albert pyun

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

i have a feeling this could get 0 votes

also i screwed up and didnt see it was already polled, think i only searched posts, not titles - Albert Pyun

That story he tells is funny.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

i watched Arcade, pretty terrible but it reminded me of how much of a crush i used 2 have on aj langer

also some p choice quotes

Alex: I thought you were dead.
Alex's mom: But, honey. I am dead.
[she shoots herself]

Kid at Arcade Parlour: Who gives a fuck about Arcade anyway?
Arcade: Try saying that... to my face

i'm bumping this albert pyun thread bc it's on ILE and the other thread calls him the "worst director ever" which is blatantly untrue, his films run from b-grade to total trash but they are always well-shot and lit like the underground techno club of my dreams

alien from l.a. was just restored and released on blu-ray by vinegar syndrome and if you want a disney-style live action adventure movie that eerily resembles two movies that came out after it (total recall and super mario bros.) and starring a squeaky-voiced kathy ireland playing a stoner* nerd with plucky unflappability in the face of an increasingly absurd goth/glam dystopia at the center of the earth, is this ever your kind of movie

*not explicitly stated or depicted in the text but if all you want to do is sleep and hang out at the beach, then..................

i also loved arcade godawful cgi and all, the dream sequences depicting the mom's suicide are extremely traumatic for how silly the rest of the movie is

oh, and dangerously close, an unusually normal-ass movie from him, to the degree that i think it's legit great high schoolsploitation with not one but two tracks from black celebration on the soundtrack

meanwhile you can currently only watch the ever-relevant radioactive dreams on youtube for free. hope somebody cleans it up someday

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=an3WtOM6bTI

i'm also desperate to watch deceit bc of the op and i just found that on youtube as well

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9IkBjBSUmc

Given the amount of total garbage I watch, I'm kinda shocked to realize I haven't actually seen a Pyun film yet. But I own at least three of them so maybe it's time to rectify this grievous oversight.

oh god you MUST watch cyborg

I watched Dollman last month, my first Pyun. It was fun.

I have both of those!

I had been putting off Cyborg because up until a couple months ago JCVD was another blind spot for me but then I saw Kickboxer and now I'm pretty sure I have to watch all of the JCVDs but I feel strongly compelled to do so in chronological order so I witness his growth as an artist.

vicious lips has changed my life for the better, even the absolutely stoned nothingness in the middle when they crash land onto the desert planet and spend the whole time inside sniping at each other, in fact i’d argue its cheap dull endlessness makes it feel like an authentic nightmare when the lead starts stumbling through a smoke-filled warehouse of billowing fabric. auteurist directors wish they could inhabit the unconscious this effortlessly

and the songs! fucking! rock!!!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCQPo_dhCFY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnTWmKA24Yw

in the past two weeks i have watched the following albert pyun movies:

radioactive dreams
vicious lips
dangerously close
down twisted
alien from l.a.
deceit
dollman
nemesis
arcade
knights
nemesis 2: nebula
nemesis 3: time lapse
nemesis 4: cry of angels

they were all good except for the nemesis sequels

The first Nemesis has some great action, albeit done with obvious budget limitations. The industrial wasteland set piece I swear was used for Tom Petty's "It's Good to Be King" video. Also, maybe the first time I remember seeing Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa.

I've seen one of the sequels and there was a drastic quality drop.

i have now seen 27 pyun films, just finished up his kickboxer sequels... both of which.... are good???????

my brain might be poisoned

i also would like to take back what i said about the nemesis sequels... once you adjust to the fact that none of them are going to be anything like the first one, the second has some pretty undeniable stunts and the fourth is so bizarre as to feel like some damaged fetish dream transcription. not much going on in 3 beyond tim thomerson though

Legendary director Albert Pyun would like to hear from fans in his final days https://t.co/rnH3V5pqrF pic.twitter.com/EYU0IU53Zp

— JoBlo.com (@joblocom) November 16, 2022

Prayers up as it looks like the great Albert Pyun's health has taken a turn for the worst and he likely doesn't have much time left. Send him some love if you can and I know I'll be trawling Tubi later tonight to find one of his flicks I haven't watched yet.

oh man <3

restored sword and the sorcerer is on tubi now and is worth experiencing

2 Pyun movies covered on redlettermedia today, if you can stand those guys. No Mike in the episode, at least.

You can get Nemesis 1-4 on Blu-ray for < $20 total right now via MVD's Black Friday sale: https://mvdshop.com/collections/blackfriday2022 . Not to mention a BR of Crazy Six (which I didn't know was Pyun) for literally $1.99. And probably some other stuff I missed.

rip

after watching a ton of his films this year he kinda became my favorite director, this was a long time coming given his history of health issues but…. there’s so much love for filmmaking, so much of the spirit of creation in his work. ultimately, in his prime, he could make the goofiest shit look dope. i highly recommend seeking out a copy of knights, wuxia stunts + kris kristofferson + lance henriksen as a cyborg vampire

https://hologramofthesenses.substack.com/p/hallucination-sequence

did my best to explain why i love this guy's work so much, even (especially?) when it sucks. (also includes meditations on crimes of the future and cabaret voltaire)