Won't Get Fong Again

BLIND RAGE-1976-5 blind men are recruited by a mobster named Duran to rob a bank. They are a diverse group: Willie Black (D'Urville Martin), Lin Wang (co-writer Leo Fung), Hector Lopez (Darnell Garcia), Amazing Anderson (Dick Adair) and Ben Guevara (Tony Ferrer). A woman named Sally (Leila Hermosa) runs a school for the blind and teaches them how to commit the robbery and act as though they can see. They steal 15 million dollars and kill several people in the process. After finding a blind man's cane at the crime scene the police suspect blind men must have pulled the robbery! They arrest Ben and he rats out everyone. When the remaining gang tries to escape hiding in a gas truck, it crashes and explodes killing them all except Duran who took a different mode of transport. He escapes to LA but when he lands (top billed) Fred Williamson as Jesse Crowder (a character he'd played in several of his movies at the time) shows up and arrests him after chasing him down and beating him up! 

This odd but ultimately far-fetched crime drama was shot badly in the Philippines by Efren C. Pinon who had previously directed ENFORCER FROM DEATH ROW (also starring Fong).

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Whatever....

NINJA NIGHTMARE-1980-During WW2 some American soldiers kill a Japanese general and rape and kill his wife. They also kill the one American officer who protests. All the while their young son Kimon watches the horrible scene in hiding. Over 30 years later the troop (Cameron Mitchell, Stack Piece, Hal Bokar and Phillip Baker Hall) gets together for a reunion and the young son now an adult ninja (Leo Fung) seeks revenge. Fong was one of the producers. It's very disjointed and badly made. 

This is the only feature made by director Jay Wertz. 

It's walso known as THE LAST REUNION.

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Bad Action

24 HOURS TO MIDNIGHT-1985-Cynthia Rothrock is Devon Grady, a martial artist who's husband (Juan Chapa) is killed by gangsters led by "White Powder" Chan (Stack Pierce). Meanwhile two kung-fu cops (one male, one female) ride around beating up thugs. To get revenge Devon dresses as a ninja and bumps off the gang members in various ways. The story line with Rothrock was filmed by writer/director Leo Fong but never finished (several stories abound as to why). A few years later Fong filmed another story featuring the two cops and Brinke Stevens (who also dubbed Rothrock's voice) as Devon's avenging ninja. Scenes of Rothrock crying over her hubby's death and him showing her some martial arts moves are repeated several times. Fong himself shows up un-billed toward the end and is blown up. 

This inept paste up job was only Rothrock's second role (she made many more direct to video) and martial artist/actor/preacher Fong's first as director (he only got slightly better). He and Pierce acted together in LOW BLOW and KILLPOINT.

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Fong Again!

ENFORCER FROM DEATH ROW (aka NINJA ASSASSINS)-1978-Leo Fong (also a co-producer and co-writer) plays T L Young, a former Ranger on death row for a crime he didn't commit. He's busted out of the slams by some secret organization that want him to bust up NOMAD, a spy ring in this shot (badly) in the Philippines martial arts action drama. It's pretty inept with terrible fights, scenes that are way too dark, bad editing, stupid dialogue and long stretches of no action. A woman is tortured with a soldering gun. Ninjas occasionally attack and Young and his friend Danny and a demolition expert blow up a yacht after Young plucks a guy's eyeballs out. This ends so abruptly I think they forgot to film the final scene. Cameron Mitchell appears for less than a minute!

One of the directors Marshall Borden edited movies including THE NINE LIVES OF FRITZ THE CAT and JONATHAN LIVINGSTON SEAGULL (he also edited this). The other credited director Efren C. Pinon directed Fong in BLIND RAGE the same year. Cinematography is by Frank Harris who later directed Fong in KILLPOINT and LOW BLOW.


Fong (who was born in China but raised in Arkansas) also starred in BLIND RAGE the same year.

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Fung!

SHOWDOWN-1993-Some bikers beat up some drug dealers and take their stash. The Mayor assigns police captain/martial arts teacher James Long (producer/writer/director Leo Fung) to do something about it. After a botched up stakeout where an undercover officer is killed Long vows revenge against the crime boss Kincade (top billed Werner Hoetzinger). The bikers invade the small town of Sanctuary, a haven for retired gangsters where Richard Lynch is "The Commander". When an ex-mobster (Frank Marth) who recently reunited with his daughter Mickey (Michelle McCormick) is blow up by the gang The Commander calls in Long to "terminate" their leader, the weird looking kind of effeminate Kincade. (Long doesn't seem surprised when on hearing this) Long beats up three bikers and kills two of them. Later a black female gas station attendant beats up half of the gang! Things really hit a wall when one of the ex-mobsters sings at a seniors meeting. Mickey beats up a biker chick but is later taken captive. Long rescues her while beating up guys much bigger than him. Later Long uses a rocket launcher and teams up with The Commander to wipe out the gangs but Kincade escapes and the story suddenly shifts to micro-chips and 2 comedic smugglers. One of them beats down Long but he gets up, gets in his car and follows them like nothing happened! I thought this movie would never end but Long finally beats up Kincade and arrests him.

Troy Donahue appears in one scene at the beginning. The direction, editing and acting in this is martial arts action drama are all sub-par but it was cool to see Lynch in a cowboy hat. Werner Hoetzinger was a set dresser for some movies and TV shows. Thank the lord this was his only acting role! Sometimes confused with the Billy Blanks movie of the same name (made the same year).

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