The best part is that not even the music in his films is original. All of it is stolen from soundtracks of films like The Warriors or the Miami Vice TV series. The music of A-ah, Clan of Xymox and Genesis feature heavily in his films as well. All of his ninja flicks have at least one surreal moment where Richard Harrison or Bruce Stallion face off against hordes of enemy ninja, all wearing ridiculous costumes as a then contemporary song from Aleph or Pink Floyd plays in the background. Those costumes are certainly eye catching. Members of the Silver Ninja Empire and other factions seen throughout his films sport bright pastel ninja costumes, typically topped off with a headband. The headbands are the best, often saying "NINJA" on them or, my favorite, "NIN" and "JA" with an iconic print of Sho Kusugi from Revenge of the Ninja in the middle. Donning such garb, our heroes then struggle by throwing weapons at each other, which they deftly flip out of the way of even though the weapons are already clearly like six feet away from them. This is a trademark high level ninja technique that appears in almost all of Godfrey Ho's movies. All of this happens with that stolen music blasting.
At the same time, in each of his movies (in the parts he actually filmed), it's very obvious that he's competent despite his films being some of the cheapest, most haphazardly made around. This is especially true in the editing and continuity, especially given that some of these films would go from nothing to editing completion in one week flat. The most impressive is the way new stories were written to work some other random movie's footage into his newly filmed ninja conflict. Characters will make phone calls from one film to another. Ninja: American Warrior (1987) is particularly inspired here. The film opens with a female assassin taking out some ninja, afterwards she puts on a mask. We then cut to the other movie, where a female assassin attempts to take out a crime lord, only to be killed by one of his henchmen.
They go to see who she is, but what's this?! A mask is removed from her face revealing the newly filmed actress from our opening scene? Either the same cheap hotel room was located or they built a set, and they got actors to match those in the original film. It's an ingenious way to tie a ninja getting killed into the original movie to get the story started. Later on, a character is hospitalized. There's a scene where they read a letter while in their hospital bed. Not content with phone calls, Godfrey Ho engages in pan-cinematic postal delivery, with one of his characters handing a letter to a nurse (a double we only see part of), then cuts to the nurse in the original film handing over the letter. This was a pretty incredible way to get every bit of footage from each movie into a single new film.
Godfrey Ho himself was believed to have stopped directing movies in the early 90s, but just as it was in the 80s, he's directed movies as recently as 2000 under various aliases. That last film in 2000 was Manhattan Chase, starring the always awesome Cynthia Rothrock. Ho also worked with Rothrock in the campy but hilarious 1993 film Undefeatable. This movie is great for three reasons. One: Cynthia Rothrock is in it. Two: Its last fight scene has some wonderfully overwrought music and ends with one of the greatest puns ever. The third reason is Don Niam's performance as martial arts psychopath Stingray. Stingray is a mentally insane abusive husband, and yet the film has some flashbacks to his own childhood which are filled with abandonment and conditions show why he is the way he is. An attempt is almost made, not to justify, but to explain the conditions that built him up into the person he is now. The way the film portrays this is definitely, well, a thing.
At the same time, in each of his movies (in the parts he actually filmed), it's very obvious that he's competent despite his films being some of the cheapest, most haphazardly made around. This is especially true in the editing and continuity, especially given that some of these films would go from nothing to editing completion in one week flat. The most impressive is the way new stories were written to work some other random movie's footage into his newly filmed ninja conflict. Characters will make phone calls from one film to another. Ninja: American Warrior (1987) is particularly inspired here. The film opens with a female assassin taking out some ninja, afterwards she puts on a mask. We then cut to the other movie, where a female assassin attempts to take out a crime lord, only to be killed by one of his henchmen.
They go to see who she is, but what's this?! A mask is removed from her face revealing the newly filmed actress from our opening scene? Either the same cheap hotel room was located or they built a set, and they got actors to match those in the original film. It's an ingenious way to tie a ninja getting killed into the original movie to get the story started. Later on, a character is hospitalized. There's a scene where they read a letter while in their hospital bed. Not content with phone calls, Godfrey Ho engages in pan-cinematic postal delivery, with one of his characters handing a letter to a nurse (a double we only see part of), then cuts to the nurse in the original film handing over the letter. This was a pretty incredible way to get every bit of footage from each movie into a single new film.
Godfrey Ho himself was believed to have stopped directing movies in the early 90s, but just as it was in the 80s, he's directed movies as recently as 2000 under various aliases. That last film in 2000 was Manhattan Chase, starring the always awesome Cynthia Rothrock. Ho also worked with Rothrock in the campy but hilarious 1993 film Undefeatable. This movie is great for three reasons. One: Cynthia Rothrock is in it. Two: Its last fight scene has some wonderfully overwrought music and ends with one of the greatest puns ever. The third reason is Don Niam's performance as martial arts psychopath Stingray. Stingray is a mentally insane abusive husband, and yet the film has some flashbacks to his own childhood which are filled with abandonment and conditions show why he is the way he is. An attempt is almost made, not to justify, but to explain the conditions that built him up into the person he is now. The way the film portrays this is definitely, well, a thing.
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