This month, Spectacle brings you an embarrassment of riches pulled deep from the vaults of Joseph Lai’s IFD Films & Arts. If you’ve seen a questionably dubbed actioner from the 1970s or ’80s with the word “ninja” in the title, chances are you’re already familiar with this oeuvre.
Founded in 1973 by Joseph Lai, International Finance Development (not to be confused with Intercontinental Film Distributors, his sister’s company where he got his start (trust us, it only gets more confusing from here)) began as a modest distribution company that specialized in bringing European films to colonial Hong Kong’s English-language theater circuit—a rarity for a Chinese-owned distributor at the time. But with limited resources, regular trips to Greece, Cannes, and Rome to source new titles proved untenable. Lai realized it was both simpler and cheaper to get movies from South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, the Philippines, and elsewhere throughout the Asia-Pacific region, dubbing them into English so as not to lose his foothold in the English-language circuit.
In the late ’70s, Lai teamed up with fellow former Shaw Bros. acolyte Godfrey Ho, who had helped pioneer the “cut and paste” film—works mostly spliced together from existing ones with new plots dubbed in. Between them a new, supremely economical business model was born. Over the next two decades, IFD would release upwards of 200 titles, ranging from wholly original masterpieces to movies cobbled together from sources so disparate that they supposedly didn’t even know who to credit as director. These four films showcase the variety and sheer audacity of ideas in the IFD catalog.
ANGER (领野)
aka ANGELS WITH GOLDEN GUNS
aka MARKING
aka VIRGIN APOCALYPSE
Dir. Leung Pasan, 1981
Hong Kong/Philippines, 82 min
In English (dubbed)
FRIDAY, APRIL 4 – MIDNIGHT
TUESDAY, APRIL 8 – 10 PM
SATURDAY, APRIL 12 – 10 PM
MONDAY, APRIL 21 – 10 PM
WARNING: This film contains a brief scene of animal violence.
Women imprisoned by a gang of white slavers mount a daring escape. Later, with the help of an amorous disco-dancing undercover cop, three survivors take bloody vengeance against their captors, one by one. Part titillating women in prison flick, part merciless revenge thriller, ANGER is a bonafide lost trashterpiece. Needless to say, there’s some questionable splicing and dicing of scenes from other films, but what it lacks in cohesion, it more than makes up for with its excess of over-the-top action: gunfights, fistfights, a, uh … “mummy” fight, and possibly the largest prison catfight ever put on film.
THUNDER OF GIGANTIC SERPENT (大蛇王)
dir. Lee Chiu & Godfrey Ho, 1984/1987
Taiwan/Hong Kong, 87 min
In English (dubbed)
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 2 – 10 PM
MONDAY, APRIL 7 – 10 PM
SATURDAY, APRIL 12 – MIDNIGHT
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 30 – 10 PM
A top-secret formula called the “Thunder Project,” which causes plants and animals to grow a thousand times in size, is stolen by a terrorist organization led by the ruthless Solomon. The formula is lost in the ensuing chase, then recovered by a young girl who accidentally exposes her pet snake, Martha, to it, making the serpent skyscraper-sized. While an American mercenary pursues Solomon and his terrorists, the terrorists go after the girl, sending Martha on a deadly rampage that reduces much of Hong Kong to rubble.
Largely adapted from the Taiwanese kid-friendly kaiju feature King of Snake, this is insane even by IFD standards. Falling somewhere between a G-rated E.T. riff and an R-rated shoot-em-up, the film pivots from cutesy animal antics to gun-blazing violence on a dime, and ends in a trail of destruction that would make Godzilla blush. It may be the crown jewel of IFD’s library, despite there not being a ninja in sight.
U.S. CATMAN: LETHAL TRACK (英勇幹探)
aka CATMAN IN LETHAL TRACK
Dir. Godfrey Ho, 1989
Hong Kong/United States, 90 min
In English (dubbed)
SATURDAY, APRIL 5 – 10 PM
TUESDAY, APRIL 15 – 10 PM
SATURDAY, APRIL 19 – 10 PM
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 23 – 7:30 PM
Sam is a courier running a top-secret delivery for the CIA: a radioactive cat. When a couple of junkies attempt to steal his van, Sam is scratched by the cat and begins to develop strange new powers, including super strength, the ability to manipulate electronics, and like all cats, lighting cigarettes with his mind (and possibly something involving his dick, but that one isn’t made super clear). As the masked vigilante Catman, Sam teams up with his non-superpowered buddy Gus to fight crime. They eventually go up against Father Cheever, a villainous priest who, like all clergy, is hellbent on world domination. There’s also an unrelated war happening between some Southeast Asian gangs and an unnamed “security organization,” which is neither here nor there, but we at least get some kickass fights out of it.
CATMAN IN LETHAL TRACK is truly one of the masterworks of the decade … It also contains a vivid and livley [sic] musical score- it is un-parraleled [sic] even to the masterpeices [sic] of mozart, beethoven, bach, and others. It’s a fine movie that is for the whole family to enjoy. — IMDb user oboeman413
(Spectacle would like to note that this is not in fact a movie for the whole family to enjoy.)
U.S. CATMAN 2: BOXER BLOW (勇鬥地頭龍)
aka CATMAN IN BOXER’S BLOW
dir. Godfrey Ho, 1989
Hong Kong/United States, 89 min
In English (dubbed)
SATURDAY, APRIL 5 – MIDNIGHT
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 16 – 10 PM
SATURDAY, APRIL 19 – MIDNIGHT
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 23 – 10 PM
Sam and Gus are back for another cat-tastic adventure. A new villain has literally punched his way up the corporate ladder and installed himself as a gang leader. It once again falls on our fighting feline vigilantes to finish the criminals off once and for all. “But what about the movie’s other 70 minutes?” you ask? Unclear! There’s a subplot involving an escaped convict caught up in violent gang war, and another about a woman with a mysterious secret involving nuclear weapons searching for her uncle deep in the jungles of Thailand/San Francisco. But it’s mostly fighting… like, a lot of fighting… like, 20-something different fight scenes, featuring fists, guns, swords, sticks, stones, nunchucks, tables, chairs, and even a weedwacker all flying furiously across your screen, truly defying the definition of “filler.”
CATMAN IN BOXER’S BLOW is truly one of the masterworks of the decade … It also contains a vivid and livley [sic] musical score- it is un-parraleled [sic] even to the masterpeices [sic] of mozart, beethoven, bach, and others. It’s a fine movie that is for the whole family to enjoy. — IMDb user Userdoe1560
(Spectacle would once again like to note that this is most certainly not a movie for the whole family to enjoy. Please do not bring your kids.)
Special thanks to IFD Film Arts & Services.