Some impressions about ANGEL ENFORCERS

If we check IFD movies from 1989 on we find out many technicians left Joseph Lai's company & companion and new directors, photography directors, stunts coordinators arrived. So where did the previous ones go?
Godfrey Ho & Philip Ko went on their own founding their own production companies: Filmswell & Regal respectively. They brought with them many of the technicians who had been working along them on IFD. And here is when ANGEL ENFORCERS enters.

Ho & Ko learnt how to make cheap but highly gorgeous movies at IFD before set their own companies

-The ninja fever had passed away, it was time for kickboxing movies in the West & Angel movies in the East, althought Angel movies were more popular outside Asia.

-Godfrey Ho felt he was losing money & wasting his talent being under Joseph Lai's orders so he ran away from IFD & he started to produce his own movies based on what he had learnt on IFD: low budgets, short periods for shooting, gweiloh actors for international look, international markets for distribution, many subplots weakly linked to the main story,etc, etc etc.

-Angel enforcers has all the above stated plus the same photography director Raymond Chang who had been working with Godfrey Ho for years at IFD & Filmark. Chang was PD of Ho's Filmark movie Top Mission starring Alphonse Beni

-Philip Ko who was action director & director at IFD also has a small role & was the Action director in Angel Enforcers

-Ridley Tsui Po Wah whose debut as director was at IFD also has a supporting role in Angel enforcers as policeman at the begining & he plays a frightening stunt falling down from a bridge & hitting a truck & a car before land on the floor. The stunt is showed to us twice from different angles.

On the upper side Danny Ng, Ridley Tsui Po Wah two of the best stunment from IFD

-Danny Ng, the ninja stunt double for Richard Harrison & many IFD main actors ( remember they got chinese eyes when they were masked on ninja suits????), who also got important roles at IFD during the last years in sagas such as War City & Aerolite force has a supporting role with dialog lines in Angel Enforcers.

Danny Ng as a police officer, a role he had played before at IFD latter action movies

-James Ha who also got supporting roles on IFD movies in sagas like War City or Filmark productions such as Satanic Crystals is also on a supporting role in Angel Enforcers

-Might be Danny Ng, James Ha & Ridley Tsui members of Philip Ko stuntmen team at that time??

-Mike Abbott, Edowan Bersma, Mark Houghton, Paul John Stanners, Phil Dodge & plenty of IFD/ Filmark regular western faces got their chance to show their acting or fighting skill in Angel Enforcers.

Mike Abbott opens Angel enforcers playing a drug dealer

Edowan Bersma is a very bad dude to deal with.

-George Lai. Joseph's brother, was the international distributor for Angel Enforcers, and now Angel Enforcers is on IFD catalog for worldwide sales.

-Angel Enforcers proves what IFD could have offered us if they had injected a bit bigger budget on their films like the producers did on this one.

No budget for guns??? well, no problem, we can use tools as deadly weapons

-Angel Enforcers proves Godfrey Ho is much better director than many people still think about him.

-Angel Enforcers offers us Girls with guns top action, great martial artists such as Dick Wei, Sharon Yeung Pan Pan & Philip Ko delivering stunning fights.

A great shot taken by Photography director Raymond Chang

-Angel Enforcers offer us weird & bizarre sex scenes with the only & the one Charlie Cho, a not too pretty gweiloh girl & two faggots from Hollywood porn industry (!!!) who will put Cho in some troubles

Charlie Cho likes fish but he is going to try meat from Hollywood!!!

Charlie Cho checks in horror his gweiloh girl's friends are looking at him with lovely eyes.

Angels Enforcers is not an IFD movie but it was done & delivery to us by the people who worked at IFD. If Director Godfrey Ho would have done more movies like this one maybe his reputation among HK moviegoers would not be so mean.

Just a nice location for IFD's Ninja Knight 3: Heaven's Hell

I remember during the last week of January 1990 when I was just 14 years old I suffered a very severe flu that made me stay on bed more than two weeks suffering high fever. During the time I was on bed, I didn't have too many bad moments, only headaches & throat pain, but I enjoyed a lot because my late mother brought me a lot of movies she rented in our regular video rental shop. I still remember the day she brought me Ninja Knight: Thunderfox & Ninja Knight 3: Heaven's Hell.

Opening title credits for one of the first movies Philip Ko directed for IFD

The opening scene of Ninja Knight 3: Heaven Hell shows us a gweiloh guy jogging through a bridge just before being killed by a ruffian who holds an axe. Then we find out that killer was sent by Mike Abbott & the killed guy has a brother who will take revenge for his brother death.

Run, man, run

I fell in love with that scene, I fell in love with the movie itself that used a taiwanese weird drama as source movie & of course Mike Abbott became one of my favourite actors. He has a special " touch" to portray bad guys.
But from this time on, I started to feel in love with IFD shooting locations. By the time, I had seen many locations from Tsim Tsa Tsui, Shatin, Tsim tsa Tsui East ( around Shangri La Hotel, Royal Garden Hotel,etc) but the locations used in Ninja Knight 3: Heaven's Hell were new to me and I kept them on mind.

I arrived to this location more than 20 years after Philip Ko shot there.

In January/ February 2009 I left my birth country Spain for the Philippines & I stopped over in Hong Kong for a while before I moved to my new home. With the help of Mike Abbott & my experience from past trips to Hong Kong, I decided to find out so many IFD locations as possible & I decided to start by Ninja Knight 3 so I went to KAM SHAM COUNTRY PARK to takes photos & video an here it is the result.
Just compare, the place. It hasn't changed too much since Philip Ko shot there the opening scene for Ninja Knight 3: Heaven's Hell.

The water reservoir in Kam Sham coutry park. The mountains at the back belongs to Lion Rock Country park where other IFD movies were also shot.

The opening plateau of Ninja Knight 3 was also used at the end of Johnnie To's Election.

By the way, during this past summer while I was watching Johnnie To's ELECTION, I realized the place where Simon Yam kills Tony Leung Ka Fai was exactly the same place used by the opening shot of Ninja Knight 3: Heaven's Hell.
I fell really happy when I saw it!!!

Lisa Films: IFD European Connection

The wonderful action film magazine Impact offered us a really nice interview with Joseph Lai on its issue on Octber 2000 That interview can be read on this blog in two different ways: as it was published & also in its"uncut" version kindly offered by the author Mike Leeder.

Joseph Lai said in the interview he & his company were avaliable for co-productions since this formula has been always very profitable & less risky. We just have to remember he co-production system offered us real masterpieces in european cinematographies during the 50's , 60's & 70's. Each production company don't take so many risks when they invest their money in a film & the benefits from the different international markets ensures the investment. For expample Spanish & italian co-productions gave us the very best Spaguetti Western & horror movies ever done, French & german coproductions let us see the most exciting erotic movies in the same period. The most important thing is those movies are still giving benefits to their producers dued to the revivals & the fandom. So, We have to accept Joseph Lai was totally right when he said he was opened to do co-productions.

Lisa Films, an Austria based film company that co-producced all kind of movies during the golden age of european co-productions was perfect for this matter.
Click this link to visit its official website
http://www.lisafilm.at/lisafilm/liland/sitepath/%2C/template/Welcome.vm

They have all its catalog movie by movie with technical details, from the ones Lisa Film has produced to the co-productions. We can see all time favourites like the Spaguetti Western Sartana to Bud Spencer's Banana Joe or even the erotic thriller shot in Hong Kong Vanessa. And YESSSSSS, I found Royal Destiny under its german title IM FADENKREUZ DES BÖSEN. The result of this search just confirm what Big commented on the previous post: Royal Destiny was started in 1995 & it was probably unfinished while on production with Lisa Films & IFD and then Joseph Lai used vault material to finish the movie. Anyway, after checking the trailer, it seems Royal Destiny is a great movie from IFD. Raymund Harmstorf looks like a clon of Richard Harrison & the action scenes from Tsui Po Wah are superb.

I don't know in which way Lisa Film co-produced War city 5: Law of honor since there is nothing on the movie we can tell has something to do with the germans or austrians. On the other hand Royal Destiny was starred by some famous German actors like Raymond Harmstorf, a very popular face since he played the villain in some Bud Spencer movies such as The Sheriff & the Satellite Kid or They call him Bulldozer & Julia Kent a TV actress from the german tv. Oddly enough is the fact that Royal Destiny is copyrighted in 1998 exactly the same year Raymond Harmstorf passed away & Julia Kent did her last role on German TV.

http://www.lisafilm.at/lisafilm/liland/template/film-%2CFilmDetail.vm/film_site/FilmMetadataForm.vm/filmid/470/mode/modify/sitepath/%2Cfilme%2Cfilmografie%2C

The technical info from Lisa film website adds Bryan Baker & Mike Abbott also took part on Royal destiny as actors, as well as Brent Gilbert. This info confirms the added material to Royal Destiny was shot during 1987/88 while Gilbert & Abbott starred the first chapters of War City saga as well as some chapters of American / Advent Commando saga.

Meanwhile if you Click this link to check IMDB Lisa Films produced movies from 1965 to 2010. The movies co-produced with IFD are missing. The same happens if we check Raymund Harmstorf, Julia Kent or Otto Retzer filmographies.
http://www.imdb.es/company/co0093385/

I hope & wish we could enjoy one day a dvd release of Royal Destiny. Joseph Lai has provided us a lot of rare movies from Thailand, Philippines, Taiwan & Korea, but it seems his co-production with Lisa Films has the privilege to be the rarest movie ever produced by IFD. Now I have to be happy just watching the original trailer.

Did you see Bruce Fontaine, Danny Ng, Mark Watson ( Mike Abbott's deadliest enemy in IFD movies), Bryan Baker & many other are on this movie???? It seems Royal Destiny has not an asian source movie as main body but regular gweiloh actors shots plus the german actors new fotage.

IFD Copyright misteries

The copyright dates shown on IFD productions always amazed me. IFD used to add a copyright date in Roman numbers at the finale of opening credits. Sometimes the date info said we were ready to watch a 1985 movie production but when the movie started the screen was full of people wearing fashionable clothes from the 70's as well as haircuts from the same time.

When I met Mike Abbott in Hong Kong he told me most of the movies he did for IFD along Richard Harrison were shot during October 1986 ( Hitman the Cobra & Ninja operation 7: Royal Warriors) & the remaining ones in 1987. In 1989 he did his last job for IFD (Thunder ninja kids Golden Adventure) when he had already opened his own company Abbott Leisure.

All this information provided by Mike Abbott would not be interested at all if the Copyright dates shown on screen were the same but when we play, for example, Ninja Operation 7: Royal Warriors or any chapter from Ninja Knight saga we see all of them are copyrighted in 1988. Two years later for movies that were usually shot in two weeks!!!!

BUT, But, But...what could be Joseph Lai's purpose to copyright a movie shot in 1987/88 in 1995???? That's a real mistery I really can't understand at all...or not????

Last weekend I watched WAR CITY 5: LAW OF HONOR, the last chapter from War City saga whose first chapter War City: Win to Die has a 1988 copyright date on screen like the others from the same saga. So, why this last one was copyrighted in 1995?

War City 5: Law of honor copyright date is from 1995. Almost 10 years later since it was shot.

The answer to this question might be found in a deal between IFD & other companies like Yip Sing Co. & the Austria based film company Lisa Film that "co-produced" another IFD movie in 1998 entitled ROYAL DESTINY.
Of course, Royal Destiny was not shot in 1998, after I saw the trailer ( I don't own the movie...siiight) I saw Jonathan Isgar & other gweiloh actors wearing the same clothes they used in the movies they shot in the middle 80's & you can easily notice they are younger. It seems these two companies gave some money to IFD to produce a movie & IFD just offered some material that had been shot but unseen several years ago. I really can't imagine another reason.

IFD dealed with Lisa Film GMBH co-producing War City 5: Law of Honor & the lost "gem" ( I don't know anyone who owns it) Royal Destiny

Another hint that could prove 1995 is a fake copyright date for War City 5: Law of Honor is the cast who star in the movie. Brent Gilbert & Bryan Baker.

Gilbert after working for IFD & Filmark moved to the Philippines where he shot a Vietnam war movie titled BATTLE RATS copyrighted in 1989, he was credited as Jack Gilbert, then he dissapeared from the film industry.
Bryan Baker, credited as Nick Masters, starred in 1988 Tiger on the Beat as the villain who holds a rifle with a knife against Chow Yun Fat who holds a big machete tied to his weapon.
Baker, also starred another IFD movie along Mike Abbott titled Advent Commando 7: Guns to Heaven in 1987/88 where the cast had many of the supporting actors seen in War City 5: Law of honor.

Mad Moves: A werewolf is on the loose at Filmark

Werewolf movies are on their peak again. New movies about men who become into wolves when the full moon appears are popular on the screen. Tomas Tang was, as Joseph Lai is, a very smart bussiness guy. He knew what the audiences demand, he knew what people wanted to see & of course he offered them products that include the audience's preferences.

Sadly the spanish video tape I own is on Fullscreen

And yes, Tomas Tang offered us a werewolf movie entitled MAD MOVES (Spanish video title: Explosion Demencial / Insane outburst). The title makes justice to the movie since it possibly is the maddest movie ever came from Filmark and, it is for sure an instant cult movie in the same way Robovampire and its sequels are.

Lets start from the source movie: Tomas Tang bought throught his Filmark International a Thai movie whose title is unreadble (we can only see the word Wolf) to the ones who can't talk or read Thai language but whose original art cover is simply superb.

Sorapong chatri, gorgeous girl, a wolfman carrying a rifle, a white haired sorcerer,zombies, naked girls, ghosts: a true gem

Later, as usual, Mr Tang hired regular gweilohs Paul John Stanners, Brent Gilbert and others & used ex-vemon Sun Chien as supporting actor and action director to shoot 15 minutes of new scenes that were pasted during the original movie. The final result was Mad Moves

Guerrilla, gweilohs, Sun Chien, Paul John Stanners, Helicopters, chicks on bikes..Where is the werewolf? Come in and see, he is on this movie despite the art cover

Mad Moves script is weird, ridiculously funny & enjoyable, senseless but what we see on screen is simply amazing, specially when our local thai hero starred by the great Sorapong Chatri becomes into a wolfman during a priceless moment. There are no words to explai it. Lets see it through the following snapshots.

The dangers of Full Moon

No, I just forgot to shave this morning

A thick lipped thai werewolf in Hong Kong

Hey, honey, shall I invite you a drink?

Apart from his transformation, the clothes used by this thai wolfman were inspired by the ones used by spanish wolfman Paul Naschy along his saga about Waldermar Daninsky. Also his movements when attacking his victims are too similar. May be a thai homage to the spanish actor.

White shirt & black trousers: the most typical werewolf clothes

Get out of my way, asshole

Our werewolf, in a continuous homage to Paul naschy's Waldemar Daninsky is a lover as well. He is a beast, but he loves beauties girls taking showers & of course, he is a super wolf on bed. we can tell this thai wolf has a deep latin character.

I don't bark to the moon, I prefer peeping girls

I like cleansing myself for my hairy macho man

auuuuuuuuuuh

The ones who think ROBOVAMPIRE is the creative & surrealistic peak of Tomas Tang's Filmark should get and watch Mad Moves. It really worths 85 minutes of our free time.

Danny Ng, the ninja with no name

Who hasn't seen an IFD movie yet? I am pretty sure if you are reading this post is because you like these movies or, at least, you have seen some of the movies produced by Joseph Lai's production company. The next question is did you ever notice the gweiloh actor who played the hero became into a chinese when he got into ninja suit & did some somersaults?, C'mom, just look at the eyes of the person into the ninja outfit. if you never noticed it, please take your time to re-watch titles such as Ninja Knight: thunderfox or Ninja operation 3: License to steal just to mention a couple of films. The third & final question is: Do you know who was the stuntman who placed action heroes such as Richard Harrison or Mike Abbott when they became ninjas????

where did I see those eyes?????

The chinese eyes of Richard Harrison, Mike Abbott or Grant Temple, have a face that doesn't belong to them but to Danny Ng, a chinese stuntman who made a career as a double stuntman in the ninja movies from IFD till the directors or producer gave him the chance to play lead roles as sidekick partner from the regular heroes.

At the set of Ninja Operation 3: License to terminate along Grant Temple

Danny Ng , like the gweilohs who used to get main roles on IFD productions got his chance to play main roles in at least two sagas: War City & Aerolite Force. In both sagas he could play hero or villain from one chapter to another with no explanation. So, for example in War City: Win or Die he is a rutless assassin trying to asesinate Brent Gilbert at any chance ,but from War City 3: The extreme project he is the hero's assistant, a role he would reprise in War City 4: King of Power and War City 5: Law of honour.

DVD cover from War City: Win or Die where Danny Ng was at last credited

In War City 3: the extreme project, our heroes are sent to the Philippines trying to stop Mike Abbott. Danny Ng plays a good cop in this one.

IFD war saga titled areolite force was also starred by Danny Ng in at least the first three films: The Brave Platoon, The untouchable glory & Sky High Force.

HK police & Danny Ng have a lot of work to do in the Philippines as showed in War City saga.

There are a lot of chances all these movies from War City & Aerolite force were shot back to back, not only the casts of all them were similar but also all the movies used filipino action films as main body for these IFD productions.

Danny Ng & Brent Gilbert were deadly enemies in the first chapter of War City but bloodbrothers in the last one.

Around the time Danny Ng was working for IFD productions he also got time to appear in bigger projects. He worked as an actor & stuntman in Lau Kar Wing's great heroic bloodshed THE DRAGON FAMILY where Philip Ko a regular director for IFD & the most direct responsible person of Danny's movies at IFD had also a major role.

Danny Ng, the second from the left, in his tiny role in Leung Kar Wing's THE DRAGON FAMILY

Danny Ng, started as ninja double for gweiloh actors, then got his roles at the same kind of movies & finally did small roles in bigger productions. He is chinese but he followed the same career as many gweilohs did in HK cinema. He proved himself as a very skilled martial artist & acrobat.

Thanks so much to Regis Autran from www.nanarland.com for the pic of Danny Ng posing as a ninja double for Grant Temple.

El escuadron de los ninjas según Churri

Hace unos meses, por puros celos, ya que se había hecho colaborador del blog de mi buen amigo Emilio, http://emisucio.wordpress.com/, le pedi a Churri, un amigote de www.zinemahk.org que para compensarme me tendría que escribir ,al menos, una reseña de alguna peli de ninjas de la IFD o la Filmark. El muy cabrito no se ha mojado del todo y en lugar de elegir una de las gamberradas de corta y pega de Tomas Tang, ha elegido una de Lo Rei que fue distribuida a todo el mundo por la Filmark International.

Churri no es fanático del género ( más bien subgenero) ninja y por lo tanto sus apreciacoiones son mucho más objetivas que las que yo pudiese dar sobre la misma película y esto hace que su aportación a este blog sea algo muy valioso ya que mi pasión por estas cintas a veces me pierden y la subjetividad no me deja ver los errores de mi adorado Godfrey Ho.

Señoras y señores, con ustedes EL ESCUADRÓN DE LOS NINJAS según Churri:

Si el buen comienzo de una película la vende, de ésta ya no quedarían, pues es demoledor. John, un ninja (un pletórico Alexander Lo Rei, el ninja más habitual y completo, con Sho Kosugui), blanco (luego es “bueno”) recorre cauto un bosque que hierve de ninjas armados hasta la capucha, y en menos de un minuto aniquila con desdeñosa facilidad a media docena de ninjas entrenados para matar. Ahora, busca a un gran maestro. Ninja, claro, al que acecha en una efectiva escena. Tras una lucha intensísima, comprendemos que el maestro pudo matarlo de haber querido. Las luchas eran una prueba de iniciación, el paso del ninja a la maestría,..

Ahora vemos que John y Spencer (Eugene Thomas, hábil luchador negro, el célebre “Monje negro de Harlem” en la alucinante Ninja Shaolin duelo final) son polis, violentos y grandes expertos en la lucha. El futuro suegro de John inventa una cura radical contra la drogadicción, y el Jefe de los multicolores Ninjas De Los Cinco Elementos, tan letales como John, la desea. John es encerrado y torturado, y su torturador amenaza a Nancy, novia de John. Éste, colérico, lucha contra docenas de policías, arrasa media comisaría y escapa… John, cual Rambo con arco y todo, es perseguido hasta un bosque que convierte en trampa letal, los ninjas polícromos secuestran al Profesor y su familia. John llega al rescate y los combates contra los ninjas teñidos son fantásticos. Alexander es un luchador extraordinario, su capacidad marcial inmensa y exponerse a una de sus demoledoras patadas es letal. La lucha alcanza un nivel intensísimo, y John es dado erróneamente por muerto...
Un hecho inesperado depara una nueva lucha impactante, John prepara venganza y arsenal y corre hacia el ninjachalet. Hay una lucha generalizada y los vecinos de la tranquila urbanización al ver a los ninjas polícromos intentando masacrar al ninja blanco, fijo que buscan la calma en la zona más belicosa de Harlem… y vemos cuán útiles son las célebres katanas ninjas submarinas...
Al fin, el Señor Ninja lucha con John y Spencer en un combate terrible, prolongado, extraordinario e intensísimo, pródigo en todo tipo de exhibiciones marciales a cargo de tres grandes maestros, donde el pérfido ninja iguala a John. Es demoledor, su técnica de pierna impactante y no lucha con nobleza, y...

Las películas de la Filmark no pasarán a la historia del cine. Carecen de la grandeza de Operación Dragón, la épica de Érase una vez en China o la belleza y poesía de Tigre y dragón, por ejemplo. Sus actores no ganarían un premio de interpretación y jamás las nominarían al Oscar al mejor guión, ni lo pretendían. ¿Qué provoca entonces su tremenda adicción?. Es sencillo: Son tan perdurables, recordadas y disfrutables por lo infernalmente divertidas que son, pues lo tienen todo para pasar un buen rato.
El Escuadrón ninja cumple todas las premisas de la Filmark: Guión absurdo, hilo común para enlazar frenéticas escenas de acción, situaciones hilarantes (el ninja de la Tierra se hunde en ésta y surge ¡en pañales!, bueno, con un ninjacalzoncillo, elemento risible del que ignoro su razón), ninjas con poderes sobrehumanos, colores que marcan la catadura de los actores, subtramas que se inician y abandonan, mujeres florero, y a los adoradores de las bandas sonoras les enloquecerá… ¡No hay ni un minuto original, todo robos!...
Pero también supera a la media: Sus actores son grandes luchadores, en especial Alexander, que cada vez nos sorprende con una técnica más depurada, y, sobre todo, sus luchas, el plato fuerte de la película, sin insertos de luchas de otras, algo usual en Filmark. Aquí sólo luchan John, Spencer, los ninjas teñidos y su pérfido Jefe, y son combates extraordinarios, de un nivel técnico impactante, que roza la excelencia en las tremendas luchas realizadas por Alex, un guerrero realmente memorable. Tenía clase para llegar muy alto éste desaprovechado campeón de Taekwondo, y protagonizar algo más que sus sempiternos papeles ninja, pues su técnica es enorme, su estilo de lucha espectacular y efectivo, demoledor sin duda en combate real, y aunque sus muchas películas como ninja le hicieron muy popular, la mediocridad de muchas de éstas, a la larga, le perjudicó grandemente. ¿Y qué?, ésta película es, a su modo, memorable, logra cotas de diversión inigualables, la seguimos con una gran sonrisa en los labios... y cuando acaba, somos conscientes de que hemos disfrutado como niños… ¿No es eso lo que buscábamos?. En efecto, no íbamos a ver Muerte en Venecia…

A ver si se anima y dentro de poco podemos disfrutar de otra reseña similar!