Member J.J. Hayden Posted January 1, 2023 Author Member Share Posted January 1, 2023 8 minutes ago, BornToDefense said: Don't know if this is the appropriate place to put this or not, but I found an essay on the KMDB site about The Trouble-Solving Broker, known more widely as Secret Executioners. Apparently it's something of a lost film in it's original state? Cheers for posting. Unfortunately there's more than a few of the classic Korean martial arts films in the same situation, even Korean fans complain that a lot of the originals are locked in the KMDB vault or lost for good. Some Koreans are even jealous of our IFD DVDs, if you can believe it!!! 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member BornToDefense Posted January 2, 2023 Member Share Posted January 2, 2023 (edited) https://www.kmdb.or.kr/story/122/3911 https://www.kmdb.or.kr/story/76/1598 https://www.kmdb.or.kr/story/135/4036 A few more relevant articles I've found, one of which is specifically about Jeong Jin-Hwa aka Elton Chong's popularity following the success of Jackie Chan's kung fu comedies in South Korea. Also found a youtube channel with a bunch of Korean language versions of popular Asso Asia/IFD acquisitions, albeit youtube quality. Pertaining to what you said though, a few of them are in English, presumably because it was the only available version. And a Korean Eagle vs Silver Fox dub: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9Y1iqx40xQ&ab_channel=홍정리 Edited January 2, 2023 by BornToDefense 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member J.J. Hayden Posted January 2, 2023 Author Member Share Posted January 2, 2023 Yes those channels have some of the classics on there, and the Jeong Jin-hwa channel might be the man himself, but I've never had a satisfactory response to confirm, more likely to just be fellow fans sharing whatever they can. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member J.J. Hayden Posted January 4, 2023 Author Member Share Posted January 4, 2023 Spotted this error during my some research and though it best to post now before I forget about it. I'm down so many rabbit holes at the moment I'm expecting to bump into General Woundwort It's a rather unusual one in that it's an error on HKMDB, KMDB and many others too!!! The following two pictures are not from Twelve Gates Of Hell (1980), but are actually from Eighteen Women Fighters Of Murim (aka The 18 Amazones) (1979). Both pictures feature the film's main star Keo Ryong (aka Dragon Lee). The second picture is listed as also featuring Kim Min-jeong and Kim Yeong-il (aka Eagle Han), however it is actually Im Eun-joo (aka Pearl Lin) and Jang Il-do (aka Bruce Lai). 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member BornToDefense Posted January 4, 2023 Member Share Posted January 4, 2023 What's your take on The Drunken Monk aka Drunk 8 Blows, Crazy 8 Blows starring Gordon Liu? It's credited to Yang Ming-Tsai/Au Yeung-Jun on HKMDB and most prints but KMDB (and the Korean prints from what I can glean) credit Lee Yeong-u as sole director. I know there was an era of so-called "fake co-productions" in South Korea to get around import quotas but I don't know how long it lasted. Do you think the Lee Young-u credit was a contractual deal or the other way around? 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member J.J. Hayden Posted January 4, 2023 Author Member Share Posted January 4, 2023 7 minutes ago, BornToDefense said: Do you think the Lee Young-u credit was a contractual deal or the other way around? I'm not sure. As you mentioned there are lots of "fake" and not "fake" co-productions between HK, Taiwan and Korea, usually with different amounts or directing handled by different people and various prints for each market, which can make researching them a nightmare, especially with many of the directors (Korean ones a least) being dead or just not very interested in discussing their old work. We'll probably never know the full truth of the matter. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member BornToDefense Posted January 4, 2023 Member Share Posted January 4, 2023 Yeah it's very confusing. This and Hitman in the Hand of Buddha are two that I've always been perplexed by. I've been trying to learn more about pre-1990s Korean cinema in general and the screen quota system seems to come up a lot. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member J.J. Hayden Posted January 4, 2023 Author Member Share Posted January 4, 2023 12 minutes ago, BornToDefense said: I've been trying to learn more about pre-1990s Korean cinema in general and the screen quota system seems to come up a lot. Good luck It is certainly interesting but damn can it be hard work. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member J.J. Hayden Posted January 12, 2023 Author Member Share Posted January 12, 2023 Another quick correction I came across. This is not Kim Wook in Secret Executioners The guy's not even Korean. He' one of three rather goofy looking gwailo's that show up in the film, I think their scenes (although featuring Kwon Il-soo) were C&P into the film. There's three names that could be for this guy or the other two on the English print: Jim Norris / Chuck Campbell / Tom Wagner but I couldn't find anything definitive. What is definitive is that it's not Kim Wook. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member J.J. Hayden Posted January 13, 2023 Author Member Share Posted January 13, 2023 (edited) Most of this is from a question thread about early Korean martial arts movies, but adding it here too with a little extra: It seems that the main credited for Lee Doo-yong's films made during 1974 was none other the Best Kwon Yeong-moon, films such as Bridge Of Death, Manchurian Tiger and Betrayer. He was also co-action director with Richard Nam Choong-il on The Returned Single Legged Man. As for 1975 onward the action director credit seems to disappear, however I believe KIS took over the action director role as he had been an assistant action director on earlier films such as The Returned Single Legged and Left Foot Of Wrath, and with Best Kwon seemingly switching over to work with Richard Park Woo-sang, someone would presumably take his place. It's really a choice between Richard Nam and Kwon Il-soo, the former of which had the previously mentioned co-action director credit and worked with Lee Doo-yong about 3 times (all before 1975), whereas the latter had the previously mentioned assistant action director credits, was the main action director on The Returned Single Legged Man II in 1974 and Secret Agents II in 1976 and worked with director Lee about 9 times throughout the 70s. So I think it's pretty safe to assume that from 75 onward, Kwon Il-soo was Lee Doo-yong's go to guy for action. At some point (I'm very busy with other research) I'll try to see if there's any action director credits hidden in the Hanja on the posters etc. but that won't be for some time. Hope some found this useful. Through my research of this I can fill in some blanks for Lee Doo-yong's films on HKMDB: The Manchurian Tiger [1974] action director Best Kwon Yeong-moon The Returned Single-Legged Man [1974] action director Best Kwon Yeong-moon and Richard Nam Chung-il / assistant action director Kwon Il-soo Gate Of Destiny [1974] action director Best Kwon Yeong-moon Left Foot Of Wrath [1974] action director Best Kwon Yeong-moon / assistant action diretor Kwon Il-soo The Returned Single-Legged Man 2 [1974] action director Kwon Il-soo A Betrayer [1974] action director Best Kwon Yeong-moon The great Best Kwon Yeong-moon.....what the hell is "Tekwondo"??!! Edited February 14, 2023 by J.J. Hayden 3 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member danthemandmv Posted January 13, 2023 Member Share Posted January 13, 2023 1 hour ago, J.J. Hayden said: Most of this is from a question thread about early Korean martial arts movies, but adding it here too with a little extra: It seems that the main credited for Lee Doo-yong's films made during 1974 was none other the Best Kwon Yeong-moon, films such as Bridge Of Death, Manchurian Tiger and Betrayer. He was also co-action director with Richard Nam Chung-il on The Returned Single Legged Man. As for 1975 onward the action director credit seems to disappear, however I believe KIS took over the action director role as he had been an assistant action director on earlier films such as The Returned Single Legged and Left Foot Of Wrath, and with Best Kwon seemingly switching over to work with Richard Park Woo-sang, someone would presumably take his place. It's really a choice between Richard Nam and Kwon Il-soo, the former of which had the previously mentioned co-action director credit and worked with Lee Doo-yong about 3 times (all before 1975), whereas the latter had the previously mentioned assistant action director credits, was the main action director on The Returned Single Legged Man II in 1974 and Secret Agents II in 1976 and worked with director Lee about 9 times throughout the 70s. So I think it's pretty safe to assume that from 75 onward, Kwon Il-soo was Lee Doo-yong's go to guy for action. At some point (I'm very busy with other research) I'll try to see if there's any action director credits hidden in the Hanja on the posters etc. but that won't be for some time. Hope some found this useful. Through my research of this I can fill in some blanks for Lee Doo-yong's films on HKMDB: The Manchurian Tiger [1974] action director Best Kwon Yeong-moon The Returned Single-Legged Man [1974] action director Best Kwon Yeong-moon and Richard Nam Chung-il / assistant action director Kwon Il-soo Gate Of Destiny [1974] action director Best Kwon Yeong-moon Left Foot Of Wrath [1974] action director Best Kwon Yeong-moon / assistant action diretor Kwon Il-soo The Returned Single-Legged Man 2 [1974] action director Kwon Il-soo A Betrayer [1974] action director Best Kwon Yeong-moon The great Best Kwon Yeong-moon.....what the hell is "Tekwondo"??!! Sounds close to the Japanese name for the art , '' Tekkondo '' ... 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member ShawAngela Posted January 14, 2023 Member Share Posted January 14, 2023 On 12/16/2022 at 6:51 PM, J.J. Hayden said: Took a long time to nail this down, but it seems that the main driving force behind the elusive Ottugi Martial Arts Team was none other than Kim Baek-soo. He might be familiar to fans from the film Sea Gods And Ghosts (aka Son Of Third Dragon) where he worked alongside Lam Ching-ying, but he had most success as an action director, working mainly for Korea TV network KBS. Seen here with regular collaborator (and unsung Korean star) Park Hui-jin. Park and Kim team up with HK action icon Lam Ching-ying. Are these pictures from Sea, Gods and Ghosts ? I watched it many years ago and I hadn't even spotted Lam Ching Ying in it... but I have an excuse, since I didn't even know who he was at that time... 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member J.J. Hayden Posted January 14, 2023 Author Member Share Posted January 14, 2023 26 minutes ago, ShawAngela said: Are these pictures from Sea, Gods and Ghosts ? I watched it many years ago and I hadn't even spotted Lam Ching Ying in it... but I have an excuse, since I didn't even know who he was at that time... Shame on you Yeah those pics are from Sea, Gods And Ghosts, it could be you saw a print with him cut out for say the Taiwan market or something, the Korean cross-over films can be like a tangled bunch of Christmas tree lights. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member ShawAngela Posted January 14, 2023 Member Share Posted January 14, 2023 2 hours ago, J.J. Hayden said: Shame on you Yeah those pics are from Sea, Gods And Ghosts, it could be you saw a print with him cut out for say the Taiwan market or something, the Korean cross-over films can be like a tangled bunch of Christmas tree lights. I wonder how may releases of the same movies one must own in order to get all the scenes uncut... 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member J.J. Hayden Posted January 15, 2023 Author Member Share Posted January 15, 2023 (edited) Well here we go again, another site that I shall no longer contribute to: IMDB. (One of the pics I uploaded to IMDB: Jeff Falcon, Nishiwaki Michiko and Mark Houghton in Outlaw Brothers [1990].) I know many of you have had issues with them, as have I: at first it was just a struggle to add or correct anything, they seemed to have no interest in improving their database despite the huge amounts of time you went into gathering evidence (including on things you knew had been entered originally with none), I won't go into full details but there were many occasions where it seemed like some elitist film dweeb in LA would dismiss anything beyond their knowledge, as they knew shit like how many Pepsi cans were on the set of The Matrix, so despite never watching a Hong Kong film, but watching a WatchMojo top 10 Kung Fu films, they're an expert, therefore anything they don't know can't be true. But it went on, with it becoming impossible to enter new data, when I brought the error to their attention they were completely dismissive saying I'd done something wrong, eventually they admitted there was a fault but instead of correcting it said I need to use my phone to make corrections, which I said no, fix your shit. The final straw has to be the recent "update" which seems to have messed a lot of stuff around including the image hyperlinks. But more importantly they've changed the images so that you can't simply click save as JPG, I did not agree to this, the images I upload are for fans to enjoy and share with other fans for the love and promotion of these films and their cast and crew, not for IMDB to hoard to themselves and take credit for. They even removed Won Jin from the cast of To Catch A Thief, despite the effort I put into providing evidence for this, the most glaring of which was his name being in the credits and the images of his fight with Moon Lee which shows it's the same film, yet someone's removed that (though the pics are still there), pack of wankers. Well, same as TMDB I'm done wasting time with them. Thing are much better here with the true fans. Cheers for the continuous support. Edited January 15, 2023 by J.J. Hayden 4 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member J.J. Hayden Posted January 16, 2023 Author Member Share Posted January 16, 2023 Here's one of the topics I wasted time and effort into trying to correct (many times) for IMDB, it seemed no amount of evidence could persuade them: Clearing up some inaccurate credits for Park Hyeon-jin on IMDB (and some other sites): #1 He was not a stunt performer on the 2016 TV series Dark Matter, they've mixed this one credit with fellow Korean stuntman J.J. Park, credited on this series (and this specific episode) as Jung Jin Park. #2 He did not participate in any Doraemon films, it's just a namesake voice actor. #3 He did not participate in Detective K: Secret Of The Lost Island [2015]. #4 He did not play Haram in Dragon Wars: D-War [2007], that was a Korean TV actor called Hyeon Jin, credited here as Jin Hyun, not sure how they F'd up this one. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member J.J. Hayden Posted January 18, 2023 Author Member Share Posted January 18, 2023 Here's another one that no matter what I tried, IMDB refussed to correct their site: Choe Soon-seok and Yoo So-jeon are the same person. Choe Soon-seok in Super Hong Kil-dong 7 The name Yoo So-jeon was a stage name used early on in his career where he was launched as a Jackie Chan style star in Dreadnaught Rivals and Duel Of Ultimate weapons. It's interesting if you look into the name too, as the name Yoo is the Korean equivalent of Liu and So-jeon is the equivalent of Xiao-tian..... ring any bells?! That's right, the name is a mix of Liu Chia-liang and Simon Yuen Siu-tin, both of whom played Beggar So, who is a main character in both these films. Was it purely a homage or simply marketing ploy to trick people into thinking they were Drunken Master sequels, we'll probably never know, but I feel pretty confident I know which it was. Here's some more pics I uploaded to IMDB from Duel Of Ultimate Weapons, sharing the screen with fellow Ottugi member Won Jin. Cheers 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Super Ninja Posted January 19, 2023 Member Share Posted January 19, 2023 On 1/18/2023 at 10:34 AM, J.J. Hayden said: Super Hong Kil-dong 7 Wait, am I to understand the 1986. North Korean classic isn't the only Hong Kil-dong movie out there? Entire series?! South Korean fu?! 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member J.J. Hayden Posted January 19, 2023 Author Member Share Posted January 19, 2023 (edited) On 1/19/2023 at 6:35 PM, Super Ninja said: Wait, am I to understand the 1986. North Korean classic isn't the only Hong Kil-dong movie out there? Entire series?! South Korean fu?! Understand this, there are about a million Hong Kil-dong movies out there He's a very popular folk hero, the Super Hong Kil-dong series alone has a least 8 official films and several spin off such as Super Hong Kil-dong vs The Terminator, yep you read it correctly. They featured a lot of the old school Korean martial arts guys like Kwon Il-soo, Jo Choon etc. Super Hong Kil-dong 3 (as I've shown previously in his thread) features the great Won Jin himself as two side characters and stunt doubling too. Edited February 14, 2023 by J.J. Hayden 3 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member J.J. Hayden Posted January 19, 2023 Author Member Share Posted January 19, 2023 A few more of my IMDB upload. This time Operation Scorpio (aka The Scorpion King). We have Liu Chia-liang making it look easy to block the lightning legs of super-kicker Won Jin. And a nice shot of what has come to be known as the Guyver Kick, even though Won Jin was doing it first (Guyver 2 also borrows some more choreography from Operation Scorpio) I don't have an issue with this name, as it makes it much easier than e.g. jumping spinning back splits kick or something 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Super Ninja Posted January 23, 2023 Member Share Posted January 23, 2023 On 1/19/2023 at 8:02 PM, J.J. Hayden said: Understand this, there are about a million Hong Kil-dong movies out there He's a very popular folk hero, the Super Hong Kil-dong series alone has a least 8 official films and several spin off such as Super Hong Kil-dong vs The Terminator, yep you read it correctly. They featured a lot of the old school Korean martial arts guys like Kwon Il-soo, Jo Chun etc. Super Hong Kil-dong 3 (as I've shown previously in his thread) features the great Won Jin himself as two side characters and stunt doubling too. Knew he was a folk hero, like Korean Robin Hood of sorts if I remember correctly. What I definitely didn't know is that there are so many HKD films out there. That one against the Terminator I gotta see! What's the availability of these films? And do they come subbed? Or English dubbed at least? On 1/19/2023 at 11:34 PM, J.J. Hayden said: And a nice shot of what has come to be known as the Guyver Kick, even though Won Jin was doing it first I could've sworn I saw him pulling off a Guyver there, but I deleted the sentence claiming that from my review when I saw Operation Scorpio was made prior to the movie that supposedly gave birth to the legendary kick. Damn. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member J.J. Hayden Posted January 23, 2023 Author Member Share Posted January 23, 2023 10 minutes ago, Super Ninja said: What's the availability of these films? And do they come subbed? Or English dubbed at least? Subbed: no, Dubbed: no, but all is not lost as I believe you can actually find most of the on YT. I was lucky enough to get a box set of them years ago, the first 8 on DVD costly and at that time I was only interested in 3 for the Won Jin stuff. But they've all got some good (if sometimes really goofy) action scenes, Kwon Il-soo was action director the earlier ones and the later ones it was Jang Dong-il and his team, talented guys. 16 minutes ago, Super Ninja said: I could've sworn I saw him pulling off a Guyver there, but I deleted the sentence claiming that from my review when I saw Operation Scorpio was made prior to the movie that supposedly gave birth to the legendary kick. Damn. I wonder if Anthony Houk saw them actually filming Operation Scorpio while in Hong Kong and took some ideas back with him? 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member J.J. Hayden Posted January 25, 2023 Author Member Share Posted January 25, 2023 A few more pics I uploaded to IMDB: This time from the film Our School E.T. [2008] a film I ordered in the early days of my Won Jin research on the basis that WON JIN was in it, disappointingly it was the other martial artist Kim Won-jin, this was one of the very first events that told me I can't trust the websites to get it right. But it wasn't so bad after all, as I actually found the film to be pretty funny and enjoyable. If you're in the mood for a Korean comedy, I'd recommend it. The imposter Kim Won-jin playing the boxing referee. The E.T. (English Teacher) of the title played by Kim Soo-ro, a familiar face to fans of Korean movies from the 2000's, before the whole national service issues. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member J.J. Hayden Posted January 26, 2023 Author Member Share Posted January 26, 2023 Funnily enough, not too long after the last post, a mate asked me about a Won Jin credit in Revenger [2018]. But similar to my first thoughts on Our School E.T. most sites have mixed up the credits of Won Jin "The Scorpion King" and Kim Won-jin from Best Stunt team. As you can see here it's Kim Won-jin playing one of Sergei's men. 99% of the time, if the credit is for Kim Won-jin rather than just Won Jin, it's this guy. If you want, you can also check out my own Won Jin filmography (which is up to date) see here: 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member J.J. Hayden Posted January 27, 2023 Author Member Share Posted January 27, 2023 (edited) I've not really ID'd many Koreans for a while, just bogged down with research. But the cool Won Jin photos that @One Armed Boxer kindly shared the other day reminded me of a bts photo from Dreadnaught Rivals [1982] he shared at an earlier date, but I forgot to add an update when I discovered who the other guy was, soz. I had seriously considered the correct person, but it still took a while to confirm, and when you see the later photos you'll understand why and he's not Eddy Ko Hung Our mystery man is actually a very young (and much slimmer) Song Keum-shik, who will no doubt be a familiar face to fans who enjoy the martial arts gangster movies that boomed in Korea during the 90s. Won Jin and Song Keum-shik bts on Dreadnaught Rivals [1982] I can't confirm if he was a founding member of the Ottugi Martial Arts Team, but he was certainly there from the early days. With the exception on Won Jin, he's arguably the most high profile of all the confirmed Ottugi members, which is even more interesting when you consider the fact that he actually quit the film industry in 1984 and concentrated on running a gym. Won Jin and Song Keum-shik in Super Hong Kil-dong 3 [1989] He made his return to the big screen alongside his old teammate Won Jin for the third instalment of the Super Hong Kil-dong series in 1989. He then went on to have a prolific career: making more (made for kids) martial arts movies; (as mentioned earlier) Korean gangster films; and a whole hoard of TV dramas for both SBS and KBS. I hope people found this interesting, it's so satisfying to solve a mystery. Cheers Edited January 27, 2023 by J.J. Hayden 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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