Thunder of Gigantic Serpent & Ninja Force of Assassins OST

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

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

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

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

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

Or enjoy the original video from the spanish composers.

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

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

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

Original Spanish VHS of Ninja 8 Warriors of fire.

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Robert de Ni...... nja

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

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

 

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

 

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

 

 

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

 

 

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

 

 

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

We are back to action...

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

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

Thanks to All a lot for your support!

A couple of updates of previous entries

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Spanish VHS cover of Devil's Dynamite.

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

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

 I Fight against ninjas

 I mean I fight against bloody ninjas

 I fight against vampires

I mean I fight against bloody vampires

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

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

 Drama

 

A bit of sexy girls on pants or swimsuits

 Raw Violence

 Very very very raw bloody violence

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

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

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

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

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

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

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