Les improbables de Nanarland : Black Ninja, Cameroon Connection, Karate vs Mafia

Thank you all for your support! The campaign for Les Improbables de Nnanarland is now over, but you can still order the Black NInja / Cameroun Connection blu-ray on our website https://pulsestore.net/, and pre-order the Kárate contra Mafia blu-ray, which will arrive in February. See you soon! _________________________________________________________________ Nanarland.com is the most famous French website dedicated to so-bad-it’’s-good movies, that became a true institution over the years. We are proud to announce to you that Nanarland and Pulse Video have teamed up to let you the craziness of the Nanarland Nights in high definition in your living room. Black Ninja from the front, Cameroon Connection from the back! To celebrate this new collection, we had to hit hard, we had to hit to hurt where it makes you feel good. So we put together a dream cast: Richard Harrison, Alphonse Béni and the real Bruce Le on the same blu-ray. An exceptional release including not one, but two movies. First, Black Ninja (1987) by Godfrey Ho, an authentic monument of the so-bad-it’s-good culture. Second, the incredible Cameroon Connection (1984), the first African martial arts film. This double feature allows us to pay a vibrant tribute to actor and director Alphonse Béni who passed away in March 2023. You will discover everything you need to know about the Belmondo from Cameroon, with more than two hours of bonuses crafted especially for the occasion. Hang on, it'll shake! Black Ninja and Cameroon Connection are presented for the first time in the world in blu-ray, restored in high definition, with new supplements and an exclusive slipcover, in the collection Les improbables de Nanarland, a collaboration between Nanarland and Pulse Video. And this story is going to last until it's over. But this is not all. After months of research and negotiations, we offer you a second blu-ray. The crazy and fabulous (and we weigh our words carefully) Kárate contra Mafia (1981), a kung-fu film shot in the Canary Islands, but whose director Ramón Saldías struggled to make it look like a real Hong Kong film. And the magic works... or almost. This other great classic, shown during the Nanarland Nights, is absolutely unmissable! To discover in a sumptuous master, restored in 4K according to the original negative, in blu-ray with slipcover. Of course, to give these high-flying mvies exceptional editions, we need you! Black Ninja / Cameroun Connection will be available for the next Nuit Nanarland on September 30, 2023, and Kárate contra Mafia in February 2024. Nanarland, the site for bad, friendly films, that we call "nanars" in French, and Pulse Video, a boutique label with a passion for cinema bis, are pleased to present two blu-rays whose existence makes no sense, other than the pleasure to share with you our boundless love for films that are crazy and terribly entertaining, yet unwillingly, and even more so our affection for the people who made them. To inaugurate this collaboration, we wanted to pay tribute to Alphonse Béni (1946-2023), the only director and actor of popular African films in the 70s and 80s. Thriller, action, disco or martial arts, he was Cameroon's Jean-Paul Belmondo, making frequent trips back and forth between Cameroon and France, as well as Italy and Hong Kong. A true legend throughout French-speaking Africa, with a fascinating carreer. For years we've been planning to share it with you. Sadly, he passed away in March 2023, before we could complete the extensive interview we'd been preparing with him for months. Our first blu-ray is therefore a tribute to the "Great Baobab of cinema", whom everyone at home called Baïko, after his fetish character, for whom we have collected two incredible films. Cameroun Connection (1984) directed by Alphonse Béni Inspector Baïko investigates the murder of a young woman in Douala. He discovers she had a twin sister. His investigation takes him to France, where he befriends Bruce, owner of a martial arts school in Paris and a beer factory in Yaoundé, who offers to help him with his investigation. Alphonse Béni convinces Hong Kong actor Bruce Le (Bruce Strikes Back) to take part in this first African kung-fu film. He even invited French fashion designer Paco Rabanne to make a guest appearance. Invisible since its theatrical and VHS release, Cameroun Connection is a captivating time capsule, in direct contact with life in Douala in the 80's. But Cameroun Connection is also hilarious in spite of itself, with its totally nonsensical dialogue and Alphonse's skills at punching and kicking, which are relative to say the least, even though he puts his heart and soul into it. All the more so since he's joined by an authentic martial artist, Bruce Le, who doesn't hold back. A little gem not to be missed, in a beautiful 4K restoration that we entrusted to the expert care of our friends at Vinegar Syndrome. Black Ninja (1987) directed by Godfrey Ho Alvin is an Interpol agent based in Paris, tracking down a gang of drug dealers. But he's also a ninja. When his wife is killed by ninjas sent by the drug dealers, he vows to avenge her. He travels to Hong Kong and joins forces with Gordon, also an Interpol ninja, to take on the infamous Rudolph and his evil ninjas. Alphonse Béni, a fan of martial arts films, is delighted to play ninja in front of Godfrey Ho's camera. All the more so as he teams up with Richard Harrison, a bad movie stalwart if ever there was one (he's "Phillipp" from Hitman the Cobra), in this hilarious film shot in Hong Kong and supposedly set in France. Hence the bread sticks (used to hide drugs), Gitanes cigarettes and bottles of Perrier omnipresent on screen. Faithfull to "two films in one" trick, Godfrey Ho generously incorporates fight scenes from a Taiwanese movie. This "nanar" masterpiece, presented in a brand-new 4K master, will reveal unsuspected details, such as the tags in very broken French that dot the supposedly Parisian setting: "MARIE PUTAINE" or "LA BAGUETTE EST PLEIN DE SHIT". You should also know that to be able to claim citizenship at Nanarland, a perfect knowledge of Black Ninja is required. Black Ninja / Cameroon Connection release features: Films digitized in 4K from the original negatives French and Spanish versions for Cameroun Connection, with optionnal English subtitles French and English versions with optionnal French subtitles for Black Ninja Exclusive slipcover Reversible cover Blu-ray Zone All Extras: "Alphonse, Béni sois-tu": career interview with producer Jean Roke Patoudem (2023), by Régis Autran and Régis Brochier Meeting with Alphonse Béni in Yaoundé for the screening of Cameroun Connection (2022), 53 minutes High-definition reconstruction of the Black Ninja trailer Un enfant noir (1973) short film by Alphonse Béni, first time on video, 20 minutes Alphonse Béni trailers, digitized from negatives in high definition for this edition The Cameroun Connection / Black Ninja blu-ray will be available for the next Nuit Nanarland at the Grand Rex on September 30, 2023. You can pick up your blu-ray there if you're attending the Night, ot simply have it shipped to your home with tracking, wherever you are (we ship worldwide). Our second blu-ray, Kárate contra Mafia, will be available in February 2024. The screening of Kárate contra Mafia (1981) was a "moment de grace" at the Nanarland Night in 2016, leaving a lasting impression on all those present, and even enriching the Nights vocabulary ("le rouge! le bleu!"). Brought out of total oblivion by the team at Cinecutre.com, the Spanish equivalent of Nanarland, Kárate contra Mafia was before been completely unknown to the public, its distribution having barely extended beyond the Canary Islands, where it was filmed. But how couldnt you fall in love with this movie once you saw it? Ramón Saldías, then a biginner as a filmmaker, decided to make a kung-fu film, taking great pains to pass it off as a Hong Kong production, but without shooting a single shot outside Las Palmas, and with an almost exclusively Spanish cast! All to appeal to a local audience that was very fond of Chinese films. It's a hell of a business plan, one that unfurls its immense "nanardesque" potential in every shot of the film, with an outpouring of artifice of every kind: the island's only Chinese restaurant is used as a backdrop for half the film, cars are fitted with wooden number plates with "HK" written on them (but you still drive on the right-hand side of the road), Chinese ideograms are glued to the local hairdresser's, and above all, every Asian you can find is rounded up and shoved in front of the camera. And since there aren't enough of them, we put make-up on Spaniards and ask them to squint. Ramón goes so far as to have his credits translated into Chinese, sinicizing his name "Saldías" with the ideograms "Sah-Di-A". In the 1970s, the fashion was for "karate" films (in fact, most of them were kung-fu films). After seeing two or three films of the genre in a local cinema, Ramón Saldías had, by his own admission, a kind of nanarde epiphany. "I told myself that it wasn't very complicated, that I could make a karate film too. Because the Canaries had everything you needed: a harbor with the sea, an Asian community...". This incomprehensible determination to make us believe that not only does the whole plot take place in Hong Kong, but that the film itself is Chinese, creates a permanent and absolutely irresistible discrepancy. Kárate contra Mafia (1981) directed by Ramón Saldías Lai Chao, a young sailor and kung fu expert, finds himself unwillingly involved in diamond trafficking. Wanted by the police, pursued by the local godfather and his hooded henchmen, Lai Chao sets out to prove his innocence. The first 100% Spanish martial arts film, shot in just a few days on the Canary Islands with a non-professional cast and local technicians, but designed and conceived to be sold as a Chinese film! Release features: Film digitized and restored in 4K from the original negatives by Vinegar Syndrome Spanish version with optionnal French and English subtitles Exclusive slipcover Reversible jacket Blu-ray Zone All Extras Nanaroscope Kárate contra Mafia Karate contra Mafia at Grand Rex, in the presence of Ramón Saldías Original Kárate contra Mafia trailer digitized from the original negative, in Spanish with English and French subtitles Programs of vintage French trailers for martial arts films, digitized from the 35mm prints for this edition. Kárate contra Mafia is being released in association with our friends at Vinegar Syndrome, who are restoring and color-grading the film from the original 4K scanned negatives, miraculously found in a Spanish laboratory. The blu-ray will be delivered in February 2024. With our two new blu-rays, you'll also be able to satisfy your unquenchable thirst for good bad movies with Bernard Launois' priceless Devil Story (1985) on blu-ray, restored in 4K by Vinegar Syndrome, with the supplements produced by the Nanarland team when the film was first released on DVD, plus a career interview with Bernard Launois. Take advantage of our Early Birds offer with our two new blu-rays with Devil Story included, and free shipping (with two shipments, one in October and the other in February). You'll also find our Pulse Video editions with our collection dedicated to Italian post-nuke films, featuring four great apocalyptic nanars, brought together in a Nanarpocalypse pack. Endgame - Bronx Lotta Finale (1983) by Joe D'Amato "A sure thing". Nanarland 1990 Bronx Warriors (1982) by Enzo G. Castellari "A benchmark nanar. A cult film for a long time, it's only getting better with age: the faster and more aestheticized our cinema becomes, the more in-depth and accomplished our music becomes, and the higher its nanardise rate rises. This vision of the 90s is therefore a pure delight." Nanarland Escape From the Bronx (1982) by Enzo G Castellari "The unrepentant majority of nanardeurs will have no qualms about laughing loudly at this sure value." Nanarland The New Barbarians (1983) by Enzo G. Castellari "The New Barbarians" is a benchmark for all fans of 80's Italian post-nuke nanar. Nanarland We're also offering the first three films in our Le Vidéo-club de l'horreur collection, with three horror classics made in the 80s, restored in HD with bonus features and exclusive slipcovers: The Children (1980) Mausoleum (1983) Spookies (1986) If you don't already have it, this is the perfect opportunity to get your hands on volume 2 of the Nanarland book (volume 1 is out of print).