Rare Filipino action stuff

[Robert J]

Awesome stuff, thanks for posting!

Is Teddy Page aka Teddy Chiu also known as Teddy Gomez?

Teddy Gomez and Philip Ko Fei have worked together as co-directors on several 90's Filipino films. Such as Duelo and Buhawi Jack.

[Guenter M.]

Originally Posted by Lefteris T

Damn, I have like 200 of these films in my closet that are begging to be viewed.... I recently bought HEROES FOR HIRE on Greek VHS and it is English-speaking. I love Romano Kristoff's movies athough his BLACKFIRE was unwatchable. I think his finest moment was DOUBLE EDGE, a COBRA rip-off in which he is a ninja cop. Wish I knew what he is doing these days.

You don't know how lucky you are, do you?

"According to an interview of Nick Nicholson on the French B-movie site Nanarland, Kristoff is currently managing a restaurant in the Philippines." (Source: Wikipedia).

Maybe it's correct, maybe not.

I prefer Romano Kristoff's ninja flicks (NINJA's FORCE, NINJA WARRIORS, DOUBLE EDGE) over BLACKFIRE too (by a long shot that is), but BLACKFIRE has some fine moments too, in my opinion anyway.

Regarding Teddy Page... I've never heard that he goes under that 'Teddy Gomez' pseudonym. No idea, sorry.

[Robert J]

I saw some pictures of Teddy Page aka Teddy Chiu on nanarland.com and he'll pop up now and then in more recent Filipino produced pictures. He has a small part in Angel on Fire (1995) or at least in the Filipino cut of the film as well as co-directing it with Philip Ko and one other director (Filipino).

He plays a comedic Yakuza boss (as Teddy Chiu) in the 1998 action fantasy film Buhawi Jack starring Monsour Del Rosario. The film is directed by Philip Ko and Teddy Gomez.

It seems possible Gomez and Chiu are the person. But who knows?

Nanarland.com is awesome, enjoyed the interview with Nick Nicholson.

[Guenter M.]

Originally Posted by Guenter M.

SABOTAGE

The German title is GEHEIMCODE DEATH-FORCE, but it is also known as SABOTAGE (in France me thinks). I haven't watched it yet, but the cover artwork promises something like a cheap James Bond rip-off. The director is Efren C. Pinon, the guy who gave us the crazy, delirious THE KILLING OF SATAN. Tony Ferrer stars.

I still don't know the original title of this one, but I guess it's not SABOTAGE. Chances are it's SABOTAGE 2 or SABOTAGE 3...

It's a part of the series of films starring Tony Ferrer as Tony Falcon, Agent X-44, that began way back in 1966 by Eddie Garcia's SABOTAGE. This is the first adventure of X-44 I've seen, and it's mindless fun, provided that you're in the mood for a cheap James Bond knock-off. The showdown rocks, but as a whole the film doesn't stay in the memory for a long time. See it, enjoy it, and forget it. Something like that.

Death Raiders (1984)



This is dull and formulaic Filipino B-action without any surprises. A gouvernor and his daughters are kidnapped by a bunch of rebellions, and so a commando team tries to free them and shoot all the villains. Guess what, they succeed. The German tape runs 80 min. and still seems to be too long. The action is okay, with some cool martial arts fights, but the shoot-outs are hardly worth speaking about. Nice opening though, with lots of explosions. Directed by Segundo Ramos with a cast of nobodies, with the notable exception of George Estregan, the only one who I recognized. He was in THE KILLING OF SATAN.

[Robert J]

According to some Filipino co-workers of mine George Estregan apparently did some hardcore films and apparently died of aids. That sucks.

[Andrew Leavold]

Howdy all,

News from the Manila trenches...

1) Teddy Chiu aka Teddy Page became quite ill, possibly following a heart attack about a year ago. When Jim Gaines took me to KY Lim's office in Manila's Chinatown, Kimmy said he hadn't heard from Teddy in a while. He was in Malaysia making action films and is either still there or has returned to Manila to recover.

2) The Sabotage flick is in fact SABOTAGE 2 (1979). Tony Ferrer (Weng Weng's boss in For Your Height Only) was indeed the Philippines' James Bond, Tony Falcon aka Agent X44, in a series of spy capers - between 15 and 25, no-one knows for sure including Ferrer - from 1965 onwards. Sabotage 1 (1966) wasn't the first, but was a massive hit when it played the first Manila Film Festival and made Ferrer world-famous in the Philippines.

Sabotage 2 was one of two X44 films Efren C. Pinon made with Ferrer for his Margarita Films (the other was 1978's Last Target) during a downward phase in his career. Both films starred a young Jim Gaines as an african-american heavy. Pinon and Ferrer also had an international release with Blind Rage (released in the Philippines in 1976 as The System; the 1978 US version features inserts of Fred Williamson as Jesse Crowder). Ferrer is one of four blind criminals who rob a bank; Leo Fong and D'Urville Martin co-star.

Ferrer's penultimate outing as Falcon was in 1980 where he teamed up with Fernando Poe Jr in Ang Agilar At Ang Falcon (The Eagle And The Falcon) in an attempt to resurrect both of their most famous characters. In January this year Ferrer handed down the X44 torch to teen heart-throb Vhong Navarro (star of the Philippines' Spiderman, Gagamboy) in a campy redux called X44. Midget superstar Mura plays Navarro's sidekick in an obvious homage to Weng Weng's Agent 00, which is itself a miniature parody of X44.

3) George Estregan was brother of President Joseph Estrada. He died of AIDS because he was a rampant sex addict, and like respected veteran actor Eddie Garcia, was quite open about his side-career in hardcore porn (or "pene") films.

4) Jim Gaines was in Bruno Mattei's last three Philippines productions The Jail (2005), Island Of The Living Dead (2006, yet to be released) and Island... Part 2 (completed in March just prior to Bruno's passing). He runs a post-production house in Manila's Makati district, and is busy preparing to direct a supernatural thriller called Kilabot.

5) I missed out on interviewing Nick Nicholson in February for my SEARCH FOR WENG WENG doco - he booked himself into hospital in February for suspected stomach cancer, but found he had a compacted colon (!) instead. There's one guy who's worked and partied hard in the Philippines since the 70s. He now works in a call centre. Hopefully I'll catch up with him next month.

6) Roman Kristoff is reportedly back in Rome, and is still in the restaurant business.

7) Jun Gallardo aka John Gale passed away over 10 years ago. His father was Cesar Gallardo, director of the Cirio Santiago-produced Bamboo Gods and Bionic Boys (1974) and Hustler Squad (1976). Father and son begged producer Bobby A. Suarez to co-direct his chop-sockey actioner The Master Samurai (1974) with Chris Mitchum.

I'm heading back to Manila between 1st and 12th July for a third and final shoot for THE SEARCH FOR WENG WENG. I'll be going blog-crazy for the duration, so stay tuned...

[Guenter M.]

Thanks very much for sharing this information with us, Andrew! Can't wait to actually see your Weng-Weng docu...



Mannigan's Force (1988)

This violent actioner (known in Germany as AMERICAN WARDOG, suggesting it's a sequel to the Swedish WAR DOG) was apparently shot in the Philippines and tells the story of a group of mercenaries who are hired to free four American prisoners in a rebel-infested country. Little did they know that they are used for an entirely different operation...

The first 15 minutes of this flick are insane: first the mercenaries attack a village and kill everyone in sight with their guns and bombs. There's a jaw-dropping stunt sequence where a tower explodes and out of the explosion (in a few metres height) jumps a burning man. Holy shit! After the village is wiped out (dozens of men are dying in hails of bullets - nice squib F/X) the mercenaries return to their hiding place in order to celebrate their victory. The enemies strike back with a vengeance, mercilessly killing as many as possible. The bodies of young children are riddled with bullets, and in one ultra-nasty moment a small boy is shot in the head, with blood spurting out of the wound.

But with this, it seems, the movie has shot its powder. Because from then on it's just average low-budget action stuff, albeit with a few interesting twists and turns. Mike Monty co-stars as the villain, while George Nicholas (Giorgio Albergo?) stars (not too convincingly) as the titular Mannigan. The director is John R'yan Grace... never heard of him.

Still, all in all it's a pretty good and very violent action flick, well worth checking out. If you should happen to stumble upon it, I advise you to rent or buy it cheaply.

[Andrew Leavold]

Hey Guenter! Great to hear from you again. I'm still compiling the mega-list of Filipino titles so we can do that trade. I NEED a copy of Sabotage 2, German or otherwise. It's amazing how much stuff has vanished forever in the Philippines.

I've been drowning in Cirio's back catalogue for the last month, preparing a second interview with him; his T&A flicks from the early 70s are nuts! Fly Me (1973)? Cover Girl Models (1975)? Jeeezus!

Hope all is well in Weng-ville,

Cheers, Andrew

[J Dewey Wallis]

This thread just keeps on getting better.

[Steven McLaughlin]

looking for trades for these:

HEROES FOR HIRE
MAD DOG
SABOTAGE
RESCUE TEAM
THE STABILIZER
SEARCH FOR VENGEANCE
CLASSIFIED OPERATION
BLACKFIRE
DOUBLE EDGE, etc.

I've got THE INTRUDER coming and looking for more.
I think they're all grey market titles.

[Guenter M.]

Bruce's Fists of Vengeance (1984)

Bruce Le, the # 1 of all the Bruce Lee clones who popped up shortly after his untimely death, stars in this hilarious Brucesploitation flick that is so bad it’s good again. Bruce Lee can be seen from time to time too, in the form of a poster hanging on a wall. Bruce Le does his best to imitate Master Lee’s gestures, mimic and fighting techniques, but it’s all rather in vain, as the man has got little charisma. Jim Gaines has a thankless role as one of his students who is beaten up and humiliated in front of the class. Romano Kristoff is the villain who wants to get hold of the mysterious book Bruce Lee has written before he died. He is allergic to failures. It all ends in a long showdown between Bruce Le and Romano Kristoff that has to be seen to be believed. I don’t dare to call this laughable action schlock ‘good’, but I have to admit I’ve had great fun while watching it. Highly recommended for bad movie buffs!

[Andrew Leavold]

Hey all,

The plane lands in Manila in eight days for the third and final shoot for THE SEARCH FOR WENG WENG. Interviews lined up so far are Eddie Garcia, Nick Nicholson, KY Lim, about 20 others, and I've got Fernando Poe Jr's brother looking for For Your Height Only producer Peter Caballes, who's now reportedly six hours drive from Manila in a coastal resort called Laguna. I'll be blogging daily on the Firecracker site and sending links through here. Oh, and I'm staying just two streets away from the all-dwarf restaurant.

From all reports, Manila's a hive of activity since Gianni of Solar Films, Bruno Mattei's producer in the Philippines, has decided to continue funding low-budget, direct-to-DVD genre movies. The ideas are coming thick and fast, and "exploitation" seems to be word of the month!!!

By the way Guenter, you know Jim Gaines has been reading this thread?

Heh heh

See you all in the trenches,

The Guerilla in Manila

[J Dewey Wallis]

Thanks for the update Andrew!

[Fred Adelman]

Does anyone have any info on the Indonesian film THE CHUKA MASTER? All I know is that it was directed by Luis San Juan and Rey Malanzo (SEARCH FOR VENGEANCE) is one of the stars. Does anyone know what year this was made and any other credits? There's nothing about this film on IMDB.

[JoseViruete]

A pair of rare (or that's what I think) philipinne actioners I got in an used store:




I didn't find time to watch them, I've been triying to get some data at IMDB and couldn't find what movies are exactly.
BTW, the rambo guy from the first drawing seems like the guy of Hands of steel / Atomic Cyborg or the one of Cirio H Santiago's Wheels of Steel