Your plans for Friday night…
At this point, it’s probably safe to assume that you have seen James Cameron’s 1984 movie The Terminator. It’s also probably safe to assume you’ve seen a couple of the sequels and maybe played an officially licensed pinball machine or two.
It seems less likely that you caught the 1989 Indonesian entry into the canon, Lady Terminator. The film adds a layer of mysticism to the franchise, and focuses less on technology as an enemy. The result is an extremely potent mix of action and fantasy. The South Seas Queen possesses an attractive anthropologist (Barbara Ann Constable, also the film’s makeup artist) in order to carry out a curse she put on a former lover. Armed with unimaginable strength and powers, she sets out to kill the great-granddaughter of the man she cursed so long ago. Erica is in a fight for her life, but not without the help of a ragtag team of cops with terrible hair to help her. The body count rises and the action doesn’t let up for a minute. The film contains a number of scenes directly copied from Cameron’s film (especially the attack on the police station), but that doesn’t mean they aren’t done well.
Co-presented with Junk Food Dinner.
Part of the series Rip-Off Cinema.
Director: H. Tjut Djalil. 82 min. 1989. 35mm.
$12
