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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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!
One of my favorite IFD cut and paste jobs - thanks for identifying the original film! I don't know what the Spanish dub would be like, but the English is hilarious. "Fat Ronald?! Too ambitious!"
ResponderEliminarWhat a coincidence John!...Ninja Dragon is also one of my favourite IFD ninja films. The spanish dub was just done following the English one so it is also hilarious but the voices chosen for it were quite good ones. Proffesional spanish dubbers whose voices were also listened in A-grade European/ American productions, so the level is higher if we compare it to the latter dubbings done to other IFD movies. By the way, another IFD film that got a superb spanish dubbing was Mission Thunderbolt, the spanish voices of Sylvester Stallone or Robert De Niro among others can be listened on it!
ResponderEliminarI saw Ninja Dragon at the end of the 80's ehen I rented it and then many many years later around 2004 I got Celestial DVD of Brotherhood. I got very surprised to see it was the same story!!!..Then checking the credits of Brotherhood I saw the assistant director was the same guy who directed Dark Trap & many actors were the same in both movies. Teddy Wong from HKMDB confirmed it.
Thanks, Jesus. Keep up the great work! I know I keep saying that, but you keep delivering. :-)
ResponderEliminarThanks to you John. Comments & supports like you make me to keep working on the blog. Sometimes (well, most of times) I have the feeling I do the blog for myself & a couple of friends only. I know my English is far from being good & maybe that's one reason I can't do better, then I don't have idea about computers so I don't know how to improve the blog view...Anyway, I just try to do what I would like to find on the net about IFD & Filmark movies. I truly hope someone could use what I offer here properly & offers a really decent work about IFD & Filmark.
ResponderEliminarJesus do you know the name of the actor who plays the red ninja with the chinese sword!! this is the 2nd kill of harrison after he killed kong do!! this guy also plays in ninja terminator, ninja the story, ninja champion etc. ...
ResponderEliminarHello Keiji: THanks for your mesaage. I can´t remember the actor because I havent seen the movie for a long time. I need to see it again to answer you!
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