I love Lenzi's gialli offerings, or at least the one's I have experiences! I still need to see KNIFE OF ICE and A QUIET PLACE TO KILL. SPASMO and EYEBALL are some of my more favorite gialli viewings. Two very stylish yet, odd in nature but still very effective in the payoff!
It's been a long time since I first seen his SO SWEET... SO PERVERSE (1969), was that not just recently issued on DVD again??
I absolutely loved Freda's brilliant I VAMPRI! Now, what was the deal with Bava being uncredited for with this again? I know he had something to do with the overall direction, but what's the full story on that again?
Any opinions about this more recent giallo? I've heard some bad things but when I found it dirt cheap on eBay, I couldn't resist the temptation of picking it up. Figured I need to give some of the more recent horrer/thriller stuff a chance too. Still waiting for it to arrive and I'm not quite sure what to expect of it but at least it has a pretty good cast that includes famous transsexual Eva Robins from TENEBRAE (1982) and the good-looking Elisabetta Rocchietti, who has been cropping up in a lot of horror stuff like THE THREE FACES OF TERROR (2004), DO YOU LIKE HITCHCOCK? (2005) and THE LAST HOUSE IN THE WOODS (2006). Not to mention supporting roles by Florinda Bolkan and Franco Nero! Anyone here seen it?
Interesting looking film out of Italy with Irish/Spanish co-financiers. Directed by Italian SFX man Stefano Bessoni.
In the 1600s, long before the invention of photography, a scientist named Girolamo Fumagalli was obsessed with the idea of reproducing images. He discovered that by killing a victim and removing the victim's eyeballs, it was possible to reproduce on paper the last image imprinted on that person's retinas. He named this technique 'thanatography'. Today, the same kind of gruesome ritual and abominable crime recurs within the walls of an international school of cinema. -imdb.com
Also stars the daughter of Charlie Chapman, Geraldine Chaplin as well as her daughter Oona.
Well, it seems this is yet another Argento flick that is taking a beating in the review department. Even die hard fans are not too pleased with this outing. Anyhow, the PAL R2 DVD is now out via a Polish company that found it important to force the Polish subs!
Looks like this will be getting a UK release first via Arrow Films! I still haven't seen this, it was on my radar during last year's Midnight Madness during the Toronto Film Fest. The disc will be released March 15th..
I'd love to grab this, but for now I'm holding off on the Blu-Ray player for now, too unstable industry right now. Plus, the multi-region player are way too expensive!
An Interview By Paul Cooke With Eighties Hong Kong Cinema Action Man Paul John Stanners
Prologue: Becoming Paul John Stanners, Hong Kong Fu Fun & Soldier Terminators
PC: Being a huge fan of the Hong Kong Action movie scene I was delighted to finally uncover, and attain an original video tape from Japan of the movie ‘American Force 4: Soldier Terminators’. This was a search that encompassed several very patient years but was eventually rewarded, and spurred me on to share the film through written vernacular here at Cinema Nocturna. Imagine then receiving a personal Email informing me that a direct relative to one of the stars of ‘Soldier Terminators’ had read my review, and sent the link to his brother !. I was genuinely thrilled to then receive direct contact from the ‘Soldier Terminators’ eye patch wearing American forces lead character himself, Mr. Paul John Stanners !.
It has been an absolute pleasure over the period of several weeks getting to know the man Paul John Stanners, who convivially invites to be addressed as PJ. An incredible individual of gregarious stature, great adventure, integrity and good old fashioned gung ho fun lovin’ courageousness. And without question someone that I feel privileged to have been introduced to.
Over the incredible duration of around twelve months PJ became a regular in many, many Hong Kong movie productions. Not just in front of the camera, but working tirelessly behind with the stunt work, dialogue, physical training, and even negotiating on set deals for friends and extras to appear in productions !. An expert trained in several forms of the martial arts since a very young age, with a university gained honours degree. He has travelled to some of the farthest reaches of the planet, wrestling with wild animals and even wilder bandits along the way !. Rubbing shoulders with the likes of Jackie Chan and prolific Hong Kong action director / producer extraordinaire Godfrey Ho, is but part of an amazing appendage to a worldly wise résumé of experience. One that is still very much in the process of being added to, and embraced to the max with a voracious appetite for life.
PJS: It is interesting to reminisce about this period of my life. I did leave England as Paul but eventually became Paul-John, shortened to PJ to differentiate myself amongst the many other people who stayed at a Hotel called Luckies. That was where many of the westerners who appear in these movies lived at this time (Oh, yeah I am the guy with the eye patch in ‘Soldier Terminators’). The other place the travellers / actors resided was Chung King Mansions. Much grander than it sounds and the last time I was in Hong Kong (1992) Luckies was already gone - pity, lots of memories and history there. Besides working in the movies I also helped organise the many extras for the movies, and that is how I earned my crust in Hong Kong. Very fast pace with everybody trying to make as much money as possible before the Chinese took over - sort of Los Angeles on speed !.
To set the record straight I was only in Hong Kong for about twelve months, during which time I did the twenty five movies. Eventually work started to dry up since my face was in so many movies, and I moved onto Taiwan to pursue my martial arts training. I spent the next two years or so there learning more Judo and Taekwondo, whilst teaching English and politics. The movies followed me to Taiwan, and one morning I was teaching a class when some students came running in saying ‘‘Sir, sir you are in the movie !’’. It turned out that one of the last big films I had a bit part in had followed me to Taiwan and I was on a billboard forty feet high down at the local cinema. So much for keeping that one quiet !.
‘Soldier Terminators’: I will crack open my copy of the movie again to give you insight on the parts that never made it to the final cut, and lie on some cutting room floor somewhere in Hong Kong. The two classics missing from the film were my capture by the rebels, getting injured, but with a pistol hidden in the bandaged hand. Asked by the director to adlib a response to my captures I muttered those immortal lines as they took me away ‘‘I'll be back !’’. Then the other scene where they had us training, and wanted us to shoot at something which the explosives guy would promptly then blow up. I suggested they pinch the scene with the water melon from the ‘The Day Of The Jackal’ (1973). First take one of the guys fired and poop - director not happy !, second time bang, still not happy, and third time so much explosives its like he fired a bazooka rather than an AK47 !. Twenty metres away and we all got hit with melon. That was part of the fun for me on the sets.< /P>
We used to get the scripts in the morning after we were picked up somewhere in Mong Kok or Tsim Tsai Tsui. Then I had the option to change the scripts and modify the text as I saw fit, as I had a knack for coming up with a different angle on a scene. The big fireball at the start of the movie was actually the explosive guys idea as he had just seen one of the Rambo movies.
I was just told when you feel the heat just keep running !, then they set off the firebombs all along the trench. Ouch, ripped a muscle running so hard when I felt the heat !.
The other classic in that early scene is the fight in the tunnel. In reality, myself and a Chinese stunt man dropped from the bridge overhead on ropes (about 15-20 feet) then hit the ground, rolled, and headed into the tunnel to fight, but with the smoke they had in the tunnel we couldn't get the timing right !. On about the fourth retake I hit the ground hard with my shoulder - PAIN !!!.
Some Chinese medicine liberally applied to the shoulder and all was OK to continue. Kept having headaches the rest of the movie every time I hit the ground, and at the end of the movie I went off to Thailand for six weeks to Koh Samui - swimming, running etc. It was only many years later when I was in London training in Judo, and crushed some ribs, that a doctor informed me I had broken my shoulder many years before - hence the headaches !. But that was the life of a stunt actor - twenty three years old and indestructible !. Two things I have to confess - I have little fear of most things and no fear of heights. Sounds nice, but it is not good for your self preservation !. I am probably here more by luck than wisdom !.
The Interview
On behalf of myself and Cinema Nocturna a Huge welcome, and thank you so much for taking the time to talk about your movie experiences whilst in Asia.
PC-Born in Liverpool England were you more drawn to and influenced by the music of the rocking Sixties, or was there an early attraction even then to films as a young boy ?.
PJS-I used to enjoy the movies, but the main and overwhelming desire from a very early age was to travel, which is what I did as soon as I finished university. The music was there, but we moved early on across the Wirral and my main musical influence was rock, the heavier the better.
PC-Was it from a very young age that you began to take up Judo, and how did your passion for martial arts grow from there ?.
PJS-The passion for the martial arts was fuelled by my father who used to take me to all the local wrestling matches, and eventually I joined the local judo club at his work when I was aged fourteen. I seemed to have an aptitude for it, and in my first contest I remember having thrown my brother Michael to the ground, before someone informed me that I had won with the first throw.
I trained in Judo for several years, lots of competition and some good wins such as the North West Championship in my weight class etc. But then onto university and also a competing sport in the form of cycle racing. I would get supple for martial arts, then undo everything in cycling.
PC-What career path did you initially follow, and were there any early opportunities for you to capitalise on your physical fitness and martial arts skills ?.
PJS-My initial career path was as far from martial arts as you can be - geek research scientist in the corner !. Again, when I decided to head off I thought to myself, ‘‘I don't want to get to forty and have regrets about never having done anything’’, so I cast the pebble in the pond of life, packed my rucksack and headed off on a flight to the USA with my youngest brother along for the trip. He just needed some direction in his life, so I provided some. He actually stayed in the states for nine years after we parted ways in Flagstaff, Arizona. Married, kids the whole piece - another story.
I Left Asia for a few months in June 1989, after my partner was killed in a head on road accident on May 26th 1989 in Thailand (at the same time all the hullabaloo in Tianneman was going on). A very nice Scottish lass called Sam, who was also in some movies and herself a martial artist (Taekwondo) . We were on our way cycling to Australia, just wrong place, wrong time. Two trucks on an empty road and one decides to overtake the other. She was wiped out in front of me. I bounced off the front door of one truck and they both rolled past my head as I hit the ground. She lasted an hour after I got to the hospital. I was delayed having fought off local villagers who had scrambled out to lay their hands on her scattered possessions.
Hence why I later completed my trip to Australia and became a cowboy for a while, one of you should always complete the journey you started.
Anyway, got back on the horse and headed back, whereupon I met my wife nine months later. Headed to Australia to finish off trip interrupted by the accident, and worked on a cattle station as a jackeroo (an apprentice at a sheep / cattle ranch station) for a few months before being persuaded to stay on as a environmental scientist, to take on a local mining company. Another story and another fight- there is a pattern emerging !.
Finally returning from Asia I became a science teacher. Infamous for breaking bricks in Physics classes to demonstrate the work and power equations. Make it practical I say, so we used to work out how much energy was required for me to break the pile of bricks with my fist !.GCSE class half got A's, the other B's. I rest my case !. Interest equals success.
Left for Oz in 1995 and taught for a while before switching to IT. Initially as a manager, then as an IT consultant, and these days again as an IT manager at the University here in Western Australia.
PC-When and why did you decide it was time to depart Beatle mania city Liverpool and take your ‘Ticket To Ride’ abroad ?.
PJS-Arrived in Hong Kong in 1988 via way of the US and Japan.
Between the ages of fourteen and twenty three I studied Judo, Aikido, Ki Aikido and Karate. A friend of mine, Janet, also had the same mix but had given up to pursue Aikido, and travelled off to Japan. Seemed like a good idea so on completing University with a good honours degree in Biochemistry and Zoology I set off for the far East myself.
PC-Your journey to Asia towards the end of the Eighties turned into a four year travelling sojourn that most people would envy. Was the trip intended to escape from the Western world to experience new cultures, or was there always a set goal you had for the future out there ?.
PJS-I set off because I woke up one morning and thought to myself, ‘‘What am I still doing in England when there is a whole world to see ?’’. This wasn't helped by one of the most miserable summers in England on record (Fifteen degrees is not a summer temperature in my humble opinion). So to cut a long story short, and compounded by breaking up with a fiancée at the time, I set off to see the world. I had an around about invite to travel and study martial arts in Asia, through another friend.
Around about route (USA, Canada and Mexico) brought me to Japan, where I had the good fortune to meet a fellow Englishman called Charlie who had been in Asia for many years, and was a Buddhist monk living in a temple in the New Territories of Hong Kong. He was just completing a sojourn of visiting a number of places in the islands of Japan, studying various weapons forms (he had a particular interest in Bo and Kyudo). We trained for a while in Japan and he suggested I might enjoy travelling to Hong Kong, which was a gentler introduction to the East than Japan.
So, on that advise I booked my ticket and headed for Hong Kong. It wasn't so much about escaping from the West to experience new cultures, as about my personal philosophy that life is not a rehearsal for the real thing. I did not want to get to forty and have regrets about things I had never seen or done. Now aged forty three I can say I am happy with the time I spent travelling and still take time out every year or so for an extended sojourn again with my wife.
I went as an empty vessel with no set timetable or preconceptions as much as possible, and went with the flow. It turned out to be four years, only interrupted when I returned to the UK to bury my travelling partner in a grave atop of a lonely mountain summit in the Highlands, as was her wish after she was killed in an accident in Thailand. Life can be so short, so there is no such thing as too much or too fast. Cram it all in and sleep when you're dead!.
PC-How did you first get the opportunity to work in the Hong Kong film industry, and had you set out with an intent of being involved in acting or did this come about by chance ?.
PJS-I got my first opportunity to work in the movies in Hong Kong in a rather bad film called ‘Ninja Knight’ directed by Raymond Chang (I have a copy I got from a video store in the USA) in which I played a body guard, which turned out to be a blessing because I showed I could die well. There was always more work for bad guys than good guys to some extent, and in the movies I played a soldier, hit man, bodyguard (numerous times), gang boss, as well as many extra roles in bigger productions from outfits such as Golden Harvest. I remember two from them, one called ‘Sun, Moon and Stars’ and another which had something to do with 1999 in the title and a big fight scene in one of the night clubs in Hong Kong.
That one was fun since I was working on an IFD flick, another for Filmark (One with Robocop and a semi naked female vampire I think), and after being killed off in the movie I negotiated them having to pay me for the loan of my suit for continuity. I had been killed off, and wasn't needed on set, but they needed my body on the floor as the main characters fought. Always a dollar to be made and that old (Star Trek) Ferengi adage, ‘‘A contract is a contract until another one comes along’’.
PC-Perhaps the two most prolific Asian film production studios during the Eighties were I.F.D and Filmark. In working for them both was there any noticeable production standards or preferences that you experienced whilst on a shoot ?.
PJS-IFD was the better of the two. For one thing you got paid more !. They actually provided costumes, whereas Filmark often required you to bring your own suit etc.
IFD had bigger budgets, but there was a reasonable cross over of the production staff and Chinese stunt men between the two outfits as well. IFD were on the whole better organised, and we often got to see some of the films outtakes post production. PC-Director Godfrey Ho would seem to have been behind the camera for a fair amount of what you were involved with in front of it, how did you find him as a director and conversely as a person ?.
PJS-Both him and the camera crew were an excellent bunch. I was particular friends with the regular cameraman, and the assistant director Shaun. The camera man was always getting me in at the beginning of the day for shooting, we would do the scene, then he would say ‘‘Sit back and count the money’’. Effectively, you might sit on set for a few hours before your next scene with little more to do than write letters or your diary, do some martial arts training, or drink snake wine !.
Godfrey himself always had a particular image in his brain of how things were to go, even given the low budget we went through a lot of film getting things right - and it hurt !.
PC-If an Eastern made movie had the title Ninja in it the likelihood was that Godfrey Ho was directing and just as likely that the equally prolific Thomas Tang was producing. Did you ever meet Thomas Tang or have any stories of this extraordinary entrepreneur of the film world ?.
PJS-Sorry, no stories to tell there.
PC-Uncovering films that you appeared in is actually quite a tricky task today. Even with the internet and auction sites such as Ebay uncovering a VHS of ‘American Force 4: Soldier Terminators’ is very difficult to source. Have you managed to build up a library of your own films over the years, and what particular titles do you have in the collection ?.
PJS-‘Soldier Terminators’ , ‘Crackdown Mission’ and ‘Ninja Knight’ are the only three I have tracked down. Two off Ebay in Germany, and one off Amazon in the USA.
PC-During your four year Asian journey you were involved with around twenty five film related productions over the course of just a year or so !. Often movies were being shot back to back or simultaneously, did you ever become thrown by which character you actually were supposed to be on any particular day ?.
PJS-Over the year I was involved in a lot of movies and I said there was the point when I was on three movies at once. But, you always had the script on set and the directors camera man to remind you.
PC-Most of the Godfrey Ho / Thomas Tang movies are an amalgamation of one , two or even more composite extra shoots pasted together with a condensed main feature. Was a lot of what you did shot in the fashion of scenes done over the period of days to be used for the specific intention of expanding upon an already shot feature ?.
PJS-We were often just given the script and tried to make sense of it ourselves, but with only seeing part of the production it was sometimes a bit of a strain. I remember one scene where I was waving at the jungle to an invisible army of soldiers, then on seeing the final production I was signalling to hundreds of soldiers who started to make their way through the jungle at my command. When I have watched the movies such as ‘Soldier terminators’ , ‘Crackdown Mission’ etc, it is interesting to see that there were parallel or related stories we never even knew of at the time of filming.
PC-Your role in ‘American Force 4: Soldier Terminators’ seems to have been ‘Borrowed’ from a TV shot show called ‘Aerolite Force’. An Action series of six times sixty minute programmes in which episode four is actually called ‘Soldier Terminators’. Do you recall being involved in the entire series of ‘Aerolite Force’ ?.
PJS-I wasn't involved in the entire series and most of the scripts were borrowed or cobbled together from the various action movies of the era. When we went over to IFD sometimes the script writer would have an idea, and after a while he would literally be writing a part into the movie for you !. We also rewrote the scripts on set, or at the least proof read them. Sometimes they didn't quite pick up on the fun we were having doing that.
I remember one particularly bad script with the line:
‘‘Johnson says the treasure is a wood cut Buddha, and its buried in the foothills of the mountains to the west’’.
Doesn't sound like much, but our warped brains put a rap beat to it - try it... nobody understood why we were all laughing so much every time we tried to shoot it. What can I say, we were obviously a bit bored that day !.
I worked on films where they stole bits of ‘Rambo’ , ‘The Day Of The Jackal’ , ‘Robocop’ etc and I even got to deliver the classic line ‘‘I'll be back’’ in ‘Soldier Terminators’ but the scene never made it past the cutting room floor.
PC-Another made for TV production from I.F.D was ‘Ninja Myth’. The duration of this was a mouth watering thirty two episodes, each with a running time apparently of fifty five minutes !. Interestingly episode twenty one called ‘Metallic Fury’ features a cast member named Jean Paul. Is this in fact you ?. Are you at all aware of this show or indeed were you involved with ?. PJS-Not that I am aware of, but as I said very often the names of the movies didn't even survive post production. I did do a movie called ‘Fury in red’ early on and the main star in that was a guy called Pierre Kirby - more about him later.
PC-Pseudonyms abound, Godfrey Ho himself having such amusing monikers as Elton Chong, Tommy Cheung & Benny Ho, did you yourself appear in the credits under a different name or indeed appear unaccredited ?.
PJS-Yep, I appeared in a lot of the bigger movies in Hong Kong un-credited. I used to help organise the extras for the bigger movies and had a friend, Phil Dodge, who I helped out. Payback was I always got a nice part in the films, and they were applicable a percentage. Doing this work I can honestly say I met Jackie Chan once, disagreed over a part and money. I wanted a job as a police extra and he wanted me to be a convict. So, I took a part on an IFD film I had already been offered that week, but a few of the people I took along that day did get parts in the Jackie Chan hit ‘Police Story II’.
PC-A fellow countryman Mike Abbott was also around at the time you arrived in Asia and seems to have made a living till this day out there in the movies. You seem to have appeared with him in at least one movie ‘Ninja Knight Brothers Of Blood’ (1988) aka ‘Platoon Warriors’. Mike was lucky enough to be in the ballistic blood ballet ‘A Better Tomorrow II’ (1987) with Chow Yun Fat, Directed by John Woo. Did the two of you manage to click, both being foreigners working in such a frenetic industry ?. Do you have any memories of him to recollect at all ?.
PJS-There were lots of foreigners working in the movies in those days. I did click with a few - in particular Brent Gilbert and Mark Houghton, but have no great recollection of Mike Abbott.
My good friend Brent Gilbert (a one time primary school teacher !) was always the good guy because he was blonde, (dyed his hair for the movies) and I was always the bad guy because I have dark hair (plus I could die well !). I kept in contact with Brent for some time after we left Hong Kong. He ended up being based back in New Zealand, and travelling to the Philippines to do movies for a few years. Returned to New Zealand but never settled back in as a primary school teacher again. Last I heard he was working as a radio station manager outside Wellington, Auckland.
PC-Hailing from Cornwall in England Mike Abbott doubtlessly would have had a strong Cornish accent and so inevitably would be voice dubbed over. The two of you with such a distinct colloquialism proved it seems no less an encumbrance than it would have been for say both Steve Reeves and Reg Park, back in their days of playing Hercules in Italy. Did you ever manage to avoid being voice dubbed yourself or indeed perhaps ever voice over for anyone else ?.
PJS-Just to set the record straight as far as I know all the IFD and Filmark productions were dubbed since it was part of the marketing / cost strategy, and to speed up production times. You never really had to get your lines a 100% right. The only productions you tended to see sound equipment on was if you worked for Golden Harvest, or some of the bigger companies.
Basically, the IFD / Filmark formula involved filming sections of the movie over a period of weeks in the Hong Kong New Territories. As time went on there was an expansion into some work being filmed in Southern China, and my mate Brent Gilbert made a break into the Philippines / International scene (They basically remade all the current Hollywood movies of the time and threw Asian and western actors into the mix). I was too tall, at Six Foot, for the first movie of this new formula, which was about tunnel rat warfare during Vietnam.
The footage of the Westerners was then edited into the main movie post production.
Finally, a guy named Pedro and his band of assistants would dub all the movies. Spanish for the thriving Filipino market, and Mandarin for mainland China. Of the three movies I have in my own collection I am speaking fluent German in two of them !.
PC-Two other very well known active stars of the time were American Richard Harrison and Spanish born Romano Kristoff. Did you ever meet or get to work alongside either of them ?. PJS-Nope, never got to meet either of them.
PC-Richard Harrison was the main star of the TV show ‘Ninja Myth’ and it is likely that a large portion of his tagged on scenes from the multitude of ‘Ninja’ movies was actually taken from the show. Were you at all aware of him before arriving in Hong Kong from his earlier Euro film star career in spaghetti westerns from the Sixties, and crime flicks of the Seventies ?.
PJS-Not aware of Richard Harrison before or during my time in Hong Kong. Very often we did scenes that would seem completely unrelated to all of us. Then we would see it post production and say ‘‘What the.. !’’, when all these parallel story lines appeared with actors you had never even seen. Literally, it was a case of working on a big project that you each could only see your small part, and its limited horizon. The big picture was reserved for the director, producer and eventually the public.
PC-Romano Kristoff seemed to have found his way to Asia and into the movies after being in the Foreign Legion. Were you aware of any other movie co-workers with such an interesting or unusual background, or indeed a reason to hide themselves amidst the scene other than just to be in films ?.
PJS-Okay, now we get to an interesting question where I have to say how much do you want to know !?. There were multiple characters who would make the best Hollywood screen writer drool for their life stories. So, I will pick a few at random and you can try and work out who they are and where they are now. I will name a few names.
One film a guy called Roger was actually on the run from the UK. He and his brother had, according to him, held up a post office. Seemed like a nice guy but did have a bit of a temper !.
Pierre Kirby, now around him there was lots of speculation. Good looking, could act and reasonably good at martial arts. The guy sailed into Hong Kong on a yacht with a few very nice Singaporean ladies in tow. Said he made most of his money delivering yachts between different destinations in South East Asia ( nice work if you can get it - but legitimate !? ).
So why the speculation !?. Well, Pierre went off to deliver a yacht to the Philippines - never came back !. Next, the story circulates via Pedro (guy who ran all the movie editing for IFD / Filmark) that he was attacked by pirates, resisted and was thrown overboard. Again, it does happen in that region. So, six months on and this guy Edowan Bersmea is in the Hyatt Hotel in Hong Kong to meet someone and spots Pierre in the crowd. Shouts to him, guy turns and heads out - never to be seen again !. (Pierre Kirby and Edowan Bersmea appeared together in two Godfrey Ho Directed movies ‘Zombie Vs Ninja’ (1987) and ‘Thunder Of Gigantic Serpent’ (1988). Pierre is also amongst the credits in a couple of movies for famous Hong Kong actor and Director Phillip Ko).
Another guy I got to know quite well, who can remain nameless since his background meant he had a lot to forget, and still does if he is still around. Effectively, his parents were killed in a car accident when he was about fourteen, and after that time he was raised by a Chinese friend of his father in Malaysia. Anyway, to cut a long story short, he was heavily trained from age fourteen onwards in Kung Fu, and joined the new families business. He took care of problems, but a big fight in Singapore meant he had fled to the UK, and then onto Hong Kong. He would never let anyone get within an arms length of him !.
The guy was mean, but nice !. He would go the gym with me and Brent. We would be pushing weights and he would be bouncing barbells on the back of his arms to toughen them. What he could do ! - back fist a concrete wall and crack it. On set he once flipped off a table with swords in each hand then threw each sword so it stuck in adjacent trees. Typical Caucasian appearance, but spoke pure Mandarin and Cantonese, and hung out in the Mah Jong halls of Mongkok in between filming. Last time we met he was a bit worse for wear having burst his appendix, then tried to train too soon and split all the stitches. So, last time I saw him was in hospital in Hong Kong before I left for Taiwan to train.
Of the others, there was someone who'd been kicked out the Philippines, another who used to work as a live sex show artist in Spain with his girlfriend, the gold smuggler who ended up doing time in South Korea, the nice Dutch guy who ended up in a Thai prison and whose parents bought him out - then he went to Japan to earn money teaching English to pay them back. Then there were the rinky dink travellers like Brent Gilbert who just wanted to do something different from teaching primary school for a while etc. A cauldron of many diverse ingredients.
PC-You appeared in a movie called ‘Battle Rats’ (1988) for one time Director Benjamin Bridges, wondrously given the Spanish release title of ‘Esquadrao Subterraneo’, which had a shoot in the Philippines. Did you yourself travel to the Philippines for this or any of your movies ?.
PJS-No, as I said they used to cut and paste scenes from our filming in Hong Kong into the filming from the Philippines. The Philippines and Thailand were favourites for the action film makers since they could blow things up a lot easier. In Hong Kong, even up in the remote New Territories you were limited what you could do. In the Philippines, the film makers would buy all the trees and their future potential coconuts from the farmer, then "BOOM !!". Too many laws in Hong Kong !.
PC-Throughout the Eighties the Italians had a profitable relationship in the Philippines and particularly in Manila. Directors such as Antonio Margheriti , Ruggero Deodata, Enzo G. Castellari and Bruno Mattei all churned out amazing Action flicks with great regularity. Did you ever have an opportunity to work with any of these or witness any of their productions ?.
PJS-Never had the opportunity.
PC-American movie legend Robert Mitchum’s son Christopher made a nice niche for himself in the Philippines, as well as Indonesia, as the franchise pulling American named star of many a Fun filled Action outing. Did you ever meet or hear word of Christopher Mitchum during your time in the Asian movie making circle ?.
PJS-Nope.
PC-Your passion for living seems during your four year movie making stint to have been vicariously sustained through the movie making medium. Real life Action adventure seems to be in your blood. Are you able to share a tale of Adventure about your true life endangered escapades into South America, and your epitome of ‘‘Never so alive as when you are near death’’ !?.
PJS-So many, and so little space. Lets see...
Travels to South America: Last time in Peru I dropped one of a pair of muggers who had just stolen someone’s coat off their shoulder. The guys ran straight at me. What was I supposed to do !?. As the guy recovered against the wall I had introduced him to, the victim caught up and round housed him straight in the balls, ouch !!. The second mugger is meanwhile, bent over wetting himself laughing. The victim takes his coat, turns to me and in Spanish says ‘‘Gracias’’ I respond ‘‘de nade’’ (no problem), and we all go our separate ways. Natural justice fulfilled.
Me and my wife (Miranda) were just in Lima recovering from her near death, due to mountain sickness a few days before.....she is as tough as nails, walked off the mountain in the middle of the night crossing two ravines and four rivers to get below the necessary three thousand metres, despite a pulse rate of 180 plus !.
Previous trip to Chile, sixth day of a seven day walk: The trip had started in Purto Montt in the Chilean Lake district. Local bus to a lake. Miranda negotiates a trip across the lake (One and a half hours) and we get dropped off - no way back !. So over the next few days we scale volcano's, go through snow drifts, cross bridges made of ladders and wire (no handrail !) cross another lake, after a negotiation with another farmer involving $50 US, a horse ride down to the shore and directions once we are on the other side. Making the walk up as you go can be quite interesting !. So, sixth day after we set out the first signpost in the middle of an Altiplano (high plain) desert pointing in a general direction and a distance of fifty kilometres. So, we head off and eventually come to a junction of two rivers - steep ravine on either side. But, the problem we cant see the path on the other side. So, I look over the edge and say it looks okay !. Turns out the forty five was more like eighty degrees angle and I set off out of control down the side of the ravine, which was compacted clay. I try to slow my descent by striking out at a rock. Finally put my hands down - Ouch !!! - off into the river at the bottom. Just sitting there contemplating, when the rocks start coming down over my head. I started a landslide !!!. Finally a rock the size of a fridge comes just over my head and hits the river with a huge plume of water.
Anyway, wash my hand, apply alcohol to my wounds (most of my palm gone), wrap the wound and pop a few antibiotics. Then I drop off my rucksack and start back to the top to try and convince Miranda to come down via a slightly safer route !.
Back in my days on the cattle station we used to jump off the back of the utes (station utility vehicles) to tackle young bulls, who were not cooperating with being moved to better pastures during the drought. One time I was out lassoing cattle and bulls who had come in, and got stuck in the mud around the drying up pools. It was a bad drought (is there a good drought !?) and the cattle would walk in for many kilometres, then drink huge amounts of water and collapse under their own weight. So, I would patrol the pools, lasso the cattle by the horns, then reverse up the bank and drag them out. Problem was the young bullies, they often had plenty of spirit left. On one particular occasion I went down to take the lasso off and the bull got up and charged at me, so I ran and dived up on the bonnet of the jeep. Meanwhile the bull is pissed and liable to tip the jeep over into the river since I am half way up a bank side at a forty five degree angle !. So I'm thinking do I shoot him or not !?. In the end I took out my knife and hung over the front of the jeep to cut the rope, and let him head off with my rope.
Another tale from my South American adventures, was when me and Miranda spent an evening in conversation with a retired Israeli agent in Buenos Aires, talking over how we had used up our nine lives.
We had first met ‘Jacob’ and his girlfriend in Chile a few weeks before when we had shared a boat across a lake near Puerto Mont. We got dropped off to start our hike and they headed back. A few weeks later and we are in the South of Argentina, just setting out on another trek near Calafate, when we bump into them again. Bad weather having changed their plans and our decision to take a local plane (eight seater) over the mountains, having changed our itinerary. We all decided it was too much of a coincidence to end up on the same campsite in the middle of nowhere, and so to meet again in Buenos Aires for dinner to share tales.
That night in Buenos Aires we exchanged stories and both decided we didn't want to tempt the reaper anymore. I am down to three lives and ‘Jacob’ had stopped counting. He had spent five years in the Israeli military, then another five in the diplomatic protection service. A genuinely nice human being…who casually stated, ‘‘One night we were out numbered by a group of thugs in Poland. Myself and two other agents were there with a diplomat having a quiet drink. The evening ended when we fought a running retreat back to our hotel, against seventeen armed football thugs who had killed someone the week before, and tried to pick a fight in the bar with us. At one point during the fight one of the other agents picked up a dropped knife, and I told him...no !. Too much paperwork if we kill them !’’.
We almost got to see a demonstration ourselves when we had a little bit of hassle after we left the restaurant, but ‘Jacob’ simply talked the drunk aggressor down and we went on our way. Maybe ‘Jacob’ will write his own memoirs one day...or maybe ex-president Clinton’s second edition !?.
PC-Home for you and your wife is Australia, working in IT and the author of on line written articles relating to internet retail structure and the media. Are these downloadable PDF formatted tomes helping to pay the bills, and allowing for you to continue trekking into the less populated realms you seem to so enjoy ?.
PJS-No, they are one of my personal contributions to the general circle of knowledge. I also have papers published on environmental degradation in Australia, muscle metabolism, developing the knowledge workers of the 21st century amongst other things I have worked on over the years during my five stints at University. Those particular tomes on Internet marketing just happen to be some of the early research work on the subject and arose out of a collaboration with my lecturer at Edith Cowan University. The group we formed published several papers on the subject which have been heavily cited in International publications and even become a chapter in a book.
I make my money as an IT Manager at a University in Australia, and my wife is a programmer / technical writer for IBM. As they say never judge a book by its cover - I never do. Always remember you only ever see a snapshot, a moment in time of a persons life even if you know them well.
PC-Harkening back to those heady days of movie making in Asia do you still have any contact with friends or movie involved colleagues at all from that period ?.
PJS-Lost contact with everyone over the years since I went offline myself for a while after Asia. First moving around Australia, then back to the UK and then to here. Last person who I had contact with was Brent Gilbert who was managing a radio station outside Wellington, back in his home country of New Zealand.
Only other person I have seen since is Frank Juhasz, who I bumped into in Bangkok several years after. He had left Hong Kong because it wasn't corrupt enough for him, so he was off to Indonesia. Seriously bad dude even compared with this other guy from the films who in real life was a white triad, and a hit man !. But he was a lot nicer person than Frank - Frank was just a little BIG bit evil !.The real life adventures of what happened off set made ‘Pulp Fiction’ look tame, and life was interesting for everybody to say the least.
Every day in every way your moral viewpoint was tested just that little bit more !. I have been tempted to write about it and the characters surrounding that era, but never got around to it. When many weren't in movies they were off smuggling on milk-runs and such like !.
PC-Have you ever thought about a return to the movies ?.
PJS-No, and I have used up too many of my nine lives. As I said when I spent the evening in conversation with the retired Israeli spy in Buenos Aires, (that tale of me and Miranda bumping into this guy ‘Jacob’ and girlfriend on multiple occasions throughout South America, and all taking the decision we should at least sit down one evening over dinner and share tales) nothing ever happens by chance!. We exchanged stories and both decided we didn't want to tempt the reaper anymore. I am down to three lives and ‘Jacob’ had stopped counting. The retired Mossad spy, now a banker in New York, who once had dinner with President Clinton one quiet evening in Tel Aviv - another tale for someone else to tell... Says the IT manager who wasn't always so settled down…Damn, OK who says I've settled down !? .... still want to see what's over the top of the mountain !.
When I am not being IT manager, climbing mountains or training I manage my wife Miranda‘s jazz band she plays with in the evening (www.papillonjazz.com) . Day job for Miranda is a technical writer / programmer with IBM, but she was also a kick ass martial artist and the bane of many a black belts life here in Perth. Like myself she also has a black belt in Jujitsu.
Back in London one evening, training in Jujitsu, I remember a visiting black belt from another club watching as Miranda took down seven guys as they systematically tried to take her head off with punches. As she took down the last guy ‘Big Bob’, (120kg of brick layer !) he didn't move, but just lay still on the floor !. The guy turned to me and said, ‘‘Wow that’s my type of woman !’’, ‘‘Oh’’ I replied ‘‘That's my wife !’’.
Over the years she has only knocked me out twice during training, resulting in an extended visit to the dentist, when she knocked one of my teeth out. My fault, I was too slow and should have blocked. Then again it was my blind side !. The (‘Soldier Terminators’) eye patch could have been for real since I do only have fifteen percent vision in my left eye, due to a congenital condition. Just means I have to move my head faster when fighting. I don't wear the eye patch day to day though, unless I was auditioning for a part in ‘Pirates Of The Caribbean’.
These days Miranda finally gave up after breaking some toes and thought if it had been her fingers, it would have been the end of her violin playing. I met Miranda whilst I was in Taiwan studying Judo and Taekwondo, and she was studying Chinese, with her class being moved from Beijing due to the event of Tiananmen Square.
Miranda also speaks Dutch (her native tongue) , French, German, Chinese, and is fluent in Spanish - which helped in the tango band we used to be involved in, and our trips to South America. She speaks the Spanish and I can carry heavy things up mountains !.
PC-As incredibly ‘Bad’ as the endless list of Ninja / Action / Horror movies from Hong Kong were the likes of Godfrey Ho and Thomas Tang never failed to entertain, and today unearthing some of what they made can prove to be an insanely entertaining viewing experience. Those lucky enough to obtain Uncut Wide Screen versions of titles such as ‘Robo Vampire’ (1988) ‘Death Code Ninja’ (1987) ‘The Vampire Is Still Alive’ (1989) and many such titles will be thrilled. What titles, if any, such as these hold a special place in your own movie collection ?.
PJS-I like ‘Soldier Terminators’ for a giggle, especially the scene in the tunnel, and the scenes in ‘Crackdown Mission’ as part of the snake cult are a bit weird and wonderful to behold. I died in true samurai fashion in the ‘Crackdown Mission’ throwing myself in front of my boss to try and protect him. It was the first film I was in, and since I died well they gave me another job.
Ah, the ‘Robo Vampire’ movie - only memory I have is of the scantily clad English girl who was in the lead. Hired primarily for her large boobs, which were exposed at every available excuse, and then no westerners were on set - but all the Chinese film crew were !. She had some very interesting plans about going to Japan to work as a ‘hostess’ since Japanese men only had little willies !, then going back to England to set up as a hair dressers with the money she had earned. Not your standard business plan, but it was a plan !.
Other memories of that film are bad costumes (cardboard Robocop), and a run down studio up in the New Territories. I remember walking back just before early dawn after a night shoot, and watching as rats the size of cats scattered from the piles of rubbish around the entrance. Not a studio in its hey day, and was due for closure after the making of the movie.
PC-If you have one resounding memory of the Hong Kong movie scene what is it ?.
PJS-Life was lived at a hundred miles an hour, but it was fun. You had to think on your feet, listen carefully to the directors instructions (it could save your life), and be persistent if you wanted a particular part.
Watching the Chinese stunt actors and doubles doing their stunts. Absolutely talented, and crazy !!. They never said no to the director.
It has been a true honour and personal pleasure being able to discuss a part of your incredible life journey. My sincere thanks, and the extended gratitude of Cinema Nocturna and its readership, to you for being such a genuinely magnanimous person. Long may your continuing life journey be every bit as adventurous and fulfilling to you in the future. Thank you.
Safe travels from one Englishman to another, and may the wind be always at your back.
Interesting interview, hope others find it of some insight into the Hong Kong movie scene and the people behind the characters on film set.
Permission To Display The Above Is Afforded To Cinema Nocturna. All Written Material Remains Copyright Of Paul Cooke & Paul John Stanners. Photographs Are Also Displayed By Cinema Nocturna In Personal Agreement With The Owner Mr. Paul John Stanners But They Remain His Private Property. Paul Cooke & Cinema Nocturna Extend Their Express Gratitude To Mr. Paul John Stanners For The Use Of In Complimenting This Article.
Please be repectful of this material and it's rights. If any hotlinking to this article is found, we will take it down. Mr. Stanners has been kind enough to supply and allow us to use pictures from his personal collection. Thanks.
Good ‘Guise’ Wear A Black Eye Patch
PC-Director Godfrey Ho would seem to have been behind the camera for a fair amount of what you were involved with in front of it, how did you find him as a director and conversely as a person ?.
PC-Most of the Godfrey Ho / Thomas Tang movies are an amalgamation of one , two or even more composite extra shoots pasted together with a condensed main feature. Was a lot of what you did shot in the fashion of scenes done over the period of days to be used for the specific intention of expanding upon an already shot feature ?.
till this day out there in the movies. You seem to have appeared with him in at least one movie ‘Ninja Knight Brothers Of Blood’ (1988) aka ‘Platoon Warriors’. Mike was lucky enough to be in the ballistic blood ballet ‘A Better Tomorrow II’ (1987) with Chow Yun Fat, Directed by John Woo. Did the two of you manage to click, both being foreigners working in such a frenetic industry ?. Do you have any memories of him to recollect at all ?.
PC-Your passion for living seems during your four year movie making stint to have been vicariously sustained through the movie making medium. Real life Action adventure seems to be in your blood. Are you able to share a tale of Adventure about your true life endangered escapades into South America, and your epitome of ‘‘Never so alive as when you are near death’’ !?.
involved colleagues at all from that period ?.
PC-As incredibly ‘Bad’ as the endless list of Ninja / Action / Horror movies from Hong Kong were the likes of Godfrey Ho and Thomas Tang never failed to entertain, and today unearthing some of what they made can prove to be an insanely entertaining viewing experience. Those lucky enough to obtain Uncut Wide Screen versions of titles such as ‘Robo Vampire’ (1988) ‘Death Code Ninja’ (1987) ‘The Vampire Is Still Alive’ (1989) and many such titles will be thrilled. What titles, if any, such as these hold a special place in your own movie collection ?.
It has been a true honour and personal pleasure being able to discuss a part of your incredible life journey. My sincere thanks, and the extended gratitude of Cinema Nocturna and its readership, to you for being such a genuinely magnanimous person. Long may your continuing life journey be every bit as adventurous and fulfilling to you in the future. Thank you.
