The Aficine Augusta cinema in Palma will host the CUTRECON On Tour: Palma de Mallorca event on 16th November starting at 18:00. This “wild and festive” marathon will showcase three of the ‘worst films in the world’, according to the organisers, who are also responsible for the international CUTRECON festival.
After thirteen years of filling the most iconic cinemas in Madrid, the CUTRECON experience comes to Palma for the first time, promising “laughter and bewilderment” with films that are “so bad, they’re good,” in the words of the organisers. The audience will enjoy “three shameless rip-offs” of iconic franchises, including an unofficial Korean adaptation of Dragon Ball, an Indonesian imitation of Terminator, and a Turkish version of Star Wars. All films will be presented in original versions with Spanish subtitles.
A Korean Son Goku
The marathon will kick off at 18:00 with Dragon Ball Zero (1990), the first film adaptation of the famous Japanese manga. The movie is filled with “stuffed animals, geeks in costumes, and poorly concealed wires, in a bacchanalia of blunders produced in South Korea and shown in cinemas,” explains Carlos Palencia, director of CUTRECON. This “hilarious, ultra-low-budget film” closely follows the first episodes of Dragon Ball, albeit with some “uproarious liberties,” adds Palencia, noting that “the character designs are laughable, with cast members resembling a carnival of giant heads.” To add further intrigue, the child playing Son Goku is actor Heo Sung-tae, who would later become famous worldwide as the villain in Netflix’s Squid Game.
The ‘other’ Terminator
At 20:00, the screen will feature Lady Terminator (1989), a unique Indonesian production that shamelessly plagiarises James Cameron’s Terminator (1984), but with a twist: rather than Arnold Schwarzenegger, an unscrupulous woman takes the lead. “She won’t hesitate to kill or have sex indiscriminately with any living being in a crusade of excess, packed with brutal violence, wild special effects, an ’80s synthesiser soundtrack, and scenes blatantly copied from the original film,” Palencia describes.
Star Wars, Turkish style
To conclude the marathon, Dunyayi Kurtaran Adam (1982) will be screened at 22:00. Known popularly as “the Turkish Star Wars,” this film will be shown in a high-definition 2K restoration. The organisers describe it as a “gem of trash cinema,” inspired, like so many other titles, by the success of Star Wars (1977). It tells the story of two pilots stranded on a remote desert planet, who ultimately help its inhabitants overthrow an evil tyrant using trampolines, cardboard swords, cheap costumes, and a total lack of shame.
The uniqueness of Dunyayi Kurtaran Adam lies not only in its (poor) imitation of elements that made Star Wars famous, such as spaceships, robots, warriors with powers, or sinister emperors, but also in taking cinematic audacity to a new level. Due to the loss of some sets, the crew decided to “borrow” a print of George Lucas’s film by sneaking into a cinema at night, cutting out the scenes they needed from the celluloid, inserting them into their new film, and then returning the mutilated print without anyone knowing.
CUTRECON On Tour: Palma de Mallorca is organised by the team behind the international CUTRECON festival, the Trash-O-Rama distributor, the creators of the film Jostissi de Carreró, the Nit de Matanzes film showcase, and the authors of the book Palma Grindhouse. Tickets are available at the Aficine Augusta box office and on the official Aficine website.
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