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Released by: Peekarama
Released on: January 28th, 2025.
Director: Bill Milling/Shaun Costello/Felix Daniels
Cast: C.J. Laing, Bree Anthony, Jamie Gillis, Candida Royale, Marlene Willouhgby, Christie Ford, Robert Kerman
Year: 1975/1979/1977
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The Vixens Of Kung Fu/Sunny/The Night Bird– Movie Review:
Peekarama gives a welcome high-definition upgrade to a trio of seventies smut classics, all proudly made in and around New York City, on this triple feature Blu-ray edition.
The Vixens Of Kung Fu:
Bree Anthony plays Paula, a young woman whose luck turns sour one day while taking a leisurely stroll through what looks like upstate New York in the middle of the afternoon. She's interrupted by three thugs - Jamie Gillis, Bobby Astyr and some guy in a sweater with a receding hairline - with obviously sinister intent. After verbally harassing her, she makes a break for it but unfortunately for her, these guys possess a tranquilizer gun (!!) and before she can make her escape they shoot her in the back. She falls to the ground, and they proceed to strip her and rape her and once they've had their way with her, they leave her there all alone.
She regains consciousness and soon finds comfort in the arms of the titular Vixens Of Kung-Fu, a small group of three women (comprised of Linda Trussell and Rosanne Lang, and lead by C.J. Laing) who have no use for men and instead find comfort in one another's arms. Laing takes her under her wing and initiates her by giving her a massage and having lesbian sex with her. Once that's out of the way with, it's time to begin her training regimen and she soon learns the ways of the Vixens. We also learn a little bit about Paula's background as a prostitute and learn that she's exactly the kind of mistreated woman that the Vixens want as a pupil.
Soon, a wandering kung-fu practitioner named Yang (Tony Richards, credited here as Tony Blue) makes the mistake of wandering past the Vixens' training grounds. He's immediately attacked for his error in judgment, beaten to a pulp in one of the ineptest on-screen displays of kung-fu ever filmed.
Scorned by the Vixens, Yang decides that he needs to bone up on his kung-fu skills and so he heads into Chinatown and kneels at the feet of a woman working in the kitchen of a Chinese restaurant (Peonies Jong). This woman turns out to be Madame Blue, though Yang insists on calling her Master for some reason. Regardless, she reluctantly takes him on as a student and they head into the woods where she instructs him in the deadly art of her own style - Golden Dragon Raising Head! This primarily involves Yang stroking his...uh... wang. While Yang and Madame Blue are training, C.J. and Paula are running up and down the beach together in slow motion like something out of Bo Derek's filmography. Once the two students are finished training, it's time for the climactic showdown to be held in upstate New York at Bear Mountain (at least it sure looks like Bear Mountain)!
Wow. What a horribly made film in all of the best possible ways! Vixens Of Kung Fu is definitely 'so bad it's good' material, from Tony Richards’ Moe haircut and cheesy earring to the 'Asian style' soundtrack presumably added as an afterthought to give the movie some authenticity as a martial arts film. The martial arts themselves? Amazingly bad. Imagine the likes of Tony Richards, Bree Anthony and C.J. Laing strutting and striking the phoniest looking kung-fu poses imaginable while the film cuts faster than a Russ Meyer movie in an unsuccessful attempt to hide their obvious lack of martial arts training. Someone named Anthony Wong (no relation to the Cat III superstar from Hong Kong we can assume) is credited with 'special kung-fu fighting.' He should have been fired. Yang's tendency to call his female teacher Master time and time again adds to the unintentional comedic value that the picture is overripe with, while the overly long shots of Laing and Anthony running up, and then later down, the same beach pad out the film in a rather curious manner.
The sole directorial credit of one Lin Cho Chiang (a great pseudonym for Milling) and the only known picture produced by Chiang Productions (likely a fake company all together), Vixens Of Kung-Fu is a poorly made and completely goofy smut film but it's certainly an entertaining mess of a picture. The girl-on-girl scene with Laing and Anthony is steamier than you'd probably expect though the heterosexual sex scenes in the film are pretty clinical and devoid of all but the most rudimentary sexuality. That said, this is one of those porno movies that modern smut fans are likely going to watch more because of the camp factor and B-movie values than the XXX happenings. Evaluated as a grindhouse oddity rather than a serious adult picture, Vixens Of Kung-Fu is pretty interesting and definitely worth seeing for the copious amount of comedy that it contains when viewed today, more than three decades after it played theaters.
Interestingly enough, kung-fu porno didn't die with this film. In 2002, gonzo smut peddlers Kick Ass Productions released a series of four Kung-Fu Girls films, which were re-released on DVD in 2007, presumably to cash in on the success of Wicked Pictures' own Kung-Fu Nurses A-Go-Go, which itself was probably made to cash in on Tarantino and Rodriguez' Grindhouse double feature. Digging even deeper into the depths of obscurity, in 2005 Masterlen Productions shat out a fetish video entitled Kung-Fu Masochist in which a chubby girl named Andrea is put through rigorous kung-fu training courtesy of director/producer/co-star Master Len. Alt/punk porn purveyors Burning Angel got in on this too with their release of Kung-Fu Pussy a couple of years ago. Maybe Vixens Of Kung-Fu was more influential than most of us realized!
The film is also known as Vixens Of Kung-Fu: A Tale Of Yin And Yang, which is how the title card reads on this Blu-ray presentation.
Sunny:
The first film stars Candida Royale as the titular Sunny, a working girl who makes a very nice living servicing the clients she's hooked up with by John Carmichael (Jake Teague). The plot thickens when a well to do heiress named Mabel Carter (Marlene Willoughby) talks to Carmichael and arranges his help in a scheme. Her late husband has left everything in a trust to their son, Marc (Rick Iverson as Jeremy Wyatt), who has inherited everything but shown no interest in the family business. Mabel would like to get back control of the company to stop its stock from plummeting even more than it has since Marc took over. How is this going to work? Marc's weakness is sex. When she was younger she could control him this way but as she's aged, that isn't the cast anymore. She wants Carmichael to get a woman who will take orders from her and trap Marc to fall for and eventually to marry her.
Of course, that woman is Sunny and before you know it, Carmichael has flown her in from San Francisco to New York City. But before she splits, we see her make some quality time with her roommate Claire (Merle Michaels). From there, Sunny - who is "hardly an avocado" - is introduced to the mustachioed Marc by boatman Harry (Gordon G. Duvall as Sleepie La Beef). Marc is quite intrigued by his new friend and soon enough they're screwing on the deck of his yacht. A few days later Sunny meets with Carmichael and Mabel, tells them what happened and explains that Marc was impressed enough with her that he wants to 'test' her. As the plot evolves and Sunny and Marc get closer, Sunny and Marc go at it some more, Mabel gets it on with whoever she pleases (including her chauffeur), Sunny winds up in a kinky photo shoot that turns into a gang bang, and Marc and his mom get more intimate than New York State law allows for. There's also a weird costume party scene that turns into an orgy of sorts atop some nasty-looking shag carpeting and then, of course, a bit of a twist ending.
Nicely paced and well shot with a good cast, Sunny is a fairly dreamy, light porno movie. The plot isn't heavy, but it's enough to bridge the scenes nicely enough and the cast are game. Marlene Willoughby and especially Candida Royale are both very good here, handling the dramatics as well as the couplings and showing plenty of enthusiasm in their respective roles. Rick Iverson struggles a bit with some of the acting his part calls for, but he rises to the occasion when he needs to. Had there been a bit more effort put into Costello's plot this one would have stood out more but as it stands it's a decent entry in his filmography.
The Night Bird:
Our first feature stars Marc Valentine as Southside, a Travolta-esque New Yorker who digs the disco scene. He's a small-time hustler who hangs out with his pals J.T.(David Morris) and Bobby (Michael Ronds). When these guys aren't scoring with the local chicks, they're getting into fisticuffs with some of the local guys - not all of whom appreciate their specific brand of 'charm.' As much fun as this street life is, however, Southside wants something more. He has a dream - a dream of making it big as a dancer!
Thankfully for Southside, there's a local disco, run by comely Maggie (Christie Ford). As he starts hanging out there more and more and taking his dreams of boogying on into the limelight more seriously, he can't help but get pulled back into the gang fights and street brawls that have always been a part of his life.
Written and directed by Felix Daniels, The Night Bird was CLEARLY influenced by the box office success of Saturday Night Fever. In fact, it follows a very similar story arch, with Southside's search for a better life similar to the one that Travolta's Tony Manero finds himself on in John Badham's box office smash made the same year. Coincidence? Hell no.
Despite all the copycat antics, flash disco dancing and reasonably well shot hardcore fuck scenes performed by a very able cast, The Night Bird is actually compelling more for its story than for anything else. There's enough flash and fuck here to keep your interest on that level but as the story plays out, you find yourself wanting to know what's going to happen for Southside. A lot of the credit for this needs to go to Marc Valentine, who is quite good in the lead. He plays the angel with broken wings character well, we like him, even while we recognize that he's got a whole lot of flaws.
It might end on the exact sort of note you expect it to, what with tragedy leading to redemption and all. As such, it isn't that original, but it is pretty well made and genuinely entertaining enough that fans of seventies smut (especially for those titles with a disco theme) should get a kick out of this.
The Vixens Of Kung Fu/Sunny/The Night Bird– Blu-ray Review:
Peekarama brings The Vixens Of Kung Fu, Sunny and The Night Bird to Blu-ray newly scanned and restored in 2k from their original 35m negatives and framed at 1.85.1 widescreen. The transfers are good ones, offering up the movies in very nice shape and with good depth and detail, although the opening few minutes or the first feature does show more print damage than you might expect (it clears up pretty quickly). Colors look great and skin tones are always lifelike and accurate. The movies always look like proper film transfers, showing no obvious noise reduction or edge enhancement, and the images are free of compression artifacts or crush.
The only audio option for the disc is a 24-bit DTS-HD 1.0 Mono track in the films' original language. Optional English SDH subtitles are included. Audio quality is fine, though there is a bit of sibilance here and there. The levels are generally well-balanced and the dialogue easy to follow and understand. There aren’t any problems with hiss or distortion and overall, the tracks sound pretty clean.
Extras are limited to trailers for Sunny and The Night Bird, menus and chapter selection options. If purchased from the Melusine website, this release comes with a limited edition spot gloss slipcover designed by Rich Long and limited to 2,000 units. Double-sided cover art is also provided.
The Vixens Of Kung Fu/Sunny/The Night Bird– The Final Word:
Peekarama's triple feature Blu-ray upgrade of The Vixens Of Kung Fu, Sunny and The Night Bird is light on extra features but it does offer up nice high definition upgrades for three very enjoyable vintage adult films. Recommended for fans!
