I'm so used to low budget Hong Kong movies from the 70's being chopsocky martial arts flicks, that I was very surprised with how Breakout From Oppression panned out. As opposed to being an action film, this one is in fact quite clearly a horror-thriller. The story centres on a girl who is released from prison after serving time for a serious crime. On release, she is given a job at a newspaper. She starts a relationship with her new boss which leads to jealousies from a couple of her female colleagues, one of which turns out to be more than a little bit psychopathic.While I would never claim this film was especially good – it's really no more than mediocre – it did make for a very welcome change to see a non-martial arts Hong Kong flick from this era. The story is quite functional but there are moments of interest sprinkled along the way such as a crazed woman with a knife, a man imprisoned in the basement of a house, another man beaten to death by a wrench, a spring roll laced with broken glass being fed to a child, a bar of soap replete with razor blades and that old staple – the push bike with no brakes! The complex events eventually come together and climax in a demented finale on a beach, which includes a cat fight and a beheading. So, there is certainly a reasonable amount going on in this one, so even though it isn't executed especially well, it does benefit from going down a psychological route as opposed to another Hong Kong flick about people kicking and punching each other.

Production designer: Godfrey Ho. Script: Benny Ho (also Godfrey, I'm led to believe). Tangerine Dream on the soundtrack. This is surely a Godfrey Ho film, right? I've got to admit, it is rather cohesive if it is him.There's no ninjas here. This is a dark thriller about a girl who gets out of jail after eight years (for murdering someone), and finds herself a job at a newspaper. It becomes immediately clear that something isn't right, however. Someone puts razor blades in her soap, for instance, which leads to flashbacks to the abuse she endured in prison. She makes cakes for a bake off but glass ends up in the mix, leading to a kid spewing up blood! But who is responsible for this? Is it the assistant editor of the newspaper? The photographer? Someone from her prison life? And where is the editor of the newspaper, who offered her the job in the first place? I'm not saying, but you should check it out, as the film has hanged monkeys, maggot ridden corpses, stabbing and a beheading as all part of the fun. Tangerine Dream's Phaedra plays heavily through the last half of the film and it works really well. I'm sure Edgar got paid for this, right? This is a dark, dark film, and well worth a watch, I'd say.

Godfrey Ho and Joseph Lai didn't just make cut-and-paste ninja movies, they also made a number of movies with one clear story from beginning to end. This movie is kind of a strange one - it's never made clear where the events of the movie are taking place, for one thing (my guess is Taiwan.) There is also lousy dubbing as well as some goofy situations that make for some occasional unintended laughs. But for the most part, the movie is kind of dull and seems to be repeating itself more or less over and over until the action-packed climax (which has some similarities to the climax to the American movie "Friday the 13th"). If the rest of the movie had had the energy of the climax, we might have had something here. But as it is, the movie is only really for die hard fans of Asian movies who happen to be in a silly and forgiving mood. One last thing: While the IMDb currently claims this movie was made in 1978, the movie's copyright listing in the opening credits is actually for the year 1985.

I found this title on a 50-pack of 'Drive -In' thrillers distributed by Mill Creek Entertainment. At first, I was disappointed because it seemed to be bad quality right from the start. The dubbing IS pretty bad and the lines & scenes happen so quickly, you're not sure what is happening, they just go from one thing to another, and you're supposed to be following the plot line, as fast as it goes! But the plot starts to become more obvious and you realize that the female lead, who just got out of prison, was given a job working for a newspaper. There is animosity from 2 other female co-workers, one who feels she got her job because of her looks and the other, who is jealous that the boss is asking the new girl out instead of her! So, there are some catty moments, but they scream so quickly in the English dubbing, it really takes concentration to hear all their lines - which usually end with a 'Hummpph!' in that cute 'Asian way' that we've come to expect from Chinese/Korean/Japanese ladies in many films. The boss is enamored with the new gal/ex-con, while the jilted employee seethes and plots some sort of destruction on one - or both of them! You will have to watch it to find out! But really, it's not a bad plot and the soundtrack is quirky, in a 70's kind of way. The direction isn't as bad as I thought at first, in fact it's typical of some of the newer Korean directors currently out there, with some dramatic imagery & effects. All in all, I thought it'd be crap but it turned into a neat little story worth finding, if you can! I doubt it's on DVD solo, I have mine on the 50-Drive-In set I bought off ebay for $18.99! I give it a 5 out of 10 ***** As in, average!