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.

Catman 2: Boxer's Blow Unpublished: Original Thai movie poster.

IFD offered us several sagas, from the now-re-valued Thunderbolt movies to the Ninja Operation episodes or the Ninja Thunderkids or War City...etc etc. All those sagas were done at the end of the 80's when the ninaj craze was still at its peak & war movies like Platoon or Born on July 4th were real blockbusters. But IFD still had a hope on Catman after Lethal track, so they decided to continue filming new adventures starred by our favourite shabby superhero.

The second entry was Boxer Blow, but this time we were not so lucky since Catman appears just 10 minutes during all the movie in some scenes that look like were discharged from the first part..anyway, what we can confirm is that all Catman scenes from both movies were shot back to back in a 2-3 weeks.
This indeed was a alarm signal that people at IFD were becoming lazy ( like it was happening at Filmark) & new scenes were shorter & shorter movie after movie. A real pity because Catman on its nature had screen potential to become into a cult character as it happened to the Robot of Filmark's Robovampire.

Jonathan Isgar who played Catman also had enough charisma & sense of humour to portray it in more movies. Jonathan Isgar will be always remembered as the evil gweiloh of Once Upon a Time in China but I am sure he could be also remembered as the tackiest & poorest Superhero who has ever come from a Hong Kong production.

In the other hand, as it happened in Catman Lethal Track, we have Joseph Lai used another thai movie as main body for Boxer's Blow. A movie that would remain hidden if not because of our good friend from Thailand Jub Khun who kindly helped me to identify such movies & even offered the original poster of them.

I am trying to locate the movie on domestic format but it seems those movies have been swallowed by the Earth since are almost impossible to find them.
By the moment, we only have to enjoy the original poster.

Thanks To Jub Khun for his kind & priceless help!

Catman in Lethal Track Unpublished: Original Thai movie poster

IFD not only offered us ninja movies, war flicks, kickboxers adventures, korean cartoons or kung fu flicks. No...IFD was beyond genres & they even also offered us superheroes motion pictures; no average ones but bizarre ones like Catman, also known as Us Catman.

IFD's SuperHero

Catman was portrayed by the one Jonathan Isgar who is still laughing whenever he remembers the shooting & the first time he appeared on the set wearing his superhero oufit. Once again, wrong informations say Catman & its sequel were directed by Godfrey Ho who was hidden as Alton Cheung. Once again we have to tell that is false since Alton Cheung who despise many people still believe is not another Godfrey Ho pseudoym.

Catman: Lethal Track was the first adventure of one of the world's most bizarre superheroes. His adventures continued in Catman: Boxer's blow.

Catman in Lethal Track was done just re-editing & re-dubbing a thai movie starred by Thai superstars Krung Svrilai who plays a eye-patched villain this time & Sorapong Chatri accompained by his regular supporting actors playing the hero as usual.

Superb Thai poster whose creators never imagine a superhero would enter on the movie outside Thailand

Joseph Lai found a gold mine in Thailand's action movies from the late 70's. During almost a decade Lai and Tomas Tang offered to world some of the most bizarre & obscure thai actioners that probably would have never been distribute outside their origin place if not because IFD & Filmark cut & paste effords.

Alternative artwork for the thai movie used to design IFD's Catman Lethal track

Catman was one good example since director Alton Cheung just added 15 minutes of new fotage starring Jonathan Isgar & the late Blue Moroney fighting among them while in the other hand we have most of the untouched fotage of this thai movie.



Thanks to Jub Khun for his kind help to identify Catman's original source movie!.

Ninja Phantom Hero Usa Unpublished: Original Hong Kong movie poster

When two years ago I decided to open a blog dedicated to IFD & Filmark movies, I just thought to share some information I had to end those false informations about Godfrey Ho, Joseph Lai & Tomas Tang. During many years I had been collecting their movies, I found some original source movies in Hong Kong on VCD, I found some filming locations used by IFD / Filmark crews while I was hiking around Hong Kong & even I got the chance to meet Mike Abbott who kindly gave me a lot of information & pictures taken during the shootings of his movies... But it happened that during these 2 years I have contacted ( and I have been contacted by) a lot of nice people whose support & help gave me more tips, information, pics and even movies that made this site a place where we can share everything about IFD & Filmark instead of being a blog where I just say most of the information about IFD & Tomas Tang spread by fools in internet was false.

Well, the very first posts dedicated to Filmark here were dedicated to Ninja Phantom Hero Usa starred by the great Jonathan Isgar. You may check them here & here. It was my first Filmark movie & one of my favourites. The original movie used by Tomas Tang was unknown to me until I decided to re-search on the HKMD comparing cast names until I assumed Filmark bought a 1983 movie titled Struggle for leader to design Ninja Phantom hero Usa. Struggle for Leader was directed by Lee Chiu who years later worked for IFD using the name of Charles Lee in movies like Full Metal Ninja or the Thunder Ninja kids saga.

Spanish VHS art cover

At the time there was not picture or any relevant information to confirm my suspicion, but a new research few days ago proved that this time I was right!!! Teddy Wong, one of the editors of HKMDB and a nice pal & better friend updated the original Hong Kong poster of Struggle for Leader, the movie that made possible Ninja Phantom to be done!

Struggle for Leader Taiwanese poster...it is simply AWESOME

Once I have confirmed Struggle for leader was the original movie Filmark used for its Ninja Phantom Hero Usa, a new "mission force" has been set: locate a copy of it!...I really need to see this movie on its original cut. Struggle for leader includes an all star cast & it is dramatically violent, sad, gritty, grin, shocking & catching movie similar to the ones made in Taiwan at the same time. Something similar happens to Ninja Phantom hero usa that has to be seen on its uncut version. It was edited in the Us as Ninja empire with a lot of cuts that made it totally unwatchable.

Please check the original technical details of this movie at HKMDB. Thanks to Teddy Wong for uploading the original poster of Struggle for leader.

THUNDER KIDS: GOLDEN ADVENTURE in YouTube

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.

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

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

From Bloodsport to being killed by Jonathan Isgar: Christine Redmen

About one year ago, I wrote an entry in this humble blog about western actors who worked in Van Damme's Bloodsport as supporting actors or just mere extras but later they got main roles at IFD & Filmark. You may check it again clicking the link below
http://goldenninjawarriorchronicles.blogspot.com/2010/04/was-bloodsport-breeding-movie-for-ifd.html

Now I would like to continue this post because I recently I have re-watched Bloodsport one more time & I have found more faces, names & nameless actors on this movie who later brighted on IFD & Filmark productions.

If I say the name of Christine Redmen, you may don't know who is that person, right? If I say the name of Christine Wells I suppose you may have the same indeferent feeling, right? Then who the hell is Christine Redmen/ Wells? To start with, we can tell she is the female main actress in NINJA PHANTOM HERO USA (aka Ninja Empire) one of the four ninja movies Jonathan Isgar played for Filmark and my favourite one.

Where I have seen this face before????

Christine Wells as she is credited in this Filmark production plays an undercover female cop who helps the hero Glen (Glen Carson) to fight against the evilish Morris (Jonathan Isgar). During the movie we know she is named Christine but nicknamed "Yellow bird". I don't know why but I liked her since the first time I watched Ninja Phantom Hero Usa. Maybe because not too many Filmark movies had women in leading roles to be killed ( except the one in Counter destroyer, aka Robovampire 2) or maybe because I got the feeling I had seen her in another movie but I could not remember which one....until yesterday!

A moustached Glen Carson was Jonathan Isgar's nemesis in 4 ninja movies from Filmark. Christine Redmen got a fatal destiny in Ninja Phantom hero Usa

Bloodsport was a shocking experience for me when I first saw it. A shocking experience but in the right way. I loved the movie because I saw many faces from kung movies playing modern day action, I loved the movie because it was shot in Hong Kong & I love Hong Kong so much as my own home & of course I enjoyed the action because the fighting scenes were superb, specially if you saw this movie on big screen as I did for the very first time!... then, yesterday, I had nothing to do after lunch & the babies were sleeping so I decided to watch Bloodsport again & then...She was there...yes...Christine Wells was in Bloodsport as Paulo Tocha, Eric Neff, Wayne Archer or Ken Boyle were...All of them got roles at IFD & Filmark so Christine "Yellow bird" Wells did!

I got you, Christine!!

Eating & having lunch happily in Bloodsport...

Just to be killed by Jonathan Isgar at the climax of Ninja Phantom, hero Usa

Christine Wells had her seconds of glory in bloodsport sharing the screen with Philip Chan, Forrest Whitaker & Norman Burton. After I realiced she was the main female star of Ninja Phantom hero Usa I tried to find her in more scenes along the running time of Bloodsport but it was in vain she had dissapeared from screen until the end title credits where she was credited under her real name: Christine Redmen

I have not more clues about Christine Redmen and her movie career because apart from her tiny cameo in Bloodsport & her role in Filmark's Ninja Phantom, hero Usa I haven't seen her in more productions. Any clue, information about her will be specially well appreciated.

Jonathan Isgar FULL Filmography PART 3 - TV & Other credits

As we have seen, Jonathan James Isgar got to play from cheap movies at Filmark to big budgets & very influential movies such as Once upon a time in China or Armour of God 2. His roles were always important to the story even when he only played small parts. His charisma made him bright playing bad dudes on screen: From Villanous ninjas at Filmark, Superheroes, brave soldiers or honest police officers at IFD to elegant terrorists, henchman or slave trader in some of the "classic" Hong Kong Action movies ever done in the former british colony.
The very best Kung fu movies or Heroic bloodshed movies had a regular cast of stuntment & supporting actors,So Jonathan James Isgar was also a regular "gweiloh" in many of the very best movies shot in HK during the first 90's.

Jonathan Isgar can considered the quintessence of the western actors who worked in Hong Kong cinema during its golden age.

Apart from his works in Hong Kong cinema, Jonathan Isgar got to work on TV series, international film / TV productions shot in Hong Kong, advertisement, voice dubbing & even stage perfomance.

Other productions shot in Hong Kong
-Dragon, The bruce lee story (Starring Jason Scott Lee)
-To be the best ( Starring Anthony Hopkins)
-Noble house (Starring Pierce Brosnan)

Jonathan Isgar career's has proved how much charisma he has when he is on screen

AUSTRALIAN TV CREDITS
-The Feds
-Blue heelers
-Halifax fp
-Janus

His previous work in Hong Kong were very useful for TV series. As Mike Leeder stated IFD & Filmark were a kind of acting. school

ADVERTISMENT
-Toshiba
-Harley davidson
-Herald sun newspaper
-VP Cognac
-Viceroy

When Hong Kong film industry was on its peak at the end of the 80's & Hong Kong producers were desperados looking for gweilohs to add to their films an international appeal, Jonathan Isgar took the chance to improve his skills at Louis Roth's actor's studio in HK where Mr Isgar work along some people like Stuart Smith and other favourite gweilohs.

Louis Roth's Actor's Studio was the main source for "gweilohs" on HK movies during the early 90's.

Hong Kong movie industry is no longer what it was but Mr Jonathan Isgar is still on the movie bussiness & during 2010, he has attended the following auditions.
SCORPION KING 3
‘OSIRIS’

ESCAPE FROM FLIGHT 777
‘Ball Cap’, Leader Russian terrorist Group.

IP MAN
Voice double for Sammo Hung.

OBA ‘THE LAST WARRIOR’
Sgt. Brown (American)

LARGO WINCH
‘Hanson’ (Former C.I.A.)

The following video resumes some of the best moments & memories of Mr Jonathan Isgar career. It worths to see it & It would worths to see Jonathan Isgar on screen again & again. I know what I mean, while I was watching IP MAN 2 I could see Jonathan Isgar playing the corrupted police officer & even the boxer's trainer!!!. Indeed, those roles have some of Mr Isgar's influence.

Jonathan Isgar FULL Filmography PART 2- Bigger budgets & international fame

Jonathan Isgar was internationally well-known thanks to Tsui Hark's Once upon a time in China where he played one of the most hateful villains ever seen on screen, but as we saw in the previous post, he was already a favourite popular face to die hard Hong Kong ninja movies to Filmark best movies. So it would be fair to recognize Tomas Tang was first one who let us enjoy Mr Isgar's acting skills. I still remember when I first saw Once Upon A Time In China with my younger brother & I shouted to him: hey!, This guy is the bad ninja from Ninja Phantom!!!!.

Jonathan Isgar offered us one of the most hateful villains ever seen in a movie

So even when we can tell Once Upon a Time in China was the movie who allow international audiences to notice how great actor Jonathan Isgar is, he had been delevoping an intense career in other previosuly great movies offering unforgetable supporting roles as bad guy and even shocking scenes playing a mere extra.

John Woo's Bullet in the head was full of shocking images, but the one starred by Jonathan Isgar where he loses his two arms while he is trying to defuse a bomb will be kept in your mind for days.

Now it is time to let the readers & followers of this humble blog the COMPLETE & FULL FILMOGRAPHY of Jonathan Isgar on Hong Kong movies but outside of IFD & Filmark productions.

-LEGACY OF RAGE (1986)
-LEE ROCK (1991)
-THE OUTLAW BROTHERS (1990)
-UNDECLARED WAR(1990)

Ringo Lam's Undeclared War has a great ALL STAR CAST gweilohs from Hong Kong Cinema. Most of the gweiloh actors who worked for IFD & Filmark had roles in this fantastic movie that deserves more credit than it has!

-MISSION OF CONDOR (1991)
-SPY GAMES
-ARMOUR OF GOD 2- OPERATION CONDOR(1991

Apart from his role in OUATIC, Jonathan Isgar is also remembered for his funny role in Jackie Chan's Armour of God 2- Operation Condor. He played a funny arab & he was lucky to see Carol Do Do Cheng's & Eva Cobo's naked bodies...a real lucky "bastard"!!!!!

The newspapers covered the shooting of Operation Condor in Spain & Morocco

-ONCE UPON A TIME IN CHINA (1991)
-FIGHT BACK TO SCHOOL II (1992

Mark Houghton, Jonathan Isgar & Mark King as bloody terrorists against Chow Sing Chi. Houghton, Isgar & King were along other the kings of the gweiloh actors in Hong Kong during the early 90's.

-MR. NICE GUY (1997)

Jonathan Isgar hit the only & one Samo Hung in Mr Nice Guy. He is one of the few people in this world who can tell: " I beat Samo Hung".

Jonathan Isgar is one of those actors who added a special ingredient to the wonderful movies ever came from Hong Kong. At the time Gweilohs were hired to give an international appeal to those movies, but Jonathan Isgar not only got to offer what producers were looking for their movies but he also made his roles unforgetable.

Now that revival is everywhere, it would be a great idea to make a movie about those gweilohs who were in Hong Kong as travellers or just trying to do something different in their lifes and they ended working in movies as suporting actors or even as main stars thanks to the thriving movie industry in HK about 25 years ago.

NOTE: All the pics displayed on this post are copyrighted & belongs to Mr Jonathan Isgar. Please add the original source if you ever use them for any purpose.

MORE TO COME SOON