50.440 --> 0:20:52.320 doing some films in Australia. 0:20:52.040 --> 0:20:54.479 Or Lady Terminator too term Harder. 0:20:54.800 --> 0:20:57.200 Yeah, I mean, I'm down for that or some other 0:20:57.240 --> 0:21:00.280 film where she essentially plays the Lady Terminator. It just 0:21:00.280 --> 0:21:04.359 seems like, especially for someone who didn't have a martial 0:21:04.440 --> 0:21:08.720 arts background, she's so good in the action here. She's 0:21:08.720 --> 0:21:12.000 totally believable, Like apparently she had weapons training prior to filming, 0:21:12.000 --> 0:21:15.600 which shows because she's firing a machine gun all the 0:21:15.640 --> 0:21:19.160 time in this picture, and at least to my untrained eyes, 0:21:19.240 --> 0:21:22.119 like it's believable, and she's doing it with her eyes 0:21:22.160 --> 0:21:23.960 wide open, which I understand takes a little bit of 0:21:24.000 --> 0:21:27.280 effort to get that trick down as well. All right, 0:21:27.359 --> 0:21:29.080 let's move into the rest of the cast. I get 0:21:29.119 --> 0:21:31.159 we'll have more to say about this terrific performance as 0:21:31.400 --> 0:21:36.119 if we move on. But I guess our hero of 0:21:36.160 --> 0:21:38.119 the picture. 0:21:37.240 --> 0:21:39.120 Is our Rev Brown for the Evening. 0:21:39.320 --> 0:21:44.000 Yes, our Rev Brown is Max, played by Christopher J. Hart. 0:21:44.560 --> 0:21:48.200 This is his only film role, I believe. Constable describes 0:21:48.240 --> 0:21:50.560 him as an expat working in Jakarta at the time, 0:21:50.960 --> 0:21:54.720 possibly an engineer. I don't know that she knew or remembered. 0:21:55.280 --> 0:21:57.840 I tried to find out any additional information on this guy. 0:21:58.119 --> 0:22:00.920 I did find an Atlanta area surge with the same name, 0:22:00.960 --> 0:22:03.000 and I really wanted it to be the same guy. 0:22:03.359 --> 0:22:05.439