Taiwan Black Movies at IFD & Filmark (part 7): Ninja Commandments

When the ninja craze was at its peak in the video markets, Joseph Lai & Tomas Tang needed a lot of raw stuff to created their ninja movies. The market was so hungry that they seldom have time to get new titles at the different video markets, so the solution was to re-use some movies that they previously bought & released on their original cut.

Ninja Commandments Spanish VHS

 Original taiwanese VCD of Ma! Don't Die on my back.

The ninja films starred Richard Harrison were the lucky ones because at the time they were shot, 1985-86, IFD still had several taiwanese movies on their vaults that were never released in the west previously & they were the ones used in films like Ninja Commandments, Ninja Showdown, Ninja Dragon and even several episodes of the Ninja Operation saga.

Ninja Commandments was supposely directed by Joseph Lai in 1987...well, at least this is what we can see on the credits but since Richard Harrison parted away from IFD at the end of 1986 after he is second teamed with Mike Abbott in Ninja Operation 7: Royal Warriors shot in November 1986 ( Mike Abbott kindly provided this information), we believe Ninja Commandments was very probably shot at some time in 1986 before November & of course it wasn't directed by Joseph Lai but by Godfrey Ho or some of his assistants.

Ninja Commandments was done using a 1981 taiwanese drama starred by Elsa Yeung &  O Chung Hung titled Ma! Don't Die on my back directed by Chen Yun Quan who has no more directional credits. Ulysses Au Yeung whose black movies were quite well considered was credited as Planning in Ma! Don't die on my back.

 

Ma! Don't die on  my back was not the average revenge drama used to be shown in taiwanese black movies but an intense, existentialist drama where the characters are ill-fated from the very first begining. There is no hope for them. Elsa Yeung proved she was also a very good dramatic actress besides an action star. Not to mention Tattoer Ma Sha & Lee Siu Fei who became regular actors in many taiwanese black movies are also on this one.

Ninja Commandments is remembered as one of the worse ninja movies from IFD. Probably a movie like Ma! Don't Die on my back doesn't suit at all those ninja interludes starred by Harrison & his pals. What the hell are doing the ninjas in the middle of rural drama???...We should ask to Godfrey & Joseph since I don't have the answer!

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.

The Hunt for the Devil Boxer is over!!

When the ninja craze started to fade out at the begining of the 90's, IFD looked for new products & they offered us kickboxer films ( Van Damme's shadow was so big back then), Vietnam movies ( trying to continue the success of Platoon, Born on July 4th...etc), modern day action thrillers and they even went beyond looking for a new market: children.

The kung fu kids movies & their imitations were huge popular in Europe, well, at least they were inmense popular & demanded in Spain. It was very easy to find those movies everywhere, at every video rental shop and even they were broadcasted in some local tv stations.

Kung Fu kids meet Mr Vampire 2 on IFD

So, IFD brought to us the THUNDER KIDS saga . But Joseph Lai never left his style & trademark back...no no no...he continued buying korean movies & re-editing them for the international markets. And here THUNDER NINJA KIDS 3; HUNT FOR THE DEVIL BOXER enters.

IFD pressbook

Joseph Lai wanted to join in one movie all the genres ( or sub-genres) he had been working on previously, so he thought that mixing of vampires, ninjas, kickboxers, gweiloh actors and kids he could get a "salad" with all the ingredients to be sold everywhere. Then he got this unknown korean movie starred by a girl & a group of child vampires...

Original korean tape bought by IFD to create the 3rd instalment of his Thunder kids saga

...and he added some new fotage directed by Alton Cheung that includes well-known gweiloh actors like Mark Houghton or Sophia Crawford hidden under the pseudonym of Sophia Warhol....uh? Warhol?Yes, it is a perfect name to fit this collage.

If I am a kickboxer, why am I killing ninjas in a forest?- Mark Houghton thinks

Then while the original korean movie has its vampire children adventures, Mark Houghton meanwhile spends his time in the "IFD forest" fighting ninjas & kickboxers in some interesting fighting scenes choreographed by the great Ridley Tsui Po Wah who also plays a supporting role.


Thunder Kids saga became into Thunder ninja kids in some territories such as Usa where the ninja craze boom lasted more than in Europe. Anyway the title was totally suitable since we found ninjas in kickboxer outfits or just directly ninjas in every installment of the saga.

US DVD cover

If you enjoyed the taiwanese original kung fu kids, you surely will find quite interesting this korean rapprochement to the subgenre because, apart from you will find everything you can see in an average kung fu kids movie, this one includes vampires & everything you may expect from an IFD explotation product.

oh, I almost forget..any help to translate the original korean movie used for this Thunder Ninja Kids: Hunt for the devil boxer will be highly appreciated.

PS.- My good friend Domingo López has just tipped me the original korean movie title used to create Thunder kids 3: Hunt for the devil boxer is a 1989 production titled The Aliens and Kong Kong Kang-si (Woegyein-Gwa kon).
For further information you may check this link at KMDB.

Ninja Knight Thunderfox Rough Ending...but What then?

I am used to spend too much time reading opinions & reviews of IFD movies in internet. I really enjoy them, even when the reviewer hasn't even seen the movie he is writing about or when he has just seen only one movie but he has the "right" to give the same value to all Joseph Lai's catalog. But I still have to recognice some ( well, many) reviews that complain about some ( well, many is the correct word again) aspects of IFD movies are well-unfounded.

A good sample of those bad aspects found in some IFD movies is the rough ending in titles such as Ninja The Protector, where Richard Harrison after defeating the evil chubby ninja says: " I am the Champion of the ninjas" & leaves the place in a cocky way and THE END in big letters appears in your screen. Then your brain starts to think about what's wrong... Similar cases are the endings of Rage of a ninja & speacially Ninja Knight Thunderfox.

A nice still pic taken during the shooting of Ninja Knight Thunderfox courtesy of Mike Abbott!

When I met Mike Abbott in Hong Kong in Feb 2009 for an interview he told me these words: "At the end of THUNDERFOX I die by having a sword thrown into my chest.They filled four bags full of different coloured powders and put them inside my ninja suite and then exploded them as the sword hit my chest"

His words can be checked in the following video about the final duel & ending of Ninja Knight Thunderfox

The ending of the movie is maybe the roughtest ifd ending along with Rage of the ninja ( also starred by Mike Abbott & Marko Ritchie). So the question I do in the post title gets its meaning at this point. THEN WHAT? What happened after Mike Abbott got the blade into his chest and he exploded without any logical reason? we got the answer from Mike Abbott with the following picture!

This is the result when you are a ninja & you get a sword into your chest

THANKS TO MIKE ABBOTT, one of the nicest people I have ever met in my life & a true gentleman despite he always played a villain in Hong Kong movies!

Good ninjas enjoy superb music (part 2)

The last post showed us how Stephen Tsang, music supervisor at IFD, used in a perfect way new age & progressive rock themes on most ninja movies produced by Joseph Lai. IFD was very innovative in this way because most of kung fu movies from the previous years used "can music" or they just "borrowed" some tunes from Morricone & other italian composers who made us happy with their creations for the famous spaguetti westerns.

IFD offered modern fashionable movies using old source movies ( what a paradox!!!!) containing western actors & the newest music of that time. We can tell IFD movies were Post-modern movies & Joseph Lai was a visionary & extremely smart producer.

Here you can enjoy some more examples how IFD knew how to choose the best music for its modern ninja movies.

Ninja Operation 5: Godfather the Master ( aka Power of Ninjitsu) opens with Richard Harrison doing some cool movements & "pose" while we listen a hooking melody



Stephen Tsang used a very famous tune from A-HA title The Sun always shines on TV.



Then we have Ninja Operation 2: Sword of Revenge ( aka Ninja Strike Force) that opens in a very ( really ,very very) closed way as Ninja Operation 5: Godfather the Master


But this time our pal Stephen Tsang chose a theme from Alphaville titled Sounds like a melody. The titled of the song was maybe the reason Mr Tsang took it for this Ninja movie!!!


But sadly, one day, Stephen Tsang became lazy ( well, maybe it was the copyright policy) & he decided not to use full tunes from famous groups & he went to famous movies and...



Yes,yes, the last duel of Ninja Knight: Thunderfox ( aka Ninja Empire) was scored using a tune we prevously listened at Nightmare in Elm street.



Eventually IFD music department went to TV ( the international copyright policies were becoming stronger & stronger). At the time IFD ninja movies were being produced, the coolest TV series were the several seasons of Miami Vice. So Stephen Tsang thought Miami vice ending titles score would be prefect ( and he was not wrong at all) for the most ambitious ninja movie ever produced by IFD: Ninja Operation- Knight & Warrior ( aka The black ninja).





IFD ninja movies music score history was writing in this way. I just can add it was a very smart way because those movies were scored with the popular music of that time ( middle 80's) plus the themes of big & small screen successful movies & TV series. Indeed, they were movies that could not fail in the video markets where they were being sold.

Good ninjas enjoy superb music (part 1)

If you are an avid fan of Kung fu movies & Spaguetti western, you surely noticed long time ago both genres shared similar stories, plots, chararacters & the tale how a good, innocent or idealistic man becomes into a killing machine in the search of the main topic from this kind of movies: revenge, vengeance when his world has been savagely destroyed by evilish people.

So, we didn't get surprised when we listen Ennio Morricone's scores in countless kung fu movies from the 70's. I only mention Morricone but music from dozens spaguetti westerns from different composers can be enjoyed as well. Music is a prefect link between european & asian movies that share and tell the same kind of stories in different enviroments.

Then, here IFD enters... and here IFD movies prove they were movies of their times just because of the music. Lets explain it with some examples:

Rage of a ninja offers us a new age music that fits perfectly to the action


Then we find the original music video from Clan of Xymox & I can't imagine it used in other movie.


Cobra Against Ninja also shares similar music that makes ninjas to be COOLER than they are. Cobra Against ninja also offers us a Spaguetti Western moment during the first duel seen in the credits.


Here we have the original score from Aleph in different versions.








And then we have Ninja Dragon that used a more traditional asian score for its credits.


The music was borrowed from a japanese anime titled Dagger of Kamui


Someone named Stephen Tsang was the responsible person at the music department at IFD. He was always credited as music supervisor but never as composer. Indeed he had an exquisite & refined music taste!

HKMDB is listing IFD movies as they deserve

I have always believed HKMDB was the most accurate movie data base of Hong Kong cinema ( HKCinemagic is its twin sister but a bit younger) but I always complaint HKMDB didn't register IFD / FILMARK "cut & paste" movies. I didn't undertand it. Even if they used movies from other South East Asian movies they were registered in Hong Kong & some of them used HK movies as source movies.

A month ago, one day, a lucky day for me, I was contacted by Teddy Wong one of the editors at HKMDB, he is possibly the person who knows everything about Philip Ko's filmography & a very very very nice guy. We talked about Philip Ko's works in IFD & we started to idenfie actors & movies used by Ko while he was working under Joseph Lai's commands.... then, we continued working giving names, faces & original title movies that are being included on HKMDB.

Yes, at last, these movies & the people who worked on them will have their place in the biggest movie data base about Hong Kong movies. At last the gweiloh actors who have been seen in dozens movies but we never were able to guess their names will have face & name, filmographies will be more completed & mistake will be erased.

Right now, Teddy Wong & I are working together to offer for first time the most completed & true information about the movies & the people who worked for IFD & FILMARK. No more bullshit or urban legends about Tomas Tang, Godfrey Ho or Joseph Lai & their movies.

To start with you can already check many of the IFD ninja movies at HKMDB just writing the title you prefer in the browser, the same cab be done with some of the main actors who acted on those movies & many of them include a link to other pages where you can learn about the original source movie used by them. HERE

Also, if you are a fan of Philip Ko, please check, Teddy Wong's site about this genius of martial arts & editing work just clicking here.

Teddy Wong's site in in Russian Language but the design, the contents & everything there will catch you.

Diegong Bayong VCD

Lets say it again: Joseph Lai's IFD didn't use unfinished nor unreleased movies for its cut & paste films. Philip Ko made Platoon The Warriors adding new scenes & re-dubbing a filipino actioner from 1984 titled Diegong Bayong. During the summer of 2009 I was able to find the original movie on VCD in video store inside SM Mall of Asia in Pasay, Manila.

There are a lot of people who still define IFD movies as "bottom of the barrel" films, or as "worst of the cinematic experience". These kind of sentences usually come from people who compare IFD movies with big budgeted movies from Jackie Chan or John Woo. Of course they get dissapointed. It is like if you watch 55 days at Peking expecting to see another chapter from Once Upon a time in China. Both movies are wonderful, both movies are about the colonial time in China, but both movies are totally different & they can't be taken by same measurement.

We must recognice Joseph Lai offered us movies from several asian countries, movies that we would never be able to see if IFD never used them. IFD offer us the chance to discover other action movies from South Korea, Thailand ( before Punna & Tony Jaa arrived), the Philippines & Taiwan. No one talks about this. No one notices it? The easiest way was ( and still is) to despise these motion pictures.

Many of asian action movies fans & collectors have been able to enjoy Sombat Methanee's movies thanks to IFD, the same can be said about Sorapong Chatri's, Anthony Alonzo's, Lu I Chan or Master Lee Dae-Keun & even the korean movies starred by Casanova Wong or Wong Chen Li.

Now it is time to Diegong Bayong & here I offer you some snapshots from the original movie. Enjoy them!

The final battle takes place in an abandoned building that has been used by Philip Ko in many of the movies he shot in the Philippines starred by Yukari Oshima. I remember I have seen this place in movies such as Lethal Panther 2 or Guardian Angel among other titles. The following pics show how that building hadn't changed too much since Diegong Bayong was shot in 1984 until Philip Ko shot there his films at the begining of the 90's.

We have a western moment during the last battle, The police as it happens in most action movies arrives too late to save anyone....our hero waits for them in an heroic pose as Jimmy Wang Yu used to end his films

After this shot, we see the END titles....so it seems Diegong Bayong was a finished movie, right?????

Platoon The Warriors Vs Diegong Bayong ( Part 1)

There have been and there still are) many fake rumours & stories about IFD & its movies. One of the most repeated, disgusting, false & wrong ones is the " leyend" Joseph Lai used un-finisshed asian movies for his ninja / action films. Others said he used different 2 or 3 un-released movies to create a new film. Since I opened this site I have tried my best to prove all those bullshit was totally false & unfair to Mr Lai & his company.

There are some posts in this blog that give the original source movies used by IFD when they designed a new released. So, all my dear readers & friends have found out some asian titles from different countries that were updated by IFD adding new fotage & re-dubbing them.

I really hope this first post of August 2011 could be useful to eradotace & banish once for all that JOSEPH LAI'S IFD NEVER USED UNFINISHED NOR UNRELEASED MOVIES to design their own motion pictures.

One of my favourite IFD movies is Platoon the Warriors. It was starred by my friend Mike Abbott as a ruthless but coward drug lord trying to control the drug market & smashing other dealers like him using ninjas, guns, knives & machine guns. The show was directed by Philip Ko & his stuntmen. As always the plot & the way they film was not enough for a standar movie since the storyline can be resumed into 30 minutes.

IFD new pressbook for Platoon the Warriors, one of its best action movies due to a gorgeous source movie from the Philippines & the directing skills of Philip Ko.

Then, Philip Ko used a high octane filipino action movie to add another subplots related to the main story about drugs, killers & revenge and more actors. So they used a Filipino movie that was FILMED, FINISHED & RELEASED in the Philippines in 1984 titled Diegong Bayong, starred by one the very best action heroes from the Philippines Anthony Alonzo.

"Diegong Bayong" Stars Anthony Alonzo, Janet Bordon, Sarsi Emmanuelle, Ruel, Vernal, Dace Brodett, Lucita Soriano, Mario Escudero, Rocco Montalban.

Diegong Bayong was not an average action movie from the Philipines directed by Ron Gallardo Pablo in 1984. His main actor Anthony Alonzo was at the peak of his popularity among 1981/ 1984 when he played roles based in real people with criminal true stories like Danny Lee Sau Yin did years later in many films produced by his Magnum Films productions.

Besides Anthony Alonzo was already a popular cult- action hero in the international markets because he also played in many co-production in the Philipines. Titles such as Intrusion Cambodia starring along Richard Harrison; W means war, Trident Force, Clash of the warlords were everywhere during the video boom in the 80's & those movies were on tape in each video rental shop in Europe, the Us and even Africa & South America.

Diegong Bayong is one of the many movies that proves IFD never used unfinished or unreleased movies. In this case Joseph Lai provided to Philip Ko with a very popular film in the Philippines for his Platoon The Warriors.

Platoon the Warriors new fotage directed by Philip Ko & starred by Mike Abbott & Mark Watson was shot in 1987 & then edited into Diegong Bayong that was premiered in 1984. So, I truly hope not to find more bullshit about unfinished, unreleased films while I dig for more information related to IFD, Joseph Lai or the people who worked on those films. The truth only has one way.

Special thanks to Mr Simon Santos from the wonderful site VIDEO 48 for his kind help, all the information he passed me about Diegong Bayong and Anthony Alonzo & the original poster of Diegong Bayong.
You may find more information about Anthony Alonzo movies at VIDEO 48 here