Taiwan Black Movies at IFD & Filmark ( Part 26): Ninja Operation Knight & Warrior Unpublished!

My many trips to Hong Kong during the late 90's and the first years of the new century allowed me to collect enough information about IFD & Filmark movies and the people who worked on them. Of course, the spanish video releases were also a very valuable help on this task for unveiling the true story behind these productions. But at one point I found myself in a dead-end situation. If I wanted to continue researching about Lai & Tang productions I needed the help of several people that in some ways were related not to IFD or Filmark but to Hong Kong in general and Hong Kong cinema in particular. And here is where people like Teddy Wong, editor of HKMDB, enters. 

Teddy knows very well my interest on those movies bought by IFD & Filmark and I think he enjoys my uncontrolled reactions of happiness & anxiety when a movie has eventually been discovered or "unmasked". I know the work of this humble blog is just a hobby but offering some information that has never been published is something else...it is like a small discovery of something that was practically impossible few years ago. And that's the feelings I enjoy most!. So, after many years of being looking for the taiwanese movie used on IFD Ninja Operation: Knight & Warrior, at last, we can say the "Quest" has been accomplished. Ninja Operation: Knight &Warrior has been unveiled!!!!!

 

 The story of how Ninja Operation: Knight & Warrior was done was explained quite well by Godfrey Ho himself on an interview my friends from Nanarland.com did to him. Please click HERE to see the full interview. But we didn't know what movie was behind it. Ninja Operation: Knight and Warrior was done using a taiwanese film titled A GIRL ROGUE. 

 A Girl Rogue was directed in 1984 by Chiu Chan Kwok who has on his credits some important & popular films like Gun n´ Rose directed by Clarence Ford with Andy Lau, Alan Tang & Simon Yam as main stars along others like Leon Lai or Loretta Lee. We also owed Mr Chiu funny movies such as Lucky Seven or several movies of the Kung Fu Kids franchise. But as always, IFD also bought another movie from Mr Chiu that were released under new titles with Ninja fotage. So, checking Chiu Chan Kwok profile on HKMDB we can see he was also the director of the taiwanese movies used on Ninja Showdown. 

As always on these kind of posts, what we need now is finding a copy of A Girl Rogue to check & enjoy it on its original form. Thanks again to the hard and priceless effords of Teddy Wong and special mention here to Michael Kistner who has been the one who made this entry possible. Michael is also an editor of HKMDB and shares with me a passion for finding the movies used by IFD and Filmark.

Thunder of Gigantic Serpent & Ninja Force of Assassins OST

Music scores were also an important fact that made IFD & Filmark movies interesting. Filmark movies used to credit Tom Lee as music composer / supervisor. Well, if you are familiar with Hong Kong life, you may know Tom Lee is chain of shops that sells all kind of music instruments.  You can check their website here.

In the other hand a guy named Stephen Tsang was the music supervisor at IFD. Opposite to Filmark musicians, Stephan Tsang was a real guy who has been working as music composer in many movies from the 70's to present time, some of his credits including him as sound editor in Jackie Chan's Twin Dragons. It has taken me long time to guess that Stephen Tsang was the IFD name for Chang Gong-Wa (aka Tsang Kong Wah).

 Any way, Listening the different scores used on the ninja movies produced by IFD, it seems  Mr Tsang was very  interested on New Age & electronic music.

But what it makes him very interesting for me is he chose a score titled Isadora from a Spanish group named Azul y Negro ( Blue and Black) for the title credits of Thunder of the Gigantic Serpent.

Even more interesting is the fact the same score was used on Filmark Ninja Force of Assassins opening credits. So the question is Was "Tom Lee" another name for Mr Stephen Tsang? Surely it was...but he is the only one who can confirm it. Meanwhile we only can enjoy this delicious theme in those movies

Or enjoy the original video from the spanish composers.

I am glad to know that Spanish musicians were on the mind of the makers of these two insane but greatly funny movies.

Taiwanese Black Movies at IFD & Filmark ( Part 25): Majestic Thunderbolt

First of all, I would like to wish you all a Happy New Year and I would also would like to let you know that this site is not dead. I know I don't update it so regularly as before but every new information, news, questions and answers, posters, pics, users contributions etc about IFD & Filmark are being published in Facebook, so if you want to join it, just click here, be welcomed & feel at home.

 

I want to start 2014, uncovering, unmasking and confirming once for all all the wrong information about the movie used by IFD for Majestic Thunderbolt and of course, offering the true information about the movie used by IFD for this Thunderbolt movie. Not so many months ago, someone in the FB group claimed several times that Majestic Thunderbolt was done using as main body a taiwanese movie titled Red Rattlesnake. He based his opinion on the HKMD profile of this film.

At last!...after several years searching it...we found the treasure!

As soon as he conteacted me by PM, I explained him my doubts because the information displayed wasn't enough to confirm it. Even if many of the actors were the same in both movies, it wasn't enough evidence because at certain time many actors work together in several movies at once. I think there is no need to explain how prolific HK film industry was 25 years ago.

IFD erased this scene from the final edit of Majestic Thunderbolt!

Also there aren't many avaliable picture of Red Rattlesnake around so I didn't want to give a definitive answer about this matter in order to not spread more  false & wrong information. But as always, when a dilemma needs a right solution, I told to Teddy Wong from HKMDB it would be nice to solve this mistery in the same way we solved the one related to Scorpion Thunderbolt.

This Thai Poster of Red RattleSnake gives some hints to unmask the film.

 It is very curious that IFD have tons of movies on its catalog but the audience of these movies mainly prefer these two movies among all the remaining ones. I am still very surprised about it & I don't really understand it becuase we can find many crazier & funnier movies on IFD shelves. Anyway, 2 days ago, I got a messagge from Teddy Wong and he finally can confirm, with no mistakes that Majestic Thunderbolt was done using Red Rattlesnake as main source.

I can't risk myself telling by this picture, this is the movie used on IFD's Majestic Thunderbolt

 

The evidence of this matter can be found on the new pictures you can see here as well as displayed on Red Rattlesnake profile on HKMDB. Now, as it always happens on these cases, we only need to find a copy of it...and of course, the search is already on.

The pic of the cruxified bloke and the pic below are the proof I needed to find to be 100% sure this was the movie we were looking for!

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2014 and keep in touch!

Taiwan Black Movies at IFD & Filmark (Part 23): Dressed to Fire

Several years ago, Brad Jones, That guy with glasses, webmaster of Cinema Snob among other popular sites about pop cinema offered some special entries about Pierre Kirby and his movies. He studied them so deeply that he became Pierre Kirby into a well-known action hero of IFD so popular as Richard Harrison or Mike Abbott.  

 Pierre Kirby became so popular among fans of Z-grade IFD films that even a website dedicated to him and his career was done. If you want to learn more about who Pierre Kirby was you may visit Pierre Kirby Lost Action Hero website right now. I have to confess I didn't know  this site but I am very happy to see the pics I shared with the webmaster have been published mentioning the original source. So I  must thank them for their kindness and of course my gratitude will continue to Edowan Bersma who is still being punished by my questions and demands about his film career in Hong Kong.

This time, here we have an IFD movie that despite has been difficult to track down, was widely distributed in the States, South American countries such as Argentina or Mexico and in European countries such as as Greece, Turkey and as usual in a special way in Spain...Of course every place where it was distributed gave a different title to this film. 

American Commando 4 Dressed to Fire was the title on its release in Usa, while in the UK the title was simply Dressed to Fired. Later when IFD re-organizated its catalog the film was retitled Advent Commando 3: Dressed to Fire as we can see in the pics above.

The Spanish release was similar to the UK one and we knew it as Dressed to Fire but there is a BIG difference among the USA or UK release and the spanish version. While in the States and UK the movie was another cut and paste movie with gweiloh actors, the spanish video edition was the original taiwanese movie that IFD had bought for its international distribution. So, we spanish, never enjoyed the adventures of Pierre Kirby & Edowan Bersma but we had the chance to see the original film that was the base for Dressed to Fire.

The Spanish VHS cover showed some pics of the real movie in the back cover while the front cover showed a ninja woman ( a pic of the ninja girl from the end of Ninja Thunderbolt!!!) to make the audience believe the movie was another ninja film from IFD instead of a gangster drama from Taiwan.

 

 

Dressed to Fire was the international title IFD gave to a Taiwanese movie directed by Chui Yuk Lung in 1983 and originally titled The Boy from the Dark Street. Jopseph Lai & Tomas Tang bought many of the movies Chui Yuk Lung directed in the late 70's and early 80's and, of course, all of them were released internationally under different titles and as we have seen, those movies were released on their original cut in places such as Spain or with new fotage shot in Hong Kong in many other countries.

If you are interested in learning more about the original movie that "inspired" Dressed to fire, don't forget to visit HKMDB clicking HERE

Taiwan Black Movies at IFD & Filmark (Part 22): Ninja 8: Warriors of Fire

After a break of about 6 months we are back to continue unmasking those taiwanese black movies that were bought by Joseph Lai & Tomas Tang. Movies that have got the attention of many fans of Asian cinema who are looking for something else beyond the usual big names and popular titles. Anyway, these taiwanese movies were, at sometime, very easy to find in video rental shops all around the world thanks to the distributing works of IFD & Filmark.

Original Spanish VHS of Ninja 8 Warriors of fire.

 If I have to choose 4 ninja movies from movies among all the ones produced by Tomas Tang, Ninja 8: Warriors of fire would be one of them. In this early ninja film from Tomas Tang we can see he wanted to offer something good, he hired nice performers such as Jonathan Isgar for main roles, director Tommy Cheng Kei Ying and tried to offer decent storyline involving ninjas, a fotage that took almost the half of the movie. Later, as we know, they became lazy ( as it happened at IFD) and they thought that 10 minutes of backpackers playing ninjas were enough to cheat westerner viewers.

 

Watching carefully Ninja 8: Warriors of Fire we realize it was shot back to back, and by the same people, along Ninja Phantom, Ninja American Warrior and I could dare to say Death Code Ninja. It is interesting to note Ninja 8: Warriors of Fire & Ninja Phantom were directed by someone named Bruce Lambert while the other two were directed by Tommy Cheng...so, was Bruce Lambert a pseudonym for Tommy Cheng? Who knows? Another thing Donald Kong Do worked as stunt coordinator and supporting role in all of them...so Who is behind Bruce Lambert a name that was seen in another Filmark movies with Kong Do on it?

Ninja 8 Warriors of Fire was done using a taiwanese movie as main body. The chosen movie this time was a 1981 production directed by Wang Chun Kuang titled Queen Bee. Wang Chun Kuang directed some of the most popular & well-known gangster films in Taiwan. IFD bought some of his works and Mr Wang was always credited by IFD as Chester Wang. Please click here to check Wang Chun Kuang profile on HKMD.

Queen Bee tells the story of a woman of became a proffesional killer after her sister is murdered on his wedding day. She asks the help of a weird teacher who will teach her how take revenge & fight against even weirder enemies. Of course, in the Filmark version, our heroine will be trained to be a ninja but for the same reason of the original movie.

I was lucky enough to get a copy of the original Queen Bee on its original mandarin language. It is a pity it has no subtitles but it seems Filmark crew didn't changed too much the original dialogs. They kept many of the lines untouched just changing some lines only to match with the ninja fotage. So, as it happened in Fierce Lady ( the movie used in Ninja Knight Thunder fox), they just dubbed into English the original lines.

What it surprised me more of Queen Bee was its soundtrack. It hasn't a chinese score or music from Hollywood hits of its time but the main theme of George A Romero's Dawn of the Dead composed and performed by italian group I Goblin. This same theme was used the same year Queen Bee was produced by Bruno Mattei on his crazy movie Hell of the living dead ( aka Zombie creeping flesh).There is no doubts I Goblin did a piece of music that could be used in any kind of movie. 

In 2009, Joy Sales released a bunch of Taiwanese films on VCD in Hong Kong. There is another one titled Queen Bee but althought it is Taiwanese as well, it is not the one by Wang Chun Kuang used on Ninja 8: Warriors of Fire.

The pics displayed on this entry are not from Filmark Ninja 8 Warriors of Fire but from the original Taiwanese VHS of Queen Bee.

A Chat with The Ultimate Ninja by Shitcasecinema

I still remember Easter of 2008, it was about that date when I first contacted by email & then by phone with Mike Abbott. I was tremedously happy and I felt myself very lucky because I had been talking with one of my childhood favourite movie villains...during the late 80's I have been watching most of IFD movies he played and also the ones Mike Abbott starred in Indonesia. So, I can't explain with words how happy I was when I knew Mike Abbott was in the other side of the telephone line!!!!

A pic of Mike Abbott  & I in Hong Kong taken the first time we met on January 2009.

Then, of course, the communication among us continued and eventually we met in Hong Kong. There are a lot of priceless memories of conversations, jokes, meetings...etc. Five years have passed since then and now, it is Easter again and while I was searching some videos on YouTube, I have found the following one.

This video-phone interview has been done by the guys from Shitcasecinema  and that happiness memories have just come back to me when I listened Mike Abbott giving to the interviewer many of the same answers he gave me 5 years back!

I won't get tired to repeat Mike Abbott is one of the nicest people I have ever met in my life. A gentleman and a good-hearted giant who tought I was Danny De Vito's twin brother the very first time we met in Central Station in Hong Kong.

It is a pity we can't see Mike Abbott more oftenly in Hong Kong movies, specially right now when many western actors are again in front of the camera like in the old good days.

Ninja The Mission Force is back on DVD...The Complete 2nd Season!

Ninja the Mission Force series was undoubtly the very best online serie of 2012 and of course the very very best and true homage to IFD & Filmark ninja movies. Now Ed Glaser's Dark Maze brings us again the happiness & the feeling we got while we enjoyed IFD movies.

The second season is directly released on DVD containing all the episodes plus juicy extras as the first one.

Here we have the trailer that is simply superb, containing remains of Ninja Thunderbolt ( those priceless roller ninjas & post apocaliptic car), Bruce Lee fights back from the grave & many more...then we also have the beautiful & gorgeous Allison Pregler along with the indescribable Brad Jones plus the friendly Ed Glaser as Gordon & his nice videotaped wife and even Bud Spencer along Lee Van Cleef & Sho Kosugi "The Ninja!!!!! 

Her we can enjoy the great first episode that maintains the spirit of the first season and even goes beyond on its IFD homage presenting Gordon in a kind of "special appearance" as Richard Harrison did in Golden Ninja Warrior or Ninja Champion. And if you think this is not wonderful enought and IFD full-lengh movie is included: A widescreen version of NINJA THE PROTECTOR, the movie that inspired the magnificent Ninja The Mission Force. This is what we condiser a true real gift!