“Pembalasan
ratu pantai selatan“
Dir.:
Jalil Jackson ( H. Tjut Djalil )
Indonesia.-
Drama / Fantástico /Acción.
82
Min.- Color.- Monoaural.
35
Mm.- 1:85 : 1
Música:
Ricky Brothers
Fotografía:
Chuchu Suteja
Guión:
Karr Kruinowz
F.X.
y Maquillaje: Barbara Anne Constable, Tetty Daldiri, David Albert, Michael
Hensley, Wawan Nuryadi, Gregory O´Neill.
Produce:
Raam Soraya, Mac Muller.
Prod.
Co.: 108 Sound Studio, Soraya Intercine Film PT.
Intérpretes:
Barbara Anne Constable (Tania), Christopher J. Hart ( Max), Claudia Angelique
Rademaker (Erica), Joseph P. McGlynn , Adam Stardust, Ikang Fawzi, Richar Epcar
(Superviviente / Radio Policia), Ben Gibson (Matón en el bar), Kerrigan Mahan (
Narrador / Gamberro en la playa / Matón en el bar), Dan Woren ( Antepasado /
Funerario )
“Lady
Terminator” es la exploitation indonesia del clásico de James Cameron. Según se
mire también podría considerarse una parodia involuntaria.
Los
responsables de este simpático engendro prescinden alegremente de todos los
elementos de ciencia ficción y serie “B” así como de cualquier rasgo de
inteligencia presentes en el original para crear una historia más cercana al sector menos exigente del público indonesio al que va dirigida. El resultado es una mezcla
de telefilm de acción, horror y leyendas orientales que quita el sentido.
Tania
es la Reina de los Mares del Sur. Vive en un castillo muy grande donde recibe a
sus amantes. “Nigun hombre consigue satisfacerme”… se queja cínicamente.
Normal, si en pleno coito pierden la vida.
Un
día (o noche) llega un apuesto y maduro galán que descubre el secreto que causa
la amputación de los miembros viriles de sus partenaires amorosos.
Ella
arde en cólera y echa una maldición que habrá de afectar a la bisnieta del
maromo. Hasta que llegue ese momento dentro de cien años decide meterse en el mar
para unir sus fuerzas con “El Maligno”.
Ya en nuestros días, en los ochenta para situarnos correctamente,
conocemos a Tania, una joven antropóloga con gafas grandes y camiseta estrecha para tal como es su generosa anatomía. Busca información para una tesis que está haciendo sobre
la leyenda de la legendaria Reina de los mares.
Desoye las advertencias de un
librero y del capitán del barco que la lleva hasta el lugar donde se supone que
está el castillo bajo las aguas. Se mete a bucear y tarda poco en lamentarlo.
Es poseída por una criatura diabólica como la que habitaba en la entrepierna de
la monarca original .
De
momento terminan los adornos propios de la fantasía indonesia y nos encontramos
con el remedo del “Terminator” (1984).
Tania emerge caminando desnuda en una
playa donde se encuentra con unos quinquis borrachos y salidorros. Queda
patente que se ha encarnado en ella la ninfómana arrancapenes.
Da
buena cuenta de los pobres rufianes y ataviada con la chupa de cuero de uno de
ellos se dirige a un hotel o algo parecido donde se pone a meditar y descubre
en una tele a la cantante Erika que puede ser la mujer sobre la que tiene que
ejecutar su venganza.
Max
es un americano en el cargo de Jefe de Policía de Yakarta. Su departamento
investiga el caso de los tres hombres muertos con el pene arrancado. Un
compañero le convence para ir al acabar la jornada a tomar una copa al disco
pub y presenciar la actuación en directo de Erika.
Mientras,
Tania ya la está liando parda a tiro limpio con todo lo que se le cruza de camino a la sala hacia donde también ella se dirige.
Allí
se encuentra con Erica y con Max.
Si
el ritmo del film a ratos venía siendo un poco cansino a partir de este momento
explota en un frenesí de violencia y locura típico en este tipo de producciones
psicotrónicas realizadas en Asia.
Con
efectos especiales de barracón de feria, chispas, rayos y litros de sangre, la
endemoniada va sembrando la ciudad de cadáveres.
Es
inmatable como Lobezno, se levanta después de recibir golpes y disparos.
Resulta
muy gracioso como a ratos camina y se mueve como un robot y al momento corre,
rompe cristales a patadas, pisotea huevos o salta con agilidad felina.
Gracias
a su poderosa interpretación y a su belleza este film encumbró para siempre a
Barbara Anne Constable a la categoría de actriz de culto. No la imaginaría yo
recitando textos de Tennessee Williams pero el despliegue físico y lo
atrevidísimo de su actuación en “Lady Terminator” no se ha visto superado
todavía.
Además como dato curioso es también la especialista encargada del maquillaje en la película.
Aspectos
destacables de "Lady Terminator":
Las
apabullantes imágenes del mar que se nos muestran al principio. Un espectáculo
fascinante.
La
belleza nocturna de Yakarta.
El
personaje del abuelo de Erika que se enfrenta con la diabla. Un tipo muy carismático.
El
apesadumbrado guaperas Max y sus amigotes policías, a cual más hortera y
macarra.
El
empleado del hotel que se las promete muy felices y no sabe que le espera un
coitus interruptus fatal.
El
despliegue de artillería final y los cochazos que se destrozan a lo largo del
metraje, la mayoría modelos antiguos de Toyota.
Una curiosa imagen de un
helicóptero ardiendo en el aire (¿?).
En
el film de Cameron, el Terminator que interpreta Schwarzie resurge de una
explosión como el robot que realmente es en una imagen estremecedora y mítica.
En “Lady Terminator” ella no es un robot pero también emerge algo cambiada de
un infierno llameante con su poder destructivo y sadismo multiplicado.
Si
exceptuamos el prólogo, toda la acción del film transcurre en 24 horas.
Buenos
momentos gore aunque sin excesos.
Sugestiva
banda sonora de sintetizadores y un pegadizo tema comercial de pop rock.
Los
diálogos inevitablemente humorísticos:
-Está
usted chiflada señora, no voy a llevarla allí.
-¿Quiere
dejar de llamarme señora? ¡Soy antropóloga!
O:
-¿Qué
hay para comer?
-
Perritos calientes
-¿Otra vez perritos calientes? ¡Estoy harto de perritos calientes!
-Escucha, Jack y yo hemos visto más cadáveres que tu perritos calientes.
Como
curiosidad mencionar que el Gobierno Indonesio cedió a las presiones de las
compañías extranjeras para que “Lady Terminator” fuera retirada de los cines
porque el éxito que consiguió estaba restando público a los films
Norteamericanos. Se proyecto durante sólo nueve días siendo vista por más de cien mil personas.
“Lady Terminator” es diversión casposa para
toda la familia.
Calidad
cinematográfica: 6
Psicotronia: 9
Gore: 7
Notas:
- Otra
película con mujer destructiva es “Terminator Woman” (1991), una especie de cóctel de “Robocop” (1987) y
“Terminator” (1984).
- Barbara
Anne Constable tardó veinte años en conceder su primera entrevista acerca de
“Lady Terminator”. En Australia, donde empezó su carrera como modelo, bailarina
y actriz a salto de mata con Hong Kong. Cuatro años antes de rodar el papel de
su vida fue chica del mes en la edición de Penthouse del país de los canguros.
The
Indonesian exploitation classic Lady Terminator (AKA Nasty Hunter) may be the
first cult film that began its underground success based on the allure of a
single image. A beautiful woman with 80’s style big hair and tight new wave
leather pants and jacket unloads an AK-47.
The iconography of this female villain is the strongest since Faster,
Pussycat Kill! Kill!‘s Tura Satana. Once you see her image on the cover of the
VHS or DVD, you don’t want to see the film, you need to see it.
That
was the experience I had when I first watched, and instantly loved, Lady
Terminator, one of the most wildly inept, but deliriously entertaining
low-budget foreign films ever made. I
knew I had to introduce it to cult movie lovers in Chicago when I hosted a
Facets Night School lecture based on this movie and the Indonesian exploitation
film industry. (You can see that lecture here).
Despite
the research for the lecture, the one question I could not answer was: who was
this actress playing the Arnie rip-off, ventilating dozens of people and
one-upping the Austrian muscleman with her explicit sex scenes?
The
film’s star, Barbara Anne Constable, had remained a mysterious cult movie
figure since the film’s appearance on Indonesian screens in 1989. In the twenty years since, Lady Terminator
has delighted audiences internationally in Australia, in the United States and
has just finished screening at the Toronto Underground Film Festival! Constable has been the inspiration for
everything from movie poster art and flammable alcoholic drinks to female
wrestlers (in cranberry sauce!).
The
Great Lady, for the first time ever, graciously granted me an interview
regarding her work and experiences in making this grindhouse classic.
DTO: Could you give a little bit about your
background and how you got involved in acting?
BAC: I started out as professional commercial
dancer/choreographer, and as such I did quite a lot of television commercials
in Australia and Hong Kong. So I suppose
I was used to being in front of the camera and on stage. The professional dancing also lead me into
modeling, and when I got the role of Lady Terminator, I was in Hong Kong at the
time on a twelve month modeling contract with Irene’s Models, and Models
International (both leading agencies in Hong Kong). I was casting for jobs often many times a
day, and I was asked whether I was interested in casting for a film that was to
be shot in Indonesia. The agent did
mention that there was some nudity (nothing graphic), and that I would have to
learn how to use firearms for the film, and that there would be some fight
scenes – and I thought ‘why not – sounds like an adventure’. A few months before this I had played the
role of a dancer for a Chinese film that was shot in Shanghai.
DTO: Could you tell me what that film was and what
your experience was making that movie?
BAC: To be honest, I cannot remember now as it was
a Chinese name, and I couldn’t understand a bloody word most people were
saying. I did a lot of scenes as a dancer.
I stayed in Shanghai in a hotel for the time I was there, which I recall
was for about a week. Back then, there
were a hell of a lot of bikes on the roads, and trams. I had an English interpreter who was a
university student, and she begged me to somehow sponsor her to come to Hong
Kong. It was an interesting experience,
but I must say, I really didn’t enjoy China that much. It felt extremely suppressive, and I was very
glad to get out of there. When I first
arrived at the airport, all the security were armed with machine guns…not a
very hospitable welcome. When I arrived
back in Hong Kong, within days, Tiananmen Square happened. I remember that well, as my parents
frantically called from Australia to see if I was safe.
I
was surprised I got the lead role in Lady Terminator – but I did realize that
the film was going to be a B Grade Asian film…otherwise they would have
acquired a ‘serious Caucasian actress’ from overseas for the lead. I have never really been a ‘serious actress’
– I have done some short courses in acting in Australia…but the whole ‘method
acting thing’ I found to be quite bizarre when I was younger. The whole getting into character and staying
in character thing for serious roles was kind of weird to me. And, I have worked with some quite high
profile actors on other jobs, and to be honest I found them all to be really
self absorbed people. Its like ‘that
need’ to always be in the public spotlight is really a character flaw that a
lot of serious actors and actresses share – like some sort of personality
disorder. When I was younger I felt ,
‘Why on earth would you want to spend the better part of your time pretending
to be somebody else. Obviously, a lot of
actors don’t really like who they are.’
These days I don’t feel so harshly, but I do think that actors are a
breed all of their own – and that the high profile ones are way overpaid for
what they do!
DTO:
Had you seen The Terminator before making this film?
BAC: Yes, of course I had seen Arnie in The
Terminator before making The Lady Terminator.
DTO:
The original Terminator was a cyborg, but in this film, she’s human–Tanya, a
young
anthropology student looking to finish her thesis. Do you know if this
change was due in part to adding the sex appeal to the movie?
BAC: I don’t know for sure, but I assume that is
why they made this change, yes.
DTO:
How did you feel about appearing nude and being in provocative scenes, such as
the bondage and penetration by the spirit of the South Sea Queen?
BAC: The nudity didn’t phase me at all. Being a professional dancer at the time, I
was very comfortable with my body in general, and as a woman I have always been
very comfortable with my sexuality. I
appeared in Australian Penthouse as ‘November Pet of the Month’ when I was 19 –
four years before I made Lady Terminator.
I was in great shape physically at the time, so the nudity wasn’t a
problem at all.
However,
the bondage scene where the snake goes up my vagina, I wasn’t happy about at
all. To be honest, I was mortified when
I first saw it. That bondage scene was
one they required me to do in my bikini – it didn’t make sense to me, but the
film was weird as hell anyway, so I didn’t think much of it. Also there wasn’t a damn lot of continuity in
the film anyway. I only saw that scene
as it is in the movie, about two years after I made the film when Ram Soyara
Films sent me a copy of the movie on VHS Beta. The Director never told me that
they were going to put that in later as an effect – so I was pretty annoyed
about it actually.
DTO:
Had you known about the legend of the South Sea Queen before filming LT?
BAC: No, I had never heard about the Legend, and
to be honest, I just thought it was a weird bloody script. I didn’t realize – in fact, no one actually
explained to me that it actually was a ‘myth’.
DTO:
How was working with H. Tjut Djalil and the other actors? Did you get to dub
your own voice onto the film? Did you perform some of your own stunts?
BAC: H. Tjut Djalil was a very gentle and patient
old gentleman. I found it quite
hilarious that he also played the role of the old Shaman type guy. And no I didn’t get to dub my own voice. That was another inclusion I had no idea
about. Apparently they had the movie
over-dubbed in L.A. In regard to my
stunts, yes I did do most of them, and some of them caused me a few serious
injuries.
DTO:
What injuries did you incur and how did they affect the film shoot?
BAC: The first injury I sustained were burns from
the squibs (small explosives) they put inside my leather jacket for the
shooting scenes were I was shot. I
sustained a number of burns that were very sore, and they were treated, but it
did not affect shooting. I continued on
with the shooting schedule.
The
worst injury I endured was on the final day of shooting for the final
scene. I was dressed in my leathers, and
armed with the AK47, and I had to run up to some glass doors and kick through
them. I had done a number of scenes as such in earlier weeks, and all was
good. Unfortunately, the special effects
department didn’t do their job correctly, or there was some sort of miscommunication
with the director, because when I kicked the glass door, it shattered, and it
was real glass, and as I pulled my leg out of the door, I got stabbed in the
back of my right leg by a huge shaft of glass. They rushed me to a military
hospital where my leg was sewn up. There
were a lot of internal as well as external stitches. I was very lucky because the glass went right
through my leg and came out the other side, narrowly missing my achilles
tendon. I couldn’t walk for a couple of
weeks at least. It was about month before I was able to shoot the final scene
again.
Apart
from that, I was walking along in relative darkness one evening on a break from
some car chasing scenes, on my way to a crew tent to grab a cup of coffee, and
I suddenly fell – like the earth just gave out from under me. My intuitive response was to put my elbows
out to the side of me as I fell, and this broke my fall. Crew members ran with a torch light to where
I was, and as they shone the torch, you could see that my legs were hanging in
a very deep well that we could not see the bottom of. I was very lucky that night. If I had have fallen down that hole…there
definitely would not have been a Lady T film…at least not with me in it anyway.
DTO: Did you get to know any of the other
actors/actresses in the film? How was
working with them?
BAC: I did get to know the main characters. The
guys were all really good guys and very funny.
I got on very well with Christopher Hart (Max), who was an expat working
in Jakarta. But I got on best with some
members of the Indonesian Camera Crew…my best buddy was Max Uleus…I still miss
him – he was a wonderful friend to me when I was there.
DTO:
Watching LT, one can see how you had to be in great shape for many of the chase
scenes, handling the M-16 well and convincingly attracting men to their doom.
You certainly fit the bill. How did you keep in shape during production?
BAC: Well I was already in good shape before the
movie, and we filmed probably 16 hours a day, and I was doing a lot of running
and jumping, and fight scenes, so I didn’t have to do any other exercise while
I was there to keep in shape. The
exercise I got doing the movie was enough.
DTO: Had you ever handled firearms before this
movie? Your choreography, especially in the police station, is pretty masterful.
BAC: No I had never handled firearms before
this. The stunt crew gave me a crash
course before we started filming. The
choreography for the fight scenes was also prepared by the stunt crew, and I
had to learn it. Because of my
dancer/choreographer background, I found that quite simple.
DTO:
You mentioned in the first email to Facets Multimedia that you would not have
made the film if you knew it would be exported outside Indonesia. Could you
comment on why you feel this way?
BAC: I was told that the film was for the local
Indonesian market. The whole script was
very weird when I read it, and to boot, it was a rip-off of Terminator, which
was a massive American film that had great acclaim. I felt there was no harm in doing such a film
for the local Indonesian market if it gave the people there some thrills, but
come on! – Its not like it exposes me in the best light. If I was going to do a film for the
international market, I would have only done it willingly if it was a credible
script, and had some decent actors and actresses in it. I understand Lady T. has become a cult film
in the US and UK and other European countries – but I think this has happened
due to the sheer insanity of the film – and therefore its comedic/entertainment
value.
DTO:
Cult films previously discarded as “worthless,” such as Troll 2 and The Room
have since gained enormous popularity among cult movie fans who discovered the
exhilarating entertainment value of what’s been put on the screen, reigniting
fame for those involved in those movies. If Lady Terminator reaches that level
of underground success, do you think starring in it would have been worth it?
Would it rekindle an interest in appearing in new movies?
BAC: Well I have never been into celebrity for
celebrity’s sake to be honest. So, the
answer would be only if that level of interest in the film somehow equaled a
good income for me and my two children.
I don’t know about appearing in new movies – I mean its twenty years
later…I suppose it would depend on what was offered. If I had a choice on appearing in something –
it would probably be Reality TV in some way.
I am a mad fan of American Idol because of the talent and watching the
inspiring journeys of the contestants – so my dream would to be a Judge on
American Idol. Now that would be one
awesome gig!
DTO: Have you ever been interviewed before about
your role in Lady Terminator?
BAC: No Lew – you broke my interview virginity!
Whoa!
My many thanks to the wonderful Barbara Anne Constable for this interview.
She’s on Facebook, so go over and befriend her. Let her know you’re a fan.
Speaking of Facebook, you can also go there and join the Lady Terminator
Appreciation Society to spread the word on this great film!
- Agradecimientos a Mondo Macabro por la valiosa información que comparten con los aficionados.
