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.

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

Filmark's Ninja: Warriors from beyond uncovered: The original Filipino movie!

Two new & interesting fan groups have been born in Facebook in the last 2 weeks,  FILIPINO B FILM FANS & IFD FILMARK IDENTITY CRISIS. If you enjoy asian B & Z grade, you should visit or join them since they are great sources of information & many people who worked on those movies are active members oon them, so there isn't a better place to learn about the most interesting, funny & bizarre films from Asia.

Thanks to these groups, we have been able to identify another filipino movie used by Tomas Tang & the crew of Filmark International to "design" their Ninja: Warriors From Beyond ( aka Black Panther) directed by Tommy Cheng Kei Ying & starred by Danny Raisebeck credited as Joff Houston, the pseudonym Filmark used to credit Jonathan Isgar.

Ninja Warriors from beyond  opening was shot from Yau Tong's Devils Peak offering us a nice view of Lei Yei Mun harbour.

Tomas Tang bought a filipino actioner titled Maestro Bandido shot in 1983 by Rey Malonzo, as usual people at Filmark re-edited & redubbed it and they added new scenes directed by Tommy Cheng Kei Ying to create a new ninja adventure.

Tommy Cheng, the director of Ninja Warriors from Beyond also played an extra along other Filmark crew in a scene shot in Yau Tong's Devils Peak in Ninja Warriors from beyond.

In words of Andrew Leavold, Ninja Warriors from beyond is "The most absurd and disjointed of all Hong Kong ninja cut-and-paste efforts, this time from Tomas Tang's company Filmark, using the bulk of Rey Malonzo's Maestro Bandido (dir. Malonzo, 1983). American "White Ninja" Mark is given the task of smoking out Black Ninja traning camp on the Thai border using invisible cloaks, magic swords, and doppelgangers from another dimension! His local, non-ninja contact Vergara (Malonzo, poorly spliced into on-screen "conversations" with Mark) is also tracking down the ninja boss Marshall (Ramon D'Salva) while avenging his wife's rape at the hands of Marshall's son . Blood, guts, exploding huts, and the ever-present goons Romy Diaz, George Estregan as a bent cop, Fred Param, Angel Confiado and Steve Alcarado".

Danny Raisebeck the uncredited star of Ninja Warriors from beyond played several ninja movies at Filmark. He was always the hero, but when he worked for IFD, he used to play villain roles. IFD used to credit him with his real name.

 It is a pity original filipino source movie Maestro Bandido is not avaliable on domestic formats because it is a quite raw & violent film as most of the ones directed by Rey Malonzo. If you don't own a copy of Ninja Warriors from beyond, you may enjoy some cuts of the film in youtube.

 

And remember, don't be cheaten anymore: Godfrey Ho had nothing to do with this film or Filmark. Tommy Cheng, Donald Kong Do ( aka Chiang Tao) & ex-venom Sun Chien were the responsible people behind most of  the guilty pleasure of Filmark Ninja / Action / war movies.

Ninja Demon's Massacre Unpublished: Original Thai movie poster.

Tommy Cheng Kei Ying was one of the few people along Mike Abbott or Louis Roth that worked for Filmark under his real name. He started as supporting actor at IFD with Donald Kong and later both moved to Filmark to display their skill on different fields. One of the movies Tommy Cheng was credited with his real name was Ninja Demon's Massacre starring Stuart Smith as the hero & ex-venom Sun Chien as the bald-headed villain.

It may be Cheng Kei Ying was working in several Filmark movies at the same time & he got tired ( or lazy) to shoot the same kind of stuff at one time so in this movie only 10 to 15 minutes of uninspired ninja action & even Stuart Smith looks like lost.

Ninja Demon's Massacre is done from a Thai western-actioner-anticomunist drama starred by Sorapong Chatri & his regular supporting cast. Tomas Tang & his editor re-edited the story & change the dialogs in order to be able to add thee new ninja scenes...althought the final result has not too much sense. People at Filmark got lazy like it happened at IFD with titles such as Ninja Kill, Ninja Hunt and so & they were in the hurry to put so many titles in the market as possible but their products lacked the freshness titles such as Ninja Phantom, Ninja American Warrior, Warriors of fire and others had.

The Spanish VHS art cover was great, it showed a bionic ninja holding a future weapon & helicopters & soldiers...curiously 2 of the 3 pics in the back cover belongs to Ninja Phantom Hero Usa, a film who is seen in a small tv screen during a scene of Stuart Smith with his bosses in Ninja Demon's Massacre.
Anyway, here you can see the original poster of the thai movie used by Tomas Tang for his Ninja demon's massacre.

The original thai poster includes pics of the cast & draws of some moments of the film including the western flavour. Sometimes I wonder what was Tommy Cheng Kei Ying & Tomas Tang thinking when they choose this thai movie to create a ninja adventure????

Thanks to Regis Madec from Thaiworldview.com & Jub Classic movie for their kind help.

Reseña de El Tesoro de Kampuchea por Victor Olid de Aqui Vale Todo

Después de casi todo el mes de Enero sin poder haber actulizado el blog y sin haber estado preparando nuevos posts tengo que tirar de trabajo ajeno ( pero con el pertinente permiso de los autores, por supuesto) mientras trabajo en post propios. Aqui tienen ustedes una reseña de Victor Olid, componente del imprescindible blog AQUI VALE TODO y co-autor de un libro que necesita estar en todas las estanterias de los fans del cine casposo MALAS PERO DIVERTIDAS.

Caratula Española

Todo un clásico de los videoclubes, de la mano de Tomas Tang, que no queda muy claro lo siguiente; si este tipo realmente existió hasta que murió en un incendio, cosa esta que he leído, o es un seudónimo que utilizaron muchos productores y directores asiáticos, cosa que también he leído. El caso es que sus películas se cuentan a miles y el nombre que las ampara, sigue siendo un misterio. Lo cual es muy absurdo, porque se supone que todas las películas de la Filmark las dirige el propio Tomas Tang, bajo seudónimos ( Joe Livistone el mas popular, Burt Petersen con el que firma esta…) a saber.

Caratula Japonesa

EL TESORO DE KAMPUCHEA, destaca porque es una película un pelín más digna de lo que nos tiene acostumbrados el chino con apellido de refresco en polvo, pero eso no es bueno, porque la diversión se reduce a la mitad. Y que sea digna, por descontado, no quiere decir que sea buena, en absoluto…
Como siempre, el argumento existe, pero vagamente. Vamos, que te puedes hacer una idea de que va la cosa, pero luego todo es un desmadre y no te enteras de nada. En esta ocasión la cosa parece ir sobre un tesoro ( un jade rojo ) que es muy preciado en Camboya y una princesa que es secuestrada, así que unos tipos montados en una avioneta de esas como la que sale en el cartel, deciden ir a rescatarla. De por medio los Viet kong, hacen de las suyas, marcando el rostro con un hierro candente a unos cuantos chinos.

Pressbook original de la época

El caos argumental mas grande de todos. No hay manera de que te enteres de que pasa. Eso si, no da tiempo a aburrirnos, porque las escenas chabacanas de acción son un bombardeo, la acción no decae ni un segundo, va a 1000 por hora. Y las escenas de dialogo, son la risa, porque los protagonistas hablan de cosas superfluas que poco o nada tienen que ver con lo que pasa en la película. A eso hay que añadirle, el como los dobladores se toman a cachondeo la película y ponen todo su énfasis en doblar la película de mala manera, con lo que las risas están aseguradas.
Y es que en una peli de Tomas Tang, pasa lo mismo que con el porno, que una vez que has visto una peli suya, las has visto todas.

Pressbook con sinopsis en inglés y con la dirección de las oficinas de la Filmark

Lo que pasa es que en esta, no hay metrajes adicionales (o eso me parece a mí), no hay repetición de planos y no hay tanto jolgorio como en, por ejemplo, DARK DAY EXPRESS, pero da lo mismo, esta peli en compañía de amigotes es igualmente disfrutable. Pero no sorprende ni un poquito; lo de siempre, títulos de crédito con nombres Anglosajones, cuando no hay mas que uno o dos pésimos actores occidentales y mogollón de explosiones, en unas cintas de acción malísimas que vienen acompañadas de unos carteles espectaculares… La misma mierda de Tomas Tang que tanto amamos.

Para disfrutar de la reseña en su sitio original y además poder empaparse de reseñas de todo tipo pinchen AQUI.

Ninja in the Killing Fields Unpublished: Original Thai source movie poster

On October 26th, I posted I had got the original Thai VCD of the original movie Tomas Tang used on his Ninja in the killing fields, few days later I posted the movie could be seen uncut on YouTube, click here if you were interested on those posts.

Jub Classic movies was kindly to send me the original thai poster of MUE PUEN 3 AI MUE DUM (มือปืน 3 ไอ้มือดำ).

While the VCD title of this movie is the one I stated above, the cinema poster title is 123 Commando. I suppose this title must be a more "westerner" title of the original thai one.
Ninja in the Killing Fields belongs to the period Stuart Smith worked for Filmark under the pseudonym of Stuart Steen, as usual, the all the credits were "make-up" by Tang & we found the new pasted scenes were directed by York Lam...while the action was choreographed & played by Donald Kong Do & Ex-venom Sun Chien who, also as usual, has a supporting role.

RoboVampire Unpublished: Original Thai source movie Poster

There is no doubt Robovampire is one of the most well-known Tomas Tang's Filmark International films. It became an instant cult movie wherever it was released or edited. Just ask to any Hong Kong movie fan to name a Filmark movie & you will not feel surprised many of them will answer: Robovampire.

It may be the different art covers, showing a Robocop-type cyborg fighting against chinese vampires helped this film to become a cult movie. The idea itself is simply great, just imagine a bunch of teenagers who have previously enjoyed the original Robocop, holding on their hands another Robocop movie fighting Thailand drugs dealers, vampires, ghosts and he even knows Kung Fu!!!!...No one could resist to rent it.

Greek VHS cover doesn't show a Vampire but its "trashy filipino vietnam war movie" look is great

Too much has been writen about Robovampire, too many reviews, too many different opinions, too many videos on youtube BUT, have you ever get interested to know what thai movie was used by Tomas Tang & his crew to "design" Filmark's Robovampire??? Well, here you get the answer with the poster of such movie.

Few days ago, I talked to Regis Madec, webmaster of Thaiworldview who kindly helped me to find some Thai movies used by Tomas Tang & Joseph Lai. Then, Regi's friend Jub brought to me this poster that has to be shared to all the people who enjoys Robovampire. This poster means the seed of that movie, the origin of Robovampire.

I am very grateful to Fred Anderson from NinjaDixon blog, Regis Madec & Jub Classic Movie to help me during the last days to find out some of these movies. and of course, I am very grateful to Tomas Tang for offering us some of the wackiest but funniest movies ever produced.

Reseña Projecto Ninjas del Infierno ( aka Ninja Project Daredevil) en Aqui Vale Todo Por Aratz

Hace unos dias, Aratz, del blog Aqui Vale Todo (uno de los blogs sobre cine imprescindibles de la blogosfera española), publicó una reseña de este clásico de la Filmark editada en España tanto en VHS como en DVD. Con permiso del autor, ahi llevan el punto de vista del mismo sobre esta entretenida película de la factoria de Tomas Tang:

Película de la Filmark con Tomas Tang a la cabeza, por lo que ya sabemos lo que vamos a ver, un mix entre dos o más películas, dando como resultado una demencial historia, en este caso con ninjas por medio. Antes de ver la película, les comente a los amigos con los que había quedado para verla que esto suele ser lo habitual en estas producciones, que por falta de medios o simplemente porque así les salía más barato (lo segundo lo más seguro) se cogían dos películas, se mezclaban y cambiaban los diálogos para que pudieran estar unidas y listo, ya tenias un filme hecho. Esta Proyecto Ninjas del Infierno ya la reseño Naxo en una de sus noches inconexas, así que solo desarrollare un poco más lo que él ya conto y listo.

This movie was released as Ninja masters of death in the US

Un clan ninja que está pasando apuros económicos es tentado por otro clan para que se pasen al bando rebelde y se pongan en contra de su emperador a cambio del dinero que necesitan. Estos se niegan, e incluso dentro del clan de ninjas malvados, uno de ellos decide que no quiere seguir por esa senda y escapa, aunque sus antiguos compañeros no se lo van a poner fácil. Este ninja renegado intenta escapar junto a su mujer e hijo, pero son atacados y solo sobrevive el retoño. Supuestamente este chaval ya crecido, con unos 8 o 9 años, se dedica a ir por los pueblos dando la barrila a la gente y pidiendo el apoyo del pueblo a los rebeldes.

Un Capitán del ejercito del emperador, que justo pasaba por ahí, ve al crio, se encariña con el, y con la escusa de que es un rebelde lo captura. Intenta sacarle información de los ninjas, pero el chaval no suelta prenda. Poco a poco el joven se va encariñando con el Capitán al que al final considera como si fuera su padre.

Spanish VHS / BETA cover

Pero la guerra continua, así que el Capitán decide llevar al chaval con un profesor amigo suyo. En plena batalla el crio aparece por allí ¿Se había escapado, había llegado la guerra hasta la casa del profesor, porque está sucio y magullado? No lo explican pero porque es uno de los cortes dados por Tomas Tang para que la película cuadre en duración y supuestamente en lógica con el argumento. Entre medias vemos peleas chustas de ninjas de los dos clanes, el que tenía dificultades financieras y el de los ninjas malvados. Escenas que son horrorosas y terribles, no solo por su coreografía sino por sus planos y montaje. En esto que se vuelve al campo de batalla, vemos al ejercito disparando y luchando, pero no vemos contra quien, se supone que rebeldes y ninjas, en esto que el chaval y el Capitán quedan escondidos entre unas rocas, el crio sale corriendo pensando que a el no le van a disparar, y llegamos al momento emotivo del filme, el crio es acribillado por la espalda, a cámara lenta, con música triste. Cuando ya no hay peligro el Capitán sale de su escondite y llora desconsolado sobre el cadáver del chavalin. Fundido a negro y THE END.

El titulo es engañoso a más no poder (y la caratula, que por cierto la que yo tengo es más cutre y triste que esta), no hay proyecto que valga, y los ninjas no son del infierno, aunque el espectador desee que se achicharren allí por toda la eternidad. El vestuario de los ninjas es de risa con esos trajes de colores chillones, aunque el de la película del ejercito y el niño está bastante bien, algo lógico ya que no tiene nada que ver una y otra producciones.
Tomas Tang es un mago, coge dos películas, una más o menos decente y otra verdaderamente chunga y hace un mierdon enorme, como tiene que ser, para algo es Tomas Tang.

Nota aparte: Proyecto ninjas del infierno se fabricó a partir de una cinta bélica surcoreana donde se ponia de manifiesto como los norcoreanos manipulaban incluso a los niños para la causa comunista. Tomas Tang, al insertar nuevos dialogos y alterar la edición del film original cambió los dialogos conviertiendo a los norcoreanos en ninjas malvados y así el niño de la causa de Pyongyang se convirte en vocal de los ninjas...cosas de Tomas Tang!

Gracias Mil a Aratz y a Aqui Vale Todo por permitirme copiar y pegar ( al puro estilo Filmark) su reseña. Pincha aqui para ver la reseña original y ya de paso echarle un vistazo al blog...porque merece la pena!

Filmark International Original Trailers

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 !!!...

Vampire Raiders Ninja Queen Uncovered!

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.

Ninja in the killing fields on YouTube

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!

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.

Joseph Lai, Tomas Tang & Godfrey Ho exclusive stars of China Fanzine (part 3)

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)

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)

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!!