Taiwan Black movies was a 2005 produced documentary about the gangster films shot in Taiwan from 1979 to 1983. Those movies were intended to be social movies that denounced the political, economic & social problems of the island. The taiwanese "black movies" were similar to the italian police thrillers shot few years back in Europe by people like Umberto Lenzi in Italy or Jose Giovanni in France. I name this two great directors because their taiwanese colleagues also mixed the social problems they saw on the streets with the most exciting cinema exploitation.
Spanish VHS cover for this rare Taiwan Black Movie
At the time, around 1982 / 1983 when the taiwanese black movies were arriving to their final stage, Joseph Lai & Tomas Tang were also offering the last kung fu movies from Korea through Asso Asia, just to split up & form their own companies.
Both, Tang & Lai bought a good bunch of Taiwan Black movies to distribute them not as social dramas but as action movies. Most of them arrived to Spain.
Both, Tang & Lai bought a good bunch of Taiwan Black movies to distribute them not as social dramas but as action movies. Most of them arrived to Spain.
IFD just dubbed the movie into english. Joseph Lai didn't know he was preserving these movies from total disappearance.
One of those Taiwan Black Movies distributed in Spain by IFD was Challenge the Caballer, a quite violent & raw drama starring Tattoer Ma Sha, Wang Hsieh & other well-known taiwanese actors seen in many IFD productions. Another interesting detail is this movie was produced by Tommy Cheng Kei Ying who first worked as an actor in some IFD's Thunderbolt movies as an actor & then he moved to work as director for Tomas Tang at Filmark.
Tattoer Ma Sha is to Taiwanese gangsters films what Franco Nero or Maurizio Merli were to the italian Poliziescho!
There is no any reference to Challenge the Caballer at HKMD but checking Tattoer Ma's filmography we can see a 1981 movie titled simply Challenge that it seems it could be the original title of the movie distributed by IFD but as always, I can't assure it 100% but director Herman Tao could easily be To Pak Hon who is credited as the director in the original taiwanese movie.
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| Original Taiwanese poster of Challenge (courtesy of HKMDB & Max Power) |
