Golden Ninja Warrior Chronicles

Filmark International Original Trailers

2012-01-12T11:05:00.005+01:00

In 2006 /07 Joseph Lai's IFD official website was updated with pressbooks & trailers from its catalog, then we were able to find scenes, information, pics even titles that we didn't know they were produced by IFD. Sadly we also found out some titles were not longer avaliable to be bought & re-edited anymore.

But, how about Filmark? Since the big fire destroyed Garley's Gallery & Tomas Tang was officially dead, we only had Filmark's old video tapes as unique source to investigate about Tomas Tang & his filming production. Even today, I sometimes get surprised & very happy whenever I find a Filmark movie I didn't know it existed!!!...titles such as Dark Day Express or Outlaw Killer, for example, have been nice surprises.

Searching by Youtube, I found several Filmark original trailers that have hooked me. I remember I saw the original trailer of Ninja Phantom Hero Usa in a Spanish tape of Asso Asia Snake Strikes Back when I was just a tender teenager & I loved it a lot. So you may imagine how happy I was when I found the following Filmark trailers few days ago:

Ninja 8: Warriors of Fire

This movie belongs to the Ninja series our good friend Jonathan Isgar did for Filmark in 1986. It was shot back to back along with Ninja Phantom Hero Usa, so, we find almost the same cast, same outfits, same locations & almost everything is the same we saw in Ninja Phantom!
I truly think Ninja Phanthom Hero Usa & this Ninja 8: Warriors of fire are the very best ninja movies from Tomas Tang.

Twinkle Ninja Fantasy

Twinkle ninja Fantasy was distributed by Filmark under many different titles. It was distributed in Germany as Empire of the ninjas, as Ninja Fantasy in some other countries & when it arrived to Spain, the distributor titled it Ninja Project!!!!. The movie was done using a thai movie as main body while the new scenes were starred by Danny Raisebeck as the good guy & Patrick Frbezar as the villain using fake names, later both actors used their real name in their works for IFD.

Ninja American Warrior

The third "chapter" of Jonathan Igar's ninja movies for Filmark. If Ninja Phantom & Ninja 8: Warriors of fire were shot back to back, Ninja American Warrior was shot back to back with Death Code Ninja the last movie of this saga. This movie also shared most of the locations & outfits of the previous 2 but in order to look different Tomas Tang changed the roles of the good & bad guys & he also hired new faces...but even so, we can clearly notice all this movies were shot one after another in a very short period of time between them. Oh, the director of this movie & the following Death Code Ninja was Tommy Cheng Kei Ying while the previous Ninja Phantom & Warriors of fire someone credited as Bruce Lambert sat in the director's chair...uuummh, quite strange ,right? This could give us an idea to know who was behind Bruce lambert...

Empire of the spiritual ninja

Another Filmark movie that can give us some troubles to find or locate it because it was distributed under countless titles around the world. Empire of the Spiritual Ninja is a cool title for a movie but the different distributors re-titled as American Force Ninja ( a la IFD style) or Soldado Rebelde ( The rebel Soldier) as it was titled in Spain giving me some troubles because a Filipino war movie was also titled like this & whenever order the filipino movie I was sent this Filmark movie & viceversa!!!
The new scenes in Empire of the Spiritual Ninja were starred by Danny Raisebeck again....he needs a post & a place in this blog !!!...

Ninja Operation Knight & Warrior según Churri

2012-01-05T11:55:00.010+01:00

Mi GRAN amigo Churri, nos obsequia la entrada de este 2012 con una super-reseña de la primera entrega de la saga Ninja Operation. Quizas las obra maestra del cine ninja según Godfrey Ho, una película con un reparto excepcional tanto de occidentales como de orientales y encima la peli taiwanesa de relleno también tenia su gancho. Godfrey Ho le saco la pasta al actor camerunés para producir esta Knight & Warrior y con lo que le sobró rodó aquella rareza titulada Top Mission y que fue distribuida por la Filmark de Tomas Tang, recibiendo Joseph Lai la primera puñalada trapera de su socio Ho...pero bueno, ahora se trata de disfrutar de

NINJA OPERATION : KNIGHT AND WARRIOR

Inicio impactante, música de Miami Vice a tope y Richard Harrison, todo un ninja futurista lanza sus mortales shurikens… ¡a una diana de tiro de dardos!. Éso es categoría.

Pero éso era sólo para abrir boca. Paris, una venta de drogas. la Interpol logra impedir el asesinato de Lenny, mafioso menor. Alvin un atlético policía negro lo desarma de una patada espectacular, e intuímos que es un gran luchador. Alvin encañona a Lenny y para nuestra alegría, dice éstas aladas palabras: ”Sé lo que estás pensando. ¿He hecho 5 ó 6 disparos?. Te diré la verdad, con toda ésta agitación yo también he perdido la cuenta. Si queres que te vuele la cabeza, inténtalo”… ¿No os suena?. ¡Muérete, Harry Callahan, éso es originalidad!.

Alvin le dice a Lenny que su jefe, Rudolf, gran capo de la droga, no admite el fracaso, y que le matará, y a su mujer, sus hijos y la abuela de 70 años. Éso enternece a Lenny, y Alvin acepta la petición de éste: Dinero, nuevas identidades y protección, todo para encerrar a Rudolf y detener el flujo de droga hacia Europa.

Ahora, un campo de entrenamiento ninja. Su jefe, Rudolf, prodigio de look ninja multicolor lleva en la frente una cinta con una calavera. Los demás, lucen mucho más sobrios el traje ninja convencional, pero en su cinta una discreta palabra… Ninja, lo adivinaste, quizá alguien aún no notó que lo eran. Rudolf les ordena matar a Lenny y Alvin. Éste vuelve a casa feliz y con una botella de champán. Su mujer, Donna, le regala un reloj por su cuarto aniversario y empiezan a hacer proyectos de futuro en un lenguaje pastelero y cursi… ¡Desdichados!… ¿No sabéis lo peligroso que es hacerlo en una película de Godfrey Ho?. Pues los pérfidos ninjas ya han asesinado a Lenny, y ahora buscan a Alvin. Éste sale de su habitación y no ve a Donna, pero sí a dos ninjas que le atacan . A Alvin aunque sale de su habitación en calzoncillos, le basta un segundo de concentración y aparece, entre sonidos espaciales, vestido de ninja futurista tipo Power Ranger, con un katana, y en su cinta una silueta negra con un ninja. Dónde estaban el traje y el katana (y la cinta) es un misterio, quizá en un mundo paralelo…

Un brevísimo combate. Alvin es demasiado ninja para ellos, y los aniquila, y ahora, la desgarradora muerte de Donna, que dice que no habrá un quinto aniversario y que busque a Gordon. En Hong Kong, un mafioso, Norman, habla con Tigre (Tatooer Ma), jefe mafioso portuario de una operación beneficiosa, pese a contar con la oposición de Mao, líder honrado. Rudolf le dice que necesita un puerto para mover su droga…

Alvin, destrozado por la muerte de Donna, sabe que sin Lenny, no hay causa contra Rudolf. Planea una horrible venganza y mete sus armas ninja en una maleta (¿pero no las guardaba en la Nada Cósmica?), va a Hong Kong, pasa sin problemas la aduana y busca a Gordon, que con otros polis idean cómo acabar con Tigre y así llegar a Norman. El jefe de Gordon dice que infiltró a 2 agentes entre el personal de Tigre: Vivian, agresiva joven que busca redimirse y Jackie.

Y ahora, unos jóvenes y algo de break dance. Uno es Edmond, hijo de Mao, al que informan que éste ha sido asesinado. Edmond, que parece un macarra gay expulsado de Village People, sospecha de Tigre, acude a su local y comienza a golpear a sus secuaces, pero le interrumpe la policía.

Gordon le presenta a Alvin a John Lee… o John el Sucio. ¿No os suena?. John pone a un soplón a buscar a Rudolf, éste avisa a Norman y éste a Rudolf, que ordena a sus ninjas matar a John y Alvin. Dos ninjas muy cutres lo intentan, pero no duran un suspiro…

Otros dos ninjas atacan a Alvin y John en una cruel y breve pelea, pero el poder marcial de éstos se impone. Edmond ataca a los esbirros de Tigre. Son muchos y perseguido por ellos llega a un altísimo puente. Acorralado, se arroja al río en una asombrosa escena. Una y otra vez Edmond acosa a los hombres de Tigre y siempre lo vencen por número. Gordon y John impiden otra venta de drogas y al fin vemos a Gordon mutar en ninja al atacarle los ninjas de Rudolf. Se produce una corta pero excelente pelea… en la que triunfa Gordon, claro.

Gordon dice a Norman que se queda sin tiempo. Edmond, ataca por enésima vez a los hombres de Tigre y al fin los derrota. Es una espléndida y por fin larga pelea, donde apreciamos su espectacular forma física, su destreza marcial y su uso de cuerdas para inmovilizar a sus enemigos, algo similar a lo que hizo antes el gran Gordon Liu en Retorno a Shaolin.

Norman, acosado, ve que sus hombres son detenidos o mueren a manos de Gordon, Alvin o John. Gordon y Alvin atacan a los dos últimos ninjas de Rudolf, uno de ellos, habitual de las pelis ninjas de la IFD, Paulo Tocha, tendrá el honor de morir a manos de Gordon. Luego destruyen una gran partida de drogas de Norman y Rudolf camufladas en sandías…

A Edmond y John les atacan los hombres de Tigre y el asesino de Mao, Allan, que apuñala varias veces a Edmond, que también recibe un katanazo, mas no parece sentirlo mucho pese a recibir otras puñaladas en una pelea anterior, es MUY duro.
Allan apuñala a John y sólo logra que luche con más ímpetu… ¿De qué son ésos cuchillos?. Ésta pelea es espléndida, larga, vibrante, y violenta, como nos gustan. Tigre y sus hombres se unen a los que luchan contra el dúo dinámico, y adivinamos una lucha aún más terrible…

Gordon llama a Norman y le dice que Alvin y él lucharán contra Rudolf y Norman, que (lo sospechábamos) también es ninja. Norman acepta, y añade un detalle… la lucha será a muerte…

Los ninjas aún tienen ojos limpios, casi exentos de ése rimmel usado para acentuar la fiereza de sus miradas en ésta coproducción entre Hong Kong, Inglaterra, Estados Unidos y Canada. La saga Ninja Operation comienza con ésta película y su personaje icónico, Gordon, famoso por sus frases lapidarias y por ser una mala bestia sanguinaria, el mejor discípulo de Harry el Sucio, aquí homenajeado más de una vez. La saga se alargará hasta la saciedad, pero ésta es, para mí, la mejor, la más completa, lo tiene todo, luchas electrizantes, violencia sin medida, acción espectacularísima… y cuatro ninjas dispuestos a conseguir sus fines sin importarles nada…

Godfrey Ho, director, y Joseph Lai, productor, crearon un modus operandi que funcionó perfectamente… a una película indonesia, taiwanesa, coreana o de vete a saber donde, le añaden los insertos ninjas y los fragmentos que permiten “unir“ ambas películas de un modo más o menos lógico. Aquí, la otra mitad es una película taiwanesa, y aparecen fragmentos que desconcertarán a todo ignorante de las maravillas del “Corta Y Pega”. Así, desarrollan sin aclarar la historia de la hermana cieguita de Edmond o la breve existencia de Jackie, el infiltrado, que aparece apenas unos segundos, ni a Vivian, presunta gran luchadora (cosa que apenas muestra).

Un punto y aparte merece Edmond, Edmond Yau, si creemos los títulos de crédito de las películas de Ho y Lai, a menudo un gran error. Edmond es un auténtico suicida, y el que consigue las mejores escenas de acción por sus feroces luchas y su trabajo como stunt brutal, lanzándose sobre coches en marcha o desde el puente al río en escenas sumamente peligrosas sin trampa ni cartón. Ignoro si era él realmente o su doble, pero debió ser premiado como el Especialista Del Año… se ganó bien los garbanzos.

Todos los combates están tratados espléndidamente… los de Edmond son asombrosos, pues su maestría marcial y su técnica son impresionantes, como demuestra en sus abundantes combates siempre contra un sinnúmero de mafiosos, por el contrario, los de los ninjas, salvo en alguna excepción, son también fabulosos… pero con un fallo común, son demasiado breves, lo que impide apreciar la maestría ninja de los luchadores… o sus dobles. Pena, pues en su brevedad, demuestran ser excelentes, como la pelea entre Gordon y Noman, espectacular, intensa pero demasiado escueta… esperábamos algo más sangriento... Y desde luego más prolongado. Norman ataca a Gordon con un naginata que, al desarmarle éste, lo sustituye mágicamente un sansetsukon, y posteriormente, un boomerang plateado… lo dicho, no busques la lógica, impedirá tu diversión.

Y los villanos… Stuart Smith es un habitual de las películas de la IFD siendo uno de sus malvados más reconocidos, un ninja habitual, usual enemigo de Gordon… y Grant Temple fue flor de un día, o de tres películas, aunque también vemos a dos habituales de la IFD, Tatooer Ma y Paulo Tocha, aquí haciendo de malvados…

Uno de los grandes aciertos de Ho y Lai, para mí, es la funesta elección del vestuario de sus famosos ninjas multicolores… hasta entonces los ninjas eran muy espartanos, muy de salir a asesinar de noche, discretos, oscuros, se fundían con las sombras, y todos vestían igual, eran indistinguibles. Ho y Lai crean unos ninjas icónicos, plenamente distinguibles de cualquier otro. Sí, un auténtico ninja nunca vestiría como un rechazado por Locomía, ni mucho menos llevaría una cinta en la cabeza que pusiera Ninja. El ninja debía ser inesperado, pasar desapercibido… Los ninjas de Ho y Lai lucen a kilómetros, y eso era la inesperado, no su sutilidad.

El otro gran hallazgo de Ho y Lai fue la total ausencia de parafernalia ninja. Alguien podía ir (como en la presente), armado de unos calzoncillos, concentrarse y aparecer vestido de Ninja futurista cargado de todo un arsenal: Katanas, Sais, shurikens, naginatas, sansetsukons… algo muy cómodo para el ninja. Huelga decir que preguntarse DÓNDE estaba ése arsenal es el Gran Secreto Ninja de Ho y Lai que, claro, nunca explicaron, y es que lo más acertado es también lo más obvio: No hay respuesta posible.

Pero éstos “errores“, le dan a las películas de Ho y Lai una gran continuidad de acción, una enorme rapidez, son películas relampagueantes. Sus ninjas no necesitan cambiarse, y asumen su personalidad ninja en cualquier lugar y momento, y además tienen otro gran poder, el asombroso teletransporte, primordial para un ninja, y otros superpoderes que dejarían a más de un superhéroe en pelotas.

Yo, lo confieso, era muy reluctante a las películas ninja de la IFD o la Filmark. Era un purista de las Artes Marciales y su cine, y no apreciaba que un señor en calzoncillos apareciera, en un segundo, vestido de ninja multicolor (para mí el ninja y su atuendo debían ser el habitual) y nutrido con un impresionante arsenal, no me parecía serio, pero, tras meditar, asumí que la seriedad es incompatible con la mayoría de las películas de la IFD o la Filmark, pues impide toda diversión. Sí, nadie puede mutar a ninja en segundos, pero, una vez lo aceptas… ¿No es lo más divertido del mundo?. Éstas películas ofrecen todo lo que quieres ver, exudan alegría, regocijo, gozo, poseen toda la desfachatez concebible y son perfectas para disfrutar con los amigos, armados de unos tremendos cuencos de palomitas recién hechas y comentando las “mejores jugadas” entre carcajadas…

Y no, quizá no era eso los que buscaban Ho y Lai… pero creo que tampoco esperaban pasar a la historia del cine de Artes Marciales con sus producciones de cuatro duros, y lo han hecho, Ho y Lai son historia, y lo consiguieron con películas tan regocijantes como ésta, espléndida, que, sin ironía ninguna, recomiendo a todo el mundo… Gran cine a su modo, aunque, claro, no esperes encontrar la altura de Muerte en Venecia….

¡Qué necio fuí y qué listo ahora!. Sé apreciar un género que aúna Artes Marciales, ninjas y diversión. ¿Se puede pedir más?

Thunder Kids 2: Wonderful Mission accomplished!

2011-12-29T11:23:00.003+01:00

IFD as we have stated in previous posts was always opened to all kind of markets. IFD offered classic kung fu movies from Korea when Snake in the eagle's shadow & Drunken Master made Jackie Chan a superstar. At that time Joseph Lai & Tomas Tang brought us a good bunch of similar products throught Asso Asia, then the ninja boom came followed by Kickboxer movies & even animation films were bought in korea to put them in the international markets. So, if if the taiwanese production company TOMSOM was also selling their KUNG FU KIDS series internationally, IFD tried that subgenre as well with the Thunder Kids saga that was retitled Thunder Ninja kids in Usa where the Ninja craze lasted longer than in other countries.

But IFD didn't" betray" its ways of working so Joseph Lai bought a bunch of korean movies were some local Kung Fu kids starred their adventures against evil people, ninjas or just they were trying to get or protect a treasure & they added to the original film some new shots starred by the gweilohs we had previouly seen in the ninja, war, moder day thrillers. So Jonathan Isgar, Mike Abbott, Wayne Archer, Grant Walpole and other regulars changed their oufits & they became into a mix of ninja-kickboxers-soldiers in the middle of nowhere interacting with the people from the other movie.

Thunder Kids 2: Wonderful mission was distributed on tape using a fancy art cover work where we could see Cho Ha Foo & the chubby boy, two of the original taiwese kung fu kids from Tomson films then they also added a ninja in background just to make us think we could find them as well just as IFD tried to do.

But since I am a curious guy, I tried my best to find out what korean movie Joseph Lai used as source movie to design his own Thunder ninja kids 2: wonderful mission. I have to admit that after months of search in the KMDB I didn't get a single hint & one good day while I was checking the wonderful website VINTAGE NINJA, I found this pic & my search got finished.

Thunder Ninja Kids 2: Wonderful Mission was done using a korean movie titled IL CHI MAE. THE FLYING BOX. It seems IL JI MAE was a folk korean character in the tradition of Robin Hood or simialar heroes. After checking KMDB I found out there are many films based on this character, if you are interested on the character just type IlJimae in the KMDB browser to check how many productions that used that name have been produced.

Here again, I ask for help: If anyone knows how to get a copy of the original korean movie used by Joseph Lai to create Thunder Ninja Kids 2 Wonderful Mission, I would be highly appreacited.

Are they ninjas??? Are they kickboxers??? it doesn't matter at all: they are the Thunder kids!

Arthur Garret: from main roles at Filmark to tiny cameos at IFD..or viceversa

2011-12-24T10:34:00.006+01:00

Cannibal Mercenaries is probably one of the most popular movies among fans of Asian weird movies. It is well known that Cannibal mercenaries is a thai movie directed by T Chalong woh also directed many other cult movies in Thailand that were widely distributed in international video markets. Today, thanks to people like my good friends Fred " NinjaDixon", Jack Jensen & Andrew Leavold, we have been able to guess many details about these movies & specially Cannibal Mercenaries...but....

...but...what can we say about the re-edited version Tomas Tang's Filmark International distributed around the world under the new title of THE JAGUAR PROJECT? Well, we have read countless reviews, infinite opinions, different viewpoints from fans but no one have ever talked about the people who worked on the new scenes of The Jaguar Project, so, here we go...

It is curious Tomas Tang kept the original director's name in the new edition of Cannibal Mercenaries when he used to offer us new invented title credits for every people involved on his productions. Althought, in order to keep the "traditions" alive, he changed all the names of the actors from the original source movie and some from the new scenes.

The new scenes tell us a new plot about three treasure hunters who are extremely weakly linked to the original story..And one of those hunters is our man: Arthur Garret.

Arthur Garret always played nice characters in the movies he appeared, even he played a ruthless treasure hunter in The Jaguar Project, he was always gentle enough to answer back to his evil boss or protect his friends.
He formed a regular trio along with Alan English & Paul John Stanners in some Filmark movies such as The Shootout, Mad moves, The Undercovers or Rage Betrayed among others.

The trio played, as stated above, in many modern day thrillers at Filmark when Tomas Tang decided the ninja boom was dead. But those movies were exactly like the previous ninja films. They just changed customes & weapons and the ubicous Donald Kong & ex-venom Sun Chien continued offering their fight choreographies as usual.

Arthur Garret left Filmark & join to the IFD along his buddies Alan English who worked with him & Mike Abbott on IFD war movie Aerolite Force 3: Sky High Mission directed by Philip Ko & Choreaographed by Tsui Po Wah.

Paul John Stanners continued his movie career in Hong Kong without Arthur Garret & Alan English & he joined forces to Brent Gilbert & other IFD actors in the War City saga & other productions outside IFD. Arthur Garret also appeared in other IFD productions such as LA CONNECTION or ADVENT COMMANDO 7: GUNS TO HEAVEN along Mike Abbott & Edowan Bersma.

Vampire Raiders Ninja Queen Uncovered!

2011-12-20T10:45:00.006+01:00

Tomas Tang developed his commercial style under Joseph Lai's shadow but he got to own his own distinctive trademark with his ninja movies. While IFD ninja fight were short, direct ,fast and quite dinamic, Filmark ninja fight were longer, slower more like an average kung fu movie. Another difference amnog IFD & Filmark was the later one used Hong Kong movies as well as othert asian films as source movies meanwhile IFD never used a previously released HK movie for its cinematic experiments. This can be checked watching Ninja Phantom Hero Usa that used a HK film titled Struggle for leader as source movie or another Filmark movies like Clash of the ninjas, Bionic ninja among others...

Vampire Raiders Ninja Queen "directed" by Bruce Lambert was another case of a Filmark movie whose main body belongs to a previously released Hong Kong movie starred by big stars such as Deborah ( Nicholas Tse's mother), Chiang Kam, Ho Pak Kwong and even the teenager idol Agnes Chan.
Tomas Tang boghut the rights of a 1984 film titled MIXED UP, hired some of cast used on it & then he shot new scenes with them and even shot ninja scenes with Barbara Grant & Louis Roth.

German DVD cover of Vampire raiders ninja queen offering the comedy point of the movie

MIXED UP was originally directed in 1984 by Chow Chun-Gaai who also was producer & scripter but he never directed another movie. It is supposed the movie is a comedy involving ghosts & young people facing them. It tells the story of 3 telephone operators in a hotel that is ruled by ghostly people.
Tomas Tang used this premise to create a new plot with ninjas & vampires who want to control the hotel industry in Hong Kong.

The Spanish VHS cover was a bit scarier & it has Big Trouble in Little China flavour

This was my very first Filmark movie & I enjoyed it a lot. I rented many times & I liked so much that I eventually bought the original tape to the video rental that owned it. I felt in love with both Barbara Grant & Agnes Chan Mei Ling. Later I guessed Agnes Chan was a very popular singer back in the 70's and erly 80's in Hong Kong & Japan.

The Dutch VHS cover was similar to the spanish one but the red ninja became into a sexy girl

But what it surprised me more was the fact of Deborah, wife of Patrick Tse & mother of Nicholas Tse was also playing this vampire comedy & whose character role was quite silly. While Agnes Chan was credited with her real english name, Deborah was credited as Deborah Tao by Tomas Tang.

The Greek art cover was the less interesting of both but it also has its charm!

Vampire Raiders ninja Queen was my first contact with Tomas's Tang Filmark but Mixed Up was the last movie Agnes Chan Mei Ling played until she decided to come back to the movies in 1997 starring in Mabel Cheung's arty The Soong Sisters to dissapear again.

Vampire Raiders ninja Queen is most remembered by IFD / Filmark fans by the scene played by Barbara Grant in the beach fighting two horny chinese vampires.

Vampire raiders ninja queen final fight where actors from the original movie eventually meet the actors from the new shots

For further information about Mixed Up, please check HKMDB by clicking here.

Deborah Grant: Scriptwriter for Ringo Lam & Actress for Tomas Tang

2011-12-17T09:52:00.013+01:00

The very first time I saw Deborah Grant on screen was in 1988 when I rented Vampire raiders ninja queen, one of the first ninja movies I had ever seen from Filmark & I enjoyed it toooooo much!. As usual in Tomas Tang's productions, the cast names was a mess of fake pseudonyms and even well-known actors were credited under different names, so I found myself totally clueless about any kind of information about this woman.

Vampire Raiders Ninja Queen was starred by Louis Roth as the main villain & other popular faces from HK cinema such as Ho Pak Kwong, To siu Ming or the chubby actor from Jackie Chan's Drunken Master or Snake in the eagle's shadow, Chiang Kam among others.

Then, it happened I got to watch another Filmark ninja movie where she was again the main actress. The movie was Ninja: Shadow Killer, Tiger Force (aka The Shadow Killers) where she played a very similar role like in Vampire raiders ninja queen. This movie was even a bit erotic since Deborah offered us an erotic ninja spell & we can appreciate his breasts while Vampire raiders ninja queen gave us a bizarre scene in a beach starring two horny chinese vampires & a "bikini-ed" Deborah.

Ninja: The shadow Killers Tiger Force (aka The Shadow Killers) inlcuded an all star cast of Filmark gweilohs. The main villain was played by Wayne Archer under the pseudonym of Daniel Greene & I was able to spot Danny Raisebeck & even Edowan Bersma in supporting roles. Deborah Grant was credited as Cora Bentley in her second title at Filmark.

Till now, I haven't found anymore Filmark movies starred by Deborah Grant, I ignore if she played more roles at Tomas Tang's Filmark. So, once again, any kind of help about Mrs Grant Filmography at Filmark or IFD would be highly appreciated.

B ut, But, But...even if Deborah Grant only played those 2 ninja movies for Filmark, we were lucky enough to find her in some other Hong Kong movies in supporting roles or just tiny cameos, but she was bright enough to take my attention when I saw her on the screen. So, she played a gweiloh swindler along Bruce Fontaine in Blacky Ko's action comedy starred by Chow Sing Chi & Jacky Cheung Curry & Pepper.

First we saw them in a fast food restaurant managed by John Sham Kin Fung trying to change fake US dollars into HK dollars. After Chow Sing Chi & Jacky Cheung realiced they have been cheaten by them, they have a fought in TST promenade near the Clock Tower and the Star Ferry.

When I thought I would never meet Deborah again because her short career just offered 2 movies at Filmark & a very small role in a rising Chow Sing Chi movie...not too much if we compare the movies other gweilohs did for IFD, Filmark or other HK movies. But I was wrong again...

While I was doing my research to complete Mike Abbott's Filmography, I got Hong Kong Gigolo & I also got extremely surprised when I saw Deborah Grant appears in the first minutes of the film!!!! She was there, I had seen her in 3 previous films but I still didn't know her name or anything about this woman. Then she was even in Aces go Places V. Since it seemed she was haunting me appearing in several movies I was watching at the time, I pushed myself to find out who was this blonde fighting babe.

I asked Mike about her but he didn't remember too much about this movie, he just remembered he played a stripper, a role he had to play again in Wong Jing's The Big Score. Then I asked to Edowan Bersma & he told me, he could not remember her name but he told me something interesting: she was Louis Roth's girlfriend. This information was later confirmed by Mike Leeder & I found out Deborah Grant was the co-scripter of Ringo Lam's Undeclared War, another HK movie played by a lot of IFD / Filmark regular gweiloh actors including her boyfriend Louis Roth.

Then I went to HKMD & I checked the movies Deborah Grant played & I found out she is wrongly credited in Curry & Pepper as Sophia Crawford, while she is correctly credited under her real name in Aces Go Places V.

The Hunt for the Devil Boxer is over!!

2011-12-15T11:25:00.008+01:00

When the ninja craze started to fade out at the begining of the 90's, IFD looked for new products & they offered us kickboxer films ( Van Damme's shadow was so big back then), Vietnam movies ( trying to continue the success of Platoon, Born on July 4th...etc), modern day action thrillers and they even went beyond looking for a new market: children.

The kung fu kids movies & their imitations were huge popular in Europe, well, at least they were inmense popular & demanded in Spain. It was very easy to find those movies everywhere, at every video rental shop and even they were broadcasted in some local tv stations.

Kung Fu kids meet Mr Vampire 2 on IFD

So, IFD brought to us the THUNDER KIDS saga . But Joseph Lai never left his style & trademark back...no no no...he continued buying korean movies & re-editing them for the international markets. And here THUNDER NINJA KIDS 3; HUNT FOR THE DEVIL BOXER enters.

IFD pressbook

Joseph Lai wanted to join in one movie all the genres ( or sub-genres) he had been working on previously, so he thought that mixing of vampires, ninjas, kickboxers, gweiloh actors and kids he could get a "salad" with all the ingredients to be sold everywhere. Then he got this unknown korean movie starred by a girl & a group of child vampires...

Original korean tape bought by IFD to create the 3rd instalment of his Thunder kids saga

...and he added some new fotage directed by Alton Cheung that includes well-known gweiloh actors like Mark Houghton or Sophia Crawford hidden under the pseudonym of Sophia Warhol....uh? Warhol?Yes, it is a perfect name to fit this collage.

If I am a kickboxer, why am I killing ninjas in a forest?- Mark Houghton thinks

Then while the original korean movie has its vampire children adventures, Mark Houghton meanwhile spends his time in the "IFD forest" fighting ninjas & kickboxers in some interesting fighting scenes choreographed by the great Ridley Tsui Po Wah who also plays a supporting role.

Thunder Kids saga became into Thunder ninja kids in some territories such as Usa where the ninja craze boom lasted more than in Europe. Anyway the title was totally suitable since we found ninjas in kickboxer outfits or just directly ninjas in every installment of the saga.

US DVD cover

If you enjoyed the taiwanese original kung fu kids, you surely will find quite interesting this korean rapprochement to the subgenre because, apart from you will find everything you can see in an average kung fu kids movie, this one includes vampires & everything you may expect from an IFD explotation product.

oh, I almost forget..any help to translate the original korean movie used for this Thunder Ninja Kids: Hunt for the devil boxer will be highly appreciated.

PS.- My good friend Domingo López has just tipped me the original korean movie title used to create Thunder kids 3: Hunt for the devil boxer is a 1989 production titled The Aliens and Kong Kong Kang-si (Woegyein-Gwa kon).
For further information you may check this link at KMDB.

Patrick FrBezar: From Evil Ninja to Evil Gweiloh...and even Lawyer!

2011-12-13T10:44:00.004+01:00

Frbezar???? How the hell can we pronounce Frbezar??? What means this word? I ceartenly don't have answers to this questions or others related to whatever is Frbezar or its origin. I only know that Frbezar is the surname of one of those westerner actors who got their chance working as actors in Hong Kong thanks to producers like Joseph Lai & Tomas...among others.

Patrick Frbezar was just another nameless face who had been seen in countless IFD & FILMARK movies along with other well-known faces & actors such as Mike Abbott or Pierre Kirby but like Abbott & Kirby, Patrick Frbezar went from mere extra or supporting roles to main actor in both IFD & Filmark movies...and viceversa!

While he worked for IFD he played the main villain of General Karpov in Philip Ko's Aerolite force 2: The untouchable glory ( aka Ninja untouchables, aka American eagle). But he was also credited as a main villain " alas" General Karpov in Aerolite force: The Brave Platoon, the first entry on the Aerolite force saga.
He also played a supporting role as a henchman in Thunder of the Gigantic Serpent and other modern day thrillers from IFD.

At the end of his days at IFD he played main & supporting roles in some ninja movies such as Ninja of the Magnificence or just a tiny cameo in Full Metal Ninja.

Once his works at IFD were becoming smaller & smaller, he moved to Filmark where he played main roles as villains in some of the most popular ninja movies from Tomas Tang's factory such as the bad-ninjas-wear-orange Twinkle Ninja Fantasy ( aka Ninja Fantasy) where he plays an evil ninja who wants to control the drug market in South East Asia & besides his horrible orange ninja outfit, he owns such powers such as he can become into a battling fish!!!!

Patrick Frbezar continued his days at Filmark starring in supporing roles in some movies such as Ninja Force of Assassins where his supporting role is more important in the plot than some of the other main actors. He plays Boss Kolm' right hand who is replaced by a new & dinamic newcomer. Mr frbezar's character will use his jealousness to destroy his rival at the same time he fights the good guy!

As many actors at IFD & Filmark did, Mr Patrick Frbezar worked for big names & on big productions as extras at the same time they got their big roles for Joseph Lai & Tomas Tang. So we spotted Mr Frbezar as an extra playing a lawyer in Sammo Hung's great Dragons Forever.

Jackie Chan should have liked Patrick Frbezar's presence & he hired him for a small cameo but with sentences in his mouth in Project A part 2, where Patrick Frbezar played a British officer.

Then finally ( I say finally because I haven't seen him in more movies) he got another small cameo part in Tiger on the beat where Mr Frbezar along Wayne Archer is brave enough to kidnap Chow Yun Fat's sister before he dissapear from the movie not to be seen anymore!!!

Indeed, Patrick Frbezar played in many many movies & his name was never credited or if it was we only saw it on IFD less known productions because as usual he was never credited under his real name on Filmark films & he was just ignored in bigger productions. He had potential to star villains & main roles. It is a pity he never got enough credit to see him playing big roles in Hong Kong movies!

Would you like to own your own Golden Ninja Warrior Statuette?

2011-11-27T17:04:00.008+01:00

IFD offered us many sagas during the years Joseph Lai & his partners produced countless movies. The most remembered ones are the Thunderbolt saga & the Golden ninja warrior saga. While the first one has gained some respect because Godfrey Ho put more attention in the final product, the second one is the most known, beloved & hated by moviegoers. I remember my first IFD movie was Diamond Ninja Force of which title credits showed the Golden Ninja Warrior statuette as if it was another character in the movie, and it was indeed!.

The Golden ninja Warrior warrior statuette was presented to us for first time in Ninja Terminator where we were told about its powers. This same premise was also the line to follow in Diamond ninja force. I have to say I "fell in love" with such statuette from the first moment I saw it in Diamond ninja force & then in Ninja Terminator, Golden ninja warrior & The ultimate ninja.

Yes, the Golden ninja warrior statuette was a nice prop to collectors...well, a nice prop to be collected by movie freaks like me. Something like that must be thought by the people at http://www.standingstonestudios.com/ . I must admit I got shocked when I have found this site & the work they develope. But the real surprise has come from
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stuartyork/ where you can find the pics below & many more.

I am very sure Joseph Lai & people behind Golden ninja warrior movies never imagine their statuette would become into a cult prop 25 years after its presentation.

LONG LIFE TO THE GOLDEN NINJA WARRIOR EMPIRE

Curse of the IFD THUNDERBOLT series 9: Scorpion Thunderbolt monster in Japan!

2011-11-22T09:33:00.004+01:00

People may think IFD / Filmark are the bottom of the barrel movies because they haven't seen too many of them or the ones they have watched surely have not satisfied their expectations. Watching an IFD movie expecting to find real ninjitsu or even real ninjas is like watching 55 days at Pekin expecting to see another Wong Fei Hung adventure. But what we can't deny is IFD movies had influences in some other movies & even beyond cinema. You don't believe me?

One of the very best cinema magazines in the world is the japanese EIGA HIHO ( Movie Treasures), a magazine that studies Hollywood mainstreams & real junk in equal level. On its 5 issue of 2009, they published a list of cinema monsters that we have found in countless films, from Godzilla & his fellas to the most bizarre ones and among them, we found the snake monster from Scorpion Thunderbolt.

The pic of the monster was completed with some information about the movie it belongs, which company labelled the movie in Japan and some info about Godfrey Ho, but it also includes a mistake since the author considers Scorpion Thunderbolt a co-production among Hong Kong & France ( or Italy?) when ,in fact, it is a korean- taiwanese co-production.

Based on the author's words the serpent monster from Scorpion Thunderbolt is 4m 88cm tall!

THANKS TO ZENI for sending me these scans!

Mike Abbott & Hitman the Cobra GET HONORED by French fans (part 2)

2011-11-17T15:27:00.002+01:00

Few days ago, we talked about how IFD's Hitman the Cobra & Mike Abbott have gained a cult status among French fandom. We saw some videos where the dialog, music & some scenes from Hitman the Cobra were spliced into some "cut & paste" short movies & even a cartoon video based on Mike Abbott's character. Today we go beyond those cut & paste video editions & we publish here ORIGINAL & NEW videos starred by French fans of IFD.

I got really happy & surprised how professional they are & how they know to re-shoot what Godfrey Ho did looong time ago. Indeed they have watched Hitman the Cobra more than a couple of times.

We start with the original video from IFD

And then, we have a group of avid fans!!!

This one is in my opinion the very best one. It runs 40 seconds only but it has the true spirit of IFD.

DARK MAZE proudly presents: Ed Glaser's NINJA MISION FORCE

2011-11-16T16:32:00.003+01:00

IFD filming style is still alive!!!! New filmakers know how to get to the public with fresh, easy-to-follow & interesting movies like Godfrey Ho, IFD & Filmark did during the video boom & the ninja craze more than 25 years ago.

Ed Glaser from Dark Maze productions are joining forces, in this new feature titled NINJA MISION FORCE, a movie Godfrey Ho would feel proud to direct, with Brad Jones, a well-known "guy with glasses".The very best video reviews about IFD movies I have ever enjoyed are the ones by Brad Jones from Cinema Snob. Ed & Brad style's & their humour are perfectly combined with IFD style. Brad was the one who brought Pierre Kirby to light.

Ed Glaser has been kind enough to send me information about this project & the teaser that can also ve watched on his site or just clicking here

We are looking forward to see more about NINJA THE MISSION FORCE!!!

Mike Abbott & Hitman the Cobra GET HONORED by French fans (part 1)

2011-11-13T09:48:00.004+01:00

Hitman the Cobra was Mike Abbott's film debut & the last but one for Richard Harrison at IFD (the last one was Ninja Operation 7: Royal Warriors) shot during October of 1986. Mike Abbott, Richard Harrison & Godfrey Ho couldn't imagine at that time Hitman the Cobra would become into a cult classic in many countries, specially in France...

Iam not talking nonsenses, important websites like www.nanarland.com dedicated some special posts, interviews & a lot of pages in its forum to this movie & the people involved on it. And the below video is a instant winner among people who likes IFD movies.

The original english dialog was hilarious but the French dubbing was even more & more hilarious & that's why this movie has got such status.

So some French fans did some videos where Hitman the cobra & the French dialog were the main topic like this one

And even Mike Abbott has become into an animated character. I definetively love this this video & the passion these French guys devote to Hitman the Cobra.

VIVA MIKE ABBOTT

Ninja in the killing fields on YouTube

2011-11-02T09:14:00.004+01:00

The last entry was about the thai movie used by Filmark to design Ninja in the killing fields. I was looking for more information about the movie & I have found a full lengh version of Ninja in the killing fields on YouTube.

You may watch it here but it would be better if you find an original copy!

This movie was starred by Stuart Smith who tried to hide himself as Stuart Steen as the hero. The late Louis Roth played the villain and the ninja action was choreographed by Donald Kong Do & Ex-Venom Sun Chien who plays a episodic role in the movie.

Ninja in the Killing Fields Uncovered!

2011-10-26T20:14:00.003+02:00

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!

2011-10-22T11:45:00.006+02:00

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)

2011-10-20T15:49:00.007+02:00

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)

2011-10-19T15:30:00.010+02:00

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)

2011-10-11T09:26:00.006+02:00

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)

2011-10-10T17:34:00.010+02:00

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

2011-10-09T10:03:00.007+02:00

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.

Ninja Knight Thunderfox Rough Ending...but What then?

2011-09-25T10:06:00.005+02:00

I am used to spend too much time reading opinions & reviews of IFD movies in internet. I really enjoy them, even when the reviewer hasn't even seen the movie he is writing about or when he has just seen only one movie but he has the "right" to give the same value to all Joseph Lai's catalog. But I still have to recognice some ( well, many) reviews that complain about some ( well, many is the correct word again) aspects of IFD movies are well-unfounded.

A good sample of those bad aspects found in some IFD movies is the rough ending in titles such as Ninja The Protector, where Richard Harrison after defeating the evil chubby ninja says: " I am the Champion of the ninjas" & leaves the place in a cocky way and THE END in big letters appears in your screen. Then your brain starts to think about what's wrong... Similar cases are the endings of Rage of a ninja & speacially Ninja Knight Thunderfox.

A nice still pic taken during the shooting of Ninja Knight Thunderfox courtesy of Mike Abbott!

When I met Mike Abbott in Hong Kong in Feb 2009 for an interview he told me these words: "At the end of THUNDERFOX I die by having a sword thrown into my chest.They filled four bags full of different coloured powders and put them inside my ninja suite and then exploded them as the sword hit my chest"

His words can be checked in the following video about the final duel & ending of Ninja Knight Thunderfox

The ending of the movie is maybe the roughtest ifd ending along with Rage of the ninja ( also starred by Mike Abbott & Marko Ritchie). So the question I do in the post title gets its meaning at this point. THEN WHAT? What happened after Mike Abbott got the blade into his chest and he exploded without any logical reason? we got the answer from Mike Abbott with the following picture!

This is the result when you are a ninja & you get a sword into your chest

THANKS TO MIKE ABBOTT, one of the nicest people I have ever met in my life & a true gentleman despite he always played a villain in Hong Kong movies!

Good ninjas enjoy superb music (part 2)

2011-09-24T16:22:00.002+02:00

The last post showed us how Stephen Tsang, music supervisor at IFD, used in a perfect way new age & progressive rock themes on most ninja movies produced by Joseph Lai. IFD was very innovative in this way because most of kung fu movies from the previous years used "can music" or they just "borrowed" some tunes from Morricone & other italian composers who made us happy with their creations for the famous spaguetti westerns.

IFD offered modern fashionable movies using old source movies ( what a paradox!!!!) containing western actors & the newest music of that time. We can tell IFD movies were Post-modern movies & Joseph Lai was a visionary & extremely smart producer.

Here you can enjoy some more examples how IFD knew how to choose the best music for its modern ninja movies.

Ninja Operation 5: Godfather the Master ( aka Power of Ninjitsu) opens with Richard Harrison doing some cool movements & "pose" while we listen a hooking melody

Stephen Tsang used a very famous tune from A-HA title The Sun always shines on TV.

Then we have Ninja Operation 2: Sword of Revenge ( aka Ninja Strike Force) that opens in a very ( really ,very very) closed way as Ninja Operation 5: Godfather the Master

But this time our pal Stephen Tsang chose a theme from Alphaville titled Sounds like a melody. The titled of the song was maybe the reason Mr Tsang took it for this Ninja movie!!!

But sadly, one day, Stephen Tsang became lazy ( well, maybe it was the copyright policy) & he decided not to use full tunes from famous groups & he went to famous movies and...

Yes,yes, the last duel of Ninja Knight: Thunderfox ( aka Ninja Empire) was scored using a tune we prevously listened at Nightmare in Elm street.

Eventually IFD music department went to TV ( the international copyright policies were becoming stronger & stronger). At the time IFD ninja movies were being produced, the coolest TV series were the several seasons of Miami Vice. So Stephen Tsang thought Miami vice ending titles score would be prefect ( and he was not wrong at all) for the most ambitious ninja movie ever produced by IFD: Ninja Operation- Knight & Warrior ( aka The black ninja).

IFD ninja movies music score history was writing in this way. I just can add it was a very smart way because those movies were scored with the popular music of that time ( middle 80's) plus the themes of big & small screen successful movies & TV series. Indeed, they were movies that could not fail in the video markets where they were being sold.

Good ninjas enjoy superb music (part 1)

2011-09-22T15:17:00.004+02:00

If you are an avid fan of Kung fu movies & Spaguetti western, you surely noticed long time ago both genres shared similar stories, plots, chararacters & the tale how a good, innocent or idealistic man becomes into a killing machine in the search of the main topic from this kind of movies: revenge, vengeance when his world has been savagely destroyed by evilish people.

So, we didn't get surprised when we listen Ennio Morricone's scores in countless kung fu movies from the 70's. I only mention Morricone but music from dozens spaguetti westerns from different composers can be enjoyed as well. Music is a prefect link between european & asian movies that share and tell the same kind of stories in different enviroments.

Then, here IFD enters... and here IFD movies prove they were movies of their times just because of the music. Lets explain it with some examples:

Rage of a ninja offers us a new age music that fits perfectly to the action

Then we find the original music video from Clan of Xymox & I can't imagine it used in other movie.

Cobra Against Ninja also shares similar music that makes ninjas to be COOLER than they are. Cobra Against ninja also offers us a Spaguetti Western moment during the first duel seen in the credits.

Here we have the original score from Aleph in different versions.

And then we have Ninja Dragon that used a more traditional asian score for its credits.

The music was borrowed from a japanese anime titled Dagger of Kamui

Someone named Stephen Tsang was the responsible person at the music department at IFD. He was always credited as music supervisor but never as composer. Indeed he had an exquisite & refined music taste!

The FAKE information about Tomas Tang is still " alive" in many sites in Internet

2011-09-13T14:47:00.004+02:00

Looong time ago, I published the fake Godfrey Ho Interview GaraiJan many years ago. That interview mixed some true information with many false pieces of information, lies & fake tips about Ho, IFD & the movies Joseph Lai produced since he started his company. I put here that false interview to let people know the truth & everything was cleared when Mike Leeder allowed me to publish his real interview to Joseph Lai.

Tomas Tang's most famous logo

The thing is that false interview to Godfrey Ho was not "alone" in the world wide web. To add insult to injury a lot of bullshit & crap about Tomas Tang & his Filmark International was included like a "double" feature. The most surprising of this case is that bullshit is still believed & rtcommented in many internet sites as true information. Even if there were links between IFD & Filmark, they were different companies, Tomas Tang was a real person, Godfrey Ho never ever directed a movie for Filmark in a direct way & of course Tomas Tang was not an alyas for Ho nor he was an asian Alan Smithee...

I have been searching some information about Filmark & Tomas Tang & I found the fake document GaraiJan spreaded so I would like to publish it here as it was done originally to let all the people / friends / visitors who visit this humble blog know that GaraiJan was only a joker who damaged IFD & Filmark public image with his lies ( it is a shame how he even mentioned korean star Dragon Lee died of overdose, as he also said about actor Bruce Baron).

THE FAKE TOMAS TANG INFORMATION

Tomas Tang
DOB and whereabouts: Never existed.
Real name: Godfrey Ho, Ratno Timoer, etc.

The name Tomas Tang and the production company "FILMARK INTERNATIONAL" is one with an unknown beginning and a mysterious ending. Actually, Tomas Tang never existed; it was another pseudonymn for Godfrey Ho, who created it in the hopes of creating another production company without anybody(aside from his production crew) knowing it was Ho behind it. Ho started using the name "Tomas Tang" as a co-producer along side Betty Chan, since "JOSEPH LAI'S IFD ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT" was on the scene in 1979.

ToLo Pore???? May HK director To Lo Po be behind this sad pseudonym?

In 1986, Ho broke the "Tomas Tang" name away to create "FILMARK INTERNATIONAL," and released "his" first movie, "CLASH OF THE NINJA," which starred Americans Paulo Tocha(credited as Paul Torcha)" and Eric Neff. "FILMARK" was one of the first cut-and-paste movies to edit unfinished Asian movies and hire the lead actors that played on it for few scenes, while the new scenes are Anglo Ninjas. "FILMARK INTERNATIONAL" moved to Malaysia after the release of "CLASH OF THE NINJA," when "IFD FILMS" began to distance themselves from Ho, and the IRS was investigating the validity of "FILMARK" as a registered production company, which it wasn't. While in Malaysia, Ho began using the pseudonyms Richard Philips, Mark Coston, Daniel Wells, Mick Stuard, Bob Poe, Ken Ashley, Carmen Heller, Bert Brooks, Edgar Jere, Victor Sears, Bruce Lambert, Ted King and Burt Petersen, as he disowned himself from these productions, loaning "FILMARK" to a producer from Malaysia, to sign the right for the company under another name, but the films being released in Hong Kong under "FILMARK INTERNATIONAL," but it went through many production companies along the way("NINJA HUNTER").

Filmark, like IFD did, also distributed some Taiwan black movies internationally like this one

With the fluctuations in its ownership, a number of genres were touched upon, including science fiction, war movies, the ninja, and the vampire; all done in the shoddier qualities of Malaysian movies. In 1990, the Malaysian Ratno Timoer producer, saw that Wu Kuo Jen also owned "FILMARK" with the same title design and had a wise idea, said "FILMARK" went bankrupt, and sold the company rights back to Ho. However Timoer kept on making movies under the "FILMARK" label without Ho knowing it," keeping his crew, and became successful, with a flurry of movies. Since Ho aquired "FILMARK," nothing was made out of, so he dropped it while in a contract with "BO HO/WIN" films. By 1993, Ho sold it to other producers, but "FILMARK" finally ended when its new producer died in an apartment fire in Hong Kong, and was labeled as the actual "Tomas Tang," therefore ending the "FILMARK" and its "owner" Ho was on the spot for suspicion in Dragon Lee's 1983 overdose murder, so the end of "FILMARK" saved Ho from more trouble. Questions have surfaced if the fire was actually and accident or a set up, since Ho was investigated at that time. Although denies ever falsifying a production company secretly, or disguising himself as "Tomas Tang." A false rumor had Wu Kuo Jen "Tomas Tang," as he created theri best films under the "FILMARK," but that's not true, as there are hundreds of "Tomas Tangs" with different directing styles, so that defeats that purpose of one director.

Korean action movies were also world wided distributed & released by Tomas Tang's who was always a step back to Joseph Lai's IFD.

Some compare Tomas Tang to an Asian Alan Sithee, but I say otherwise, since it is a mistake for one, an opportunity for the other, and a living for the latter; an organization. Although, pseudonyms are not uncommon in Hong Kong, as a director will save his name the standards of one production are not up to expectations.

Tomas Tang's Joseph Lai Co-Productions Filmography:
"CRAZY KUNG FU MASTER(1979)"
"THE DEMON FIGHTER(1979)"
"RED DRAGONS OF SHAOLIN"
"RIVALS OF THE DRAGON"
"SLEEPING FIST"
"THUNDERING MANTIS"
"THOUSAND MILE ESCORT"
"JUDOMAN'S SHADOW VS DR. WONG:" Jess Franco(with alternate story edited by Ho)
"TWO CHAMPIONS OF SHAOLIN"
"RAIDERS OF BUDDHIST KUNG FU"
"VENGEANCE OF THE SNOW MAID"
"NINJA THUNDERBOLT": as co-producer
"NINJA THE PROTECTOR": as co producer
"NINJA CHAMPION(1986)"

* Note that Tang's HK and Southestern Asian "Americanized pseudonymns" as director appear as actors once in every while, which are inconsistent. The Anglo names used in the Tang movies are just pseudonymns, as there is either not one Anglo in a movie, while the cast of names are, or there is one Anglo, which doesn't account for the whole Asian cast, who are Asian, with of Anglo names in the credits! Either way, don't look for the name of an actor for research in Tangs, Ho's, or any low budget HK/SE Asian hack productions. The lead actor is the only real or distinctive name in the credits, which sometimes never happens either.

Tomas Tang's HK filmography:
"CLASH OF THE NINJA(1986):" credited as director Stanley Chan
"MISSION TERMINATE(1986):" Stanley Chan(this rowdy one stars Bruce Le, Richard Norton, Hwang Jang Lee)

* NOTE: that Ho, profitably thinking(it was not his publically), also sold "FILMARK" to the Taiwanese Wu Kuo Jen in 1986. Wu's "FILMARK" lasted 2 years, with a nominal amount of well made ninja movies befor the production comapny, and the "FILMARK" associated with Wu, dissolved in 1988.

Tomas Tang's Taiwanese filmography:
"NINJA HUNTERS(1984/86)" Directed by Robert Tai; completed by Wu Kuo Jen
"NINJA DEATH(1986):" Directed by Robert Tai; completed by Wu Kuo Jen
"SHAOLIN AGAINST LAMA(1986)"
"NINJA USA:" directed by Wu Kuo Jen, no pseudonyms. Produced under the pseudonymn of Randol Ye in California
"NINJA CONDORS(1986)"
"SUPER NINJA(1987):" produced under the George King pseudonymn
"NINJA THE BATTALION(1988)"

* NOTE: Although Tang's Thailand/Filipino movies are credited to that name, Thai director Ratno Timoer directed and produced "FILMARK" movies of Thailand/Filipino origin, hiring uncredited Thai actor Sorapong Chatri to star in everyone of his movies, who eventually directed or completed the direction of most of these films uncredited, while Timoer left production for Chatri to complete for reasons or when the other uncredited directors left production.
* NOTE: that there were an endless amount of Thailand/Filipino war movies being made under the "FILMARK" label from 1986-91; most of which never made it to the US video market, although there are some exceptions in the European market, and that these war movies do exist in the US markets, but on labels that are unknown or out of business. Therefore, it is impossible to track everyone of these "Tang" war movies.

* NOTE: that even though "FILMARK" was sold back to Ho in 1988, "FILMARK" productions in Thailand and the Phillipines have continued past Godfrey Ho's consent, and still continue today.

* NOTE: Some of these movies are so badly good or out of this world, I have to say something about them, so I may have a sentence or two about who's in it or what the plot.

Tomas Tang's Thailand/Filipino filmography:
"NINJA THE VIOLENT SORCERER(1986)" credited as director Bruce Lambert(Badd)
"NINJA FANTASY(1986)" Bruce Lambert
"NINJA DEMON'S MASSACRE(1986)" Bruce Lambert
"RAGING QUEEN(1986)" Stewart Cheung(uneven but Brutal Fonda Lynn ambush)
"NINJA MASTERS OF DEATH(1986)" Bruce Lambert
"THE DEVIL AND THE DYNAMITE(1986)" Bruce Lambert
"NINJA FORCE OF ASSASSANS(1986)" Victor Sears
"NINJA'S EXTREME WEAPONS(1986)" Tomas Tang
"NINJA THE WONDER BOY(1986)" Bruce Lambert
"NINJA CONNECTION(1986)" Tomas Tang
"NINJA IN ACTION(1986)" Tomas Tang
"FIRE SOLDIERS(1986)" (Bloody stuff)
"NINJA ENFORCER(1986)" Efren Pinon
"KRIS COMMANDO(1986)" Wilfredo Milan
"RAIDERS OF THE PARADISE(1986)" Romy Suzara(belic movie)
"EAGLE OF THE JUNGLE(1987)" Henry S.(More than EVERYTHING is in this one!)
"WARRIOR'S OF FIRE(1987)" Bruce Lambert
"NINJA PHANTOM HEROES(1987)" Tommy Cheng
"THE TREASURE OF KAMPUCHEA(1987)" Toranong Srichua
"NINJA IN THE KILLING FIELDS(1987)" York Lam
"NINJA: AMERICAN WARRIOR(1987)" Tommy Cheng
"NINJA CONNECTION(1986)" Dickson Poon
"MOB BUSTERS(1986)" Joe Chan(wild; vampires, ghosts)
"TWINKLE NINJA FANTASY(1987)" Tomas Tang
"COUNTER DESTROYER(1987)" Tomas Tang(a must see! You can't miss this one, whatever you do)
"JAGUAR PROJECT(1987)" K. Cha Long
"MAD MOVES(1987)" Tomas Tang
"SWARM OF THE NINJAS(1988)" Dickson Poon
"WILD FORCE(1988)" Francis Jun(like a Chambara)
"EMPIRE OF THE SPIRITUAL NINJA(1988)" Bruce Lambert
"ROBOVAMP(1988)" Tomas Tang
"VAMPIRE RAIDERS NINJA QUEEN(1989)" Bruce Lambert
"PROJECT NINJA DAREDEVILS(1987)" Tomas Tang(everything is in this one)
"SUPER PLATOON(1987)" Tomas Tang
"WARKILL(1988)" Ferde Grofe
"SMALL TERRIBLE KICKBOXER(1988)" Chorapong Folongo(a baaaaad ass movie)
"SEARCH FOR THE TREASURE(1988)" Tomas Tang(Kent Cheng zombie?)
"ANGELS OF DEATH(1988)" Peter Tung
"ROBOCOP VS THE VAMPIRES" Rick Ching(If you loved "COUNTER DESTROYER," this is for you)
"ROBOVAMPIRE" Tomas Tang
"RAGE BETRAYED(1988)" Tomas Tang
"RAGING ANGER(1988)"
"REDFORD WHITE'S UNTOUCHABLES(1988)" Angel Labra
"SPY INFERNO(1988)" Tomas Tang
"TERMINAL ANGELS(1988)" Tomas Tang(better than "ANGEL;" MORE guns and fights. Must see.)
"LAW OF THE GANGSTERS(1989)" Edgar Jere
"NINJA PROJECT OF HELL(1989)" Rick Ching
"UNDERCOVERS(1989)" Tomas Tang
"DEMENTIAL EXPLOSION(1990)" Richard Tang
"SOLDIER WARRIORS(1991)" Toranong Srichua(like a Chambara; buckets of blood)
"COUNTERESPIONAGE IN THE FORREST(1991)" Richard Chan
"BOOMERANG ACTION(1991)" Sisworo Tangit
"POWER CONNECTION(1993)" Francis Jun
"REVENGE OF SCARFACE" SI
"RAGE(1993)" Anthony Maharaj
"REVENGE OF SCARFACE" SI
"RAIDERS OF THE GOLDEN TRIANGLE(1994)" Sorapong Chatri
"RED WOLF(1994)" SI
"RETURN OF DARNA(1994)" Edu Manzano(Filipina magician)
"TATLONG PURI 3(1994)"(banned; rapings and vengeance. Reportedly, it is available in the Japanese market under a different title, and possibly edited into a Japanese hardcore series)
"HARDBOILED 3: FIRE LEGACY(1996)" Wilfredo Milan
"URBAN RANGERS(1998)" Monsour Del Rosario(Heroic trio+fetish+tons of gore= you be the judge)
"ULTIMATE DEFENSE(1998)"

This is what GaraiJan offered us, such amount of filth & nonsenses have no place & no reason to be believed anymore. Most of this information plus the titles he marked as Filmark productions have been found to be mere lies, that's why I think is stupid to use the above words as true information whenever, wherever someone writes or talks about Filmark International or its late founder Tomas Tang.

THUNDER KIDS: GOLDEN ADVENTURE in YouTube

2011-09-09T20:25:00.005+02:00

When the ninja craze fade out at the end of the 80's, Joseph Lai's IFD produced a trilogy of action movies for kids titled Thunder Kids ( aka Thunder ninja kids) that emulates the famous taiwanese saga of the Kung Fu Kids. Lai bought some korean movies of that style & inserted new shot scenes as he did with the ninja movies. The result was quite funny & interested.

The first chapter of this saga was Thunder kids Golden adventure directed by Charles Lee Chiu & starred by Jonathan Isgar who created a very special, lovely but hateful Old Mel. A very greedy grandpa trying to get rich any cost & assisted by his son played by Ken Goodman.

Once again, someone has uploaded this movie to Youtube. I don't know if this is legal or not since this movie is copyrighted by IFD. But if you want to be introduced in Joseph Lai's Children world, this movie is a perfect example, besides we can enjoy the chamaleonic acting skills of the great Jonathan Isgar.

BLVD WARRIORS Trailer & art covers.

2011-09-01T15:16:00.008+02:00

On July 20th, I posted an entry titled NATHAN CHUKUAKE STRIKES BACK related to the new incoming documentary about western actors ( American actors) who worked in Hong Kong movies or they were key figures in Kung fu films. Nathan Chukuake can be inside of both groups. He worked in American films shot in Hong Kong like Bloodsport & he worked for IFD in Hitman the Cobra along Mike Abbott & Richard Harrison. He also played roles in other Hong Kong productions like Dragon From Russia, Midnight Angel and even Shaw Bros productions.

The trailer of BLVD WARRIORS was premiered in San Diego Comic-Con Thursday, July 21st, during the Superhero Kung Fu Extravaganza Panel, from 7:45-10:45 PM in Room 6A., if you ( like me) were not there, here you can enjoy it plus some art covers that makes me think this documentary is simply great.

The posters of this documentary are also great! Enjoy Them!

the mystic one

The urban one!

If you are interested in more details & information about this interesting project you should visit its official website at: http://blvdwarriors.com/

Shooting around Kowloon Tong 7: A small park in Cumberland Rd & Essex Crescent junction

2011-08-31T17:03:00.011+02:00

I am not feeling so well lately & a big economic problems are making me sick because I can't sleep & the anxiety is too bad, so I am not paying to much attention to the blog & other internet activities. These problems may take a couple of week to be resolved or 6 months...but I don't want to leave the blog to die miserably. After all the contacts I have done, all the new friends, all the good people who has contacted me, I should continue this work. If you have sent me an email or tried to contact me but in vain, don't think I haven't got your mail or call...as soon as I can settle my present situation down, you will get a reply.

I would like to continue & finish the entries I dedicated to the locations IFD / Filmark used in Kowloon Tong. Too many movies shot in just a couple of streets & the surroundings. I still can't understand the "love" IFD & Filmark director had for this place since they could have been shooting 2 movies at the same time just getting the correct camera angles.

The pic above shows a small park located in the junction of Cumberland Road ( where Bruce Lee's former house is located) & Essex Crescent a bow-form street. The small park in the junction has been dozens times in many Hong Kong movies but it was specially used by IFD & Filmark.

Twinkle Ninja Fantasy, directed by Tommy Cheng Kai Ying under the name of Bruce Lambert shot in this park a ninja fight.

Today, the park is still there but the house in the background has suffered a total change.

Then we have another Filmark movie, Ninja in Action, that also used the park but from other camera angle where we can see Cumberland Road & the famous O mas Hotel.

Only the iron bars that protect the park walls have been changed for better!

Other movies produced by different companies who hired Godfrey Ho or Tommy Cheng at the end of the 80's also used this lovely park as a film location.
Live Hard got Godfrey Ho as a second unit director who added some new scenes in Essex Crescent park to the international version.

Fairlie Ruth Kordick who really looks like Sophia Crawford went to Kowloon Tong for her scenes!

And then, finally, almost 25 years later Simon Yam who worked in Live Hard went back to this place to shoot a scene with Samo Hung for Fatal Move.

It is nice to see how the locations used by IFD & Filmark are now "in use" again. Just remember another Simon Yam's movie Election that also used some other locations that were IFD "favourite" places...

HKMDB is listing IFD movies as they deserve

2011-08-23T15:22:00.004+02:00

I have always believed HKMDB was the most accurate movie data base of Hong Kong cinema ( HKCinemagic is its twin sister but a bit younger) but I always complaint HKMDB didn't register IFD / FILMARK "cut & paste" movies. I didn't undertand it. Even if they used movies from other South East Asian movies they were registered in Hong Kong & some of them used HK movies as source movies.

A month ago, one day, a lucky day for me, I was contacted by Teddy Wong one of the editors at HKMDB, he is possibly the person who knows everything about Philip Ko's filmography & a very very very nice guy. We talked about Philip Ko's works in IFD & we started to idenfie actors & movies used by Ko while he was working under Joseph Lai's commands.... then, we continued working giving names, faces & original title movies that are being included on HKMDB.

Yes, at last, these movies & the people who worked on them will have their place in the biggest movie data base about Hong Kong movies. At last the gweiloh actors who have been seen in dozens movies but we never were able to guess their names will have face & name, filmographies will be more completed & mistake will be erased.

Right now, Teddy Wong & I are working together to offer for first time the most completed & true information about the movies & the people who worked for IFD & FILMARK. No more bullshit or urban legends about Tomas Tang, Godfrey Ho or Joseph Lai & their movies.

To start with you can already check many of the IFD ninja movies at HKMDB just writing the title you prefer in the browser, the same cab be done with some of the main actors who acted on those movies & many of them include a link to other pages where you can learn about the original source movie used by them. HERE

Also, if you are a fan of Philip Ko, please check, Teddy Wong's site about this genius of martial arts & editing work just clicking here.

Teddy Wong's site in in Russian Language but the design, the contents & everything there will catch you.

The Killer Elephants are getting ready in ATTACKAFANT ENTERTAINMENT!!!

2011-08-17T16:46:00.005+02:00

The Killer Elephants is one of those Thai movies Joseph Lai brough to us in Europe throught his IFD & Arts Ltd in a time when it was very difficult to access to certain asian movies. That's what IFD did, they bought dozens of movies from several asian countries & they dubbed them into English language, then each country would edit in their own language or subtitled.

I am one of the many people who "met" Sombat Methanee, Sorapong Chatri or Krung Svrilai thanks to IFD movies. And that's not all, IFD was also the firtt company to bring to Europe Panna Ritikrai movies throught its film Kickboxer king. Today many of these thai actors are well-known internationally thanks to movies like Ong Bak, Legend of Suriyothai or even Siamese Outlaws but we can't forget who was the first source we got to enjoy this kind of movies: JOSEPH LAI'S IFD.

Now, a new company in Sweeden is preparing this title from IFD to be enjoyed on its best way: A remastered dvd, including extra features, different art cover & much more. A definitive edition of this Sombat Methanee's classic.

Here's the cover for Fred Anderson's upcoming DVD release of the Thai killer animal flick THE KILLER ELEPHANTS (to be released on his new ATTACKAFANT ENTERTAINMENT label). I'm told the artwork is by Cinehound's Cteve. :D

But The Killer Elephants has got an international career since IFD distributed it all around the world, offering different art covers & even alternative titles. And it is a must see if you really enjoy bizarre asian cinema beyond Hong Kong kung flicks, samuria vendettas from Japan or dramatic comedies from Korea.

Original Thai Poster

New Pressbook from IFD where we can notice they retitled it as Rumbling the Elephants

A screenshot from the spanish fullscreened version

A mexican pressbook for Killer Elephants that was retitled La furia de los elefantes ( Rage of the Elephants)

I AM REALLY LOOKING FORWARD THE ATTACTAFANT ENTERTAINMENT RELEASES!!!!!!

Pedro Ernyes & Geoffrey Brown in other hong Kong movies

2011-08-14T11:22:00.004+02:00

Pedro Ernyes & Geoffrey Brown were regular actors on IFD & Filmark movies but they also played supporting roles as extras in some big budget movies in Hong Kong. They roles on those movies can't be compared to the ones played by gweilohs like Jonathan Isgar, Mike Abbott or other big names among the western actors who lived inside the industry during the 80's and early 90's. Even so, if we have a sharp eye or we just pay attention to the movies that include western actors, it is not so difficult to find them out among the chinese actors playing party guests, people in restaurants, people walking around & other extra roles in the background.

Pedro Ernyes can be seen in Police Story 2, in the scene where Jackie Chan goes to a restaurant to contact a dynamite seller.

Pedro & other gweiloh fellas are having dinner just to be disturbed by Jackie & two police officers

It seems he liked to work in Jackie Chan movies because he was also in Project A part 2 as one of the Hong Kong Governor's party guest.

Pedro was an ubicous gweiloh in Hong Kong movies: we found him everywhere !!!!

Then, we have Geoffrey Brown who had previously worked with Godfrey Ho in many IFD ninja movies playing both good & bad boy roles with a lot of screen time & dialog lines. He then played a silent ( a quite strange) role in Van Damme's bloodsport, but he was also hired to play a killer in Philip Ko's Angel Mission.

He held a Hi-Fi radio in Bloodsport, but he changed it into a bazooka in Angel Mission

and then we spotted him in an extremely tiny cameo in Shanghai Shanghai!

Geoff & another extra talks in the background while Yuen Biao chats in a main position!

We are still looking for more movies that include these two bad boys from Hong Kong Cinema. Any kind of help will be always welcome!

Mission Thunderbolt on Youtube

2011-08-06T09:58:00.002+02:00

I got surprised someone has put online the full lengh running time of Mission Thunderbolt on Youtube. I don't know if this is licit or not since Mission Thunderbolt is copyrighted by Joseph Lai's IFD.

If you haven't seen it, enjoy this chance to watch it online, but please don't forget try & get a "real original thing" with its cover. These movies must be enjoyed into a TV laying down into a sofa with a lot of beer & some friends, not in a computer screen!.

Diegong Bayong VCD

2011-08-04T09:51:00.012+02:00

Lets say it again: Joseph Lai's IFD didn't use unfinished nor unreleased movies for its cut & paste films. Philip Ko made Platoon The Warriors adding new scenes & re-dubbing a filipino actioner from 1984 titled Diegong Bayong. During the summer of 2009 I was able to find the original movie on VCD in video store inside SM Mall of Asia in Pasay, Manila.

There are a lot of people who still define IFD movies as "bottom of the barrel" films, or as "worst of the cinematic experience". These kind of sentences usually come from people who compare IFD movies with big budgeted movies from Jackie Chan or John Woo. Of course they get dissapointed. It is like if you watch 55 days at Peking expecting to see another chapter from Once Upon a time in China. Both movies are wonderful, both movies are about the colonial time in China, but both movies are totally different & they can't be taken by same measurement.

We must recognice Joseph Lai offered us movies from several asian countries, movies that we would never be able to see if IFD never used them. IFD offer us the chance to discover other action movies from South Korea, Thailand ( before Punna & Tony Jaa arrived), the Philippines & Taiwan. No one talks about this. No one notices it? The easiest way was ( and still is) to despise these motion pictures.

Many of asian action movies fans & collectors have been able to enjoy Sombat Methanee's movies thanks to IFD, the same can be said about Sorapong Chatri's, Anthony Alonzo's, Lu I Chan or Master Lee Dae-Keun & even the korean movies starred by Casanova Wong or Wong Chen Li.

Now it is time to Diegong Bayong & here I offer you some snapshots from the original movie. Enjoy them!

The final battle takes place in an abandoned building that has been used by Philip Ko in many of the movies he shot in the Philippines starred by Yukari Oshima. I remember I have seen this place in movies such as Lethal Panther 2 or Guardian Angel among other titles. The following pics show how that building hadn't changed too much since Diegong Bayong was shot in 1984 until Philip Ko shot there his films at the begining of the 90's.

We have a western moment during the last battle, The police as it happens in most action movies arrives too late to save anyone....our hero waits for them in an heroic pose as Jimmy Wang Yu used to end his films

After this shot, we see the END titles....so it seems Diegong Bayong was a finished movie, right?????

Platoon The Warriors Vs Diegong Bayong ( Part 1)

2011-08-03T15:13:00.009+02:00

There have been and there still are) many fake rumours & stories about IFD & its movies. One of the most repeated, disgusting, false & wrong ones is the " leyend" Joseph Lai used un-finisshed asian movies for his ninja / action films. Others said he used different 2 or 3 un-released movies to create a new film. Since I opened this site I have tried my best to prove all those bullshit was totally false & unfair to Mr Lai & his company.

There are some posts in this blog that give the original source movies used by IFD when they designed a new released. So, all my dear readers & friends have found out some asian titles from different countries that were updated by IFD adding new fotage & re-dubbing them.

I really hope this first post of August 2011 could be useful to eradotace & banish once for all that JOSEPH LAI'S IFD NEVER USED UNFINISHED NOR UNRELEASED MOVIES to design their own motion pictures.

One of my favourite IFD movies is Platoon the Warriors. It was starred by my friend Mike Abbott as a ruthless but coward drug lord trying to control the drug market & smashing other dealers like him using ninjas, guns, knives & machine guns. The show was directed by Philip Ko & his stuntmen. As always the plot & the way they film was not enough for a standar movie since the storyline can be resumed into 30 minutes.

IFD new pressbook for Platoon the Warriors, one of its best action movies due to a gorgeous source movie from the Philippines & the directing skills of Philip Ko.

Then, Philip Ko used a high octane filipino action movie to add another subplots related to the main story about drugs, killers & revenge and more actors. So they used a Filipino movie that was FILMED, FINISHED & RELEASED in the Philippines in 1984 titled Diegong Bayong, starred by one the very best action heroes from the Philippines Anthony Alonzo.

"Diegong Bayong" Stars Anthony Alonzo, Janet Bordon, Sarsi Emmanuelle, Ruel, Vernal, Dace Brodett, Lucita Soriano, Mario Escudero, Rocco Montalban.

Diegong Bayong was not an average action movie from the Philipines directed by Ron Gallardo Pablo in 1984. His main actor Anthony Alonzo was at the peak of his popularity among 1981/ 1984 when he played roles based in real people with criminal true stories like Danny Lee Sau Yin did years later in many films produced by his Magnum Films productions.

Besides Anthony Alonzo was already a popular cult- action hero in the international markets because he also played in many co-production in the Philipines. Titles such as Intrusion Cambodia starring along Richard Harrison; W means war, Trident Force, Clash of the warlords were everywhere during the video boom in the 80's & those movies were on tape in each video rental shop in Europe, the Us and even Africa & South America.

Diegong Bayong is one of the many movies that proves IFD never used unfinished or unreleased movies. In this case Joseph Lai provided to Philip Ko with a very popular film in the Philippines for his Platoon The Warriors.

Platoon the Warriors new fotage directed by Philip Ko & starred by Mike Abbott & Mark Watson was shot in 1987 & then edited into Diegong Bayong that was premiered in 1984. So, I truly hope not to find more bullshit about unfinished, unreleased films while I dig for more information related to IFD, Joseph Lai or the people who worked on those films. The truth only has one way.

Special thanks to Mr Simon Santos from the wonderful site VIDEO 48 for his kind help, all the information he passed me about Diegong Bayong and Anthony Alonzo & the original poster of Diegong Bayong.
You may find more information about Anthony Alonzo movies at VIDEO 48 here

Nathan Chukueke Strikes Back

2011-07-20T16:09:00.006+02:00

The interview Nathan Chukueke granted me exactly 2 years ago ( July 2009), is the most visited & read post of this humble blog. I suppose most of regular readers & visitor of my place have read or checked it already. So there is no need to introduce or explain who this great person is.

Nathan Chkueke on IFD's Hitman the Cobra

He played many & different roles during the 80's in countless Hong Kong movies, he worked for Shaw Brothers, Golden Harvest, Cinema City & of course he worked for IFD in Hitman the Cobra as one of Mike Abbott's henchmen. Other movies he played in Hong Kong inluded Dragon From Russia, Midnight Angel, Blood Sport and many many more .

At his days working for Shaw Bros

Two days ago, I got this email:

Hello, You profiled Nathan Chukueke on your website some time ago, and I wanted to let you know that Nathan is featured in an upcoming documentary on martial arts. The first trailer for the film, titled BLVD. WARRIORS, will World Premiere at San Diego Comic-Con this week!! Here are the details if you'd like to stop by, or can share with your audience: Thursday, July 21st, during the Superhero Kung Fu Extravaganza Panel, from 7:45-10:45 PM in Room 6A. Best Regards, Rene Carson (director)

I have felt very happy for Nathan to know he is back in action in some ways. I got the chance to changed many emails with him & he proved to be, as I said above, a great guy.
I am really looking forward for this documentary BLVD WARRIORS & I wish to see Nathan's perfomance & feature on it.
People from San Diego should not miss this chance at the comic convention.

Along Wang Lung Wai shooting at Shaw Bros.

My very best wishes & thanks to Rene Carson.

A man named Geoffrey Brown Part 2

2011-07-17T11:30:00.007+02:00

Geoffrey Brown was one of those gweiloh actors who appeared in many IFD movies that has gave me too much time to identifie. My task got success after I checked many of the pressbooks from the movies he starred that are avaliable on IFD official website. This way of identification was risky & not 100% reliable since many actors changed his name to avoid taxes & triad activities but I got the feeling I was on the right direction.

He was not the main actor but IFD put his name in big letters on the poster of Rage of a Ninja

His name was in smaller letters in Ninja Operation 5: Godfather the master, but also his role was just episodic

It is summer time & some spanish tv channels offer special programmes full of action movies of all kinds from Spaguetti western to Kung fu movies and not too long ago I got to re-watch Jackie Chan's Armour of God on TV & then...I recogniced Geoffrey Brown as one of the monks.

Ken Boyle giving orders to Geoffrey Brown in a moment of Armour of God

He has a lot of screen time & he even has lines. I have seen Armour of God dozens times & I never noticed most of the monks were starred by many IFD & Filmark regular gweilohs including Wayne Archer ( the monk who bites Chan's hand), Edowan Bersma ( the monk who finds Alam Tam in the kitchen after Tam has rolled down from a tunnel), Grant Temple ( the bad ninja in some IFD) & many more.

Geoffrey Brown in a red circle prays in Armour of God. The guy in the green cricle played the main villain in Filmark's Ninja project daredevils & the moustached one in the yellow circle was also in countless IFD & Filmark movies.

It is a pity the monks are not credited at the end titles, so I had to check Jean Claude Van Damme's BLOODSPORT again. This movie is maybe the bible of gweiloh actors in Hong Kong. Not only most of them are on the movie as fighters but they are even credited at the end titles. So, again, I was right, Geoffrey Brown was credited as Paredes' friend.

The coloured names worked for IFD or Filmark during their time in Hong Kong. Their true names were credited on Bloodsport while their works for IFD or Filmark was full of colorful fake names.

Suan Paredes played by Van Damme's friend Michel Quissi was the brazilian fighter who gets his leg bone out courtesy by Bolo Yeung...but who was his friend???? the scenes that show Paredes are fight scenes or just sitting waiting for fighting but then Geoffrey Brown is on screen, sitting next to Paredes & holding a very big radio-cassette player.

Geoff Brown sits next to Michel Quissi in Bloodsport

He pays attention to the fight in the tatami

Geoff Brown as he is credited in Bloodsport has not dialog lines this time but he has some screen time that allowed us to trace him down.

Michel Quissi ( Suan Paredes) gets sleepy while he is waiting for his turn to fight, but what the hell is doing Geoff Brown with a hi-fi player?????

But Geoffrey Brown was not only in this movies from IFD, Armour of God or Bloodsport....his movie career in Hong Kong was developed by more supporting roles in movies such as Angel Mission or just tiny cameos of mere seconds in other movies that include Undeclared War where he played a police officer in the funeral parlour shootout & I spotted him in his tiniest role in a moment of Shanghai Shanghai where he is talking to other gweilohs who also got their time at IFD & Filmark.

Geoffrey Brown is with no doubts one of the most underrated gweiloh actors who has ever worked in Hong Kong. I say this because he was in countless movies but he was never given a chance to bright like others did.

A man named Geoffrey Brown Part 1

2011-07-16T20:22:00.008+02:00

Hong Kong movies from the last 80's & first 90's are full of western actors that audience could recognice them because they were in many movies but althought they were everywhere from big budgeted movies to cheapo films from IFD & Filmark, we only knew their faces but no their names because they were seldom credited or they were hidden behind fake nicknames to avoid taxes or just not to let the audience get boring showing them too many times.

A bad ninja with nice face: a terrible enemy!

There are particular cases like Johnathan Isgar, Wayne Archer or Mike Abbott just to mention 3 of them that worked with big stars playing important roles, we also have actors like Edowan Bersma who was like a chamaleon & harder to follow because he had beard in some movies, he was nicely shaved in others, then credited under different names...etc and then we have the ones we can easily recognice from movie to movie but we never knew his real name or background....till now.

And here Geoffrey Brown enters

I really don't know Geoffrey Brown's nationality but I would bet my neck he is from England because his resenblance to Wayne Archer. While Mr Archer was big noised, Mr Brown is big-eared but both of them really look like to each other.

Are you talking seriously, boss?

He started playing small roles on IFD ninja movies starred by Richard Harrison like Ninja Hunter where he played one of Stuart Smith's henchmen & then did similar roles as one of Mike Abbott's bad ninjas in Rage of the Ninja. His face is nice & he didn't suit villain's roles so Geoffrey Brown started to play good boy roles in more IFD movies along Richard Harrison & Mike Abbott in titles such as Ninja operation: Knight & Warrior, Ninja Operation 5: Godfather the master or Ninja Operation 7: Royal Warriors.

Geoffrey Brown in Ninja Operation: Knight & Warrior as a drug dealer...

just to be killed by black ninja Alphonse Beni few minutes later

Geoffrey Brown is still a mistery in Hong Kong Cinema because like my good friend James Mutch Crockett, he was in dozens movies but his name was never heard & just written in big letters on IFD movies. The next entry on this blog will be dedicated to Geoffrey Brown other Hong Kong & American movies...yes, you read properply, american movie but shot in Hong Kong!

Geoffrey Brown was credited together with other IFD big names in Ninja Operation : Knight & Warrior

At last, he played the hero's sidekick in Ninja Operation 7: Royal Warriors

MORE TO COME SOON!

Shooting around Kowloon Tong 6: nameless alley across Cumberland Road

2011-07-10T14:05:00.004+02:00

One of my favourite Filmark ninja movies is Ninja Force of Assassins. The reasons? Apart from the great thai source movie starred thai superstar Chatchai Plengpanich, because of the locations used in the new pasted scenes that are quite easy to find if you walk around Kowloon.

Once again, Cumberland road, the street where Bruce Lee's home is located was again used in Ninja force of Assassins. The firt post I dedicated to Kowloon Tong locations showed this road & the O Mas Hotel. Well, just few meters away from O Mas Hotel we find a nameless alley that crosses & joins Cumberland Road with Surrey Lane.

O Mas hotel in Cumberland Road leads you to the ninja alley

A view of the ninja alley from Surrey Lane

We can see 2 green/blue knucle pins at the entrance of the alley that allowed me to recognice the place as they are shown in the movie from the opposite angle.

While the bad ninja is displaying his skills, we can see at the background a filipino maiden who in coming back from shopping & passes next to the pins located at the beggining of the alley.

The good white ninja takes an hostage in this nameless alley while a police car is patrolling Cumberland Road

A view from the entrance of the alley to the opposite side. This angle is not covered by Google Street view but Ninja Force of assassins showed it.

MORE TO COME SOON!

Pierre Tremblay's English Interview at Nanarland

2011-07-04T16:28:00.005+02:00

Today when I checked my email I got a big nice surprise: my good friend Regis from Nanarland sent me an email telling the interview they made to Pierre Tremblay in French language has been finally translated & published in English. And I just can tell I have enjoyed it so much as the films he played.

the evilish red ninja in Ninja Champion

Pierre Tremblay worked in several IFD movies as supporting actor in titles such as Diamond Ninja Force or Ninja Dragon portraying an evil role in the first one & just a tiny cameo as Richard Harrison's poker friend in the second one. Then he played Harrison's police boss in Ninja Operation: Knight & Warrior (aka Silent Assassin, aka Black ninja).

After Richard Harrison left IFD, Pierre Tremblay was casted as main actor along Bruce Baron in Ninja Champion and Challenge the ninja. While Bruce Baron played the hero, maybe dued to his pale resemblance to Richard Harrison, in both movies, Tremblay played the bad guy.

Richard Harrison & Pierre Tremblay as bussinessmen who earn their lifes playing poker in Ninja Dragon

Nanarland guys had made a great work & Mr Pierre Tremblays talks about his experiences as actor on IFD, his role in Tsui Hark's Dangerous encounters, his TV career in commercials & cantonese soap operas, his dubbing work & a lot of TRUE and interesting information and details that have never been explained or read anywhere else.

A shot from Challenge the ninja

Please, don't continue reading this post & run to Nanarland's Pierre Tremblay's interview. C'mon ,my firends don't waste your time here and click HERE right now or just type this adress:
http://www.nanarland.com/interview/interview.php?id_interview=pierretremblayvo&vo=1&page=1

A recent pic from Pierre Tremblay taken from Nanarland

Shooting around Kowloon Tong 5: Surrey Lane

2011-07-03T12:45:00.006+02:00

The first post dedicated to the shooting locations used by IFD / FILMARK crews around Kowloong Tong was about Cumberland Road, a famous street becuase of Bruce Lee's house set location & the hourly love hotels around.

Cumberland Road also includes crossed streets & alleys that were also used by Godfrey Ho & Tommy Cheng in their ninja adventures. One of the most used streets that crosses Cumberland Road was Surrey Lane.

Here we see Surrey Lane corner with Cumberland Road. we can tell this is the entrance to this street that goes along a subway pass that take us to the MTR station in Yau Yat Chuen.

Look at the top of the pic in the left side, we can see the KCR train, under the train is located the subway pass we have seen in countless Hong Kong movies such as Angel Terminator, Ninja force of Assassins, Ninja the protector or Live Hard just to mention some of them.

Then, on the right side of the pic, we see a narrow alley that has been used also in countless movies from the early 80's to almost today. That alley was seen in The struggle starred by Wilson Tong & John Cheung who will play an important role at IFD during 1986/87 as action Choreographer.

IFD used this alley in a good bunch of ninja movies such as Ninja Dragon in the scene where Richard Harrison kills a guy wearing a white t-shirt using a double chinese broad swords

The same exact location was used for some scenes in Ninja Operation 3: Licence to terminate & Operation Ninja 5: Godfather the Master (aka Power of ninjitsu)
These two movies Joseph Lai was credited as the director but they both were directed by Godfrey Ho & choreoagraphed by John Cheung. There are some pics of those shootings that prove what I am saying.

Surrey Lane Alley was also used by Godfrey ho for the first fight in Lethal Panther (aka) Deadly China Dolls

Filmark used this alley in Ninja in action

MORE TO COME SOON

Shooting around Kowloon Tong 4: Corner 48-6 Fa Po Street / Tat Chee Avenue

2011-06-21T09:41:00.005+02:00

Here we go again: I know Frankie Chan's masterpiece Outlaw Brothers has nothing to do with IFD or Filmark productions. Or maybe it has...We can find an All Star Cast gweilohs in this film & all of them were the main starts on Joseph Lai's & Tomas Tang's productions. Even many of them, like Jonathan Isgar, Steve Tartalia, Bruce Fontaine, Mark Houghton & Ken Goodman have more important roles in Outlaw Brothers than in other productions. Even Donald Kong Do, action director & director at Filmark has role in Outlaw Brothers, that why this post is needed to be in this site dedicated to IFD & Filmark.

Some time I go while I was re-watching Outlaw Brothers I recogniced, as it happened in Die Hard, many of the stunts, shots were filmed in Kowloon Tong, a quiet residential place in Hong Kong full of Love Hotels ( no brothels), Schools & even Bruce Lee's former home. Kowloon was a prefect place to shoot inside the city without the noisy & craziness of TST or HK island.

Well, as I said while I was re-watching Outlaw Brothers I noticed a street label in the snapshot below: FA PO STREET a very looooong street surrounded by many other streets with flower names.

Checking the pic we see the Yukari's Car is stopped in a corner that connect Fa Po Street with other road, Tat Chee Avenue. But there are two corners that connect both roads & this part of Kowloon Tong /Yau Yat Chuen, unlike many parts of Kowloon Tong, has changed a lot since 1989 & I needed to find some small details to find out the real location.

And here we are, thanks to Google Earth & Street View tool I have been able to find a similar shot. We don't have Yukari in a red Ferrari but we have a black family van in the same position, & the surroundings has become into tall buildings that don't allow us to enjoy the mountains at the back.

Fa Po street signal that witnessed the shooting of Ourlaw Brothers is still there. The government just added some numbers to it.

MORE TO COME SOON

Shooting around Kowloon Tong part 3: WELLCOME in Selkirk Road /Oxford Road corner

2011-06-16T10:29:00.007+02:00

Kowloon Tong was and still is a great quiet place to shoot movies. Its quiet streets & countless alleys allow the crews to shoot with not many public disturbances. As we have checked watching IFD & Filmark movies Ninjas could walk & fight calmly aorund Kowloong without problems or too many witnesses.

Marko Ritchie & Nina Pachy are ninjas who prefer Wellcome rather than Park 'n Shop. When Rage of the ninja was shot Selkirk road Wellcome supermarket was painted on yellow.

While I was re-watching Rage of a Ninja, the second & last movie Mike Abbott starred along Marko Ritchie, I recogniced Selkirk Road, located in the heart of Kowloon Tong but alongside the the area of Cumberland Road where most love hotels, Bruce Lee's home & some Catholic schools are located.
Selkirk Road runs perpendicular between Cambridge Road & Oxford Road. And we can find a WELL COME Supermarket at the corner of Oxford/ Selkirk road where Godfrey Ho put his camera & John Cheung Ng-Long choreographed the ninja fight between Marko Ritchie & Mike Abb0tt's henchmen.

Today, almost 25 years later Selkirk road remains unchanged, only the wall paint has changed from yellow to white!

It is an interesting shot, since we see the hero coming out from that Wellcome supermarket followed by a girl who is also a bad ninja. That branch of Wellcome Supermarket still on bussiness today.

A ninja supermarket in Kowloon Tong!

TO BE CONTINUED

Steve Tartalia Interview by Arnaud Lanuque

2011-06-09T13:21:00.004+02:00

2 Days ago Steve Tartalia's Birthday was celebrated, so I thought I should honor him in this humble site.

Here, you all can read ( well, re-read) this wonderful interview Arnaud Lanuque, a friend from http://www.hkcinemagic.com did to Mr Tartalia in 2005. As always, I beg you to check it at his original site http://www.hkcinemagic.com/en/page.asp?aid=134&page=1#19110 since my work is just like a cut & paste work a la IFD & all the credits must be received by Annaud & his magnificent work.

STEVE TARTALIA INTERVIEW by Arnaud Lanuque for HK CINEMAGIC

The period between the late 1980s and the early 1990s was euphoric for the Hongkong movie industry. Films were chain-produced and supported by an enthusiastic audience. Within this specific context,a small number of actors/stuntmen/ martial artists from the West (gweilos) tried to develop their own career and be a part of this cinematic extravaganza. Their expectations were probably too high. Victims of the mid-1990s film industry crisis and of the lack of support from the industry and the audience, most of them left HK or even the cinema field. But they left behind a bunch of movies as proof of their competence. Steve Tartalia is one of them. Fighting his way in brilliant movies such as Once Upon A Time In China or Operation Condor, he's become a respected stuntman in Hollywood.

Background and coming in HK

HKCinemagic : We have contradictory information on your background, for some you've grown up in Los Angeles and for the others you come from New York . Can you clear it up for us, as well as this information that your grand father created “the Hollywood Reporter”.

Steve Tartalia : a) I swung from a lot of tree vines in the jungle swamps of Orlando Florida as an enfant terrible with some time in the Carolinas but for the most part I grew up in L.A. Later on out of school, I moved to New York for a good number of years where I worked in the music biz in many capacities co-running the ‘Kiss army fan club' for one and studied (as a hobby) acting with the Stella Adler conservatory, and as a line chef in a ‘nouvelle California' style restaurant.

b) Billy Wilkerson was the creator of the Hollywood reporter. Thomas Seward (my grandfather) was ‘co-publisher/general manager' and as such had a part ownership in the Hollywood reporter' as well as Wilkerson's partner & manager in a few famous restaurant/club ‘hotspots' i.e.; Tracadero's, Ciro's, and ‘The Flamingo' in Vegas (before Bugsy Siegel and his mafia forced them out).

HKCinemagic : You were very fond of sports. Did you study martial arts as well in the US ? Did this sport background help you to practice your own stunts (I noticed you are less doubled than the usual westerners when coming to falls in HK movies)?

S T : Yes, Tremendously. ‘Northern Shaolin Eagle Claw' with Shum Leung in Nyc for six years intensively and Larry Tans ‘Strange Dazzling Hands' which is an obscure vagabond art from Taiwan loosely based around Fukien version of 5 animal style. Before knowing master Tan, I would spy on his rooftop training/teaching in the next high rise building over from mine, and try surreptitiously to copy his moves undetected… Of course he caught me and we became friends and eventually, his student. This was real life imitating kung fu movies. Also the key for me was a background in gymnastics and ‘high dive' as a kid growing up. Air sense, and ability to hit the ground hard over and over come from those endeavours. In Hollywood Stunt lingo, I am what is called an ‘acrobatic ground-pounder'.

HKCinemagic : What lead you to HK and how did you find yourself involved in the local film industry?

S T : After a year of modelling in France , Italy , and Spain -(1988)- I ended up doing club security in LA wondering -‘what the hell am I doing?' when I get a call from NY… ‘How would you like to star in a Kung Fu Movie?'… The next day I was on a plane to Chaing Mai Thailand, to work on a Robert Tai film, ‘Death Cage' with Robin Shou, Joe Lewis, and master Sken. Among many others was ‘Kung Fu John' (Ladalski) who after filming was completed, and months of island hopping in the south Thai seas healing a broken hand said; ‘come to Hong Kong'- you will do well!'… I did go, found John, he gave me his flat for a month, a list of companies, advices… and I worked for the next three years. Thanks again kung fu John!!!
Being a "gweilo" in hk industry

HKCinemagic : In town and in movies, you often worked with several westerners, people like Mark Houghton, Jonathan Isgar, Bruce Fontaine, … How was it between all of you? Did you feel a real solidarity or, on the contrary, everyone was trying to compete with each other?

S T : It's like how I imagine the French Foreign Legion would be… a bunch of talented mercenary soldiers with healthy egos all vying for a few ‘plum' jobs. On set we may work well together but not go out for drinks later. When ‘kungfu John' first introduced me to Bruce he was like… ‘oh merde, another gweillo here to suck up my work' but then we became fast friends. My modus operandi was… If I get in something and see another opening, then I'll hook you up best that I can. In exchange, you might do the same for me…. Some were happy to get your tips/help and never return favour. You learn who your friends are. Jonathan, John L, Bruce, Ken Goodman, Mark King, Mark Houghton…we all were to varying degrees good friends. Though to be friends with Mark Houghton' over time, one had to get into a good ‘punch up' or two over something stupid (my kung fu is better than yours, and/or girls). Later he would go out of his way to look after you for picking a fight, out of remorse. ‘heh heh heh'… crazy guy/big heart!

HKCinemagic : Was there any plan of taking more responsibility in the industry or were all of you just happy to be martial artists/actors?

S T : At the time it seemed enough to be just…'living the dream'. Also the realities at the time seemed to limit me to just that, i.e.: tourist visa status… I do regret not having paid closer attention to rigging and hk directorial technique as I had a lot to brush up on and relearn later in the usa .

HKCinemagic : Jeff Falcon said “For a Chinese producer, a westerner is a prop you must feed”. Did you feel like that too?

S T : Yes! Not always though. I'll never forget that on my first HK job as a henchman in Casino Raiders, the second assistant director shouted at me for using a tea cup from the ‘Chinese tea cup area'. She then screamed and pointed to a beat up chewed on Styrofoam cup and informed me that was for all of us ‘foreign devils' to share…

HKCinemagic : Were there differences in the way you were treated by the local stuntmen, local actors or technical crew?

S T : I found early on with Robert Tai in Thailand that to do your job well, don't waste film stock on lazy mistakes and you'll be treated well. The stuntmen would in general ignore you until you did something that earned their respect. The actors like anywhere, often think they're ‘gods gift' knowing a bit of their work and background flatters them and then they're nice. On ‘Princess Madam' Sharon Yeung Pan Pan would stop the camera rolling until she wiped the sweat away from my eyes. Maybe because I paid respects to her and a few well timed flirty compliments... Loved her.

HKCinemagic : Was it difficult to adapt to the speed of HK choreography?

S T : Thanks to kung fu training, not difficult. Eagle claw's vocabulary and rhythm in two man-training forms made me feel very familiar right away. The challenge for me was performing long takes with multiple back and forth reactions and to keep the appropriate rhythm and pace. In doing so, was the fun of it and pure Zen for me! Even though most choreographies for gweilos was not supposed to be like the ‘superior' kung of the hero, it almost always had a sort of ‘long fist' rhythm.

Middle man

HKCinemagic : You have a few fights with Cynthia Khan in this movie. Did her physical specificities (small, a woman) make those fights scenes more difficult to shoot?

S T : She had a dance background and was quick with rehearsals, brave, tough and spirited. In principal, I go easy on' hard blocking' during fights with women. It's terrible when an actress holds her arms in pain between takes. You know where you're going and when you're being blocked, so you just come in hard and fast but sort of ‘put on the brakes' when you're going in with fists or feet… trying to be soft at the power point without looking soft. Acting ya know!

Incidentally, in Middle Man, after fighting with Cynthia on a rooftop the jump from one building to the next with me, Gin Sun, and Cynthia was probably the most dangerous stunt I've ever done. 3 steps to jump 8 or 9 feet across a windy 400-feet canyon to the other side of a 40-storey building. Not to difficult but very very risky.

HKCinemagic : Did you find it frustrating to be killed just before the big final started?

S T : On the first day of that fight where they all came in for the final I was double booked for work I started much earlier, and had to make a painful choice; my end battle with Cynthia Khan on ‘The Middle Man', or day one of the finale of ‘Outlaw bros'. I told Frankie Chan my problem and went with my 1 st and earliest commitment. When I came back to Frankie's ‘Outlaw Brothers' he made like ‘No problem/it's cool/never mind and then…they put me out in front of the warehouse in a scene where I'm on lookout. When I get mugged from behind while putting my gun away, I accidentally shoot and kill myself. I remember at the screening all my friends laughed so hard. That's what happens if you inconvenience the boss in hk… revenge kill on film!

HKCinemagic : Frankie Chan was criticized by John Ladalski who said he hit the stuntmen for real in order to look better on screen. What is your own opinion of him?

S T : I always liked him. I believe he liked me too. I never complained. But then again, he never hit me. Outlaw Bros. was harsh on some of the players, and a few Chinese stunt players went to the hospital. But anyone who signs up for work on one of these thinking it'll be like a Disney production with a little kung fu dancing, is deluded. Once in the office Frankie showed me dailies of a nasty car slide/hits man/man goes flying. He says ‘no-one will do this, will you?'

I go ‘whats wrong with this, it looks great?'…‘Oh he's in the hospital and I'd like it done a bit differently'. I said ‘I wondered how I could do it as well without going to the hospital afterwards… He looked at me funny and laughed, I didn't. It never happened…

Crazy Yes! Stupid No… is my Motto.

HKCinemagic : Do you remember how the action scenes were designed between the several action directors of the movie?

S T : All I remember was a car team and a different fight team. A funny thing happened at the docks when Frankie stole Dragon Lady ‘Mitsuko's' Porsche and the gweilo gang gives chase. I was standing around talking to a kid watching US films who had a nice little Suzuki rsv250. He insisted I give it a ride. So I take off and come back at a good speed (top of 3 rd gear) and hit an unseen nasty little dark marble wall ‘ head on' at 60mph. Well me and that kids bike both took off and flew a good 12 meters. I know I did a double flip and managed to tuck and roll out… unharmed! The bike of course was completely wrecked. Now, imagine, every single person on the set including the action director saw this happen. 3 days later during the chase where Frankie throws the briefcase of money out of his car to slow his pursuers. A moto-cop hits the back of a stopped car sending him flying over it? … I KNOW my misfortune inspired that stunt. But that player did go to the hospital unconscious after Frankie ran in with the camera for a close up of him knocked out at front of the car. Nice guy in person but anything goes while filming.

Angel terminators

HKCinemagic : You do a very dangerous stunt here, jumping on a public light from a parking, a stunt Conan Lee failed before. Was it a big pressure for you? What are your memories of that stunt?

S T : Honestly, it was a little creepy. I think Conan was still in the hospital too. I said yes but wasn't exited to rehearse…Then I saw Pan Pan go off after one stunt guy for rehearsal. WELL of course if she's doing it, I'll do it all day. When an actress is more brave than a hard-ass stunt guy well… Sheesh! On film it doesn't look like a big deal because of the coverage. But, I had to run and jump up to a car hood, railing, and ‘jump' with pam pam very close up my ass … No safety below, just some Armco railing at the curb 10 meters down. But the way they edited doesn't look scary to me… I'm all for an ‘all in one' dangerous shot, but show it that way don't cut it up please? Later on at the gravel pit fight with some good ‘TVB' fighter (forgot his name) I was on break when I witnessed Pam Pam's fight on the catwalks. The stunt guys fall over the rail, - head/shoulder into a crane platform then onto the top (not slope) of the gravel pit is to this day one of the best stunt/wrecks I ever witnessed! I was very surprised that he was ok. I must add that fighting Sharon Yeung Pan Pan was a high for me...What Power! Speed! ... Love that woman.

Operation condor

HKCinemagic : How did you find yourself hired for this movie?

S T : Big casting call went out. Competition was fierce. Many European travellers stuck in town teaching English or something showed up. I remember seeing many guys lined up and given little punch/block/take a hit/fall down tests. I was happy to see Ah Gee & Ah Gunn doing the eliminations, as they were the core stunt team under Chris Lee of ‘The Middle Man' shortly before. Having gotten down and dirty with them on that, of course, they waived me off to a video screen test with dialogue. I found out I was in one month later while working in Malaysia on ‘Dadah Connection'. (Dir. Toby Russell and Alexander Lo Rei) - After calling back to HK to check my status, I found out some unnamed stuntman who wanted my job told Golden Harvest that I was in a all broken up in a deep coma in the USA. I informed them otherwise of my health, and flew back to start work. (Jan. 1990)

HKCinemagic : It was a very big production by HK standard; did it affect your working conditions compared to the other productions you had worked for? And did you feel a big difference in Jackie Chan's way of working?

S T : a) Judging by the food? Well... we all still had to fight for a good rice box lunch/dinner. You see, at mealtime a minivan opens up a back door revealing a big pyramid of takeaway food marked in Chinese. Small or big productions are the same in this. I got stuck many times on Operation Condorat the end of a food line were only chicken claws over rice were left. But in Morocco , the catered food was fine but working conditions in the Sahara dessert were pretty harsh, even for Jackie. I remember being on standby/hold near the desserts edge with no shade to hide from the sun (125degrees f) and the stunt-team would all be under the camera truck or curled up under some baby palm tree leaves. Quite funny. Then back to the hotel for swimming pool volleyball after 1 pm , - to hot to film beyond then as film stock melts at 125f.

b) It's peculiar when a director can show you how to do something better than any stuntman can. In the dessert, Jackie was directing an American stuntman to fall to his back from getting shot who was falling too ‘comfortably'. Jackie stepped in and jumped 5 feet up, legs above head and landed on his back without using his hands to break-fall!. He had a way of making it seem that ‘If I can do it, so can you'! Everyone's game would go up.

Also memorable to me was the fight on a water tower in the underground military base. I'm on the ground after falling off an air duct and Ken & Bruce were fighting Jackie right on the very edge 30 feet up. Jackie, Ah gunn, and Ah Gee worked up a 30-move sequence in 10 minutes or so at a medium to quick pace!... 1...1,2...123...123456.... and so on up to 30. Mad Genius! I thought I guess you could say the difference is feeling humbled yet inspired even more than ever before! I have never seen anyone then or now work so fast and expertly as I did then.

Once upon a time in china

HKCinemagic : It's certainly your most known work in HK. How did you get the part of Tiger? Were there any instructions from Tsui Hark on how you were supposed to play the character?

S T : Lau Kar Wing, was the original action director. He auditioned me for an hour on the grass in front of ‘Film Workshop' – combinations and reactions, a little acro…that kind of thing. I remember thinking, I better look familiar with southern style as he and his family are famous for their ‘Hung Gar' so I ‘Tigerized' an Eagle set at the beginning of my audition, I guess he got me in. Tsui Hark never really directed me in person so much. He seemed very occupied with ‘the big picture' I wish he had.

HKCinemagic : Was there any attempt from the action directors (the Yuen Clan) to design the action according to your character, and thus using more English boxing rather than kickboxing?

S T : I knew going into the first fight in the French restaurant that I was to throw out the kung fu and prepare for ‘Old English style'. Although I'm not versed in queen's English boxing by any means I felt ok that I would give it a good go. But I tried all week before filming to try on and fit the boots and clothes, and rehearse a bit in advance, but to no avail. When I got to work on the day, I was gutted to find that the boots I had to wear were way to small at size 7 (American) to my size 10 inches... I was told that ‘no matter what' I'm wearing them. When I got in them finally, I could barely walk let alone fight and was in a very bad mood. When It came time for my work with Jet Li, They danced it out, then I rehearsed maybe twice quickly with (I think) DeeDee and Hung Yan Yan and then we shot it twice and they moved on to the rest of the whole day restaurant fight. I wasn't happy at all. Later when I saw it for the first time, I was mortified! I believe if the Yuens were on this from the beginning they would have spent a little time on lesser characters …like mine.

HKCinemagic : You were supposed to fight Jet Li at the end. How were you told about the final change (fighting shortly Yuen Biao) and how did you feel about it?

S T : Philosophical. I was cooked with immigration at that moment as the authorities knew I was working illegally in films and Film Workshop didn't see fit to sponsor me… Time to get well hung and die! I left Hong Kong very shortly afterwards.

HKCinemagic : What are your own memories of the shooting of the film and what do you think of the final result?

S T : Best of times: Watching in awe as Jet threw a 720 revolution butterfly spin during rehearsal (see picture) for waterfront opera fight. Many moments like that throughout my time on set.

Worst of times: Great moments of working on a big epic punctuated by long stretches of not working (nor being allowed to work elsewhere by contract). A sense in the air of impending doom with the upcoming China takeover, film companies shutting down all around. No more work for gweilos.

Honestly, I had no idea at the time that O.U.T.I.C. would be the Classic that it instantly became upon release and will be for all time along with most of the series. It was a big gamble by Tsui to go against the entire modern gangster/hate/revenge/comedy genre's and take a fresh approach to a ‘republic period' hero story. Yen Shi Kwan reluctant relationship to Yuen Biao's character was very emotional. Many subtly nuanced relationships, fast and hard Kung fu with some nice floaty wirework made it a great film. Love it. Wish my work in it were better though…

Move to the US and nowadays career

HKCinemagic : What motivated you to leave HK and go back to the USA ?

S T : My funds were running low and an escort to the airport by HK immigration sort of sped up my departure...Hah!... it was time to leave anyways as there was no more film work period.

HKCinemagic : Did you find what you learned in HK useful for your career of stuntman and action director there?

S T : Yes. After coming back and taking a break for awhile I hooked up with a film grip/rigger/kungfu guy named Roberto Lopez and we formed our own group working many cool small projects in New York City fighting, flying and yanking people around - including ourselves. This led to a NYC shot film with Godfrey Ho (Manhattan Chase) then another with Robert Tai in Vietnam called ‘Trinity Goes East' (based on the old Terrence hill & Bud Spenser Trinity Series) Then a trip to LA had me bumping into an old colleague/friend from HK -Sophia Crawford on the set of ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer' that led to a 5-year run on that series and ‘Angel' as Spikes stunt double, Michael Vartan's action double on ‘Alias' roles/stunts in many features and TV shows. From 1999 to now I've been working my ass off in Hollywood .

As a result, I am a regular visitor to my local Chiropractor.

HKCinemagic : What do you think of the trend of incorporating HK action style in recent US blockbusters or TV series?

S T : I love it in the Matrix series, Transporter 1&2 etc... But hate it in Scoobee-Doo or Charlie's Angels. If the story doesn't motivate it and the actors can't sell it believably without being doubled to hell, then I won't like it. If well choreographed and action isn't shot right, it looks like shit, (or almost as bad)...nothing special. On Buffy, We would work up very cool stuff but run out of time to shoot it well and have to cut the cool stuff out and simplify so the actors could do it while talking their scene. I believe though that we did some cool work as loyal as re-runs can attest. As much as this genre has done for me, sometimes I just like some good raw Macbeth/Rashoman Style... No Wires and Acrobatics. But, everything has its place. If Hollywood employs HK inspired action without the emotional content and all the attendant elements a good Chinese director will employ, it'll be off. No matter HK style meshed with Hollywood traditions to become nearly inseparable at this point. I heard that many influential HK directors in the sixties were watching ‘ Hawaii Five-O' and being influenced by their 20-22 frame per second fight and action scenes. What Goes around Comes around...right back at you! Right?

So long and thanks for all your hard work on this great site! ... Salute!

Steve Tartalia
HKCinemagic : Thank you .

Steve Tartalia interview in 2007 by Whedonopolis

2011-06-09T11:19:00.002+02:00

Surfing by internet, looking for information about Steve Tartalia, one of the most appreciated gweilohs from Hong Kong cinema, along Jonathan Isgar & Mike Abbot, I got to find this wonderful interview here:
http://www.whedonopolis.com/article.php?story=20090120221202477

I Have enjoyed this interview so much that I can't do anything else but "cut & paste" it here. Anyway I beg all of you, dear visitors & friends, to check it at its original site at http://www.whedonopolis.com

STEVE TARTALIA INTERVIEW by Maria G

Whedonopolis: Where were you born and how did you get started in all of this?

Steve Tartalia: Born in Rhode Island, raised for a few years in L.A., then off to Florida. The first inkling of anything having to do with the future of being a stuntman was probably swinging on vines on my way to school.

We had a little Southern Florida jungle between my house and my school for the first grade. So my friend Dewey and I had a little route to school through the jungle, so we could swing from vine to vine like Tarzan all the way to school. So that, and building the little tree houses, and playing Batman and Spiderman and jumping around and jumping off of things, that’s my humble beginning, I reckon.

W: Did you have any acting experience before going to Hong Kong?

ST: Yes, I was living in New York for many, many, many years out of high school, and I was doing a whole variety of things there in the music business. I also studied with Stella Adler. I was in the merchandising business and I came up with a toy “E.T.” finger that we got approved by Steven Spielberg, and we got it licensed and made a lot of money in one year. So, all I did was go to martial arts, and gymnastics, and I took acting classes and studied with Stella Adler when she was alive, quite a number of years ago. (chuckles) I learned just enough to know how to work, to act, but I didn’t study enough to become a really good actor. Unfortunately, it was all obliterated when I went to Hong Kong. The kind of acting they want you to do is all cartoonish and one-dimensional. You play an FBI or a CIA agent, or a hit man, and there’s no depth to the character; they want you to overact, so whatever I learned, I pretty much unlearned there… And it took a while to come out of that!

W: How did you find yourself in Hong Kong working in movies?

ST: It was a dream of mine, watching the old Jackie Chan movies, before the “Rush Hour” series and all that. (You know, when he wore his kung fu pants, and he’s doing animal-style kung fu, with the old teacher, and he’s living in a cave, and he’s poor? That kind of movies.) And then studying kung fu... anybody studying kung fu or martial arts, it’s a dream to jump into the screen and dance with your heroes, with Jackie Chan or Chuck Norris or whoever it is. I got a call one day, inviting me to go over and work, and it turned into three years and 30 films or so in Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia, all of Southeast Asia, but primarily—The first job was in Thailand, with Robin Shou of “Mortal Kombat.” He was the lead good guy, and I was the lead bad guy. It was called ”Death Cage”.

W: Were you always the bad guy?

ST: One time, the co-director of that, who’s the son of a famous director, Ken Russell –his name is Toby Russell- he was sort of co-directing, co-producing “Death Cage”, and later on, when he did his own film, he hired me as the good guy, undercover, and that was fantastic. That was sort of a Chinese “Scarface” type of story. I was the good cop trying to get the bad guy who’d killed my partner, the usual plotline like that. To be a good guy means that you have to fight really hard, but you also get to win, which is nice for a change.

W: Are there many Caucasian actors in Hong Kong? Were you one of the main ones?

ST: Nobody’s big if you’re Caucasian over there, unless you’re Hollywood-big, but if you’re a journeyman actor- stunt person or action actor over there… the only one who got really “her name on the marquee” big was Cynthia Rothrock. She’s not doing too much these days; she’s raising a family and whatnot, but she’s done about 40 films or so over there, maybe more, I don’t know. She was the only girl at the time, the first one, and she hit it big, became a bit of a name, and went on to have her name on starring credits and onto the marquee with top billing. Right after that period, there’s a rush of films for three years, from the late ‘80s to early ‘90s, where they all wanted to have one or two or three Westerners in each film, and there was a nucleus of six or eight of us who just mobbed up all the bad guy work, all of it. If we weren’t working on something with a decent budget, we were working on something extremely low budget just for fun, just to stay in shape, and often those’d be very fun. Put it this way: Working for $7 an hour. (laughs)

W: Oh, Lord!

ST: There was a company—If you weren’t working for a week, instead of going to the gym every day, you’d stay tuned up and get a job with one of these guys, put on some hokey ninja outfit and go off in a pine forest somewhere and just have a good time, just chop-socking it up. That was for $7 an hour, and then they’d raise you $0.50 per film, and you’d top out at $10/hour. And what that company would do was, they’d put two films together; they’d take footage from an old film that’d never been seen, that’d never been sold, and they’d look at it with an eye towards making something new. So they’d write a new storyline, including about a week’s worth of new shooting, and combine the two, so inevitably there comes a time when you have to do a scene with somebody in another movie, maybe from another country… (laughs all around) So they developed this style that became quite popular with the producers, maybe not the people; the people would watch it, but… So, you would do a scene with someone sitting at a table, and they would sort of match it to an extent, they’d look at the person from the other movie and then they’d shoot a reverse of you accepting the mission to go retrieve the Golden Buddha, or avenge somebody’s master, and then you’d take off and go do it. So, they put two and two together… I did like 10 of those; I know the name of only one or two. They were so bad; they’re funny! The dubbing would be hideous!

W: What’s the company’s name?

ST: It was IFD… One of them was “Ninja Thundercats”. If you can find it, please let me know. And Sophia Crawford, who was one of Buffy’s stunt doubles in the early days, she and I knew each other from Hong Kong, and she did one or two IFD films in the early days. We were in something horrible together for IFD, where she was some sort of an evil goddess. The storyline might have been something right out of “Buffy,” but the budget was something far, far, far less. And yet, they shoot in 35 mm., you know? They do a reasonable job, but the corners that they cut…

W: How and when did you transition back to the States? Why did you come back?

ST: Well, with China about to take over in a few years’ time, the kind of work that I was doing was petering out. My friends and I were wondering what we were going to do; different people started different businesses, like making handbags or sweatshop pants and selling them, and I had to leave. It was just time to go, so I left. Also, I had some immigration troubles…

W: Let’s not go there…

ST: (chuckles) No, the thing with all of us was—the four or five Americans had to leave the country and come back every month, to get another tourist visa for another month. So, if I was working on a movie, I had to tell them, “I can’t work until 10AM on this day, because I have to fly away for my visa and come back.” Nobody’s giving you a work permit there. So, for three years, in and out, in and out, in and out, and they ask you, “What are you doing here?” For one, two, three years, and everybody had a different story. Mine was that I was practicing Tai Chi in the park with a master. Somebody else was a food critic and carried articles with him. Sometimes they’d ask me to demonstrate it –“We don’t believe you”- and I’d have to do a few moves… (shows off some arm movements) “Okay, okay!” (mimes stamping the passport) But then, over time, they’re like, “We’ve seen you in a movie. You’re working here in movies!” (I was in a movie with Jet Li called ”Once Upon a Time in China”and something else called “The Middleman”) “We saw you; we don’t believe you! You’re working! Go talk to immigration headquarters.” So, if they catch you working, they want you out.

W: So what year was this?

ST: (sighs) Oh, God! 1992? Late ’91?

W: How did you get involved with “Buffy”? Were you always James’ stunt double?

ST: What happened was, I was visiting L.A.—and no, I wasn’t. Somebody pointed a stuntman in L.A. that I was visiting, and he asked me if I knew Sophia. I said, “Of course, from Hong Kong!” He said, “Well, she’s Buffy’s stunt double, you oughta go say hi to her,” and I thought that was a swell idea, because I hadn’t seen her in many years, since Hong Kong, and I’d heard she was doing really well, first with “Power Rangers” and then with “Buffy”, on TV, so I went to say hi and her fiancé at the time gave me a job. And the way that came about was, James at the time was appearing occasionally? He’d done three or four episodes…

W: He was recurring, and then he was made regular.

ST: Right! So, before that, it was explained to me that they’d tried a few fellas out, and nobody was quite right, and the day I stepped in was—

We were doing the interview in a public place, and at this point, we got interrupted by a rather rambunctious homeless man in a heated argument with… probably Marcie (from Buffy’s “Out of Sight, Out of Mind”), I guess, because we couldn’t see anybody else.

ST: It’s always so colorful around here! (laughs all around) Some of these guys are fine, but I’ve had to bounce a couple of them outta here…

W: Wait, you bounce people? That’s cool!

ST: Yeah, in the coffee shop. If they get too rowdy? Yeah… No, one guy just went insane in the hair salon over there, and I had to put him in a headlock…

W: That totally rocks!

ST: I got a free haircut out of it! (laughs all around) I still get a good discount… Where was I?

W: You were talking about coming in on “Buffy”…

ST: Yeah, what’s the episode where James has a ring on him?

W: “The Harsh Light of Day.”

ST: That was my first work on there. On the first day, we shot the entire fight outside in one day, pretty much… Can I tell you a story?

W: Sure!

ST: On “Harsh Light of Day” it was the first time I really got to see Sophia, and we had a lot of catching up to do. So, first things first, we rehearsed the whole fight, and the boss said, “Okay, I’m gonna leave, you guys rehearse” and walked away, but we didn’t feel we needed to, we already had it in our heads. So, we were just sitting down on the grass there, and the stunt coordinator and some of the producers and people came to look at the rehearsal, and the boss freaked out. “Why aren’t you guys rehearsing? What’s up? They need to see the fight!” “Relax, we have it.” And so we stood up and did the fight. “Okay… that’s cool.” Cos it was long and… anyway, they were impressed with the rehearsal, so I heard right on the spot, “If you want this job, would you like to have it? The producers like you, and if you’ll dye your hair, they want to keep you.”

W: So, you had to go through the whole bleaching of the hair with the Sweet-N-Low and all that?

ST: No, the Sweet-N-Low is something special for James only, his special superstition. (laughs heartily) That’s special for the star! (more laughs)

W: You just had to suffer the burn! So I have a couple of James’ quotes – back in April, at Sci-Fi Grand Slam, a fan asked him about the jump that Spike does on the coffin in the musical episode, whether it was actually him, as she had heard, and James said: “Yeah, that was all Steve Tartalia, yeah. Basically, if my feet were on the ground, it’s probably me. But, if my feet were off the ground, whether it’s because I’m flying through the air about to hurt myself, or because I’m doing triple leg combinations and getting really fancy? If one foot’s on the ground, it’s maybe me. But if both feet are off the ground going (makes swooshing noises), that’s Steve.” He also added he was there for the entire shooting of that coffin scene, and then was asked about an incident with flatulence on your part at that scene? First he said, “You guys listen to that crap a lot!” And then the fan said she “knows one of the men involved in moving the coffin, and that it had been actually his fault (not yours, the guy raising the coffin). “I was standing on the side, man. I don’t know; I didn’t smell anything!” Then he sings your praises as follows: “Steve Tartalia was a godsend. He came to us straight out of Hong Kong; he was the premiere Caucasian actor in Hong Kong, where they don’t know the meaning of the word ‘safety.’ He was so good, he made me wanna throw up.”

ST: Wow!

W: And I have one more, from Fangoria’s Weekend of Horrors, during his Sunday panel. James said he’s lived his life like “a disposable Q-tip” (Steve laughs) because he’s had knee surgery, he’s broken a foot, he’s got his back messed up, and so he worries about “how many more years of pretending to be youthful I have, because I’ve done a lot of damage. If I exercise, I’m good; if I don’t, I get creaky. On “Angel”, I did a lot of my own stunts, and I could barely walk. I was crawling to the chiropractor across the street, and people almost run me over!” He said he’s now better and can jump –and he started jumping on stage, actually- “and I’m also smarter too, because I’d let the stuntman do his job. There’s no need for it; let Steve Tartalia make me look good.” Care to reply? (laughs all around)

ST: …

W: He wants to kill James! (laughs all around)

ST: No, no, you gotta love him; he’s really kind, and a lot of what he says is true, but he’s also… what a brother!

W: He also said on the featurette about the stunts of “Buffy” that you are as much Spike as he is.

ST: That’s beautiful; that’s really nice. Two things- from the very beginning on “The Harsh Light of Day,” when they started shooting the fight with me and Sophia, and James is watching the fight to see where he’s gonna pluck in, he saw how much they were shooting with Sophia and me and went, “Why didn’t anybody come get me? Help me, help me.” I told him, ‘James, I’m just doing what I’m told right now, but, yes…” So from that point on, we developed a relationship where he was asked by the boss, or if he wasn’t, or if there wasn’t enough time, I’d go out of my way and he’d go out of his way to learn as much as he could, because the reality is that he would do 9/10ths of the fight, or even more. He’s being very kind right now. Overall, as time went on, he’d do a huge amount, and there were moments where there’d be nothing for me to do, and he’d be doing a pretty complex fight. And his reactions were spot-on too! He’d get in a mood, and he’d whip his head and go flying and hit the deck and go slide up and pound up on a wall like that. And then, what a good boy! He goes and gives me credit for stuff like that, you know? He takes air; he takes flight. He knows how to fly! But, sometimes, if his neck was hurting or something like that, he had no problem with giving it up, and I had no problem with doing it then, too.

Now, about the musical episode, at the moment that Stunt Spike lands on the coffin, and the pallbearers lift it, one of them, I think Pallbearer #6, passed gas. I learned it’d been him later, but everybody thought it’d been me. So, I went up to Pallbearer #6 and asked him to please step up and say it’d been him, and he said, “Absolutely not! You’re on your own!” (laughs all around) Because everybody had heard it clearly as they were rolling sound at that time. You can’t hear it too clearly, but I had the dailies from that time, and it’s clear; you can see everybody laughing. It was very hard not to laugh at that incident; I had to wait until the cut, and then I laughed so hard, I fell off. I couldn’t live that down for a while. The boss, John Medlen, was a prankster. I think it was only one week later, we were shooting in the back of the “Buffy” lot, in the street where all the little stores were. Joss was still directing, the whole team from the musical was there –I think they were finishing that episode- and off to the side there was a 1K light that was shining very brightly. John called me to the side, he stopped me in the light, and says, “Come here, I want to talk to you.” And it was very close to where Joss was directing, and then he passed gas as loudly as he could, and took off running, leaving me in the light. (laughs) And everybody turned and they saw me standing there…

W: That’s evil!

ST: (laughing) On, my God! But what can you do?

W: I understand you and John got hurt shooting “Smashed”?

ST: Oh, yes! John Medlen was horribly, horribly, horribly hurt. I did get hurt, but in a separate incident. Was it really during “Smashed”? (thinks) Yeah, we had a whole day shooting that episode, where we’re bringing down the house and Buffy and Spike are fighting and kissing and fighting and kissing… In another part of that scene, Spike has to hang from the chandelier, and instead of letting me demonstrate it for the camera crew and the director, John insisted on doing it himself. He liked to get in there; John Medlen is a very good stuntman himself, and if you’re running the show and you’re the boss, you get frustrated after a while. You want to get out there and shake a leg, you know? You wanna move yourself, and so he said, “Let me do this, Steve,” and he grabbed the chandelier and he swung… And it broke and it fell on top of him, on his face!

W: Oof!

ST: Yeah, he fell a good 7 ft., because he’s swinging and the legs come up, and the thing broke, and it pancaked on top of his face. It was a very close call; it was horrible. Could have been worse, he broke his nose. Thank God it wasn’t worse. He went straight to the hospital and that was that.

W: And you got injured too how?

ST: On “Smashed,” at the end, they go through the ceiling and they hit the deck. They cut and the next episode is obvious there was some activity between the two episodes. On that fall, our legs got tangled in the breakaway ceiling, and it caused us to tilt at an angle so that my head would be the first thing to hit the ground. And it did, and it knocked me out. Basically, I came to with some flashlights and smelling salts or something, and then they just redid the ceiling and I went again. (laughs) The funny thing is, it might as well have been two sacks of potatoes, because you can’t see us. You just see something falling with a bunch of debris, so… Sometimes it works like that; you think it’s a big stunt and then you don’t see something, you don’t see it’s you or the character.

W: I have one quick question about the fight Spike has with Glory at the hospital, in Season 5, where he hits the X-ray thingy with his back, then lands on the table full of instruments and falls off. Was that difficult to do?

ST: Even though it looks complicated, it was more of a precision thing. I was just putting together a stunt reel the other day, and I have some behind the scene footage of that, but I couldn’t use it because it’s really too small. Often in a small space like that, we don’t have enough room for a catapult, but we have enough room for a mini trampoline. If you don’t have enough space to run and hit the trampoline, you have to stand on it and jump up, bounce and hit the thing and put yourself exactly in one place. I think the only trouble with that was… I needed to roll off, not land and hit hard. I think I had to do it twice because the first time I hit it and then rolled, and they wanted to see me sliding off. So that was two takes.

W: Were you happy to move on to “Angel” once “Buffy” was over?

ST: Oh, yes!

W: Tell us about working on “Angel”, a show that’d been on the air for some time, and here you come, the new kids on the block…

ST: Well, it’s like this: Most producers and writers like to keep their fans in suspense, and so the talk that Spike was gonna go on to “Angel” was just talk, and certainly there was a big rumor mill going, but there was no certainty in my mind, nor in James’ mind, or so I understand. And then it happened, but he was a ghost. That’s great for James, he’s got a lot of ghost acting, but in my head, I just sank. I thought, “My God, if you’re a ghost, you can’t do any action! There’s nothing to do! You’re just gonna be a ghost, going through walls and talking to people.” And then they had the big ghost fight, so I was really happy with that bit. That was a nice, fun run too that was cut short, as you know. And the beautiful little campaign to “Save Angel” was really beautiful too; I still have like five or six of the candy bars. I think I actually had one for a midnight snack a few months ago. It’s a pity that, despite you guys getting on the news and all that with the campaign, it didn’t work.

W: Yes, that is part of the reason, I think, why Joss doesn’t want to do any more TV, what happened with “Angel” and “Firefly”. However, you’ll be happy to know that as of this Fall, “Angel” is coming back in comic book form, co-written by Joss and Brian Lynch, from IDW, who’s written great Spike comics (“Spike: Asylum” and “Spike: Shadow Puppets”)

ST: Oh, great, I didn’t know that! Any chance of the comic books becoming a live action Spike movie?

W: We don’t know, but according to what James said in the panel he did on Friday at Fangoria’s Weekend of Horrors, when Joss tried to take the project of a Spike movie to other studios, like Paramount, there was no interest.

ST: Oh.

W: If there were a chance of James becoming Spike again, would you jump at the chance of being the daredevil part of Spike too?

ST: I wouldn’t say I’d jump at the chance; I’d rise to the occasion, if offered.

W: Cool! What are you working on right now? What have you been up to?

ST: I had a little Internet business for the last couple of years that I’m slowly getting out of, but let’s see… Right after “Angel”, I went on to most of the second to last season of Alias doing stunts for Michael Vartan’s character, Vaughn. Then I did The Legend of Zorro, down in Mexico, playing a bad guy with Nick Chinlund. He was the guy with the wooden teeth, and I was one of his henchmen. That was some fun! I hurt my knee on that job, so I had to take it easy for a while… And last fall into Christmas, I had a good run on “Pirates of the Caribbean 3.” Boy, memory is kind with anything painful and hard! It was a really difficult shoot for everybody, with 100 mph winds and rain--- the boat battle at the end of the movie, where there’s a whirlpool? There were two boats on hydraulic lifts to make ‘em tip and turn, with giant rainmakers and windmakers and 40 or 50 people on each boat, just hacking away, lighting cannons and flying and all that stuff… It was great fun.

W: Are you working on anything right now?

ST: I’m starting to train and prepare for “Indiana Jones IV.”

W: Mike Massa is working on “Indiana Jones IV.”

ST: Oh, good! Good, good, good… I’ve no idea what I’m gonna be doing; I’m just in line for it. The boss is Gary Powell, who was the stunt coordinator for “Zorro.”

W: Tell us about working with Mike on “Angel”, specifically in the fight between Spike and Angel in “Destiny.”

ST: (pleased sigh) Oh! Well, Mike wasn’t in “Destiny”, sorry to disappoint you, but at the time he was working on another film, “Iron Fist” or something like that. The guy doubling Angel then was JJ Perry, another great stuntman. That episode was… well, it was a three-day fight. How was it? It was bliss! (laughs) Just to look at the script, and see the fight was 15 pages long! It makes a stunt double’s heart just sing! You just get a really big, warm, fuzzy feeling, and you feel such happiness and camaraderie and joy with the writers and the people who did it. Stephen S. DeKnight wrote it, and Skip Schoolnick directed it, and I was going out of my way, going around the corner whenever there was a little break, or hiring someone to keep Skip in ice-blended “Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf” beverages, that were very popular. We kept finding people to go get cases with added double shots of espresso to keep us going. If you see that scene again, and it looks very kinetic, it’s largely fueled by a lot of caffeine from Coffee Bean.

W: Yeah, James mentioned that David (Boreanaz) had had knee surgery, and they had him doing triple spin kicks and stuff, and he grew to respect David a lot that day, because he was almost limping and they had him doing all that complicated stuff.

ST: When we were doing the rebar fight part with the stunt double, we worked that up and we shot our version of it. When it came time for Angel doing his, he didn’t learn the whole fight, we just needed some plug-in pieces for him, and so… (cracks up) I can’t even say it! Oh, my God!

W: Go ahead, whatever it is, we can take it.

ST: I figured, because his knee was bad, we did something called a loop, a combination of techniques, say, high, low, high, medium, low, like this. And I figured, “Well, he’s gonna go at a modest clip because his knee is hurting.” He pressed me so hard and fast; he came at me… I remember the whole loop choreography going to hell, and him just coming at me full-tilt boogie with his stick, and I had to really defend myself for real, which is good when you have a good stuntman to work with, but I always worry with actors. I remember leaving with some really sore, bruised up fingers that day. But I was super impressed that he had the energy to press me hard enough to give me a run for my money… And all the air jumps Spike did on the wire, when he’s coming down and is trying to skewer Angel from high to low and from low to high? That’s all James.

W: Really?!

ST: Yes, and he did it beautifully! Couldn’t have been better.

W: You sound like a proud papa.

ST: Oh, no, when he nailed something big that should be kind of, “Come on, James, relax! Let the stuntman do it”? When he does it? Oh, yeah, pride!

W: So, was James a good student of yours? Did you guys become friends?

ST: (ponders) I couldn’t call him a student by any stretch, because James has enough background in stage combat and movement, and as an actor interpreting all this stuff, he really could be a stuntman if he wanted to. If he weren’t acting and he’d applied himself, and he couldn’t say a few words naturally as well as he can, he could easily be a stuntman. Teaching him the moves is just showing him the choreography; it’s hardly at all having to teach him something. It never felt like that, honestly, because he’s so bright and capable, even something complex that would have me having to practice it, it’s the same for him. If anybody has to get on a wire-- in the last episode of “Buffy”, “Chosen”, there were a couple of great Spike moments that never made it that we were rehearsing for. Spike had to get up on a wire and--- he was fighting with three people, and he had to be on the wire and have some tension, then punch or kick or something, and then jump up in the air, spin 1.5 revolutions, kick guys #3 and #1 over there, and then land like Jet Li, in a “Crouching Tiger” sort of a move. And I would have had to practice it in the same way, and he got it in two or three pulls. He got it pretty good! This is not super-easy stuff; this is stuff that any good stunt guy would struggle for and rehearse, and he’d just take the same amount of time as just about anyone, you know? So… he’s like a colleague, really. That’s the way I look at it.

W: We got to the final part of the interview, and that means it’s times for the questions from “Inside the Actor’s Studio.”

ST: I love “Inside the Actor’s Studio” interviews! How many times have you watched them and wept towards the end? There’s very few things that make me cry, but something happens when the music comes on at the end that gets me weepy-eyed. Right?

W: Yeah… I actually cried this morning, because TNT showed “Not Fade Away”, the last episode of “Angel”, and I cry without fail when Wes is dying and Illyria asks him, “Would you like me to lie to you now?” and he says, “Yes, thank you, yes.”, and she turns into Fred… I just lose it every time.

ST: Aww! Tell me, of all of “Buffy” and “Angel,” who made you cry the most?

W: Spike, of course!

ST: I rest my case. What was that scene? In season 5 or season 6, Spike is sitting on a step with Buffy, and I think her mother had just died?

W: No, she just found out her mother is sicker than they thought. It’s the scene at the end of “Fool for Love”.

ST: Right! And she doesn’t want to talk to him, so he sits with her and he’s about to pat her on the back, but he doesn’t do it. (Actually, he does pat her back, repeatedly.- Editor's Note) I was watching them film that, and I was like… (dries tears pretending he’s fixing his hair) You know? Even live, not even with music on the show, even on set! I got weepy; I had to go and hide. You know how guys do it, when you pretend you’re fixing your hair, and you’re just… (moves hand over eye first, and then on to the back of the head)

”Answering Pivot’s Questionnaire is hard!”

W: Okay, the key to Pivot’s Questionnaire is not to overthink it, because then you get frustrated. So, Steve, what's your favorite word?

ST: “Lollygagging.”

W: What's your least favorite word?

ST: “Cancelled.”

W: What's your favorite sound?

ST: Honestly, it’s my motorcycle when it’s running right. It’s a Kawasaki H2750 Widowmaker.

W: What's your least favorite sound?

ST: My neighbors, when they’re doing it.

W: Okay! On that note…

ST: I’m sorry!

W: No, it’s fine! What turns you on?

ST: Enthusiasm.

W: What turns you off?

ST: Impatience.

W: What's your favorite curse word?

ST: I like ‘em all; I don’t have a favorite… (thinks) *censormode*tard.

W: Nice! What profession other than yours would you ever like to attempt?

ST: Kung fu master. Tai-Chi master.

W: What profession other than yours would you never like to attempt?

ST: Any of the jobs that you see on “Dirty Jobs,” particularly the guy that puts the rubber bands around the lobster claws. Up in Maine, in the winter, there’s someone who has to take the lobster and put a rubber band on their claws. Imagine having to do that for 12 hours a day!

W: And finally, if Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates?

ST: “He’s paid his dues. Let him in.”

W: Thank you so much for talking to us.

Shooting around Kowloon Tong Part 2

2011-06-07T10:02:00.011+02:00

Live Hard directed in 1989 by Yuen Cheung Yan & choreographed by the Yuen Clan is not a IFD / FILMARK / ASSO ASIA movie & the Lai Brothers has nothing to do with it but I have my reasons to include this film in the blog because there is a thin link among Live Hard, Godfrey Ho & the working ways that made famous IFD & Filmark.

Hong Kong art cover for Live Hard, this version doesn't include the new added scenes by Godfrey Ho

Last year, I managed to talk to Steve Tartalia about his experiences & live in Hong Kong during the golden age of HK action movies. An "average" fan would have asked him about his movies with Jackie Chan or his experience while he was working with other big names such as Tsui Hark but I since I am a weirdo I just asked about his movies for Godfrey Ho & IFD & he was kind enough to give me many answers, some of them delighted me like the ones related to Live Hard.

As it has been said above, Live Hard was shot by Yuen Cheung Yan & it was released in Hong Kong as another action movie starred by Simon Yam & "angel" star Elaine Lui who were supported by many kung fu stars who were recycling themselves into modern day action heroes. Some people know this movie was released in the western markets with new added scenes starred by the regular gweilohs & chinese staff seen in most of IFD & Filmark movies...what probably people don't know is those new added scenes for the international version of Live Hard were directed by the one & the only Godfrey Ho.

Steve Tartaglia remembers the shooting of his death in Live Hard. Godfrey was the man behind it.

At the time of Live Hard, Godfrey Ho was already a master editing new fotage in other's people movies. So he was the chosen one to give an international look to Live Hard & since the original cut was shot almost completely around the streets of Kowloon Tong, Godfrey didn't have to think too much about the locations for his new shots.

So all this story comes just to tell you here we have Verbena Road seen at the very first begining after the title credits when a couple of hired killers try to kill Steve Tartalia.

Today, Verbena Road in Kowloon Tong remains almost unchanged. Check the wall blocks in both pics.

TO BE CONTINUED

Shooting around Kowloon Tong Part 1

2011-06-03T01:28:00.009+02:00

Kowloon Tong is well-known by two different but related reasons such as it is a place full of love hotels (Do I need to explain what those nice places are????) & because Bruce Lee's house has its location, also turned into a love hotel...just imagine the situation of yourself smooching & "training" with your couple among the walls where Bruce Lee trained his muscles!!!! What a ghoulish experience, right???

But Bruce Lee's house was not the chosen place by Filmark to shoot their scenes around Kowloon Tong, it was O MAS Hotel, a place in the same sidewalk that has a small park close, an adventage to put the camera & enjoy some more angles.

Ninjas in love hotels???? Everything is possible in Filmark movies!

Bruce Lee's home was / is exactly located at 41 Cumberland Road, a place that became very cinematographic in spite the kind of bussiness that are run in the area. Filmark used Cumberland road to shoot many of their ninja / action scenes & they always put on the screen O MAS HOTEL.

It seems Tommy Cheng enjoyed O Mas hotel a lot.

IFD also shot many scenes around althought never offered us the O Mas Hotel directly, we just spotted it in the distance in movies like War City: Die or Win but Filmark movies directed by Tommy Cheng Kei Ying were the ones that always had an excuse to show us the place. Was O Mas hotel a sponsor for Filmark? who knows?

Cumberland road hasn't changed too much since the 80's

Ninja Force of assassins showed us O Mas Hotel several times during its 85 running time minutes and we see one of the main actors going out from the place for no reason since we ncer saw him going inside.

People go to love hotel in couples, but our hero in Ninja force of assassins is a poor lonely man who lives in O Mas Hotel with no companion...what an strange guy.

Then we have Ninja in Action, a movie where O MAS hotel is not only showed to us from outside but also inside: Stuart Smith has an encounter with his girlfriend after they have been attacked by some ninjas.

Jump, come with me, I would like to show you something...

Blue slips in O Mas Hotel...O Mas Hotel is too blue!

Cumberland Road hasn't change too much since Tommy Cheng kei Ying shot there his movies. We can check it by ourselves using google earth tools. O Mas Hotel only changed his original label where a gentleman in a red coat invited us to enter & have a nice time.

Two different angles from cumberland Road & O Mas Hotel

To Be Continued!

Attackafant Entertainment presents....

2011-05-23T09:57:00.003+02:00

Here we bring you the 2 new trailers from ATTACKAFANT ENTERTAINMENT of The Killer Elephants & Thunder Of Gigantic Serpent. Both movies will be avaliable on DVD for the very first time shortly.
These trailers are not from old VHS tapes but directly from IFD. The DVDs will offer the same quality what will allow us to enjoy these titles in a way we haven't done yet!

For extra info & comments ,please visit NinjaDixon blog

The Spy Inferno Pressbook

2011-05-17T09:40:00.004+02:00

I was rewatching Filmark's THE SPY INFERNO when I just remembered SPANNICK from Cinehound forum had kindly uploaded a lot of pressbooks of IFD & Filmark & I knew the one from The Spy Inferno was among them. So, I think it would be nice to upload it here as well. All the credits must be for Spannick & his kindness.

The original pressbook was used as design for the spanish art cover. Filmark's art designer was lazier than IFD's because he didn't change a bit the original thai artwork.

The opening title credits from the Spanish tape. The tape also included the ogirinal trailer.

Filmark's pressbook didn't include a single pic of the thai original movie. All the still pics were about the new added shots that were directed by Donald Kong & Ex-venom Sun Chien

Tom Kelly starred a good bunch of war movies at Filmark, he ended doing a small cameo as a Zombie in The Hunter Destroyer, the sequel of Robovampire.

The Spy Inferno at Suer Pooparn

2011-05-15T12:07:00.004+02:00

The Spy inferno at Suer Pooparn would be a nice title if Suer Pooparn were a place somewhere in the South East of Asia but it is not. Suer Pooparn is, again , the original thai title of a movie that was bought by Tomas Tang to release it in the international markets as The Spy Inferno.

Original thai VCD for Suer Pooparn

The Spy Inferno was another war title offered to us by Filmark International at the end of the eighties. I remember I was in the high school reading a cinema magazine when I found among the pages the advertisement of a bunch Filmark movies that were already for rent on most of Spanish video rental shops. The art covers were just great showing us helicopters, explosions, heavy arms & even ninjas in some of those artworks.

Spanish video tape for The Spy Inferno / Espias en el infierno the edited version with a new subplot of Suer Pooparn

The international artwork of The Spy Inferno keeps the main elements of its original Thai cover so it was quite easy to identify it. The story of Suer Pooparn is a topic anti-comunist war movie that was very popular in Thailand back into the 80's. But this topic plot also contains original elements such as a kind of group leaded by Sorapong Chatri who wears a futuristic clothes in the jungle & carries special weapons a la Power Rangers.

Some screen shots from the thai VCD (taken from www.ethaiCd.com)

The new added fotage is starred by Tom Kelly a former american football player who made a career in many Filmark war productions such as Battle for the treasure, Fatal Command, Mission War Flame and many others. His pal- in -arms in all those adventures was Bob Keaton the guy who became Robovampire & also played a good bunch of Filmark movies after he left Taiwan where he had previously worked with Lo Rei in several movies.

Some more screen shots from the thai VCD (taken from www.ethaiCd.com)

Filmark War Movies are not my favourite stuff but I have to accept they contain special moments ( gory, silly, hard to believe...etc) that give them that flavour that only good exploitations films know how to deliver them in the correct way.

Whoever is interested on the original thai film can purchase it at www.ethaicd.com while the Filmark print is not too easy to get. The Spanish video tape is one of the hardest to find tape since it was released around 1990. I don't know another version of it, althought I supposed it had to be released in more countries.

Taglines wanted!

2011-05-10T15:43:00.006+02:00

Few days ago, Ninjadixon published this interesting post. Golden Ninja Warrior Chronicles is devoted to IFD / FILMARK / ASSO ASIA movies, so I think I must copy & paste this info to allow more people know ATTACKAFANT is going to release for first time on DVD some of the most interesting IFD movies:

Attackafant needs a new tagline for Thunder of Gigantic Serpent!

The existing taglines for Thunder of Gigantic Serpent are a bit lame, even if they are cool in that unique IFD-way:

"Today he was only a household pet. Tonight he threatens to destroy the world"

"A terrible legless creature brings the world to its knees"

"What would you do if you were a serpent, 300 feet long, and someone threatened your only friend? For Mosler, the only answer is "Kill""

None of them are really that good. A bit to long, a bit to... lame. With all respect to IFD and Mr Joseph Lai of course! So join our Facebook-page and help Attackafant Entertainment to come up with a new cool tagline. The price is the honor of helping Mosler rule the world again!

Get some inspiration from the cool trailer down below!

Reseña en español de HALCON DE FUEGO por Churri

2011-05-08T10:34:00.004+02:00

De nuevo, mi gran amigo Churri, uno de los usuarios de honor de ZHK, ha tenido a bien regalarnos un completo y genial desmenuzamiento de otra película de la Filmark de Tomas Tang. Aqui os lo dejo y espero que la disfruteis tanto como yo.

Carátula española de Halcon de fuego que basaba su diseño en escenas de la peli de la Cannon El guerrero americano. Las escenas de la contraportada corresponden a la serie The Master en la cual Lee Van Cleef hacia de ninja

Yuen (el siempre espléndido Hwang Jang Lee), General del temible Campamento Del Tigre trae a su jefe la cabeza de un líder rebelde a la corrupta dinastía Ching, la de los temibles manchúes, junto a los japoneses, los enemigos más arraigados del pueblo chino en sus películas. Yuen consigue la lista de los rebeldes, pero, ¡ay!, sólo la mitad… aunque lleva diez años buscándola. Jura a su demoníaco jefe que encontrará el resto de la lista a cualquier precio....

Y en Shaolin, vemos a los monjes practicar con lanzas, manrikigusaris, espadas, bos, lucha individual, por parejas… y comprobamos su altísimo nivel marcial, mas no todo es lucha, también vemos a Chan (Suen Gwok Min) y otros estudiantes, zaherirse unos a otros, sobre todo a sus casi hermanos Hye Myung y Hye-oh Im, pero cuentan con el beneplácito del benévolo Abad Hun...

Yuen y su segundo (Ho Kei Cheong, espléndido luchador), buscan el resto de la lista, en poder (creen) de Lam, líder rebelde. Yuen, un gran malvado, tortura a presos o les ata dinamita al vientre con resultados explosivos. Un día, el segundo de Yuen y sus esbirros torturan a un infeliz y Chan, Hye Myung y Hye-oh Im lo impiden luchando contra ellos. Huyen al templo, y Hun impide a los manchúes atacar a los jóvenes. Lam intenta sin éxito matar a Yuen, pero se lleva la lista de rebeldes y pierde un Buda de jade. Al verlo, Yuen deduce que Lam está en Shaolin, donde se acercan los exámenes. Chan y ambos Hye muestran a Hun su gran perfección física y marcial, pero llegan Yuen y sus hombres, y registran el templo sin hallar nada. Yuen, frustrado, golpea a Hun, que no responde, pero recuerda que hace años le vió matar a un rebelde, aunque su hijo escapó. Hun lo llevó al templo… y lo llamó Chan.

Una carátula internacional de Halcon de Fuego que se corresponde más a su verdadero contenido

Yuen y Ho Kei juegan a un cruento ajedrez. Las fichas son muchachas, y las muertes reales. Una (Mei Lin) no quiere matar y huye seguida por los soldados pero logra matarlos. Herida, se refugia en el carro de alimentos de Chan y sus amigos. Los soldados ven sangre en el carro y les atacan, pero Lam les ayuda y en el templo, Hun salva la vida a Mei Lin. Yuen vuelve. Busca a Mei Lin y Lam, y hay terribles combates entre los monjes y Lam contra Yuen y Ho Kei. Hun y Yuen luchan brutalmente… y, por primera vez, Yuen no logra vencer a un rival, y se retira colérico, pero de noche ataca el monasterio por sorpresa, lo incendia y mata a todos los monjes… ¿A todos?, No, Hun, Lam, Mei Lin, Chan, Hye Myung y Hye-oh Im, los mejores, escapan y su venganza será terrible… No, las verdaderas batallas no se han librado aún, correrá mucha sangre…

DVD inglés de la Halcon de Fuego

Halcones de fuego es una delicia, una rara avis, una película atípica entre los productos de Filmark, usualmente llenas de occidentales escuchumizados, Robocops de saldo, delirios con ninjas multicromáticos, risibles vampiros chinos, hazañas bélicas imposibles y niños peleones. Es una película sin los insertos tan queridos a Tomas, seria, de Artes Marciales con mayúsculas, y no sólo “con” Artes Marciales, algo tan frecuente en las producciones de Filmark. Es una excelente película “de época” abarrotada de espléndidos combates, de fieras luchas. Destaca al fantástico Hwang Jang Lee, cuya espectacular técnica de pierna brilla esplendorosa, erigiéndose en el auténtico protagonista y mostrándose especialmente letal. Sus combates son tan extraordinarios como cabe esperar, o quizá mejores aún. Sin duda, algunas de sus mejores luchas están en ésta apasionante película, y el coreógrafo (el excelente luchador y actor Yen Shi Kwan, clásico y usual malvado en docenas de películas) tuvo aquí grandes aciertos, pues además de Hwang Jang Lee, contó con otros grandes y poderosos luchadores que muestran una excelente técnica: Suen Gwok Min, Hun, Ho Kei Cheung, Lam, Hye Myung y Hye-oh Im, aunque poco o nada conocidos, exhiben un salvaje poderío marcial, sus combates son largos y de intensidad brutal, violentos y devastadores (sobre todo en el tramo final de la película), y como luchadores demuestran que podrían figurar en cualquier gran producción china... pero Halcones de fuego es una película coreana. Oh, sí, la filmografía coreana, la eterna desconocida… su nombre real es “Solimsa Sadae”, y se estrenó el 25 de Agosto de 1984 dirigida por Woo Sang Park. Es otra de ésa infinita serie de películas adquiridas por Tomas Tang en Corea, Indonesia, Tailandia… que tras pasar por sus codiciosas manos, se convirtió en una producción “hongkonesa dirigida por Vincent Leung” [1]…

Escena inicial de Halcon de fuego

Halcones de fuego es una película rodada casi íntegramente en bellísimos exteriores, en especial el espléndido templo, aunque éste y los bellos paisajes son, como Hwang Jang Lee, coreanos… La pérfida mano de Tomas Tang se nota en el remontaje de la película, o quizá era así el original, mas lo dudo. Por ejemplo, casi al inicio, vemos, sin motivo, a Yuen luchar contra un monje y otro individuo, hecho al que no se menciona ni tiene trascendencia, pues no vuelve a aludirse a él. ¿Qué más da?… El fuerte de ésta gran película se basa en sus luchadores, sus combates y sus bellos exteriores. ¿Tiene algún punto débil?. Sí, el guión no es ninguna maravilla… pero claro, desconocemos el guión original, pues, como sabemos, ninguna película sigue incólume si Tomas Tang pone sus manos sobre ella, y sus remontajes y cambios de diálogos son legendarios. Así, “Halcones” está al nivel de tantas películas de Hong Kong de las que muchas no recibirían ningún premio al mejor guión, pero si uno ve una película del arte de la lucha pasada por el tamiz de Tomas Tang, no espera algo comparable a Operación Dragón, Érase una vez en China, Las 36 Cámaras De Shaolin o Tigre y dragón, evidentemente… No, Tomas no engaña a nadie, y su fuerte (sin matices peyorativos, más bien muy elogiosos) es el cine barato de acción y diversión garantizada... pero a veces, quizá sin proponérselo, consigue un producto espectacular... y seamos sinceros: Aunque sólo fuera por ofrecernos ésta espléndida película, Tomas Tang es un genio...

Escena del juego de ajedrez bizarro

Nota:[1] Vincent Leung Wing Chan fue el editor "oficial" de la practica totalidad de los fims distribuidos por la Asso Asia, la IFD y la Filmark. Vincent Leung también editó los futuros trabajos de Godfrey Ho fuera de la IFD, así como los de otros directores y técnicos que estuvieron ligados de una forma u otra a Joseph Lai y/o Tomas Tang. Aquí su filmografia según recoge la HKMDB

No encuentro palabras para agradecer a CHURRI el tiempo empleado para esta reseña y su especial colaboración con este blog que solo intenta echar algo de luz sobre un puñado de películas que todo aficionado al cine de acción asiatico conoce de oidas pero que muy pocos realmente conocen en realidad a pesar de haber sido distribuidas por todo el mundo.
Ojala Churri pueda regalarnos otra reseña pero esta vez mojandose de verdad y comentando algún corta y pega que fueron los que realmente hicieron famosos a Tomas Tang.

The Undercovers have been finally Uncovered

2011-05-02T11:10:00.007+02:00

Filmark was always after IFD. I mean if IFD distributed ninja movies, Filmark did the same, when IFD distributed modern day actioners, Filmark of course, also followed and so on when kickboxing movies were cool.

IFD used many thai movies as source movie for its "cut & paste" products and no need to say Filmark also bought a bunch of thai action movies to world wide distribution. Here we get THE UNDERCOVERS.

The movie tells us the story of a group of prisonners trying to scape & redeem themselves for their crimes & how a special commando traces them. We also have a thai spy movie about some missiles & a group of bandits trying to get them.

As usual in a Filmark movie, the new added scenes were directed by Donald Kong Do & ex -vemon Sun Chien. The actors were the same we saw in The Jaguar Project & other many films from Filmark althought his names were always different from movie to movie.

Spanish VHS art cover

Among the western actors, we have Brent Gilbert, credited as Brent Rivers who had worked previously worked for IFD in War City saga against Mike Abbott. Rivers, was from New Zealand, tried to raise himself as an action hero in a serious way. He played his roles at IFD with conviction & tried but failed to do the same at Filmark because he was too overacted on his movies at Tomas Tang's productions. Then he moved to the Philippines & he starred a very nice movie titled Battle Rats. After his filipino experience he went back to his homeland were he works in a radio station in Auckland.

French Art cover displayed at www.nanarland.com

Other Western actors from THE UNDERCOVERS were Paul John Stanners & Alan English, the red-haired guy from The project Jaguar. Both, Stanners & English worked for IFD & they also had roles in bigger productions such as Angel Enforcers or Burning Ambition just to mention 2 of them.
The Thai actors from the original movie are the popular Sorapong Chatri & Krung Svrilai who made hundreds of action films during the 70's & the 80's. Many of their movies were bought & released by Joseph Lai & Tomas Tang making them well-known among the people who enjoy asian trash cinema.

Brent Gilbert (aka Brent Rivers, aka Jack Gilber). Holding a machine gun Paul John Stanners & then we have Alan English who was Stanners artistic couple in several Filmark movies.

But the most important thing is I have UNCOVERED the original thai movie Tomas Tang bought to design his film. It is SAO 5

Original thai poster for SAO 5

Just check the two screenshots below.

Spanish VHS

Original thai dvd, avaliable on www.ethaicd.com

Pedro Ernyes: The Colombian Connection at IFD & Filmark

2011-04-19T09:44:00.009+02:00

Among the supporting western actors seen in dozens IFD & FILMARK movies there are a group of them who always catch the attention of the audience because they can play just a mere extra in a film & then a main role in another film or just a supporting role at IFD & main actor at Filmark. Pedro Ernyes, a colombia-born guy, was one of them. Maybe the most important one.

I am not sure but Eric / Joe Redner could also be another alyas for Pedro Ernyes.

Pedro Ernyes was first seen as extra in Ronnie Yu's LEGACY OF RAGE, the first film Brandon Lee played in Hong Kong. Ernyes has some screen time as a jail prisonner along other IFD & Filmark actors and opposite to the other ones, Ernyes was not ever seen again on more Hong Kong movies but he became a big figure at IFD & Filmark for several reasons.

Ernyes shared the screen with Stuart Smith, Jonathan Isgar & other Louis Roth's students many many times

After his experience on Legacy of Rage, Pedro Ernyes started a fruitful career on IFD doing many supporting roles in movies like Ninja Champion, Challenge the ninja, The ultimate ninja & many more movies starred by the "Louis Roth's actors team". But Ernyes was not only interested on playing his acting skills in front of the camera. Behind the scenes he recruited new talents ( backpackers & travellers) from Mirador Mansions & Chungking Mansions to play on IFD & Filmark productions. He became an agent for Joseph Lai & Tomas Tang & he used to collect 10 HK$ /hour out of the 50HK$ / hour the actors used to earn for his services.

Pedro Ernyes was too active in front & behind the scene for several years in Garley Gallery, the building where IFD & Filmark office were located back then.

His "behind the scenes" jobs, made him a bit unpopular among the other regular IFD / Filmark actors. Some people remember him as a shady character, others say he became dodgey & unreliable. Even so, he was able to pass from supporting roles at IFD to play main roles at Filmark playing the villain in movies such as Silver Dragon Ninja or The thundering ninja; in both movies he played an evil ninja who wants to control the world in the same way Fu-Manchu wanted to do the same.

Ernyes as Roger Kinski, the evil ninja who wants to control the world in Silver Dragon Ninja

His last role as ninja was at Ocean Shores NINJA VS NINJA, a movie that tried to imitate IFD & Fiilmark ways using a previously released movie just adding new scenes. Pedro Ernyes, as I stated above, became into an important guy for IFD & Filmark: he was an actor, he was an agent, he was clever to ask to his "recruits" to bring more friends with them & then he changed his acting skills for dubbing so he formed a team of dubbers at Filmark.

As always, he played another power-hungry ninja in Ocean Shores's Ninja Vs Ninja against Eric Neff who also played a role in Silver Dragon Ninja

Pedro Ernyes as most of regular actors / technicians at IFD & Filmark used several names during his stage as actor in both IFD & Filmark as well as his time as dubbing director. So we have him credited as Pedro Ernyes on IFD title credits, as Pedro Hughes on Filmark & then as Pedro Massobrio when he was dubbing at Tomas Tang's company.

Ouch! Last night dinner was deadlier than any ninja weapon!

Oh, one last thing. It was told Pedro Ernyes was the one who spread the rumour of the disappearance / death of Pierre Kirby during a yatch trip to the Philippines. Was it true? False?

If only we could contact Mr Ernyes to confirm it!!!!

Tomas Tang's Crime Target

2011-04-11T09:43:00.005+02:00

Not too long ago, Spannick a member of Cinehound uploaded some magnificent pressbooks of IFD & Filmark. I was told about this by some good friends as Jack & Ninjanixon about this wonderful present Spannick kindly offered to all of us.

I was very surprised to find out many FILMARK pressbooks that belongs to some movies I didn't know they existed! I didn't have idea Tomas Tang produced titles like Top Secret or Fatal Command. But the one catched my attention was CRIME TARGET.

The art design is the usual Filmark International design showing us exploding helicopters, people running away from explosions or bullets & huge weapons.

Then, inside we can see the synopsis, some snapshots from the original movie & many pics of the western actors from the new added shots.

Then, finally, we see a pic from the original shot where we can appreciate the original thai source movie was from the end of the 70's or so... plus the Filmark contact address in Hong Kong located in the sadly famous Garley Gallery.

I thought the art cover was great & I remembered I had seen it before in a Thai movies web & it took my attention because it remembered me that Charlton Heston's classic Two-Minute Warning directed in 1976 by Larry Peerce.

So here, it is the orginal thai movie used by Tomas Tang to create his Crime Target, a 1980 production starred by Sombat Methanee. Tomas Tang was too lazy to create a new design for his new movie, he just used the same model as the original . Maybe he thought, no one outside Thailand will pay attention to this production.

Here you have the original synopsis we can read in Thaiworldview.com:

A police inspector has lost his wife during an intervention. Since that time, he is a lonely policeman and is well known to kill bad guys with one bullet only with his magnum 357. He has a new teammate, who is the daughter of the head of the police. During one intervention, he killed two men that are brothers of a third tough guy. This one promises to revenge his two dead brothers. The revenge fails and they take a school bus in hostage. The tough guys are working for Chatree who is a nightclub owner. Chatree's daughter is inside the group. They request the policeman to bring a ransom. They bury alive the inspector and Chatree's wife. Finally the inspector and his partner succeeds to get back the children. Maybe it is the Thai version of "Dirty Harry".

Now, the target is to locate both films!!!!!

Jonathan Isgar & Christine Redmen: Butcher & Victim in Ninja Phantom Hero Usa

2011-04-09T11:31:00.003+02:00

Ninja Phantom Hero Usa was the first ninja movie from Filmark I ever seen. I remember my mother rented me a kung fu movie from Asso Asia titled Snake Strikes back & the original trailer of Ninja Phantom was included at the begining of the tape. From that moment on, the faces of Jonathan Isgar, Glen Carson & Christine Redmen were kept on my mind, so just imagine my happiness when I saw Mr Isgar as the main villain in movies like Once Upon a Time in China, The Outlaw Brothers, Undeclared war just mention few of them.

This scene was cut for the american cut of Ninja Phantom Hero Usa

In the other hand, I just met Clarson in other Filmark movies but later...no more. He dissapeared from screen as well as Christine Redmen did. Until I found her out as mere extra in Bloodsport.
Now, thanks to Jonathan Isgar, we know Christine Redmen was from Canada, a backpacker like many people who worked for Filmark who was lucky enough to be found & hired by Filmark casting directors who were always looking for western people through the hostels in Mirador Mansion & Chunking Mansions in Tsim Tsa Tsui.

Once more time, YouTube offers us another full-lengh movie. This time I found Ninja Phantom Hero Usa under its american title Ninja Empire & heavily cut because all the final showdown is dissapeared, including the scene where the evil Morris ( Jonathan Isgar) kills the undercover cop Christine.

Ninja Empire was just a re-edited & cut version of the great ninja phantom hero Usa

I rembember to my dear visitors & friends Ninja Phantom Hero Usa ( aka Ninja Empire) was done using a Hong Kong movie titled Struggle for Leader as main body, sharing some actors from the source movie in the new added shots like the great among greats Ho Pak kwong