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Godfrey Ho

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Godfrey Ho
Born
Hà chí cường or hà trí cường

November 10, 1948
Other namesVarious; seealiases
Occupations
  • Filmmaker
  • Teacher
Years active1974–2000/2002
WorksEst. 157 movies, includingUndefeatable,Honor and Glory, Ninja Terminator, Full Metal Ninja, Shadow Killers Tiger Force, Robo Vampire

Godfrey Ho(Chinese:Hà chí cường or hà trí cường, Chinese: Ho Chi-Keung;born November 10, 1948)[1]is a prolific former Hong Kong film director and screenwriter. Ho is believed to have directed more than one hundred films, including over 80 movies from 1980 to 1990 before his retirement in 2000. Many of his works are now regardedcult filmsby aficionados ofZ moviesas being among some of the most "so bad it's good" entertaining movies ever created.[2]

Aliases

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Ho Chi-Kueng wrote and directed under different pseudonyms, and has been credited under more than 40 different names during the course of his career. In Chinese, Ho is known by two names, hà chí cường and the less common hà trí cường.[3]

Some of his purported pseudonyms includeGodfrey Ho,Godfrey Hall,[4]Benny Ho,[citation needed]Ho Chi-Mou,[5] Charles Lee,[6]Ed Woo,Stanley Chan,Ho Fong,Ho Jeung KeungandGod-Ho Yeung.

Biography

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The young Ho started his career as the assistant director forChang Chehat theShaw Brothers Studiofor a few years and worked alongsideJohn Woo.His first film was a low-budget production entitledParis Killersin 1974. It was while working with Shaw Brothers where he met Joseph Lai. Together, they started IFD Films & Arts and ADDA Audio Video.

The exact number of films directed and/or written by Ho is not known, even he is unsure on the subject and most of the films have been re-released under different names. A number of Ho's films were also later further re-edited by Joseph Lai intoNINJA MYTH,a collection of 32 one-hour "Television Specials" released by IFD.[7]

Godfrey Ho's last films to date wereManhattan Chasein 1999 (released in 2000), and the animated filmAli Baba & the Gold Raiders(released in 2002). As of 2010, he is now teaching at the Hong Kong Film Academy.[8]

Films

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Through the 1980s and early 1990s Ho created a series ofmartial arts filmsmade with a "cut-and-paste"technique, which means they were created with the help of splicing various unrelated material (including the recurringmotifof ninja-themed scenes, often with little or no connection with the already disjointed plot) anddubbedtogether. Several of the films' titles are an amalgamation of the word "Ninja" and the title of an already existing movie, for example,The Ninja Force,Ninja The Protector,Full Metal Ninja,andNinja Terminator.He would film footage for one micro-budget picture, and then edit and splice the shots together in a different order, adding in footage from the various Asian movies, and then dubbing over the result to create a final product. This allowed him to create several Z movies with the budget of one, though it is often difficult to discern how much of the finished product was actually filmed by his crew.[9][10]

Godfrey Ho used American actorRichard Harrisonextensively as the lead role in many of his films. Harrison, a EuropeanB moviestar in the 1960s and 1970s, agreed to act in several of Ho's films in the early 1980s, although this footage was later spliced into many more of Ho's productions without his prior agreement; the damage done to his acting career by this association with Ho's films led Harrison to retire in 1990.[11][12]Other noted actors appearing in Ho's productions includeStuart Smith,Edowan Bersmea, Gary Carter andPierre Kirby[de;fi].[13]

Ho's filmmaking also included uncredited and apparently unauthorised use of music fromMiami Vice,Fight! Iczer One,Kamen Rider Super-1,Star Trek,Star Wars,theSuper Sentaifranchise,Combat Mecha Xabungle,Kyojuu Tokusou Juspion,andSilent Running,and composed byWendy Carlos,Vangelis,Pink Floyd,Tangerine Dream,Clan of Xymox,Hideki Matsutake,Steve Hillage,andPeter Schickeleamong others, as background score in his movies. The song "Just Like You" byChris & Coseywas used without permission twice in the filmDeadly Silver Ninja(1978) while "The Jet Set" byAlphavillewas used during a fight scene in the filmUntouchable Glory(1988). [14][full citation needed]

He also made some more mainstream movies, such as two martial arts films starringCynthia Rothrock:Honor and Glory(1993) andUndefeatable(1994), twoLa Femme Nikita-inspired female assassinLethal Pantherfilms in 1990 and 1993, andLaboratory of the Devil,which was an unauthorised 1992 sequel/remake ofMou Tun Fei's 1988 WWII shock filmMen Behind the Sun(further followed by Ho'sMaruta 3... Destroy all Evidencein 1994, in which Ho reverted to extensively re-using old footage).

Ho appeared as a cameo actor twice, the first time in Siu-Pang Chan'sThe Magnificentin 1979 and again in his ownMr. Xin 1995 (in the role of Godfather Ho). Godfrey's most recent credit is a cameo appearance in Scott McQuaid'sSpace Ninjasin 2019, where he plays a janitor. Director Scott McQuaid noted that his B movie title was inspired by Ho's 70's ninja films and he wanted to pay homage to his work, so he wrote a scene specifically for Ho to appear in.

See also

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Bibliography

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  • Odham Stokes, Lisa; Braaten, Rachel (2020).Historical Dictionary of Hong Kong Cinema.Rowman & Littlefield.ISBN9781538120620.
  • Daniel R. Budnik (2017).'80s Action Movies on the Cheap: 284 Low Budget, High Impact Pictures.McFarland.ISBN978-1476626871.

References

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  1. ^Odham Stokes; Braaten, 2020, p.185
  2. ^Vorel, Jim (10 July 2014)."The Best of the Bad: The 15 Greatest B-Movie Directors".Paste Magazine.Retrieved16 February2023.In the schlock pantheon, Godfrey Ho would sit on a special throne made out of tinfoil, compost and detritus that washed up out of the sea onto the shores of his native Hong Kong. Nobody's ever cranked out so many z-grade movies in such a short period as Ho, who produced literally hundreds of films (nobody knows how many) under various pseudonyms, largely in the 1980s.
  3. ^"Hong Kong Film Archive".Retrieved7 November2009.[permanent dead link]
  4. ^Odham Stokes; Braaten, 2020, p.185
  5. ^Charles, John (14 June 2015).The Hong Kong Filmography, 1977-1997: A Reference Guide to 1,100 Films Produced by British Hong Kong Studios.McFarland. p. 12.ISBN978-1476602622.Retrieved30 January2023.Director Ho Chi-mou is actually prolific schlockmeister Godfrey Ho, who also goes by the Cantonese names Ho Chikeung and Ho Chun-sing.
  6. ^Dendle, Peter (2010).The Zombie Movie Encyclopedia.McFarland. p. 211.ISBN9780786463671.Retrieved30 January2023.Zombie vs. Ninja Dir: Godfrey Ho (as Charles Lee).
  7. ^"NINJA MYTHofficial website ".Archived fromthe originalon 13 July 2011.Retrieved22 August2010.
  8. ^Figuring Out Godfrey Ho,PopMatters,20 July 2010
  9. ^Daniel R. Budnik, 2017, p.2 "Ho and [Joseph Lai] were known for their cut and paste style of filmmaking, in which they would acquire the rights to a random Asian film, the genre was irrelevant, and insert newly shot footage of Australian actors dressed as Ninjas."
  10. ^Funnell, Lisa; Yip, Man-Fung (2014).American and Chinese-Language Cinemas: Examining Cultural Flows.Routledge.p. 93.ISBN9781317910251.Retrieved30 January2023.Godfrey Ho, the man behind many of IFD's "cut-and-paste" ninja films...
  11. ^"Richard Harrison (page 5)".Nanarland.com.Retrieved24 September2009.
  12. ^Lines, Craig (5 May 2015)."Ninjas All The Way Down: The Mysterious World of Godfrey Ho".Den of Geek.Retrieved14 February2023.Veteran genre actor Richard Harrison has been outspoken of how he believes Ho ruined his career. He allegedly signed up for a couple of ninja films and had his footage spliced into at least twenty (all of which had him credited as the star).
  13. ^Odham Stokes; Braaten, 2020, p.186
  14. ^Charles, John (14 June 2015).The Hong Kong Filmography, 1977-1997: A Reference Guide to 1,100 Films Produced by British Hong Kong Studios.McFarland. p. 12.ISBN978-1476602622.Retrieved30 January2023.... Most of the music has been stolen from Halloween II, The Hidden, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Phantasm, Near Dark,...
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