Ninja in the Killing Fields Uncovered!

Some years ago it seemed ALMOST impossible to search accurately about asian weird movies. Pete Tombs, Tomas Weisser & other authors offered us very nice works about obscure, rare, weird & lost movies around the world. Most titles refered on their books were very hard to find outside their origin places & we had to dream about them. Then thanks to internet, online shops around the world & collectors searching duties are much easier if one puts his heart on what he likes. So around a year ago, I started to "visit" some thai online shops looking for the thai movies Joseph Lai & Tomas used at IFD & Filmark and I was lucky enough to find some tips & clues that let me get some source movies like this one that was the main body for Filmark's Ninja in the Killing Fields.

Ninja in the killing fields was supposed to be directed by York Lam, but this guy just directed about 15 minutes of new scenes starring Stuart Onslow Smith as the hero & the late Louis Roth as the villain. Ex-Venom sun Chien also has a role in this movie as he had in 99% of Filmark cut & paste movies.

Ninja in the Killing fields was created using a Thai movie titled MUE PUEN 3 AI MUE DUM (มือปืน 3 ไอ้มือดำ) starred by Thai superstar Sorapong Chatri & other regular actors of Sorapong's movies seen in many Filmark & IFD movies.

This movie is avaliable at www.ethaicd.com, maybe one of the very best onlineshops in Southeast Asia ( I am not sponsored or whatever, I just say what I think) with a very nice people working in & a wonderful staff / customer service who also helps you to find titles that are not in their website.

Ninja in the killing fields may not be one of Filmark's best titles but it is still worth to see since the original thai movie also includes a ninja plot similar to the one seen in Chen Kuan Tai's A LIFE NINJA that was also world distributed by Filmark outside Taiwan & Hong Kong.

The Golden Ninja Warrior has been uncovered!

During the last summer, Teddy Wong, an editor from HKMD & I started a kind of mutual colaboration to add the IFD movies to HKMD database and the same time we work to uncover more taiwanese, filipino, korean & hong kong movies that were used as source movies by IFD directors. We did a good job & many titles from those countries has been identifed, but the KING of those titles is indeed the original taiwanese cut of GOLDEN NINJA WARRIOR.

Opening title of one of the most popular IFD ninja movies

Spanish video design for Golden Ninja Warrior. It is very curious it is signed by IFD's art director Eagle Leung so it is very possible this is the original artwork.

During many years, it has been believed Golden Ninja Warrior was directed by Joseph Lai in Tiawan. It was also believed this film was the only non-cut& paste ninja movie from IFD. Both info was wrong because Golden Ninja Warrior is just another Taiwan black movie bought by Joseph Lai who pasted the ending battle of Ninja Terminator in the opening & offered it as another Golden Ninja movie. You may remember the Golden ninja warrior stattuette is never seen in the original source movie, they just mention it but we only see the Golden Ninja Warrior at the begining taken from Ninja Terminator.

Taiwanese VHS tape that contains the original cut of Golden Ninja Warrior

Teddy Wong was able to find the original movie video cover & together we identifed some of the original cast. You may see the entry at HKMD. I just hope someone owns a copy of this title on its original cut. Any information about it & how to get this movie on its original cut would be highly appreciated.

Shooting around Kowlong Tong: Ruthland Quadrant ( part 8- finale)

After 7 previous entries dedicated to the filming locations used by IFD & Filmark around Kowlong Tong, I think ( I hope) this is the last entry. I must tell I still can't really understand why IFD / Filmark crew used to shoot in the heart of Kowloong downtown. Reasons may be different from the quiet enviroment around or the proximity of some of the natural parks in Lion rock or Kam Sham. IFD & Filmark crews used to shoot without permissions so it is difficult for me to understand they dared to do it in Kowloon Tong.

Not too long ago, I re-watched War City: Die to Win, another bizarre title for the first issue from IFD War City saga. This saga offered us the adventures / crimes / fights of different crime lords all played by Mike Abbott & the same hero played by Brent Gilbert.

If you haven't been in Hong Kong you may think it is a huge place but when you are there you will find yourself as if you were in a movie plateau. Many corners will bring to your mind dozens of movies, you can easily recognice many streets, places, buildings from many different kinds of genres shot in the ex-colony.
Then if you are a die hard IFD / Filmark fan, Kowloon Tong is like a paradise; just remember Bruce Lee's former house is in Cumberland Road but you also must remember O Mas Hotel from IFD movies is just in the same street.

Check both pics, the above one belongs to War City: Die to Win, we can see a pale pink colour wall & some traffic signals poles. In the pic below, we can see the wall has been painted in white but the pink colour is still around the street nameplate & the blue direction signal is also still there. War City:Die To win was shoot in 1988 & the other pic is from 2010.

Joseph Lai, Tomas Tang & Godfrey Ho exclusive stars of China Fanzine (part 3)

After more than a week solving problems, here I am again with the last entry dedicated to China Fanzine, a Spanish fanzine edited in 1995 that already offered true information about IFD & Filmark productions. Well, it also included some mistakes & wrong data that were used by GaraiJan as true.

Here you have the pages dedicated to Godfrey Ho & the filmographies of Joseph Lai & Tomas Tang

Then this first study about IFD / FILMARK and their most important people, China Fanzine offered a partial Filmography of all of them.

Joseph Lai's Filmography

Tomas Tang Filmography

Godfrey Ho Filmography

THANKS TO DOMINGO LOPEZ for offering us this Fanzine when the information about IFD was into darkness & THANKS TO ZENI for his kindness when he scaned it for us!

Joseph Lai, Tomas Tang & Godfrey Ho exclusive stars of China Fanzine (part 2)

Domingo López, was indeed a pioneer in Spain in the 90's when he put in the market his China Fanzine first & his book MADE IN CHINA later. Till that date, there wasn't too many books about asian pop cinema. At the time,we could access to some poor articles about asian cinema in some martial arts magazines, but those articles cared only about martial arts movies & big stars from Hong Kong. There isn't anything about IFD, Filmark or independent production companies till Domingo López dared to write about it.

Here, more than 15 years later, I am glad to offer to my honorable friends & visitors those pages from China Fanine that offered the very first short but correct information about Joseph Lai, Tomas Tang & Godfrey Ho.

China Fanzine included a 3 pages article about Joseph Lai's movies that studied IFD series, the music used on them, the actors and more technical details that made those movies different from the others came from Hong Kong

MORE TO COME SOON!

Joseph Lai, Tomas Tang & Godfrey Ho exclusive stars of China Fanzine (part 1)

Internet plays miracles. Fifteen years ago we couldn't imagine internet would allow us to access to all kind of information sources or even meet movie stars, producers, directors through social networks. Fifteen years ago, I used to dream how wonderful it would be if I could talk to the stars of the movies I like. Now that dream is a reality but the information sources of that years ( maybe I should say "ages") are still very valuable & help us to understand better what we know now.

Spain, 1995. Video rental shops were flooded with IFD, Filmark and other independent video companies productions. Dozens of ninja flicks shared the shelves with Filipino actioners, Italian comedies, and all kind of explotation tapes from all around the world. But, there isn't too much information about those tapes, there isn't a clue about the people who made those movies...until China Fanzine arrived.

Domingo López, an avid follower of explotation movies since he was just a small brat brought light to people like me who usually rent those movies & were curious about their origin. China Fanzine was the first fanzine that dedicated a special issue to Joseph Lai, Tomas Tang & their production companies. The fanzine was lost until ZENI a friend & follower of this blog and user of ZHK website and of course, another avid fan of exploit movies told me he still owned a copy of that issue that I can now share with all of you.

Zeni gave his permission & he allows me to publish here the scan pics of China Fanzine. I suppose, Domingo López, the author will not find any offense sharing his work here. THANKS A LOT to Zeni for his kindness & THANKS A LOT to Domingo López for his early work on IFD & Filmark movies.

This first entry includes China Fanzine Issue 2 cover, an opinion columm & the pages dedicated to Tomas Tang & Filmark International.

A classic, lost and now recovered gem from the spanish fanzines. A bible about asian exploitation cinema

When internet was not a part of our lives & information was in very few hands, Domingo López knew more about IFD & Filmark than many HK cinema authors.

Tomas Tang's history was compiled in 3 pages full of humour, real data. The most completed article written in Spanish before the internet age.

MORE TO COME SOON!!

La trilogia Robovampire pon Ton

Hace ya un par de semanas que no he podido actualizar el blog debido a diversos problemillas familiares y económicos que poco a poco durante los últimos dias se han ido solventando gracias a Dios. Y aunque tengo algunos posts preparados para seguir con esta "aventura" de contar las cosillas que rodearon las circunstancias de la IFD y la Filmark no estoy todavia con ganas suficientes para terminar de perfilar esos posts, así que hoy tiro de estudios y entradas ajenas como esta de mi buen amigo TON que ha publicado hace unos dias en su blog.

http://toninchina.blogspot.com/2011/10/la-trilogia-de-robovamp.html#comments

Vamos allá con Ton y su visión de la Trilogia / Cuatrilogia de Robovampire.

Tomas Tang es conocido por sus películas de insertos y su obra magna es lo que muchos han dado en llamar LA TRILOGÍA DE ROBOVAMP aunque para mi seria un tetralogía ya que incluyo a NINJA VAMPIRE RAIDERS aunque en este film no salga el mismísimo Robovamp.

EL DIABLO DE LA DINAMITA. Film de insertos donde a la película taiwanesa LA CIUDAD DE LA VENGANZA Tang le añade insertos a base de escenas nuevas con un tipo que se convierte en el "guerrero futurista" (un tipo vestido de papel albal y con casco de moto), vampiros chinos (que dan saltitos con las manos hacia delante, hacen Kung Fu y los ajos no les afectan) controlados por un ganster occidental con barba que tiene una raíz de Ginseng con poderes, ninjas que se vuelven vampiros, un niño-fantasma ligándose a una niña gordita y un tipo al que le saltan un ojo en primer plano, las escenas nuevas y las viejas son unidas por un guión de puro manicomio y secuencias donde los personajes de ambos metrajes hablan por teléfono. Por si fuera poco las escenas de Kung Fu son muy buenas, sin nada que envidiarle a cualquier película de Kung Fu de la época. Además fue reeditada en DVD en nuestro país hace algunos años., con lo cual es un titulo ideal para iniciarse en este cine tan casposo.



CONTRAESPIONAJE EN LA SELVA. Nueva película de corta y pega que llega a niveles insospechados dentro del cine más zetoso. Dos rubias (bastante feas) van a escribir un guión cinematográfico en un caserón perdido, una compañía rival para evitarlo manda a vampiros y mafiosos a robárselo (¡cómo esta la industria cinematográfica en Hong Kong!). Así que Tang tiene la excusa perfecta para meter a un vampiro que imita a Freddy Kruger, un tipo que primero se transforma en un ninja blanco y más tarde en el hermano torpe del "guerrero futurista", un monje taoísta que hace el payaso junto a sus vampiros en interludios cómicos que no tienen ni puta gracia, un fantasma que sale (de forma bastante gráfica) por cesárea espontánea de una mujer embarazada por un cuadro endemoniado y esta vez el kung fu es bastante pobre aunque entre tanto despropósito tampoco importa. Las escenas viejas son sacadas esta vez de una película tailandesa de muy bajo presupuesto.



ROBOVAMP. Tomas Tang esta vez coge una película de guerras selváticas con Saropong Chatri (una especie de Harry el Sucio made in Tailandia) y le añade nuevas secuencias rodadas con sus secuaces habituales (Donald Kong Do a la cabeza) y un montón de occidentales con muy pocos conocimientos sobre interpretación y a los que Tang incluye en los títulos de crédito bajo pseudonimos absurdos. Así comienza el delirio con unos gansters que usan vampiros chinos para el tráfico de droga (pero en que demonios pensaba Tang cuando escribía estos guiones) mientras que son perseguidos por la Interpol (vestidos de militares). En una lucha matan a un soldado que tras una absurda operación (donde usan hasta un taladro) se convierte en el primo pobre de Robocop. También tenemos una fantasma china que no es china, un supervampiro, toques gore, música robada de La Armadura de Dios entre otras y mucha, pero que mucha diversión.



NINJA VAMPIRE RAIDERS. Una pareja de ninjas occidentales que vuelan, visten trajes de colorines variados y lanzan bombas de colores, se enfrentan a otra banda de ninjas, por haber traicionado el código de las artes marciales (y lo repito literalmente), con idénticos poderes y que además utilizan los consabidos vampiros chinos. Mientras unas chinitas (el metraje reutilizado esta vez de origen Hongkones) y un gordo (el compañero de Jackie Chan en sus primeras películas) protagonizan numeritos cómicos y pseudoterrorificos huyendo de una extraña maldición. Grandes coreografías marciales, música que parece sacada de una peli porno de los 70´s, efectos especiales de saldo, un cerdo usado como arma arrojadiza, actores amateurs gesticulando a 100 revoluciones por minuto y muchas tonterías. Una digna sucesora de la trilogía de Robovamp.


Eso si, ya que en esta ocasión ( una vez más) he tirado de trabajo ajeno, entono un "mea culpa" añadiendo los titulos originales tailandeses y taiwaneses que Tomas Tang usó para estas pelis:

-El diablo de la dinamita fue un remontaje de La ciudad de la venganza ( The Giant of casino) dirigida en 1981 por Chan Jun Leung.


-Contraespionaje en la selva nace a partir de un remontaje del film tailandés Nak Kha Khon Taa Ngon (1982), dirigida por Phairoj Jaising

-Robovampire se hizo a partir de una película tailandesa titulada Paa Lohgan (1984), y dirigida por Vinit Pakdeevijitr.

-Vampire raiders ninja queen ( Guerrero ninja americano). En esta ocasión Tomas Tang tiró de una produccion 100% de Hong Kong titulada MIXED UP, una comedia vampírica protagonizada por la idol Agnes Chan, Deborah ( la madre de Nicholas Tse) y otras caras del cine de acción de Hong Kong.