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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

 

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

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

Once Upon a Time a KING OF SNAKE part 1

I have no enough words to THANK & APPRECIATE Fred aka NINJADIXON for his wonderful tip & the original poster of KING OF SNAKE, the original taiwanese movie used by IFD to create THUNDERING OF GIGANTIC SERPENT, one of the most popular & at the same time underrated movies starred by Edowan Bersma as the villanous Solomon & the gone Mr Pierre Kirby as the hero.

The original taiwanese poster courtesy of NinjaDixon

Joseph Lai's IFD movies always tried to make happy all kind of audiences so they offered War movies, kung fu flicks, ninja epics, animation feautures & of course Kaiju movies. First, Scorpion Thunderbolt came & it was one of the most famous & appreciated Richard Harrison's movies at IFD by fandom,then Thunder of Gigantic serpent arrived and Pierre Kirby became into a cult actor from IFD as it happened to Harrison & others like Mike Abbott, Stuart Smith or Jonathan Isgar.

IFD poster keeps the original one's flavour & added Kirby

A lot of webs, blogs & fan sites have dedicated entries, homages, reviews & all kind of information about Thunder of Gigantic Serpent, Edowan Bersma & Pierre Kirby but as always there was something missing & that was the original taiwanese movie used to create this IFD movie.
Now, thanks to Ninjadixon, the secret has been solved.

As it happens to many IFD productions, this movie also got several international titles

MORE TO COME

American Force 2: The Untouchable Glory Review

Here you can enjoy another review of an IFD war movie. The original review can be read at:
http://www.badmovierealm.com/reviews/american_force_2/americanforce2.html

American Force 2: The Untouchable Glory

Aka: Untouchable Glory, Untouchable Ninja, Ninja Untouchables, Ninja Unwatchables...Okay, I made that last one up.

1988 Color 85min
Starring: Pierre Kirby, Patrick Frbezar, Rafael Martinee, Timothy MacDonell, Renato Sala, John Whitney, Robert Zwanziger, Bruce Smith, Robert Weber, Nello Nayo, Bella Flores, Teddy Benavidez, Jose Garcia, Divina Valencia, Ronnel Galvez, and Martin Marfil.
Directed By: Philip Ko

Most people assume they have a pretty good handle on what a bad movie really is. Sure, they've most likely seen movies like Plan 9 From Outer Space and Robot Monster. They probably own a few Mystery Science Theater 3000 box sets. Hell, they might have even made it through an entire Adam Sandler movie once. Still, most people have no idea of how truly awful a movie can be. You see, most people have never seen a Joseph Lai production.

Joseph Lai, along with his former partner in crime, Godfrey Ho, are responsible for some of the most egregious cinematic crimes ever perpetrated. Using obscure Asian films as a base, they would add scenes featuring Caucasian actors (usually in ninja get-up), concoct a very loose storyline, and then re-dub the entire mess into English. As you would expect, the resulting film would generally be an incoherent, disjointed, and thoroughly confusing affair.

Uh-oh…

American Force 2 is certainly no exception. The main portion of the film seems to have been taken from an old Filipino action film. To this film they spliced in new footage and a Russian invasion storyline. The end result is the rather unconvincing tale of The Untouchables, an elite underground resistance force who are fighting the Russians and their plans to build a missile base on their land. My description of an “elite fighting force” is somewhat undermined by the fact that The Untouchables seem to consist largely of teenage girls and overweight men. To aid this motley crew in their fight, the United States has sent an elite fighting force of their own. In fact, the force is so elite that in consists entirely of one man, Brain O'Reily.

Brian, accompanied by his trusted friend, The White Tiger (I'm not making this up), quickly starts taking out the Russians' top operatives. The Russians don't take this lying down, however. The brilliant General Karpov has plans for Mr. O'Reily. The following exchange between General Karpov and his best man, Hugo, should give you some idea of the General's amazing military prowess.

Gen. Karpov: (Speaking about Brian O'Reily) “That one man can do more damage alone than twenty men together. Simply put, he's the best!”

Hugo: “We have to get rid of him then.”

Gen. Karpov: “Good idea. Of course we have to get rid of him, idiot! Hugo.”

Hugo: “Yes sir?”

Gen. Karpov: “Arrange it.”

Hugo: “No problem.”

Allow me to rephrase this scene the way I hear it:

Gen. Karpov: “Brain O'Reily is an unstoppable killing machine. He could bench press a Mac truck while walking through a minefield on stilts. He could kill you like a small dog and I heard that he counted to infinity...twice! Hugo, go kill him.”

Hugo: “Can do!”

“Yes, this is Russia. How may I help you?”

You probably won't be terribly surprised to discover that our friend Hugo doesn't survive his encounter with Mr. O'Reily. After the, as in turns out, less than “untouchable” Untouchables are killed off by the suspiciously Filipino-looking Russians, Brian and White Tiger catch up with General Karpov and his men. O'Reily makes short work of them and thus the Russian invasion is thwarted. No doubt the most embarrassing defeat for the Russians since Red Dawn. Still, in that film they were up against the likes of Patrick Swayze and Charlie Sheen. In this movie they were only up against some dude named Brian, a fact which just makes this particular loss all the more embarrassing.

As far as Joseph Lai/Godfrey Ho movies go, American Force 2 is a fairly dull affair. The added scenes featuring the Caucasian actors are by far the most entertaining. Truth be told, a fully fleshed out film featuring Brian O'Reily going against General Karpov and his men would likely have been a very entertaining, albeit completely goofy, movie. Sadly the older footage that makes up the majority of the film is very slow and drags to the point of being mind-numbingly boring.

The um, Untouchables.

If you consider yourself a fan of bad movies but have never seen a Joseph Lai/Godfrey Ho film, I highly recommend that you do so as soon as possible. If nothing else, it'll be good for your “bad movie street cred.” That being said, I would recommend that you skip this particular film and instead seek out one of the twenty or so “ninja” movies featuring (without his consent, I might add) poor Richard Harrison. Just grab one of those giant 50 kung fu/martial arts movie packs and you are bound to land yourself a bunch of 'em.

Brian O'Reily: Professional Exterminator

Reviewed by Derek Miller
Posted 5/5/08

Pierre Kirby IFD Filmo / Filmografia de Pierre Kirby en la IFD

Pierre Kirby, as we stated some post below, was one of the last new faces arrived to IFD during those days when Joseph Lai decided to make hard bolied cops style movies, besides war & kickboxing ones instead of ninja movies. And it is right here when Pierre Kirby enters to play almost all the subgenres displayed by the company during his short movie career.



Pierre Kirby IFD Filmo:

-Full metal ninja


-zodiac America: The super Master (Aka Zombie Vs Ninja)


-Ninja of the magnificence


-Thunder of the gigantic serpent


-Advent Commando 2 Hunting Express


-Advent Commando 3 Dressed to fire


-Aerolite force 2: The untouchable glory (aka American Eagle, Aka Ninja Untouchables)


-American Commando 3: Savage Temptation


Pierre kirby was the only actor in IFD who played good boys & bad boys in tose productions. I mean, richard Harrison, for example, always played the hero; Mike Abbott always played the villain...and most of all actors for IFD played regular roles as good or bad. Pierre Kirby has the honour to have played roles of both conditions. His part in Advent Commando 2: Hunting Express seems to have been written for Mike Abbott since Pierre's character looks like Mike's regular roles for IFD.

Pierre Kirby's movies video reviews

The print of a misterious man like Pierre Kirby could not vanished like his movie career did. No, we, IFD & Filmark goers don't deserve such punishment, It wouldn't be fair to us. That's why, Brad Jones, the head of the website Cinema Snob dedicated to Mr Kirby 5 video reviews 5 that are really enjoyable even for the ones who don't confess with IFD movies.

Mr Brad Jones created the fabulous PIERRE KIRBY WEEK, scriptwriting, directing & editing the following videos. Whoever can be considered a IFD fan should ( no, no..MUST) watch them.

ZODIAC AMERICA: THE SUPERMASTER ( aka Zombie Vs Ninja and other countless akas)


FULL METAL NINJA


THUNDER OF THE GIGANTIC SERPENT


NINJA OF THE MAGNIFICENT


AMERICAN COMMANDO 2: HUNTING EXPRESS

Starring: Pierre Kirby

Pierre Kirby was one of last new faces & main stars IFD provided to its fans after the big names such as Richard Harrison, Mike Abbott, Bruce Baron and even Stuart Smith scaped from Joseph Lai's jaws.
There is not any kind of data about his background & his movie career can be resumed in three short sentences: He came, he shot, he vanished like a ninja. It was a pity since he had a magnetic presence (for IFD standars) & his skills while fighting were pretty good to be enjoyed without using masks or stunt doubles.




However, there are some dark & thrilling stories about his whereabouts. It was said his way to make a living, apart from working for IFD on its last ninja & hard boiled type action productions, was delivering yatches between Hong Kong and the Philippines. One day, he sailed to fulfill his duty & never came back. To add some morbid ingredients to the story, it was listened he died during a pirate attack in the Philippines Sea. I can't assure this point. I got this information from an interview done to another star from IFD / Filmark, Paul John Stanners, that was published in Nocturno Cinema website. To read the full interview, just click on the below link.

http://www.cinema-nocturna.com/index.php?iden=84&ind=reviews&op=entry_view


Pierre kirby is till know another of those so called cases of "Missing in action" movie stars. He never appeared on other asian productions, he was only credited on a bunch productions from IFD that surely were shot back to back as usual. Anyway, in the world wide web there are some die hard IFD followers who still keep Kirby in their memories.