MovieChat Forums > Missing in Action (1984) Discussion > Philippinos in this movie and other 'goo...

Philippinos in this movie and other 'goofs'

posted 15 years ago by Captain_Bob
3 replies | jump to latest

OK I know it was filmed in the Philippines and so they cast a lot of extras locally. Still I found it continually amusing to see virtually every "Vietnamese" and "Thai" with unmistakable Philippino faces and thick curly hair (very few Thais have that kind of hair naturally). Even main characters like Vinh were played by Philippino actors.

The taxi had incorrect Thai script on the door and there were jeepneys in the streets everywhere. The busy port where they escape with the boat (and the boat itself) obviously not Thailand. Everyone in the streets speaking Tagalog, etc.

Also noticed people driving left-hand-drive cars in "Thailand" - wrong!
So I spotted a few techical inaccuracies. Whoopy! Part of the fun with such movies. In 1984 they obviously assumed a mostly-US audience wouldn't notice (and so it was).

Bonus: bulletproof kevlar boat with big-ass machine gun and shark faces painted on it that goes 60mph, for $10k - what a bargain!

[–] acacosta77 13 years ago

First time I saw this movie I caught it at the scene where he is in the city looking for Tucker. I initially thought he was in the Phillipines.

[–] SeasonalAffective 12 years ago

Cannon films were filming a lot of movies in the Philippines in the 80's. Aside from the fact that every Vietnam movie they made cast Filippino actors, this was also around the time of the ninja craze, when they were making several ninja movies throughout the years, and they did the same thing. American Ninja, for example, had a Japanese guy playing the main baddie, but his entire ninja army was Filippino. Unmistakably Filippino.

[–] JSwallowX1 12 years ago

Another goof possibly, is the M-16 Braddock is using at the beginning in Vietnam. It looks suspisciously like an 80's issue of the rifle...