Was it meant to be ONE movie?
After watching this, and I use the term loosly, movie I started wondering if it in fact was two movies, a ninja and a gangster movie, which never was completed and then spliced into one flick.
Anyone know?
Yes it was indeed.
Both IFD and Filmark productions were notorious for their 'cut & paste' efforts
in the 1980's.
There are various versions of how this scam came into being; One version for instance has it that when Joseph Lai's IFD production company moved into its new headquarters, they found in one room left behind from the former occupants, reels upon reels of footage from unfinished asian films which they then (unscrupulously) decided to turn a tidy profit upon.
Another version has it that Lai simply bought the rights to many old unfinished/unreleased asian movies which he then used for his own nefarious ends.
Simply put, Lai apparently reasoned that in order to appeal to the western market (which he was aiming for) he would need Western actors in his films.
Therefore along with his director, Godfrey Ho, he procured a number of Western actors (the most famous being Richard Harrison) and edited their (minimal) scenes into the aquired films. Subsequently, via a spot of editing and overdubbing magic a whole 'new' and complete film could be produced (which quite obviously made very little sense).
In this way Lai and Ho (and very shortly afterwards, producer Tomas Tang jumped on the same bandwagon with the identical formula for Filmark International) could produce films by the bucket load with minimal cost and even less effort.
The funniest part though was when Godfrey Ho in an interview years later swore blind that he had never commited any such act as editing two (or more) films together(!!!)
In a more recent interview (with the heat turned up on him apparently) Ho did however in a roundabout way, confess to his cinematic crimes but put the blame on Lai who ostensibly made him do it.
Either way, as a direct result of this shameful chapter in cinematic history, IFD and Filmark managed to churn out tons of flicks in next to no time and furthermore pocketed a hell of a lot of cash on the international returns.
Having said this, despite the overt scam that was commited, I must say that the films themselves are more often than not hilarious, precisely on account of how truly bad they are.
Mmmmmm, what blood type are you?