Comments on: REVIEW: ‘Angel on Fire’ (1995)

By: James Madrox Atherton

James Madrox Atherton — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 03:39:59 +0000

I totally agree Kamandag. Give credit where credit is due. Thanks for the inside info. A number of fans have been trying to get to the bottom of these HK/Filipino co-productions. It’s good to get the truth out there.

By: Kamandag

Kamandag — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 17:40:56 +0000

Mr. D is exactly right!

At a forum on action movies at the University of the Philippines, Ronnie Ricketts was asked about “Angel on Fire” which was locally shown as “Matira Matibay.” He said that Ko added scenes for the HK release and that made the film a mess!

In “Matira Matibay” Ricketts has the final fight with Ellis. Yeung’s scenes were just added later. That’s why she was “sidelined”, she was never in the film when it was done in the Philippines. In the HK release her fight with Ellis replaces the Ricketts-Ellis fight.

That’s the way it goes. Movies are made in the Phippines as “co-productions” but the Filipinos aren’t even credited. “Lethal Panther 2″ with Yukari Oshima (called “Magkasangga sa Batas”- it had no connection to the first “Lethal Panther”) wasn’t changed much but the names of Edu Manzano and Monsour Del Rosario were totally removed from the credits. So you had no-name (literally) actors in the lead roles!

Now, I’m not saying these were great movies but it’s sad to see the Filipino actors treated like dirt! That’s the way it is, for Third World countries I guess.

Ronnie Ricketts said that working with Ridley Tsui was much better.

By: James Madrox

James Madrox — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 03:48:13 +0000

The main Filipino actor is Ronnie Rickets and the main Filipino villain thief is former beauty queen/model Melanie Marquez. I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again this would be considered a poor HK film but a relativley excellent Filipino film. Ultimate Revenge also with Cynthia Khan and Ronnie Rickets (directed by Ridley Tsui) is a much better offering from the late 90’s HK/Filipino sub-genre.

By: Mr. D

Mr. D — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 22:00:47 +0000

Oh, My!
This movie (?) was 75 % of a filipino Cynthia Khan flick, with action direction by Kao Fei, where all these absurd sequences happened for argumental reasons. He used them in a new made film, as surreal as most filipino-HK mixed films. All of these are made in the same way. Ko directs the action scenes for tagalog movies, get paid, and get the overseas rights. He uses whatever is usable and, presto, a new hk movie is born…

By: mark187

mark187 — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 09:11:44 +0000

yeah, the movie was not very good, but it was all worth it to see Cynthia Khan wearing suspenders!