Godfrey Ho, ever hear of him? No? Not a surprise, he's not well known outside his native Hong Kong, hell he's not even recognized there either. Where he is recognized however is in the underground sub-culture of bad movie enthusiasts. In recent years there has been a growing trend of being into bad movies, movies that are so bad, so terrible that they are good; and at the top of the food chain was the Z-movie.
Now most everyone has heard of B-movies, films that are off the beaten path and usually not associated with major film studios, a great example being the campy sci-fi films of Ed Wood, often called the father of the "bad B-movie." However if one digs even deeper you can find a type of movie that goes far beyond the B-movie, films that have such bad production value, such absurd acting and special effects that they can only be categorized as one thing, the Z-movie; and within the realm of Z-movies lies one man who sits above all others, Godfrey Ho.
Godfrey Ho is a Hong Kong film maker known for his "cut and paste" style of movie making. What Ho would do is film one full length feature and turn that one film into a half dozen movies. But how did he do this? How do you turn one film into six? This is where obscure asian films come into play. What Godfrey Ho did was take already made unknown asian films and re-dub them to suit his needs, then he took about 20 minutes of his film and splices it together so you would actually have 2 movies in one, an unknown asian film and Godfrey Ho's film. Now when you have 90 minutes of footage and you only use 20 minutes for each film then you can make 6 films with that 90 minutes of footage.
Now as if it wasn't bad enough that Ho is re-dubbing old asian movies and splicing them together with his original films, he was using an all star cast of some of the worst actors in the history of cinema. One thing you notice about Ho's films is that he almost always uses an all white European/American cast which stood out like a sore thumb against the all asian cast of the films that Godfrey was trying to paste together with his. Also to top things off just about every actor on his set could not act there way out of a paper bag.
However there was one actor that Godfrey used who was not a total hack, that man is the Ninja you see pictured at the top of this article, Richard Harrison. Harrison was a classical trained actor who actually could act, in fact he auditioned for Sergio Leoni's A Fistfull of Dollars, so the man could act. Unfortunately for Harrison he got stuck in a B-movie
rut, making one after another. Sometime during his career he agreed to make around 3 small budget Hong Kong martial arts films for Godfrey Ho. It was not until around 20 years later that he found out from his son of all people that the 3 films he starred in were turned into almost 20 ninja themed movies with Ho's cut and paste technique.
The reason why Ho is at the top of the Z-movie game is because of the absurdity of his film content. Just about all of his movies involve ninjas, this is nothing new for martial arts films but take a look at the pictured of Richard Harrison on this article, look at what he is wearing, WHAT FUCKING NINJA WEARS A SILVER AND PINK OUTFIT WITH A HEADBAND THAT SAYS "NINJA" ON IT!? It is absolutely hysterical and absurd beyond belief, and if you thought it ended there, oh no it gets much better because what ninja film would be complete without a heavy dose of sorcery, that's right, fucking ninja magic. In Godfrey Ho's breakout film "Ninja operation night and warrior" people "transform" into ninjas by using elaborate hand movements that trigger a camera quick zoom and a puff of smoke, finally revealing a deadly ninja in neon colors ready to do battle!
Another aspect of Ho's film making style was releasing the same movie under several different titles yet promoted as different movies all together, just another way he can stretch 1 movie into a dozen. What Godfrey Ho also loved to do was use already composed copyrighted music in his films. Often you hear a familiar song and then you realize "holy shit that's the miami vice theme!" Godfrey Ho used everything from the miami vice theme to even music from star wars in his movies, just another reason why he is awesomely bad.
Over the years I have seen people try to review Godfrey Ho films, but how do you review something that is more fake than it is genuine? You can't review Ho films unless you are comparing them to another Ho film, because they are just too out there to be compared to any other thing in film. You know the phrase "its so bad its good?" Well Godfrey Ho damn near invented it with his ninja films. His movies are so bad and so obscure that you use them as a true test when talking to a fan of bad movies, if you have seen a Godfrey Ho film then you truly know about bad movies; but that's the thing, these movies are beyond bad, that's why they are called Z-movies and not B-movies. Some B-movies can be legitimately good, like the Evil Dead series, there is nothing good about the Ho ninja films; the only thing
good about then comes from sheer coincidence and irony. But just like a fabulous car crash, you cant look away from a Godfrey Ho movie, it's just too "good" to miss.
If you are interested in seeing what all the fuss is about with what I have been talking about then just youtube "godfrey ho ninja" and you will see everything you need to know; you will see the transformations, the colorful costumes, the god awful acting, everything that makes Godfrey Ho the true master of the Z-movie. So do yourself a favor, youtube the ninjas, sit back, and take in the greatest bad movies you will ever see.
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