Taiwan Black Movies at IFD & Filmark (part 15): Escape to Freedom

I wasn't sure about including this film in these entries about Taiwanese Black Movies released by IFD & Filmark because it is not a "real" gangster movie but finally I decided to do it because Escape to Freedom was starred by most of the people who developed the subgenre at the time. Another reason I have dediced to post an entry about this movie is because Escape to Freedom is one of those "lost" or missed movies from IFD catalog without any clue like manay of their taiwanese films...remember the Thunderbolt saga, they were the most popular ones but they are not longer avaliable from IFD.

 Escape to Freedom was a 1982 production starring Elsa Yeung ( one of the IFD Queens...and it is quite possible she doesn't know about it) & Tien Peng among other popular taiwanese actors. The movie changes the gang wars in the streets of Taipei for a national adventure against Japanese invaders... This anti-japanese war movies were also a subgenre itself in Taiwan, like the Gangster movies.

 The movie was bought by IFD in released under several different titles. The IFD first official title for this production was Scape to High Risks but then it was also released on tape in countries like Spain as Highnoon Scape. Once again, IFD just bought the rights for its international release, dubbed it into English language & sold it around the world keeping the original taiwanese cut. 

The movie was directed by Ching Gong, who was an excellent director & scriptwriter at Shaw Bros. Some personal favourite of mine are his The Criminal series released & produced by Shaw Bros during the middle 70's. Those works outlined what the Taiwanese Black Movies would be in a near future.

The producer of Escape to Freedom was Yang Teng Kuei who was also the man who made possible many of Danny Lee's direct to video police adventures such as  Shoot to kill & all those bloody and ultraviolent gangster thrillers that just were a logic continuation of the style and features of the original taiwanese black movies.

Taiwan Black Movies at IFD & Filmark (part 8): Phoenix The Raider

Althought June is a month that makes me lazier due to the high temperatures in South Spain area, here we go again with another Taiwanese black movie used & distributed by IFD during the video boom in Spain. At that time it seemed IFD catalog was endless.

IFD & Filmark released some of the most obscure taiwanese gangster movies on video, but sometimes they also brought us some with better known stars who also got a career in Hong Kong whose movies enjoyed better distribution. One of that movies was Phoenix The Raider.

IFD creative unit was also a bit lazy about choosing names or titles, when they found an interesting one they used countless time like the Thunderbolt or  Phoenix. Do you remember Phoenix the ninja? the girl in Ninja Dragon was also named Phoenix...Curiously these two words have always been used on Taiwanese movies titles or characters.

Well, Phoenix the Raider was starred by Elsa Yeung & later superstar Brigitte Lin who was named as Venus Lin in most of her movies distributed by IFD like Golden Queen's Commando or its sequel Pink Force Commando also starred by Elsa Yeung and other future HK movie starlettes. By the way...Briggite Lin also starred a taiwanese movie titled Burn Phoenix burn in 1982. This coincidence should have been used by IFD guys and re-name Briggite Phoenix Lin instead Venus...

Spanish VHS cover

Once again, we guess Phoenix The Raider was the IFD international title given to a taiwanese gangster movie originally titled The Deadly Angels, a 1982 movie co-directed by Ulysses Au Yeung-Jun a veterane director & Leung Sau-Geun an actor who starred some movies along Lin & Yeung and then he tried to be director on this film but the experience  was too much for him since he never directed anything else.

original taiwanese poster displayed at HKMDB.

 

 

The deadly angels was starred by some regular Taiwan black actors such as Eagle Lee, O Chung Hung or Heung Wan Pang  and even we find a young Charles Heung today the powerful head China star in an early role as an inspector before he became the bodyguard of Mr Ko Chun The God Of Gamblers himself!!!