Action Brothers Productions - Jun Chong's (aka Bruce K.L. Lea) Production Company

[AlbertV]

In the mid-80's, Taekwondo Grandmaster Jun Chong formed his own production company, Action Brothers Productions. They came out with your typical B-movies, but the action scenes were the highlight, as Chong and team (including James Lew, Phillip Rhee, and Simon Rhee) displayed Taekwondo. Here are some of their films (which I have on OOP Video thanks to EBay hehe)

NINJA TURF (aka L.A. STREET FIGHTERS) (1985) - Nice high school gang film with love story mixed in of sorts and twist of drug dealers. Jun Chong, Philip Rhee, and a pre-Gen-Y Cops Mark Hicks are the good guys. James Lew is the badass evil gang leader, Loren Avedon has a brief role as one of Lew's boys. Peter Malota is one of the drug dealer's goons. And Thomas Wilson (Biff from Back to the Future) has a brief role as a member of a racist gang who gets his ass kicked by Philip Rhee. Bill Wallace is a hitman hired to kill Chong. The fights were choreographed by 70's kung fu star "The Mad Korean" himself, Kwon Young-Moon.

SILENT ASSASSINS (1988) - Sam Jones and Linda Blair bicker as a retired cop and his girlfriend. Jones gets put on a final case, a kidnapping case, and gets help from the victim's uncle, played by Jun Chong. Philip Rhee plays a rich boy type who happens to be quite a fighter and when the bad guys kill his father, he joins Chong and Jones for the fight, taking on real bro Simon Rhee (their fight in Best of the Best is a lot better IMO). Chong and Philip Rhee choreographed the fight scenes.

STREET SOLDIERS (1989) - The best of the films IMO. Jun Chong is Master Han, a martial arts teacher who teaches a high school group martial arts after they lose constant battles against a street gang known as the J.P.s, led by the psychotic Priest. Hwang Jang-Lee plays Priest's #1 man, Tok, who doesn't talk, but uses a fake snake and lets his feet do the talking. Chong and Hwang (using the English name Jason, after his son) fight in a pretty decent choreographed fight (for an American film of this time). Chong choreographed the fights.

Last I know, NINJA TURF, under L.A. STREET FIGHTERS, was on DVD from Platinum, which means it is only the video transfer.

I would love to see these on DVD re-mastered someday...nice notoriety value IMO.

[Guest silver hermit]

i was watching ninja turf the other day and thought it was some nice US based cheese:D

the director did a poor job with setting up how lighting was used if any. my vhs origonal will be on e bay in coming week.

[AlbertV]

I agree with the lighting problems on Ninja Turf. Especially the first fight, between Jun Chong and James Lew. Must have been because Chong wore all black so it didn't look great. I did like the only fight shot in daylight, Chong's gang vs. the Chicano gang. When I first saw the movie, I was surprised to learn that Kwon Young-Moon was the action director, but he did a good job showcasing the skills of the martial artists.

I think there were two earlier AB productions that I may have hard of, SURVIVAL and FURIOUS. If these were available, I would love to see them as I am a sucker for these cheesy US martial arts movies:D

I got my VHS of Ninja Turf from EBay for only $1.00 as well as the VHS for Silent Assassins and Street Soldiers.

[One Armed Boxer]

On 11/23/2007 at 3:50 AM, AlbertV said:

SILENT ASSASSINS (1988) - Sam Jones and Linda Blair bicker as a retired cop and his girlfriend. Jones gets put on a final case, a kidnapping case, and gets help from the victim's uncle, played by Jun Chong. Philip Rhee plays a rich boy type who happens to be quite a fighter and when the bad guys kill his father, he joins Chong and Jones for the fight, taking on real bro Simon Rhee (their fight in Best of the Best is a lot better IMO). Chong and Philip Rhee choreographed the fight scenes.

I got through watching this one recently, & gave it the full review treatment here - 

http://cityonfire.com/silent-assassins-1988-review-ninja-sam-jones-linda-blair-phillip-rhee-exorcist-flash-gordon/

I confess it kind of makes me curious to check out 'L.A. Streetfighters'!

On 12/14/2007 at 11:08 PM, AlbertV said:

I think there were two earlier AB productions that I may have hard of, SURVIVAL and FURIOUS. If these were available, I would love to see them as I am a sucker for these cheesy US martial arts movies:D

I'm sure you know this already @AlbertV, but your dream came true at least for 'Furious' (reviewed by @mpm74 here), which got a DVD release in 2015 - 

[AlbertV]

1 hour ago, One Armed Boxer said:

I'm sure you know this already @AlbertV, but your dream came true at least for 'Furious' (reviewed by @mpm74 here), which got a DVD release in 2015 - 

Oh definitely...before the KFC shutdown, I was all set to do an interview with the film's co-director Tim Everitt, who is now a visual effects artist. The interview would be my very first interview under the WFG banner:

https://worldfilmgeek.com/2015/07/18/interview-with-tim-everitt-co-director-of-furious/