Taiwan Black Movies at IFD & Filmark (part 17): Raging Queen

Yet, another entry dedicated to the taiwanese gangster movies released by IFD & Filmark before 2012 ended. I think the blog is becoming a bit boring lately because I have just been focusing it on a single subject, the taiwanese black movies, for the last months. But in the other hand, I am trying my best to identify so many original movies as possible because it is a very good way to enjoy & understand IFD & Filmark movies. I got tired of reading or listening comments such as " IFD ninja movies are the bottom of the barrel ninja movies"...well, once you know how they were "produce", you may change your mind about them and you might realize they were not Ninja movies but gangster movies with new ninja scenes...and then, if you have a minimum interest on rare cinema you will know many of those movies used in the new edition were a portrait of the taiwanese society of that time...and many of those movies are gone forever...

IFD & Filmark got their golden age selling their catalog in economic rising countries during the early & middle 80's. Countries like Spain, Italy, Portugal and Greece ( that now are in coming back to the Third World) were main markets for the cheap products Lai & Tang offered. Unluckily many of those copies are also lost and they are even gone from IFD catalog.

When Tomas Tang left Joseph Lai and he founded Filmark, he just followed his ex-pal steps. He bought a bunch of Korean, Thai, Filipino & Taiwanese movies and then some of them were edited with new fotage shot in Hong Kong and some of them were just re-dubbed into English & released in their original form but just making the audience think they were Martial arts movies.

Joseph Lai & Tomas Tang shared the movies they bought together during the Asso Asia time, they had previously bought some movies from director Cheung Chi- Chiu ( aka Richard Chen) such as Deadly Silver Angels or Rainbow force that were released by IFD, but Filmark also kept some movies from that package & released it in the same form. One of those movies Filmark kept was Handsome Vagabond.

Handsome Vagabond was also directed by Cheung Chi-Chiu in 1982 & got almost the same cast & technical teams as the ones above mentioned. So, we found on it people like Eagle Lee, Tattoer Ma or actress Chan Lai Wan that used to be credited by Filmark as Lyon Chan while it was credited as Juliet Chan by IFD...

Once again, this taiwanese movie was titled with different & alternative titles that made it quite difficult to find ind identify. Handsome vagabond was also known as Street fighter 2 and other two or three aka titles in Chinese language. Then Filmark retitled it as Raging Queen for its international release.

Of course, Raging Queen wasn't the Spanish title when it was released on tape, the spanish distributors added another title and eventually Handsome Vagabond arrived to my home as Codigo Mortal ( Mortal Code)

At least, this time, the cover designer didn't  add any ninjas on it, but three white guys fighting to make us think the movie was an american release or something similar.

For Further information about this film, please check it at HKMB

Taiwan Black Movies at IFD & Filmark (part 16): Angel of Fire

2012 is going to be finished soon, I can't tell how happy I am because it has been a horrible year for me. Too many & difficult personal problems came & I had to handle them so good as I could. Anyway, apart from that, it has been a good year for this humble blog. Many good people have helped me to continue this "assigment" of uncover the original movies used by Tomas Tang & Joseph Lai on the films they distributed about 25 years ago.

A kind of revival of IFD & Filmark movies has been felt in the last years.  The fact is more & more websites pay attention to these movies & the people who made them possible. The success of Ninja The Mission Force series is a clear evidence about it. And then,  this  interest on IFD & Filmark movies is also opening new backdoors that let me search for more "fresh" information about the original movies that were used/ distributed by Tang & Lai.

Cheap Taiwanase Gangster movies were bought by IFD & Filmark, some were released on their original form in some mediterranean countries such Spain. It seems Joseph Lai & Tomas Tang bought a package of movies directed by Wang Chung Kuang who was baptised by Filmark & IFD as Chester Wong.

One of these movies was Fighting Duel of Death that maybe is one of the Taiwanese movies with more aka titles of its kind because this 1981 production was also known as Don't Take the Wrong Way or Make a Right Decition and different chinese titles as well. So, Tomas Tang decided to be more creative & titled it Angel of Fire for its international distribution

Buuuuuuuut, the Spanish distributors were beyond Tomas Tang creative team and retitled the movie Emboscada Criminal (Criminal Ambush) for the spanish language market & even added ninjas in the new art cover. As usual, they tried to make us think we would find a martial arts film instead of a gangster drama.

 If you are a die-hard ninja movies fan, you will easily notice the two ninjas in the cover are just a drawing of a scene from the original American Ninja film with Michael Dudikoff on the left facing the Black Star Ninja starred by Tadashi Yamashita on the right.

For more Details about this movie, please check this link to HKMDB

Robert de Ni...... nja

Uno de mis blogs favoritos de toda la red es sin duda AQUI VALE TODO que conducen Naxo Fiol, Victor Olid y Arazt Juanes, los desaprensivos que nos han obsequiado con ese libro maravilloso que es Malas pero Divertidas ( esperando quedo de una segunda parte o mejor aún, de un especie de malas pero divertidas pero sobre cine español u oriental!!!!)...

Ya tengo calado a este trio calavera del cine popular: Arazt es el que más tira de cine oriental, pero del "güeno", Naxo es el del terror y los monstruillos y Victor es el que tiene un gusto mas afín al mio propio...le gusta tó!...

 

De vez en cuando Aqui Vale Todo publica reseñas sobre las pelis de Tomas Tang, Godfrey Ho y/ o la IFD. Ni que decir tiene, que cada post dedicado a estos señores son los que más me gustan y no solo porque haya poca y mala información sobre estas pelis o sus hacedores en castellano, no, es que las reseñas de Aqui Vale Todo sobre las pelis de Ho y compañia no se limitan a reirse de ellas como casi siempre ocurre, sino que además añaden información o detalles que normalmente se pasan por alto. Y por eso mismo pedí permiso para cortar y pegar el texto y las fotos cortesia de Naxo Fiol que a continuacion siguen:

 

"El regreso del ninja" está dirigida por Jimmy Wang y protagonizada por Jimmy Wang Yu (¿ese Yu de más, significa que es el primo del director o él que se lo ha puesto para diferenciar sus tareas de actor con las de director?) y John Laum. El caso es que no la he visto... ni tengo intención alguna de hacerlo. A mi las pelis de ninjas que me gustan son las que sale Sho Kosugi o las que producía Joseph Lai. Pero ya está.
Sin embargo, el otro día localicé su carátula y vi algo que me llamó poderosamente la atención. Veánla....

 

 

¿Lo han notado?. ¿Sí?. ¿No?. Bueno, si la respuesta es negativa, ahora miren esta foto...

 

 

¿Qué?, ¿mejor?. Pues sí, creo que no desvarío si afirmo sin rubor que el ilustrador de la caratula de "El regreso del ninja" tomó esta imagen de Robert De Niro en "El Cazador" como inspiración para poner medio-rostro a su ninja protagonista.
Para estar más seguros, pongámoslas junticas...

 

 

Descarao, ¡hasta la sangre de la ceja!. El caso es que no deja de resultar curioso y, en cierto modo, premonitorio, viendo cómo ha ido evolucionando la carrera del prestigioso actor los últimos años, aceptando protagonizar toda clase de productos así como más de segunda (¡incluso una española!) que poco lustre aportaban a su envidiable curriculum. Dicho de otro modo, que como siga así, no resultaría tan descabellado encontrarnos a De Niro haciendo de ninja... y ¡para "Asylum"! toma ya. Sin compasión.
Últimamente han caído en mis manos muchas caratulas de estas sorprendentes, repletas de trapicheos sucios y demostraciones de poca vergüenza que, a buen seguro, harán las delicias de todos ustedes. Así que sigan visitándonos. En breve, more.

Taiwan Black Movies at IFD & Filmark (part 15): Escape to Freedom

I wasn't sure about including this film in these entries about Taiwanese Black Movies released by IFD & Filmark because it is not a "real" gangster movie but finally I decided to do it because Escape to Freedom was starred by most of the people who developed the subgenre at the time. Another reason I have dediced to post an entry about this movie is because Escape to Freedom is one of those "lost" or missed movies from IFD catalog without any clue like manay of their taiwanese films...remember the Thunderbolt saga, they were the most popular ones but they are not longer avaliable from IFD.

 Escape to Freedom was a 1982 production starring Elsa Yeung ( one of the IFD Queens...and it is quite possible she doesn't know about it) & Tien Peng among other popular taiwanese actors. The movie changes the gang wars in the streets of Taipei for a national adventure against Japanese invaders... This anti-japanese war movies were also a subgenre itself in Taiwan, like the Gangster movies.

 The movie was bought by IFD in released under several different titles. The IFD first official title for this production was Scape to High Risks but then it was also released on tape in countries like Spain as Highnoon Scape. Once again, IFD just bought the rights for its international release, dubbed it into English language & sold it around the world keeping the original taiwanese cut. 

The movie was directed by Ching Gong, who was an excellent director & scriptwriter at Shaw Bros. Some personal favourite of mine are his The Criminal series released & produced by Shaw Bros during the middle 70's. Those works outlined what the Taiwanese Black Movies would be in a near future.

The producer of Escape to Freedom was Yang Teng Kuei who was also the man who made possible many of Danny Lee's direct to video police adventures such as  Shoot to kill & all those bloody and ultraviolent gangster thrillers that just were a logic continuation of the style and features of the original taiwanese black movies.

Platoon The Warriors on YouTube...

I didn't know till now that Youtube is full of users who upload tons of full-lengh movies into their accounts...I was used to see clips from all kind of movies but this thing of uploading full movies has really surprised me. But I have to say my heart is divided into two parts because of this....First, I am happy because we are given the chance to watch many rare movies from every corner of the world. I have seem movies that are not avaliable on DVD, VCD or VHS outside third-world countries or they are just collectors pieces...but in the other hand, I don't agree about uploading  copyrighted movies...I consider myself a collector, I enjoy cinema & I think I have to pay for a work other people have done for my own entertainment. It is fair...You make a work, you develope your owns ideas, you have the right to get your benefit...I hate piracy & I despise pirates...

Platoon The Warriors is a copyrighted feature from IFD that is still on their catalog...someone has uploaded it to YouTube. The source is an English-dubbed language VHS from Greece, since the film has not known DVD release, I have decided to include it here, just in case some reader hasn't seen it yet. Anyway, I encourage you to purchase legal releases...

 Platoon The Warriors, as you may know, was directed by Philip Ko who used as main body a 1984 filipino production titled Diegong Bayong, starred by filipino star Anthony Malonzo. Diegong Bayong is a powerful, bloody & gritty action drama that was nicely edited by Philip Ko. Platoon the Warriors is a personal favourite of mine. Oh, I also found in Youtube the original Spanish trailer. I have to say, I had never seen it before on any spanish release...& I like it a lot!!!!!...

Taiwan Black Movies at IFD & Filmark (part 14): Advent Commando 6- Naked Revenge

Naked Revenge was the title IFD gave to the international release of a taiwanese gangster movie in the early 80's. It was another of those movies that flooded the spanish video rental shops trying to pass as a kung fu flick among the avid audience who just wanted to see chinese fellas kicking asses!...but once you played it, you didn't find an average kung fu movie but a modern day gangter melodrama...

Naked Revenge was released in Spain on its original Taiwanese cut

I remember when I first rented it with my younger brother, he didn't like a bit and after 10 0r 15 minutes he left the room inmersed in a deep ocean of boredom...I was not!...I like it...I enjoyed the roughness & raw violence displayed...I was ( I still am) an easy-to-get-happy audience.

Opposite to many IFD/ Filmark titles that were quite easy to find on video in Spain, Naked Revenge was a hard to find one. In fact, the copy I own is the only one I have ever seen & I never ever found another copy since I decided to collect all IFD & Filmark stuff...

A pimp named Tattoer Ma

Then, during the Golden Age of IFD, when Joseph Lai made lots of money in the international video markets, Naked Revenge was re-edited, re-dubbed & was added new scenes shot in Hong Kong starred by IFD post-Richard Harrison regulars Paul John Stanners, Brent Gilbert and even Mark Houghton & retitled American Commando: Naked Revenge...years later, was again retitled as Advent Commando 6: Naked Revenge.

Advent Commando 6: Naked Revenge, the new re-edition starred by some of our favourite gweilohs was never released in Spain & I ignore if it was ever released in some other countries. I have searched for a copy but I haven't gone a clue about it.

IFD edited Naked Revenge & it was become into the 6th chapter of Advent Commando saga

Well, Naked Revenge, as we stated above was the IFD title for a taiwanese movie originally titled The Reformed Gambler, a 1981 production directed by Chui Yuk-Lung who was always credited by IFD as Steve Lung in many movies.

The reformed Gambler wasn't a fancy title for IFD...Naked Revenge sounds much better...doesn't it?

The original cast of The Reformed Gambler includes Tattoer Ma, Champ Wang & Paul Chang and other taiwanese popular actors such as Lung Fei, Chen Hung-Lieh & Chan Sing...

Oh, Cirio H. Santiago directed in 1985 a film titled Naked Vengeance that was released in some countries as Naked Revenge...obviously it has nothing to do with the IFD film.

Taiwan Black Movies at IFD & Filmark ( Part 13): King of Prodigal Boxers

The same year IFD released its first Thunderbolt saga movie, Mission Thunderbolt, starred by Hong Kong big stars such as Chen Kuan Tai & Chan Wai Man, another series of taiwanese movies on its original cut were also released. It is very curious how IFD chose some of those movies to released them with new added fotage but some others were just thrown into the international markets on their original cut...just the credits were changed into English language.

One of those movies was King of the Prodigal Boxers that it was also starred by Chen Kuan Tai & Chan Wai Man. The film was just another taiwanese gangster & melodrama film with Chen Kuan Tai playing a kickboxer who goes to Hong Kong seeking revenge against the people who murdered his family. Nothing new under the stars...

Original poster showing Chen Kuan Tai cutting off his finger

 IFD marketing department was maybe the funniest place  in the office. King of the Prodigal Boxers was the new fancy title for a 1983 production originally titled Deadly Duo. A Hong Kong-Taiwanese movie directed by Yu Yin-Chuen who, based on HKMD, never ever directed another film. Among the cast, we found interesting performers who made very interesting & bloody gangsters movies in Hong Kong & Taiwan such as Lily Lan Yu Li who starred the taiwanese movie seen in Ninja Dragon, Wong Goon-Hung ( aka Champ Wang) & even Ho Pak Kwong who seems to appear in 99 % of the movies produced in Hong Kong at that time.

King of the Prodigal Boxers was released in Spain twice, as many IFD movies during the video boom. The spanish title was La Piel de Un Asesino ( The skin of a killer), a title that brings to our mind  Alain Delon's film titled Pou la peau d'un flic ( For the skin of a cop), a movie that was released in Spain during that time too.

The first Spanish VHS art cover was very similar to the original IFD artwork with Chen Kuan Tai & Champ Wang faces on the poster plus a knife cutting a finger in a yakuza style, then the back page show some still pics from the movie...

This video artcover was honest to the audience...

 But the second Spanish release of King Of the Prodigal Boxers was done in the middle 80's when Cannon Films released Michael Winner's Death Wish 3 starring Charles Bronson & the fourth installment of Rocky & the still pics from the back page are from another different movie...then the spanish distributors designed a very fancy artwork who missed both movies!!!...in this case the spanish distributors went beyond IFD!!!!

A masked Paul Kersey + Apollo Creed & Rocky + sexy female cop = King of the prodigal boxer. Do you think the artwork designer watched the movie before he did this VHS cover????

Anyway, King of the prodigal boxers is not a very good movie, not even for IFD standars but it is good enough to spend a funny afternoon & a good chance to see big stars starring low budget movies.

We are back to action...

Dear friends & followers ( if I still have some!)...four months have passed since the last entry in this humble blog. These four month have been full of personal problems that kept me away from posting. I simply was not in the mood for it, but keeping the blog temporarily closed hasn't been a waste of time. During all these months, I have been collecting more movies, pics, artworks & searching for more information & details that may help me ( and the people who read this) to understand better the works of Joseph Lai, Tomas Tang, Godfrey Ho, Philip Ko and other great people from the Hong Kong movie industry.

In the following days, I would like to finish the entries dedicated to the Taiwanese movies bought/ edited/ released by IFD & Filmark. I still have some raw material for some entries. Once the taiwanese stage was over, I would like to do the same with the Thai movies, just because good friends of mine such as Regis Madec from THAI WORLD VIEW & Jub Khun have been kind enough to help me to identify ALL & EACH thai movie ever bought & released by Tang & Lai, so, I think it is quite interesting to let all the people know those titles, specially the ones that still canl be found on VCD & DVD in some Thai-movies online shops.

Thanks to All a lot for your support!

Ninja Operation :Knight & Warrior on Widescreen

This blog was born just in order to give some credit to the movies produced & distributed by IFD / Filmark, Godfrey Ho, Joseph Lai & Tomas Tang among others. I was tired of reading & listening these movies were the "bottom of the barrell", "the worst  films ever" and similar expressions said by people who generally don't know how those movies were done or by people who watch Ninja Terminator looking for Arnie....said in a different way, we can't watch 55 days in Pekin expecting to see a Wong Fei Hung movie...so, we can't see an IFD ninja movie expecting to see a  ninja movie like American ninja saga or anything related to classic Ninjitsu or a classic japanese ninja films. Once this premise if fully understood & digested IFD & Filmark movies are nice cinematic experiences of exploit cinema since they contains all the ingredients for a perfect "ninja salad": ninjas, kung fu, erotic scenes, stolen music, asian actors from different countries, a very exotic if not a lost film from the southeast asia,etc etc..

This is in my opinion the first & most importat fact why IFD & Filmark films are so unfamous but there is a second reason. Because of the video boom most of those films were edited to be seen on TV, so the different releases were edited on horrible FULLSCREEN and that effect makes the movie less dynamic, we lose a lot of details & in many ways it is not confortable to see a film on that format.

To prove what I said above, I would like you to check what David Pinnegar nicely reccomended in his nice message: A WIDESCREEN VERSION of the very best ninja movie ever produced by IFD Ninja Operation: Knight & Warrior ( aka Silent Assassin). This film deserves to be watched on its widescreen format to apreciate that peope at IFD knew their duties.

  

 Fully Uncut & Widescreen version of NINJA OPERATION: KNIGHT & WARRIOR. IFD Property, Please respect the Coypright laws

 This video has been possible thanks to RockoMylers from Youtube & on his own words: 

 Special thanks to Emperor Ing for supplying me with the English audio source for this video; without him this wouldn't have been possible. Yes, it's the film restoration that the entire world has been waiting for: a complete version of Godfrey Ho's Ninja: Operation Knight and Warrior a.k.a. Ninja: Silent Assassin in its original 2:35:1 aspect ratio(or as close to it will probably ever be). This little piece of video wizardry was pulled off by combining the audio from a (relatively)high quality encode of the pan-and-scanned VHS of Ninja: Silent Assassin- the American version of Ninja: Operation Knight and Warrior- with the more complete image from the French VHS release of the film which was titled Black Ninja(no relation whatsoever to the 2003 direct-to-video Clayton Prince film of the same name). Surprisingly, putting this together required much more than simply overlaying the English audio over the French video and doing a bit of color correction, because the latter not only runs at the PAL standard of 25 FPS but also uses a markedly different print as its source than does the American tape.The differences generally amount to a matter of frames at reel changes which were easily fixed by repeating or cutting a few frames as needed, but on some occasions there are a few seconds of material that are outright missing from the French print andon those occasions I had no choice but to default to the pan-and-scanned American VHS. Thankfully, those occurences are few and far inbetween, but they DO happen so keep that in mind. Also, there are some issues with this version that slipped by me when I was editing this in Vegas- rest assured that those will be ironed out as much as possible by the time I upload this to a file host. In any case, enjoy your partially-restored audio-visual trainwreck.

Taiwan Black Movies at IFD & Filmark (part 12): Deadly Silver Angels

I truly think it is an almost impossible mission to compile a completa IFD catalog since many of the movies they released and/ or distributed dissapeared from it for no obvious reasons. And most of those "gone" films are /were Taiwanese productions on their original cut  and even some cut and paste versions of those movies. Deadly Silver Angels is one of those missing titles from IFD catalogs. It is a strange case since it is an easy to find movie on tape in many countries but is not longer on IFD hands...

As many early IFD films of Taiwanese Black Movies , Deadly Silver Angels was released in Spain twice by different companies during the VHS craze. The Spanish title was Angeles De Plata Mortales what is simply a word by word translation from the international English title.

First Spanish VHS release...Even Bruce Lee is on the cover!!!!

Second Spanish VHS...No Bruce Lee but Indonesian actress Eva Arnaz from 5 deadly Angels ( the title Deadly Silver Angels got on its USA tape release) + the original names of this taiwanese productions was the design of the art cover!!!..A big misunderstanding because of the several aka titles!!!!

While IFD credits shows Deadly Silver Angels as a 1983 production, the fact is this film was shot in 1981 and its original taiwanese title was  VIRAGO ( Strong of a Woman). At first sight we may think IFD offered us this movie on its original taiwanese cut as it was usual back then when IFD just distributed asian films overseas outside Asia.

Original Taiwanese poster. Thanks to Teddy Wong of HKMDB.

But there is something weird with Deadly Silver Angels that makes me think IFD started its "cut & paste" editing style before Richard Harrison arrived. The prologue shows a bizarre nightclub scene where a couple dances until they get naked...well, the girl gets totally naked while the guy ( thanks God!!!) keeps his white cottom pants on.

This film should have been titled Angels on pants!!!

This scene, obviously, has nothing to do with the movie starring by Elsa Yeung & Eagle Lee about gang fights & female revenge, besides the original Taiwanese cut opens with Eagle Lee singing in a nightclub. But the most bizarre fact is the same naked dancing scene was used again by IFD in Angels With Golden Guns ( aka Virgin Apocalypse), a Hong Kong-Thai co-production released by IFD the same year they released Deadly Silver Angels.

The Greek art cover insists on showing pants pants pants!!!!

Was editor Vincent Leung Wing Chan too busy editing several IFD movies at the same time & got confussed? Was this scene so important to IFD guys that they wanted to use it so many times as possible? I don't have answers to these questions but this scene set the strange, whacky & weird sense of eroticism displayed by IFD on following films.

But that's not all...Deadly Silver Angels got a kind of pseudo-sequel / remake titled on its Hong Kong VCD Scape at Dawn, starred by Taiwanese action star Yin Su Li ( Barbara Yuen when credited by IFD). For a time, I thought this "Deadly Silver Angels 2" was an alternative title for Armed School Girls.

I found this VCD in Hong Kong during the late 90's when hong Kong was my second home.

But doing a deeper research on the cast & their "links" to other IFD productions I recently found out that Scape at Dawn is just an alternative title of Escape of the Female Prisoner directed in 1984 by  Lam Ying whose Survival of the Dragon was also released by IFD in the West.

Yin Su Li has nothing to envy to Elsa Yeung. Both are terrific when female revenge is needed!!!

Taiwan Black Movies at IFD & Filmark (part 11): Ninja Dragon

Ninja Dragon is possible one of the most well-known IFD ninja movies because of its many releases on different formats & even today is an easy to find film. Ninja Dragon was possibly shot back to back to some other IFD ninja films such as Ninja Terminator, Ninja The Protector & Diamond Ninja Force. All of these movies share almost the same supporting actors, crews & even locations.

by 1985, IFD ninjas didn't use headbands!!!

Ninja Dragon tells the story of two Shanghai international tycoons played by Richard Harrison as the hero & Paulo Tocha ( credited as Bruce Stallion) as the villain. A couple of years later ( Ninja Dragon  was shot in 1985) Tocha would become very popular as the evil kickboxer Paco in Jean Claude Van Damme's classic Bloodsport.

Paulo Tocha (aka Bruce Stallion) got an impressive film career in HK: from cameos or extra roles in Shaw Bros to main star at IFD & Filmark & then to bigger productions & finally Hollywood!

Ninja Dragon was choreographed by Donald Kong ( aka Chiang Tao) who played different roles at IFD around those years before he move to Filmark where he used to be credited as Don Kong, Tony Kong or Whatever Kong. He did a nice job on Ninja Dragon: the film opens like a classic kung fu film showing different ninja weapons & then we have a red background where two ninjas display their skills. This kind of opening was very popular on many kung films at the end of the 70's...even Jackie Chan's Snake in the Eagle's shadow used this kind of opening.

Bruce Lee + Sylvester Stallone + IFD flavour= Ninja Bruce Stallion

In the other hand we have a Taiwanese crime drama played by well known players such as  Lily Lan Yu Li who played  Madam Phoenix in Jackie Chan's Killer Meteors & also some other Taiwan Black movies distributed by IFD such as Fury of a Virgin among others & Chan Kuo- Chu who also played along Jackie Chan & Jimmy Wang Yu in Island on Fire.

IFD knew how to buy nice movie with nice players as Chan Kuo Chu

Ninja Dragon was done using a 1982 taiwanese production titled Dark Trap directed by Lee Wing-Cheung who among other works he directed Cat 3 cult films such as Rape & Die or Dress off for life. But the most interesting thing about DARK TRAP is that this taiwanese black movie is just a remake ( well, let's say a Xerox copy suits better) of a Shaw Bros film directed in 1976 by Hua Shan titled Brotherhood. Lee Wing-Cheung worked as assistant director in Brotherhood & then in 1982 he decided to remake it using some of the original cast from Brotherhood!!!.

On January 19th 2011, I did an entry writen in Spanish in this blog about Ninja Dragon & Shaw Bros Brotherhood. At the time I had noticed both films had the same story & even same actors.You may see that entry clicking HERE. Back then I didn't know the title of the source movie used by IFD for Ninja Dragon. Today, and Thanks to Teddy Wong from HKMDB, another IFD mistery has been unclosed!

As always on these entries, a question, an important question is needed: Does anyone know if Dark Trap was released on tape or is on VCD? Does anyone own a copy of it? Any kind of information about it will be highly appreciated!

A couple of updates of previous entries

The last entry of this blog was about the Taiwanese gagster movie used by IFD to create Ninja Knight Thunder Fox. A pic of such movie was provided by HKMDB editor Teddy Wong & today I got an email from him where he adds the title of such movie & its HKMDB flle. So, we are happy to announce Ninja Knight ThunderFox was made using A FIERCE LADY as main body.

 Fierce Lady is a great post-taiwan black movie shot inthe middle 80's.

 There isn't too much information about the film's cast & crew yet but we are working on it. The director of this film  Lai Man Sing directed some other gangster movies that still are on IFD's catalog such as Legal Killer or a great Taiwan Black movie titled Coming With a Gun. I was lucky enough to get an original VCD copy of Coming With a Gun while I was in Hong Kong in 1999.

Coming with a Gun, another of those "supposely lost" Taiwan Black Movies was released on VCD in Hong Kong at the late 90's.

In the other hand, Teddy Wong has also uploaded to HKMDB a poster of Mixed Up the Hong Kong movie ddirected by Chow Chun Gaai in 1984 starring a lot of popular faces from HK film industry that later was bought by Tomas Tang and re-edited using some of the original cast like Ho Pak Kwong  & gweilohs like Louis Roth, his girlfriend Deborah Grant & John Masters in new shots that became Vampire Raiders Ninja Queen.

 A really hard to find Hong Kong film...Mixed Up.

I look for a copy of Fierce Lady & Mixed Up desperately...if anyone knows how & where to get them, any kind of information will be highly appreciated.

One more time, Thanks a Lot to Teddy Wong & its great work at HKMDB

Taiwan Black Movies at IFD & Filmark (Part 10): Ninja Knight Thunder Fox uncovered!!!

I have a special feeling for Ninja Knight Thunder Fox for several reasons. When I first found it in my video rental shop I got in love with the Spanish art cover. When I rented it I got a love-hate relationship with the film itself since not too many ninjas appeared in the movie but Mike Abbott's charisma got my heart!...later in 2008, when I first contacted Mike Abbott, he told me this movie was his 3rd work for IFD & the first one he did after Richard Harrison left IFD &Hong Kong when they finished the back to back shooting of Hitman the Cobra & Ninja Operation 7: Royal Warriors ( aka Hands of death), the very last movie Richard Harrison did for Joseph Lai.

Spanish VHS cover. How could I resist to rent a film with such art cover??? I simply love it!!!

Ninja Knight Thunderfox was the first episode of a saga directed by several directors such Godfrey Ho, Philip Ko and some newcomers to Lai's factory. Ninja Knight saga had suffered several changes on their titles depending on the country and the only link between all the episodes was Mike Abbott who always played the main villain in the 4 movies included in the saga. Mike Abbott is to Ninja Knight movies what Shek Kin was to the old Wong Fei Hung movies starred Kwan Tak Hing.

Since his first role at IFD Mike Abbott always got the most importat place at IFD pressbook & art covers...His name was placed before the main good guy & his pics were also bigger!..

Ninja Knight ThunderFox was done using a taiwanese gangster movie from the middle 80's that still used the same ingredients of the "classic" Taiwan Black movies produced just few years back. We can tell the movie used to design Ninja Knight ThunderFox is a neo-.taiwan black movie or just call it a post-taiwan black movie done when the subgenre was over but keeping the atmosphere & topics from those productions.

 Mike Abbott, Marko Ritchie & Peter Cressall

If you got the chance to see Ninja Knight ThunderFox you will notice the original taiwanese movie is full of unscrupulous gangsters played by ugly actors who seems real gangsters!!!!, then we have regular actors who spent the previous years doing gangster movies, usually repeating their roles movie after movie. So, we find here familiar faces like Lu I Chan, Mike Tien Ming ( Tin Ming) or  Lee Miu Chan whose movies were released internationally by IFD &Filmark. 

 For years, I have been looking for this ultraviolent taiwanese movie but in vain, I didn't have a clue about the title, I just knew some names of the original actors but it was not too much help. Then in 1997, my good friend Domingo López, one of the few real experts on Asian Cinema in Spain, launched his seminal book Made in Hong Kong where he reviewed many IFD & Filmark movies.

IFD new Pressbook for Ninja Knight ThunderFox...it is cool, but I still prefer the original artwork by Eagle Leung used in the Spanish VHS cover.

On his review of Ninja Knight Thunderfox, Domingo suggested that the original taiwanese movie used by Ho & Lai may be a 1982 production directed by Hui Sing Yue titled The Red Rattlesnake. It was indeed a good hint since some of the taiwanese cast of Ninja Knight Thunderfox also appeared in this film. But it wasn't the one used by IFD.

Original Poster of The Red RattleSnake displayed on HKMDB.

But today, I have finally found the film used by IFD to design Ninja Knight ThunderFox. Checking both art covers, we see Domingo's suspects were clearly in the right direction since both movies shows a very similar girl with similar suits plus many of the same cast are in both movies...

Original Taiwanese art cover of the film used by IFD to design Ninja Knight Thunderfox. An English translation of the chinese title would be highly appreciated.

The only problems now is to translate the original chinese title into English or guess if this film got any international english title...ah, I forgot...another problem is to get a copy of it. I guessed which movie was used bought by Joseph Lai but the real challenge now is to get a copy of it & check if the original print also contains the same level of violence & sex as the ones showed in the re-edited version of IFD's Ninja Knight Thunderfox.

Special Thanks to Teddy Wong, editor of HKMDB for sharing the original taiwanese covers!

Taiwan Black Movies at IFD & Filmark ( Part 9): Devil's Dynamite uncovered

Filmark was always at IFD's shadow, offering the same kind of products but at cheaper production values and of course cheaper prices. Althought if you are able to check a Filmark movie on its original widescreen format, the movie becomes into a totally different experience...

Spanish VHS cover of Devil's Dynamite.

 Filmark most well-known movies were indeed the "Robovampire Trilogy" formed by Robovampire, Counter Destroyer & Devil's Dynamite. The trilogy was starred by a kind of cheapo robocop who fights against drug dealers, ninjas, ghosts, vampires and every kind of enemy you may imagine...Robovampire & Counter Destroyer used Thai films as main source but for any unknown reason the last chapter Devil's Dynamite got as main body a taiwanese movie full of gangsters, casinos, Elsa Yeung & other regular taiwanse actors who made a lot of Taiwan black movies during those years and even Angela Mao or Sun Yuen.

 Hello, I am Robocop's poor cousin...but

 I Fight against ninjas

 I mean I fight against bloody ninjas

 I fight against vampires

I mean I fight against bloody vampires

 And of course, I fight against bloody ninja-vampires!!!!

The Devil's Dynamite used a 1981 taiwanese production titled The Giant of Casino directed by Joe Chan Jun Leung who had previously directed some taiwanese gangsters films and of course kung fu movies.Joe Chan Jun Leung will be always in my heart as the director in 1991 of  Dragon Ball: The Magic Begins, the very best & craziest manga in motion picture about Toriyama's characters.

 Drama

 

A bit of sexy girls on pants or swimsuits

 Raw Violence

 Very very very raw bloody violence

 And gangsters...were the basic ingredients of an average Taiwan Black Movie

 The Giant of the Casino was distributed overseas by Many Films Co. Ltd on its original cut years before Filmark bought it & re-edited with new shots as Devil's Dynamite.

Spain was one of those countries with enough small video companies that bought it on its original taiwanese cut & released on video a couple of times under the title of La Ciudad de la Venganza (A city of Vengeance), so any clue about its original titled, The giant of Casino, dissapeared in the video releases & it made its identification a bit harder.

 Spanish VHS of The Giant of Casino ( aka A City of Vengeance)

The new scenes weren't starred by gweiloh actors as usual on IFD & Filmark films but by Jack Sun ( Aka Suen Kwok Ming) as the Robot-hero and a group of chinese actors that I haven't been able to identify. The only gweiloh in the movie whom I haven't identied neither plays a ridiculous gang boss who wants to controls the casinos & the drug market using chinese vampires...

It is funny to remember Jack Sun played the evil Taoist master in Robovampire and then he played the hero in the last movie about this Filmark Superhero. Devil's Dynamite also has a Taoist master who is controlled by the evil gweiloh who used traditional Vodoo techniques...
As you can see Devil's Dynamite offers whatever ingredient you may mention or wish for a film!!!!!

 And being honest, I found much funnier & even better film the cut & paste movie designed by Filmark rather than the original cut of Giant of Casino that is no more than a boring movie about gang wars to control gambling dens.