Or a film that’s called Robo Kickboxer or a Kickboxer King.
Joseph Lai (Lai Sun-lan) is the head of the Hong Kong based Production & Distribution Company IFD Films & Arts. Yes, the company that gave the world all those Ninja movies starring Richard Harrison and various ‘gwailo’ actors and martial artists.
Lai also gave many Hong Kong action directors including Phillip Ko (Ko Fei), Paul Wong (Wong Kwan) and Ridley Tsui (Tsui Po-wah) their first shots at directing movies. He also gave western martial arts actors including Bruce Fontaine, Kenn Goodman, Steve Brettingham, Michael Miller, Wayne Archer and even myself the opportunity to play leading roles in his movies.
Lai, currently the Vice Chairman of the Hong Kong Movie Producers Association, is fully aware of the limitations of his movies; he doesn’t regard his movies as high art and doesn’t expect other people to. But as anyone who worked on any of his movies will admit, they were great fun, and they’re very entertaining to watch.
Forces of Geek’s Man from Hong Kong& resident Ninja Big Mike Leeder continues his look back at the Ninja movie legacy with a rarely seen interview with Joseph Lai, retrieved from the vaults of the Golden Ninja Empire…
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