There were many good and bad actors in the “hand-to-hand action” genre, and only 30% of them were well-known; the rest were either unknown or, despite all their goodness, starred in complete trash films. For example, we all know Van Damme, but we don’t remember everything Gary Daniels, which was not much inferior to him; we all know Wesley Snipes и Michael Jay White, but we don’t remember Billy Blanks и Ron Hall; Donnie Yen been in the shadows for a long time Jackie Chan и Jet Liuntil he starred in "Ip Man" and this gave me a reason to reconsider it "Tiger Cage 2" и "On Execution 4", where he gave a light to many of the above. And how many clones did the same one have? Bruce Lee so you can’t count it at all.
One of these forgotten actors was Alexander Lohe - Alexander Lo Rey - Taiwanese stuntman and taekwondo master. His name is unlikely to tell you anything, but you have probably seen him: those who are older - on videotapes in numerous films about ninjas and Shaolin, those who are younger - in numerous cuts of battle scenes. And no one remembered his name. Years later, I decided to find information about these films, and decided that it was undeserved to forget such a filmmaker.
In general, his films, like all B-movies of that time, are clichéd cliches, VERY often, like the Azilum studio, ripping off famous films. Also, Lo Rey’s films have become overgrown with cliches:
- A sore subject for China - the confrontation with the Japanese will run through all of Lo Ray's films in one way or another. Even if he himself plays a Japanese, it turns out that he is not Japanese, but a Chinese who once moved there, or Chinese ancestors.
- LONG fights with the final bosses - however, this is a tribute to that time; this happened often in Chinese cinema.
- Necessarily naked female bodies and in large numbers. In one of the films there will be a fight between one of these and a crowd of enemies, in another they will kill a person with the help of breasts (their display, to be precise).
- Eye-opening montage. This is the main and most terrible disadvantage of Alexander’s films, and even if the main scourge of modern action films - the epileptic camera - was not there then, instead it was super-accelerated action scenes and ignorant gluing.
- The same actors and even sometimes the same characters, the most frequently repeated one is the hero’s teacher, as if scenes with him were filmed for several films at once.
Most often Lo Rey was helped by:
- Eugene Thomas Tremell - kickboxer and musician. He fought very cool, exploiting the image of an “afro kickboxer”. Now he is engaged in music, it seems he hasn’t given up martial arts, here he is YouTube channel.
- Phillip So (or Charles So) - stuntman and director, played mainly the “stupid” friend. Alas, I did not find information about his fate.
- Silvio Azolini - Wushu master. Now he seems to be a doctor somewhere in the USA, but videos of his training are easily Googled on YouTube.
- George Nicholas Albegro - stuntman and producer, played villains. I couldn't find anything more about him.
- Jack Long - the same Teacher. In addition, he played well as Glavgad in "Hungter Ninja". For some reason I couldn’t dig up anything about him either.
That's enough and we move on to the filmography.
Shaolin vs Lama (dir. 1980)
A fairly high-quality film, most likely even an A-class action movie of that time, not much inferior to films Jackie Chan, and early works Yuen Woo-Ping. According to the plot (and already beaten many times by that time), a young guy, very experienced in wushu, is looking for a good coach - but only one who can defeat him. He stands up for the thieving Shaolin monk and he brings him to his stupid Master. In two seconds, the master puts our hero down in the “mouth-me-legs” style (in the most literal sense) - but does not take him on as a student: the fact is that one day the student he took from the street turned out to be a relative of the wandering Lama, who was crippled in battle by one from the Shaolin masters and in revenge for him, he stole an important book with cheat codes.... Um, sorry, with Shaolin super moves and using it he mastered the super style, gathering a gang and terrorizing the surrounding area. However, having learned that this same villain is staring around near Shaolin, the masters still take the hero as a student and, after a series of hellish and sometimes idiotic training, pump him up to acceptable abilities, after which the entire top of the temple calls the villain to the “arrow”.
Apparently, Lo Rey was quite considered a Taiwanese competitor at that time. Jackie Chan and others like him, because there is no trash and crappy editing in the film yet; fights and acrobatics are staged with high quality and the classic characters of action films about kung fu are played perfectly - there is a master schizo, and a stern boss, and brutal deaths (the moment with a mutual fatal headbutt is etched in my memory), and an attempt at a moralizing message, the movie looks like one breathing. However, there are also disadvantages:
- Why was this girl in the story? Show me how beautifully he dies?
- Why was Shaolin so poorly guarded that villains could come there at night and spread rot on the students one by one?
- The most important nagging problem of the script was the dancing level of skill and strength of the main character - then he, who fights really cool, suddenly and in a couple of seconds sweeps away the cooler character without much resistance... And then, having pulled away from everyone else, in a short time he pumps out the strength level to to such an extent that he takes out the main bastard quite quickly, especially taking into account the fact that this same main bastard, without particularly straining, took out his entire coaching staff a couple of minutes before. This joint was very popular among the Chinese at one time, smoothly flowing into Western action films.
- Lo Rey, being the main character, somehow gets lost from the middle of the film against the background of the left characters, only returning towards the end.
Nevertheless, the movie is worth watching and you can watch it.
Shaolin vs Ninja (1983)
This film should not be confused with the famous "Shaolin Calls the Ninja". The Japanese are becoming insolent in China, using power and force and, despite the orders of the Emperor, oppressing the local population. The Shaolin Monastery especially sets the local governor on edge, whose monks do not want to obey and periodically beat the samurai when they go too far. Then the viceroy and his advisor begin a series of provocations, with the goal of pitting Shaolin against both the Emperor’s representative, who came to investigate what was happening, and the Japanese branch of Shaolin, sending their ninjas every now and then. At first, the pitting is successful and the Japanese branch challenges the Chinese to a duel (spoiler - the Chinese will win, the ninjas will be exposed and lowered like a sucker).
A weak movie, an attempt to compete with more famous films with similar titles and an unsuccessful attempt. There's not much Lo Rey here, even though he's a senior student, he's far from the main character. Here we have a crooked editing of mass fights, absolutely unconvincing villains, and the only advantage of the film is that very tournament - the fights there are staged well.
Descendants of the Ninja (1983)
Alexander here plays a bouncer in a brothel (the boobs will show, don't worry), who lives with his teacher in an old shack. Suddenly, they both begin to be pursued by ninjas led by an old man in golden robes. It soon becomes clear that the hero is the heir of a ninja clan, which was once almost completely slaughtered and the remnants of which fled to China. Moreover, he is not alone here - his mother, as well as numerous other relatives, fled with him. This whole honest company takes the fight, periodically not forgetting to prepare the main character for the final fight through humiliating beatings.
Despite the abundance of fights, I did not like this film - this "Santa Barbara", a lot of tedious dialogue with a weak script (the plot is already clear at the 20th minute, when will you start to figure it out?) and rather weak editing spoil the film and make you want to skip it to the end, where a powerful final fight takes place with the practically unkillable main villain - and It is Glavgad who carries the entire film. Cunning, powerful, using a bunch of tricks and tricks, he is also pragmatic - when he sees that the enemies are stronger or outnumber him, he does not hesitate to simply order them to shoot from afar, and he himself switches to distance combat by throwing giant panzerfaust firecrackers. His only equal was the no less unkillable Demon Ninja, introduced in order to remind viewers of the plot twists from "Star Wars". I don’t particularly recommend watching the film, only for fans of Chinese action films with hand-to-hand combat, which for some reason was used by local Japanese ninjas.
After some time, the film was re-released as a trilogy, where all the cut and missing scenes from the film were inserted. I didn’t watch everything, but mostly there is unnecessary talking, the destruction of a brothel and extended fights.
Ninja vs. Shaolin Guardians (1984)
The main characters are four friends who call themselves brothers, the eldest of whom is played by Lo Rei, who cosplays as a Shaolin. Bruce Lee (at first). Three of them are Shaolin monks, but the eldest is not, for some reason they didn’t take him. But a reason to serve the monastery appears - its chief abbot was betrayed by his deputy with the help of agents of the imperial secret police, who need a certain Holy Book; and before his death, the abbot gives it to the heroes so that they take it to a safe place. The heroes are branded as traitors and a chase begins all over China - which means a lot of adventures, rescues of girls, colorful bossfights and, alas, sad moments. At least two of the four are well-written characters; you gradually begin to empathize with them and fear for them.
There are a lot of fights here, as in all Lo Rey films; the editing is surprisingly not eye-popping (but inferior to Jackie Chan films), all the fights will be in the style of “kungfu bang”, but unlike a number of films (especially the previous one), where they are monotonous and begin to get boring with their length, here they look varied and colorful , sometimes bloody and cruel. There will be a variety of weapons, memorable bosses (especially a hunter with super-heavy arrows) and humor, often, however, inappropriate. The heroes even have to fight a crowd of dead people (or were they villains in disguise?). However, the film will be ingrained in your memory by the fact that here a person is killed by showing tits!
Unfortunately, there are some complaints:
- Why, after the showdown in the heroine’s house, did some people come to life and attack the heroes? The setting, to put it mildly, is not the same, and there were no reasons for the appearance of the dead here.
- The Fourth Brother's humor was very inappropriate after the above-mentioned showdown and looked stupid
- The ninja in the title is obviously just to attract attention and rip off some famous titles. No, they are in the movies, but there are few of them and none of the weapons except the sword and shuriken were shown here at all. Unless, according to some snippets of the plot, Glavgad was a ninja sent long ago? Or not? Unclear.
Conclusion: the movie is good, recommended viewing.
Super Ninja/Ninja Squad/Invisible Assassins (1984)
The film was quite famous in its time, the one where there were five multi-colored ninja elements, which everyone saw, but no one remembers its name.
It starts the same way "Enter the Ninja" - a certain white shinobi fights in the forest with black ninjas and kills them all... And again it turns out to be such an exam - the main character John, played by Lo Rey, has just passed it. It’s cool, of course, they lose students in order to upgrade one, not in the first film I’ve seen. But further - John now works as a police officer with his black partner Spencer (Eugene Thomas) for his corrupt nationalist boss. For no apparent reason, John is framed and arrested, subjected to torture - it turns out that this was done so that such an experienced warrior would not prevent the evil ninja clan from stealing a vaccine from a famous Chinese professor, since John was dating his daughter. Tired of enduring all this, John escapes from the station, scattering it all over and begins to fight the villains with varying success. 5 ninja elements stand in his way: Fire (spams enemies with firecrackers of different sizes and sets his hands on fire), Water (swims underwater), Earth (floats (!) underground), Tree (jumps trees best of all in the team) and Metal (the “health” and “armor” parameters are higher than those of the rest of the five), not knowing that they are commanded by the sixth, the most evil and dangerous, played by Bruce Lai, one of the clones of the famous Bruce Lee.
Typical operational B-shka of the 80s, mixing into one whole Bruce Lee, films about ninjas, emigrant problems, so beloved by Asians in cinema, not forgetting about "Rambo" (they even stole the musical theme, changing it a little, so that we wouldn’t detect it) - but B-shka with a “plus” sign and the main component of the plus is the action. There is a LOT of this goodness here, Lo Rey and Eugene Thomas they will let both the villains and each other take a shit; a lot of blood, meat mochilov, fencing (mostly Chinese) and technical fights with acrobatics and signature sounds up to the echoing “tyzh-dyzh-dyzh-dyzh!” In addition to the fights, there is a LONG sex scene for onanists (all in close-up) and the harassment of the main character by all and sundry (including her brother) - in short, it won’t be boring.
The main positive side that distinguishes the film from hundreds of the same B-sheks and S-sheks is these very colorful ninjas, and it seems that they were inspired by them Ed Boon while creating Mortal Kombat (on a par with "Trouble in Little China", Marvel comics, from where he stole the images of Ghost Rider for Scorpio, Gamora, Nebula and Psylocke with Electra for Kitana and Milena; And "Bloodsport"). Each of them had their own technique, mainly Fire and Earth, but besides them, there was a long, difficult and brutal duel with the Chief Ninja, the head of the whole five, to trample whom it took two heroes, a lot of blows and a lot of dropkicks with " tyzh-dyzh-dyzh-dyzh!
The only thing that can spoil the impression is that it is far from the best editing and overkill with technical acceleration of movements and cables, as well as the fact that in its desire to mix up as much as possible, the film is on the verge of sliding into trash and crosses this line a couple of times. Definitely one of Lo Rey’s best works, which is worth watching for some for nostalgia for “yzh-dyzh-dyzh-dyzh”, and for other fans of our theme - to understand where ninja fanclubs get their legs from.
Mafia vs Ninja (1985)
The main character comes to Shanghai to earn money, where he makes friends with a local kungfu fool. The two of them accidentally save the boss of the local mafia and later enter his service. The mafia turns out to be KIND, its boss wants peace, prosperity and to protect the poor (yeah, of course) in order to resist the dominance of the Japanese, who want to fuck and divide everything here - but the film itself highlights to us that kindness in crime means toothlessness and the boss of the Japanese, hiring four super-killers from all over the world, confidently deals first with the good mafioso himself, and then with the rest of the gang. The main character and the idiot remain alive, and together they begin to guerrilla against the villains, taking them out one by one.
Again an operational B-shka, again a mishmash, but this time more should be said about it. What's here:
- A LOT of fights, mostly classic cinematic wushu with a slant either into the classics (hand slaps and wrist grabs) or Bruce Lee (up to its complete copying). Various weapons are used (swords, knives, improvised objects), tactical tricks, cables and “tyzh-dyzh-dyzh-dyzh!” There is more action than half the running time in the film, it is pretty brutal, and at the end there is an unexpected twist with the final boss - and no, it will not be the main Japanese guy, who was beaten quite brutally. In the end, both heroes use strong double teams against their enemies. The downside, however, is the same violent editing of fights, because of which several points are unclear, in particular - why did the fat samurai die?
- Again, colorful villains. This time not colorful ninjas, but a colorful team of mercenaries: a fat samurai, a black ninja, a black kickboxer (again Eugene Thomas and again he’s good) and the highlight of the program is the knifeman Nemo, who throws homing knives with 100% accuracy from any position, the only pity is that it only works on extras (Silvio Azolini), to defeat whom the heroes had to resort to cunning. The villains fight in a generally varied manner, for a long time, and a lot of time was devoted to each of them (which, by the way, some modern and not so superhero collections cannot boast of). Unfortunately, there are also disadvantages here - the ninja was, frankly speaking, killed by a moron who suddenly learned how to fight coolly (why couldn’t he do it before? At first he suffered beatings from the bastard, and then suddenly - he killed the whole crowd - and then I got it again), I talked about the samurai above, and the fights with the black man and the knifeman gradually slipped into a slightly monotonous kung fu, although both of them crap on this style. After defeating them, however, the film does not end, and the heroes will have to battle both with the main villain and with another unexpected villain.
- There is still a theme of ninjutsu here, even if Lo Rey is not one in this film, it’s not for nothing that they are drawn here on the poster - they will appear more than once, and shurikens with knives will fly, and there will be teleportation, and tricks, and explosions - if only not editing (thanks, at least the operators didn’t know about the flickering at the time), it would have looked cool, but this is a fairy tale that almost turned into trash.
- Trying to play drama according to the system "Romeo and Juliet". It turned out badly: for this level you need convincing direction of the drama and suitable acting in the tragic scenes, and not “oh well, let's go home” after the climax of this line.
To summarize: a good energetic B-shka, counting the same Lo Ray, battles with bosses and the amount of fighting for the overall timing. If, of course, you can tolerate some trash talk.
Ninja in America (1985)
When you start watching this film, absolutely nothing is clear - who are all these ninjas, why, how and where, and the viewer will be in these confusion for about 10-15 minutes until he appears Alexander Lo Rey and his on-screen friend (or brother?) performed by Alexa Yipa. I’ll take the blame for what’s happening: once upon a time, a tough special forces soldier, while fighting in Vietnam, saved two local boys. Time passed, the boys grew into the aforementioned Lo Ray and Yip, the first of whom managed to become a ninja, and the second a tough FBI agent. But the special forces soldier became the head of the mafia, choosing ninjas as a support - and at the very beginning he kills all witnesses to his activities. Friends, having learned about this, hesitate to stand in his way - but the main character’s wife, a journalist, dug up dirt on the mafia and she is kidnapped. Only then, towards the middle of the film, both come to their senses and begin a search filled with p****s, blood and, for some reason, ninjutsu.
After achieving success in cinema or at least recognition, if suddenly the film failed at the box office, but received audience recognition or recognition, it is necessary to take into account criticism and improve what worked well and reduce what turned out poorly. In this film, Lo Rey and his team showed the opposite example:
- Yes, there are still a lot of fights, Lo Rey, Eugene Thomas and the rest, including the main guy George Nicholas, tourniquets, show stunts and fights on different sets - but the violent editing has mutated into a moronic one along with the script, and it is absolutely impossible to understand what is happening as soon as the fight begins. No, the operator is not epileptic, it’s just that the installation force has dropped below the baseboard.
- There is ninjutsu, but it is screwed on somehow sluggishly, “to make it happen,” and without it no one would even watch the film. Everything looks especially crazy at the end, when the boss SUDDENLY put on a ninja suit at the end of the fight and started swinging in this style; moreover, the fight goes into the water, where both just as quickly take off their suits, swinging with their bare torsos. No, I would understand if some Kasumi and Ayane waved like that in a hypothetical normal film adaptation Dead or Alive, but in this case it's nonsense.
- The ending of the film raises questions - what happened to the girl?
And most importantly, the film repeats to many "American Ninja", right down to some scenes, and would be called theft, but they came out almost simultaneously, with a difference of less than a month... Did they really steal straight from the set? That's just "American Ninja" It’s quite watchable and balanced, but here everything is not very good, except, perhaps, for the brutal finishing off of the villains in various ways. I don’t recommend watching it, although I didn’t want to turn it off while watching, there was still some energy.
Ninja Vulture (1987)
Again the same command as "Ninja in America", again the same scenery, only Eugene Thomas here - on the side of the hero.
The tie is a bit reminiscent "Ninja Assassin": in front of a little boy, bandits brutally kill his father, tearing him to pieces with motorcycles (this will be shown, but from afar). The boy is saved by a policeman and later, when he gets to the teacher, he learns ninjutsu. Then businessman Lucifer takes him under his wing and reveals to the hero who his father’s killers are, for which he faithfully carries out atrocities and murders on his behalf. However, when he is forced to kill the same policeman's family, he hesitates and then escapes, losing his loved ones. Naturally, Lucifer gives chase to him, and the hero is joined by a homeless black man performing the same Eugene Thomas. This time, instead of making pretentious speeches, the teacher himself takes part in the battles.
Better than "Ninja in USA", by an order of magnitude, but overall a one-time film. The fact is that the above-mentioned plot takes place in 10-15 minutes of the film, the rest is a dull drag in terms of plot, only diluted by fights, the trashiness and strangeness of which has increased twice - they have gone too far with the effects, fabulousness and the tricks with which action makers delight the viewer have become too noticeable. The editing, however, is still the same (even if the guys made some conclusions after “America”) - but everything is redeemed by ninja tricks and weapons, as well as a good final showdown between the main characters and the main villains, in which again it will be unclear why there is an embedded dressing up as a ninja. You can watch it, but either just once, or watch the final showdown separately (starts around 1.20)
Ninja - The Last Duel (1986)
Once again, the insidious ninjas want to hurt and hurt those around them, and this time the long-suffering Shaolin Monastery has turned up again. According to the plot, the main character, the Japanese monk Wang Chi Chun (Lo Rei), having undergone idiotic training in the form of passing the line (this is when they sweep with sticks in the royal army), goes with his friend to the above-mentioned monastery - but the local Zeng-Don’t Give a Fuck- The mentor closed the monastery and does not let anyone in - he is afraid that these same ninjas will overtake him, but later he makes an exception for the heroes (among them the Black Monk and Cool Girl). The ninjas chose a tactic that was smart (even too smart) for this kind of film - gradual raids by different units customized for each specific operation - and lo and behold, it was a success: gradually almost all the main characters would be killed. In the end, as expected, everything ends in a brutal final showdown.
Honestly, the film is weak. Yes, there are a lot of fights and acrobatics - but they are “kungfus-rope”, yes, there is magic and ninja tricks + their classic weapons - but everything was again ruined by the googly-eyed editing. And the main ninja, for all his coolness, looks like a barefoot dunce, laughing like a schizophrenic. However, everything is saved by quite unexpected and cruel plot twists - fans George Martin I will like it, as well as the scene where she is COMPLETELY (that is, generally, without retouching and covering with random objects) naked Alice Tseng in the bathhouse he fights with five ninjas. For once, in short.
Hungter Ninja (1987)
A certain White monk from the Wu Tang Monastery wants to destroy Shaolin, jealous of his glory - but loses to his representative at the very beginning of the film. In order to still win, he enters into an alliance with the ninja, and he himself uses some strange ancient magic: he siphons energy from half-naked women and becomes invulnerable to weapons. Unexpectedly, this helps - the confident White Monk with his new friends first calmly and completely destroys Shaolin, and then finishes off all those who remain.
Years pass - the Evil Alliance dominates, but the remnants of the monks raise three warriors. They are not ready yet - but the Monk and the Ninja overtake them and kill all the elders and only these three remain.
In the cinema and book world, there is a well-known scenario problem that authors face - how do we “defeat” the villain, whom we ourselves made cool and practical, far superior in tactics and technology to everyone else and dominant in 80% of the story? They get out of it in different ways: either they introduce a sacred artifact (Koshchei's Needle, kryptonite, etc.), or they train super-techniques, or they knock out his source of power from under the villain... Or they let the villain win. How did things go here? But NO way - two heroes just train a little more, after which they come to the Ninja base and kill everyone! And the ninjas, who defeated the enemy with cunning and tactics, suddenly cannot do anything to the two boys. And then they extinguish the main villain in the same way, having managed to find a weak point hastily invented by the scriptwriters and forgetting that he ate these guys’ teachers for breakfast.
Another problem is that our Sanyok appears in the film only from the middle, and doesn’t really reveal himself in any way - he’s just some kind of cool guy and that’s all.
Despite all this, the movie is watchable, thanks to the abundance of massacres (at first varied thanks to the ninjas, but eventually slipping into blows), blood and “Tyzh-dyzh-dyzh-dyzh!”
Ninja Battalion (1988)
Four chemical weapons professors are kidnapped by the Japanese. Several teams want to free them: ninjas (represented by Lo Rey), Americans (represented by an agent), Russians (four idiots), a women's team and a certain sect with a bunch of secret signs. They all constantly fight among themselves, professors change hands and as a result of this mess there is an epic shootout of shit.
A very weak and practically incomprehensible movie, according to the synopsis promising “a squad consisting of ninjas, Russians and Americans” - nonsense. There is very little Lo Rey in the film, and he and his partner from America are the only ones who carry this movie. At the end it will appear Eugene Thomas in the role of a villain, and the heroes will fight with him - and there is nothing else to watch in the film, a pathetic parody of spy action films with a bunch of signals, secret gestures and incomprehensible characters.
---------------------
Having trumpeted the status of “our Taiwanese Bruce Lee,” Alexander took part in third roles in other action films, after which he went into stunt work and staging fights, without flashing his face, and then his partners went into the shadows. He staged fights for Robin Shue in "Cage of Death" (also a good film), and then directed something, and I will watch it if possible.
To summarize, I will say that I did not regret the time spent watching most of the films - even if there was a lot of trash and oddities, as well as, I repeat, shitty editing and an excess of cranberries about ninjas, there were also energetic battles, with blood, death throes and memorable and well-developed villains, and this is exactly what we loved about the VHS era. I specifically recommend you to watch "Mafia vs Ninja", "Ninja Squad" и "Ninjas vs. Shaolin Guardians".
Uranus was with you, peace to all and goodbye!
Even Uran remembers the long erotic scene)