Ninety Ninja/IFD Questions (ok no that many)

[Guest gfanikf]

Hey,

I'm thinking of getting into the wild world of IFD and Ninjas and figured I would ask some of the top questions I've always had.

1. How many movies did Ninja The Final Duel footage produce? Toby said 2 but I've heard crazy rumors of more. Heck what is the skinny on NTFD

2. How many movies did Richard Harrison actually star in and how many did Godfrey Ho and Thomas Tang actually make from that?

3. What is the best Godfrey Ho Ninja movie and what is the best non cut and paste ninja movie?

4. What is the best history of IFD that isnt from a webpage that some guy didn't make up (key players, methods, and sources).

5. Is there an IFD filmography?

6. Is Ninja Terminator as god as it looks lol?

Thank you for participating in this Ninja/IFD question session.

[Guest Chinatown Kid]

I'll take a shot at #1.:

Ninja The Final Duel was actually the feature version of an 11 hour tv miniseries made by Robert Tai. They were condensed into 3 seperate features by Crash released under the title of Venom of the Ninja. It was also redubbed by Rudy Ray Moore(I think he starred in some 70's blaxploitation films) and his friends under the title Shaolin Dolemite put out by Xenon. I've never actually seen any of the versions.

[Guest Robert Ian Teller]

The copy of Ninja Terminator I've seen is actually a basher with Chen Sing directed by Lo Mar, no ninjas at all

[Linn1]

the Crash thing is bogus, that was what they told everyone at the time to sell the Venom of the Ninja set. Venom of the Ninja is completely different from Ninja: The Final Duel. It could have been a TV miniseries, and I wouldn't doubt they thought at some point to sell it as that. As for 11 hours, the tapes I have run something like 12+ and I'm missing I THINK a tape. Now that's including outtakes and false starts, but I'm guessing it's more than 11 hours. But then you factor in they had a re-cap of action at the ends....As for features, I know for a fact they're two films, and I THINK there was a third. Then there's Shaolin Dolemite, which was another thing with more footage.

Edit-Robert, what you have is Black List. It's a pretty good Chen Sing film by Lo Mar. Came out as Ninja Black List as well.

[Guest Chinatown Kid]

Thanks for the correction Linn, that's what I get for going by my Videohound's Dragon book again, LOL. I guess some of these companies like Crash will make all kind of false claims to sell their DVDs.....

[Guest Vorvadoss]

the Crash thing is bogus, that was what they told everyone at the time to sell the Venom of the Ninja set. Venom of the Ninja is completely different from Ninja: The Final Duel.

If its not the Final Duel.. then what really is the stuff Crash released then? I was tempted to buy the set since its very cheap. Glad you posted this info Linn.

[Linn1]

Thanks for the correction Linn, that's what I get for going by my Videohound's Dragon book again, LOL.

Tried to warn you Kid. I'm sorry to say that the book was largely put together from info on the net, and little actual research. While it's better than many, it has many mistakes. And Doug, the Venom the Ninja set is something done by Joseph Kou and the gang. It's got some of the same people behind the scenes, but it's a different animal. It's not as good as NFD IMO.

[Guest Takano2002]

2. Harrison never did a movie for Tomas Tang, only for IFD. About 30 movies with him. He was contacted twice, and he made scenes for two batch of movies (in 1985 and 1986).

3. The best Godfrey Ho movie is Ninja Operation: Knight and Warrior with Cameroun karate champion Alphonse Beni.

4. Almost all the IFD info in internet (except their homepage) is false. Joseph Lai bought some movies from producers in Taiwan, Thailand and so. At this time the company was called INTERNATIONAL FINANCE DEVELOPMENT or something similar. They coproduced films for a dime, and changed the versions for international markets. Coproduced (or purchased) a lot of korean kung fu films, and some old movies to change them a bit to sell for budget video labels and indonesian & chinese TV stations. There is a lot less mystery that people can think of.

5. Check their homepage. Hundreds of films, cartoons (mainly from Korea & Indonesia) and TV documentaries.

6. No, is not.

[Guest Robert Ian Teller]

Thanks Linn, I guess I can skip watching my copy of Ninja Black List since I already saw it as Ninja Terminator.

I'm pretty sure Venom of The Ninja is the full version of Ninja Kids. If this is true than Venom of The Ninja was also released as Ninja Death I,II, and III.

[Guest gfanikf]

It's got some of the same people behind the scenes, but it's a different animal. It's not as good as NFD IMO.

I would complain that I just ordered this, but for eight bucks AND Ninja the Final Duel (which when checking the trailer on the net I realized was the one I alwasys loved on Cinema of Vengence). So I won't

Thanks for all the answers!

[Linn1]

I'm pretty sure Venom of The Ninja is the full version of Ninja Kids. If this is true than Venom of The Ninja was also released as Ninja Death I,II, and III.

That's correct. VN is Ninja Kids with a LOT more story and action. It has a complete different intro, extra fight scenes, training scenes, plot, etc. And also more venoms, which is a good thing. It's not BAD, but I just wouldn't put it on the same level.

[Guest Atomic Mystery Monster]

3. What is the best Godfrey Ho Ninja movie

Gee, that really depends on the viewer.

It can also depend on if you mean a ninja movie that's credited to "Godfrey Ho" or just ones believed to be done by Godfrey Ho under a different alias.

and what is the best non cut and paste ninja movie?

I don't know of any non cut-and-paste ninja movies made by IFD (but I'm admittedly not the final authority on stuff like that, so some could possibly exist). As far as I know, they only did two types of ninja movies: cut-and-paste ninja movies and non-ninja movies that had ninja in the title.

Or did you mean as in a non cut-and-paste movie made (and not just distributed) by IFD? THE MAGNIFICENT might fall into that category, but I'm not sure. The same goes for DRAGON, THE MASTER, BIG BOSS UNTOUCHABLE, and PHEONIX FROM SHAOLIN.

I should also point out that Godfrey Ho has done work for other companies. I've heard that he left IFD and was working for My Way Films at one point (since they carry a movie of his called MANHATTAN CHASE, I'm inclined to believe it).

He's also done a "girls with guns" movie called LETHAL PANTHER (Tai Seng put this out on VHS) that I heard was pretty good.

He's also directed UNDEFEATABLE (put out on VHS by Fox), which supposedly is also known as THE BLOODY MARY KILLER (put out on VHS by Tai Seng). You know that hilarious "knife fight" video that's floating around Youtube? That's from UNDEFEATABLE.

He also did MEN BEHIND THE SUN 2: LABORATORY OF THE DEVIL.

Oh, and I heard a rumor that he did some sort of assistant directing job on THE WATER MARGIN. Maybe a Shaw Brothers expert could confirm or deny this? If it helps, his real name is supposedly Ho Chi-Keung or Chi Kueng Ho (Sorry folks, I'm a real idiot when it comes to stuff like this).

4. What is the best history of IFD that isnt from a webpage that some guy didn't make up (key players, methods, and sources).

There really isn't any (Even IFD's website barely touches on their history). Wikipedia has some pretty interesting profiles on Richard Harrison and Godfrey Ho, but those seem to be at least partly influenced by the bullshit online interview. The Godfrey Ho entry claims that Ho is teaching atthe Hong Kong Film Academy. That statement appears to be true, seeing as how he's mentioned on the school's website and that the man pictured there looks like the man said to be Godfrey Ho in a picture shown in this interview with someone who worked on MANHATTAN CHASE.

I found some interviews with Richard Harrison, Bruce Baron, and Don Niam (who was in UNDEFEATABLE) on a website called nanarland.com. I don't know if these are real or not, but the Don Niam interview has some behind-the-scenes pictures that imply that it's real.

On a somewhat related note, here's a pretty amusing interview with a guy who acted in some Filmark movies

Hong Kong Cinemagic announced that they were going to interview Godfrey Ho at one point, but they don't seem to have gotten around to it yet.

However, I can assure you that IFD has distributed stuff using the names "ADDA Audio Visual" and "Asso Asia" in the past.

Thanks to the inaccurate articles and rumors that're spread across the internet, there's still arguments over whether or not Filmark is the same company as IFD or not. All I know is that Godfrey Ho and Joseph Lai have worked with Tomas Tang (the man credited as owning Filmark) in the past.

5. Is there an IFD filmography?

As noted by another poster, IFD's website does have lots of their films listed. However, several of them have been retitled and some films that IFD owns the rights to don't seem to be on the site (although it is possible that they're there under alternate titles).

I've come across a lot of titles while doing research for "Beat the Bootlegs" (Depending on what I get confirmed, IFD just might get the title of "most ripped-off martial arts movie company" when it comes to the sheer amount/variety of companies putting out unlicensed movies of theirs, not counting DVD-Rs), I'll post the list here sometime in the future (but I can guarantee that it won't be a complete filmography).

The only American companies that have licensed IFD stuff to put on DVD (that I know of) are DG Distributors and Digiview.

DG Distributors released:

DRAGON ON FIRE (aka ENTER THREE DRAGONS. This isn't THE DRAGON, THE HERO-which was also retitled as "DRAGON ON FIRE").

THE DRAGON'S SNAKE FIST

KICKBOXER KING

Although I know that Digiview has licensed stuff from IFD, I'm not sure what titles they have the rights to, seeing as how Digiview also likes to put out "public domain" martial arts movies. I'll have to get back to you on that. When/if I find more legitimate IFD DVD releases, I'll be sure to post about them.

[Guest Robert Ian Teller]

thanks for all the info, this type of information needs to get out and it needs to be documented

Off the top of my head a Godfrey Ho paste up film that doesn't have ninja footage and wasn't advertised as such was Mission Thunderbolt which I though was pretty good. Original film had Chan Wei Man in a grey wig and a lady working at a night club to get revenge for her assassinated gangster boyfriend. She befriends the lady gang boss and has a few pretty rough fights. The new footage has Ko Fei hiring some assassins and fighting some caucasians.

I think it would be really cool to find all the original Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korean, Thai and Filipino films that had new ninja footage spliced.

[Guest Atomic Mystery Monster]

I think it would be really cool to find all the original Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korean, Thai and Filipino films that had new ninja footage spliced.

Projectaka.com and this site have some information on the subject.

Also, I suspect that footage from a Korean movie called OIGYEINGWA KONGKONG GANGSHI ("The Aliens and Kong Kong Zombie," sometimes called "The Aliens and King Kong Zombie") was used to create THUNDER (NINJA) KIDS 3: HUNT FOR (THE) DEVIL BOXER and that footage from a Hong Kong movie called WANGSHE (KING SNAKE) was used to make THUNDER OF GIGANTIC SERPENT.

[Guest Takano2002]

Robovampire was made with a thai movie called Paa Lohgan (1984), directed by Vinit Pakdeevijitr.

Counter Destroy was made with a thai movie called Nak Kha Khon Taa Ngon (1982), directed by Phairoj Jaising