Jimmy L. Pascual timeline and filmography

JIMMY L. PASCUAL BIOGRAPHY: A Work In Progress by Andrew Leavold

- Chinese-Filipino, also known as Chu Won Yin and Zhu Huan Ran

- Born in the Philippines. Born into the Pascual family, a Chinese-Filipino film dynasty in production, distribution, and exhibition (the Pascual family owned several theaters including the Ocean in Quezon City). 

- Asia Films - a distribution company owned by Jimmy's father Tommy Pascual. Imported kung fu films from Hong Kong in the early 70s, including his son's Emperor productions. 

- Ambassador Pictures or Ambassador Productions - Juanito Pascual (father of producers Baby and William Pascual) and brothers Prisco and Jacinto. Primarily a distributor of Japanese action films (Zatoichi, Yojimbo, Watari) and spaghetti westerns in the Sixties; also produced a series of Joseph Estrada and Zaldy Zshornack action films, Agent 009 spy films starring Charlie Davao, and Dolphy and Chiquito comedies, between 1962 and 1965.

- Brother George owned GP Films; his cousins Mely “Baby” Pascual and her brother William at first operated Melros Productions (1978-), and later Baby Pascual & Associates.

- Married to Anita Pascual

- relocated to Hong Kong in the Sixties. Initially worked for Shaw Brothers. The market was starting to change – end of 1971, Fist Of Fury was a massive success and opened doors to the global film market.

- Jimmy was an original shareholder and president of Fu Kok Film Co (c.1971) with future producer and director Ng See Yuen, who soon split over creative differences; Jimmy then registered his new company, Empire Cinema Centre, in Hong Kong on 8th February 1972, and later Emperor Films International (and, according to an online article, Wells Fargo Pictures). An essential face in the new ventures was fellow Chinese-Filipino producer and presenter Filipino-born Cornelio “Cony” or “Cory” B. Sarangaya – Chinese names Hong Lik, Kang Li, Hong Li. Jimmy and Cony formed part of Hong Kong's Filipino Film Mafia which included fellow producer and distributor Bobby A. Suarez (Intercontinental), writer/director Joseph Velasco, and actors Trovador Ramos and Rey Sagum.

- Empire initially claimed to have signed Alain Delon to an Empire contract; it was later revealed Delon's asking price was $500,000 US. 

1972 – The Bloody Fists/Death Beach/Deadly Buddhist Raiders/The Bloody Fist/Bloody Fist/Dragon Showdown (Empire Film Centre/Goldig Films) [Hong Kong release date 17th May 1972] A significant film in a number of ways - the first production for Pascual’s Empire Cinema Center, and one of the First Wave of kung fu films to penetrate the international market. Jimmy is beaten by Bobby A. Suarez, who releases The King Boxer in March 1972 and creates a superstar out of Meng Fei. As an independent producer, Jimmy was creating opportunities for individuals outside the rigid Shaw studio system, all the while forming a repertory company for his series of productions

1972 – Tough Guy/Kung Fu The Head Crusher/Revenge Of The Dragon/Kung Fu Master – Bruce Lee Style (Empire Film Centre) [Hong Kong release date 19th October 1972]

1972 – The Good And The Bad/Kung Fu The Invisible Fist/Tiger vs Dragon/Death Rivals Of Kung Fu (Empire Film Centre) [Hong Kong release date 6th December 1972]

1973 – The Awaken Punch/Village On Fire/Buddhist Shaolin Avengers/The Fury Of The Black Belt/Black Belt Fury (Empire Cinema Centre) [Hong Kong release date 23rd May 1973]

1973 – The Black Friday (Empire Cinema Centre) [Hong Kong release date 11th August 1973]

1973 – The Magnificent Boxer/Shadow Of The Dragon (Emperor Films International [HK]) [Hong Kong release date August 1973]

1973 - Death Blow/Thunderfist (Emperor Films International [HK]) [Hong Kong release date 22nd September 1973]

1973 – He Walks Like A Tiger/King Of Kung Fu (Emperor Films International [HK]) [Hong Kong release date 29th November 1973

1973 – The Devils (Empire Cinema Centre) [Hong Kong release date unknown]

1973 – Duel Of The Dragons (Emperor Films International [HK]) [Hong Kong release date unknown]

1973 – Fist To Fist/Fists Of The Double K/Dragons Of Death (Emperor Films International [HK]) [Hong Kong release date unknown]

1974 – The Big Showdown/Kung Fu Massacre/Fatal Strike/Taekwondo Tiger Fight (Empire Cinema Centre) [Hong Kong release date 3rd January 1974]

1974 – Wits To Wits/Con Man And The Kung Fu Kid/From China With Death/Dirty Partners/Duel Of Dragons (Empire Cinema Centre???) [Hong Kong release date 22nd May 1974]

1974 – April Fool (Empire Cinema Centre) [Hong Kong release date unknown]

1975 – The Playboy (Empire Cinema Centre) [Hong Kong release date unknown]

THE EMPEROR RETURN TO THE PHILIPPINES

In 1973, Jimmy begins his transition back to the Philippines. Siblings Prima and Fely also worked for the company as producers and in post-production. 

1973 - Beba The Mermaid (Emperor Films International/Asia Films) [A Hong Kong/Filipino co-production filmed in the Philippines in 1973 and released via Hong Kong soon afterwards; Philippines release date 24th October 1975]

1974 – Dragons Never Die/Kung Fu 10th Dan/Kung Fu Of 10th Dan/King Of Kung Fu/The Wander Man (Emperor Productions; production company listed on the Hong Kong Movie Database as Dai Gwok) [Hong Kong/Filipino co-production filmed partly or entirely in the Philippines, and released in the US on a double bill with producer Jimmy L. Pascual’s “Devil Woman” (1974).]

1974 – Devil Woman/Manda (Snakewoman) vs Kung Fu/Manda vs Kung Fu (Emperor Films International [Phils.]/Asia Films) [Hong Kong-Filipino co-production, Philippines release date 26th April 1974. Working title “Kung Fu vs Manda (Snake Woman)”]

1975 – Sleeping Dragon (Sultan Films/Emperor Films International) [A Filipino-Hong Kong co-production filmed in the Philippines, Philippines release date 24th April 1975]

1975 – Bruka/Bruka Queen Of Evil (Emperor Films) [Release date 18th July 1975; a Hong Kong-Filipino co-production]

EMPEROR FILMS PHILIPPINES

By 1975, it appears Jimmy had relocated to the Philippines permanently. Most of his subsequent productions, aside for a few action films in the early Eighties, were for the Tagalog-language market only.

1975 – Isinumpa (Emperor Films International) [Release date 15th August 1975]

1975 – Pag-Sapit Ng Dilim (Emperor Films International) [Release date 3rd October 1975]

1975 – Pandemonium (Lupa, Langit At Impiyerno) (Emperor Films International) [Release date 21st November 1975]

1976 - Hugasaan Mo Ang Aking Kasalanan/“Wash Out My Faults” (Emperor Films International) [Release date 23rd April 1976]

1976 - Putik Ka Man... Sa Alabok Magbalik (Emperor Films International) [Release date 30th July 1976]

1976 - Hinog Sa Pilit (Emperor Films International) [Release date 23rd September 1976]

1977 – Liwanag Sa Kabila Ng Dilim: Janet Clemente Story (Emperor Films International) [Release date 28th January 1977]

1977 – Bawa't Himaymay Ng Aking Laman (Emperor Films International) [Release date 6th May 1977]

1978 - Maiinit Na Labi… Nag-aapoy Na Dibdib (Emperor Films International) [Release date 24th February 1978]

1978 - Mananayaw/"The Dancer" (Emperor Films International) [Release date 14th May 1978]

1978 - Babaeng Makasalanan… Lalaking Salawahan (Emperor Films International) [Release date 16th June 1978]

1978 - Lalaki, Ikaw Ang Dahilan (Emperor Films International) [Release date 6th October 1978]

1979 - Hoodlum Killer (Emperor Films International) [Release date 19th January 1979]

1979 – Sugpuin: Holduppers (Emperor Films) [Release date 4th May 1979]

1979 - Terror Ng Tundo (Emperor Films International) [Release date 16th August 1979; also listed as "Terror Ng Tondo "]

1980 - Pangkat Do Or Die/“The Do Or Die Gang” (Emperor Films International) [Release date 4th January 1980]

1980 - Lasing Master/“Drunken Master” (Emperor Films) [Release date 16th May 1980]

1980 - Puwede Ba Utol, Akin Siya? (Emperor Films) [Release date 18th July 1980]

1980 – Rocky Tu-Log (Emperor Films International) [Release date 3rd October 1980]

1980 - Anak Ng Maton (Emperor Films) [Release date 19th December 1980]

1981 – Tartan (Emperor Films) [Release date 20th January 1981]

1981 – Milyonaryong Gipit (Emperor Films International) [Release date 26th March 1981]

1981- Palpak Connection (Emperor Films) [Release date 3rd April 1981]

1981 – Kumander Surot (Emperor Films International) [Release date 24th April 1981]

1981 - Wanted: Sabas Ang Kilabot (Emperor Films) [Release date 22nd May 1981]

1981 – Deadly Commandos (Emperor Films International) [Release date 4th September 1981]

1981 – Kami’y Ifugao (Emperor Films International) [Release date 20th November 1981; listed incorrectly on IMDB as “Kaming Ifugao”]

1981 – Kami’y Ifugao (Emperor Films International) [Release date 20th November 1981; listed incorrectly on IMDB as “Kaming Ifugao”]

1982 - Encuentro (Emperor Films) Release date 14th January 1982]

1982 - Suicide Force (Emperor Films International) [Release date 29th April 1982]

1982 – Akin Ang Paghihiganti (Emperor Films) [Release date 6th August 1982]

1982 - Pretty Boy Charlie (Emperor Films) [Release date 15th October 1982]

1982 - Liquidate: Sex Gang (Emperor Films) [Release date 3rd December 1982]

1983 - Presidential Pardon (Emperor Films) [Release date 5th February 1983]

1983 – Mga Pusang Bundok (Emperor Films International) [Release date 9th September 1983; export version "Death Raiders" distributed by Atlas International]

1984 - Ang Pagbabalik Ni Dimasalang/"The Return Of Dimasalang" (Emperor Films) [Release date 6th August 1984; sequel to "Dimasalang" (1970), also starring Jun and Robin Aristorenas]

1984 - Harot (Emperor Films) [Release date 3rd September 1984]

1984 - Bedtime Story (Emperor Films) [Release date 1st November 1984]

1984 - Padre Hudas (Emperor Films) [Release date 29th November 1984]

1984 - Dagta (Emperor Films) [Release date 13th December 1984]

1985 - Erotika (Emperor Films) [Release date 10th April 1985]

1985 - Unang Karanasan (Emperor Films) [Release date 22nd May 1985]

1985 - Mga Alipin Ng Buwan (Emperor Films) [Release date 5th June 1985]

1985 - Mga Kalapating Musmos (Emperor Films International) [Release date 19th September 1985]

1986 - Isusumpa Mo Ang Araw Nang Isilang Ka (Emperor Films) [Release date February 1986]

1986 - Hayok (Emperor Films International) [Release date 12th March 1986]

1986 - Unang Gabi/"One Night" (Emperor Films International) [Release date 29th May 1986]

1986 - Huwag Pamarisan: Kulasisi (VS/Emperor Films) [Release date 26th June 1986]

1986 - Bawal: Malaswa (Emperor Films) [Release date 30th October 1986]

1987 - Lala (Emperor Films) [Release date 1st July 1987]

1987 – Pulis Iskwad Kuno!/“Fake Police Squad!” (Emperor Films) [Release date 14th August 1987]

1988 - Batang Matadero (Emperor Films) [Release date 9th April 1988]

1990 - Anak Sa Una (Emperor Films) [Release date 14th April 1990]

1990 – Enkuwentro (Emperor Films) [Release date 26th July 1990]

1992 - Nympa Sa Putikan (Emperor Films) [Release date 18th April 1992]

1993 - Maj. Napoleon Velasco: Kumander Kalbo (Emperor Films) [Release date 24th February 1993]

1993 - Sgt. Alvarez: Ex-Marine (Emperor Films) [Release date 7th October 1993]

1993 - Itumba Si Angel Delgado (Emperor Films) [Release date 9th December 1993]

1994 - Da Young Asyong Aksaya (Emperor Films) [Release date 27th July 1994]

Jimmy kept a close eye on trends - horror films in the mid-Seventies, goon action films, bold films from the mid-Eighties. Emperor's final production is in 1994.

- Jimmy also owned a famous chicken restaurant

- Passed away died 28th March 2005. Erap attended the funeral.

Bruka Queen Of Horror (1975)

1975 – Bruka (Emperor Films International)

[Philippines release date 18th July 1975; a Hong Kong-Filipino co-production, export title “Bruka Queen Of Evil”]

Director Albert Yu [Yu Chik-Lim*] [local credits also list Felix Villar] Producer Jimmy L. Pascual [Hong Kong Movie Database also credits Jimmy with Screenplay] Dialogue Yuen Shiao Po Cameraman Leung Kwok Kuen [Frank Leung Kwok-Kuen*] Music Chow Fu Liang Editor Lee Yam Hai In Charge of Production Fely Pascual Production Manager Vic Kwong Martial Arts Intructors [not listed in credits but credited on the Hong Kong Movie Database] Brandy Yuen Jan-Yeung, Yuen Bun, Corey Yuen Kwai Assistant Director David Yau [Yau Ming*] Interpreter Teddy Chiu [as Tedmund Chiu] Special Effects Michael Fung Makeup Artist Soledad Mauricio Wardrobe Romana Tablate Setting Maurio Carmona Props Ng Chau Lights Chui Kwok Kuen Electrician Tiburcio Pacia Stills Wong Tit Huang 

Cast Alex Lung [Alex Lung Ji-Fei*] (Hong Pin), Rosemarie Gil (Manda), Etang Discher [as "Etang Ditched"] (Carol Pak, aka Bruka), Sandra de Veyra (Louisa), Yukio Someno (Jungle Fighter), Anthony Lee [Anthony Lee Miu-Hung*] (Hermit?), Michael Kwan [Kwan Wai-Lun*], Charlie Davao (Manda's First Victim), Connie Angeles (Sacrificial Virgin), Darius Razon (Young Man With Guitar), Tintoy (Waiter), Matimtiman Cruz (Bar Owner), Roldan Rodrigo, Bruno Punzalan (Drunk Bald Thug), Greg Lozano, Ramon D’Salva (Monk), Pedro Faustino, Alfonso Carvajal (Mr Tong), Eileen Montinola, Ben Manalo, Michael de Mesa (Restaurant Patron), Rocco Montalban (Mr Tong's Guard), Kristina Kasten, Sancho Tesalona (Bald Restaurant Thug), Eddie Nicart, Jimmy Cruz, Gigi Vellasenor

HORROR/KUNG FU

*alternate spelling on the Hong Kong Movie Database

Review by Andrew Leavold

Back in 1974, a Filipino producer named Jimmy L. Pascual ended his two-year run of Hong Kong-based kung fu productions and brought his film outfit to the Philippines to make a film called Devil Woman. Essentially a chop-sockey cashing in on the kung fu craze like Pascual’s previous films (The Bloody Fists [1972], The Awaken Punch [1973] amongst others), Devil Woman is a rudimentary revenge saga with fantastic elements and snake motif, a familiar ingredient in Asian horror. Despite the regulation atrocious dubbing and wooden dialogue, Rosemarie Gil is positively regal as the snake-haired queen seeking revenge on the townsfolk for burning her parents alive, and the film was a minor hit, even receiving a theatrical run in the US, and has retained a small fanatical cult following thanks to Quentin Tarantino’s regular screenings.

For years, fans of Devil Woman saw posters for a film called Bruka Queen Of Evil featuring Rosemarie Gil’s distinctive coiffure and assumed it was one of Devil Woman’s numerous export titles. When a trailer finally appeared, the Devil Woman herself, Manda the Snakewoman, was indeed in the film – but with entirely different footage of bats, walking trees, and an army of Little People. Was this the Filipino cut of Devil Woman for the local market merely redubbed and resold, or an entirely different film? Alas, no version of Bruka could be found, even amongst the most intrepid of Asian collectors. 

Imagine my surprise, then, to discover a copy of Bruka Queen Of Evil last month [NOTE: I originally wrote this way back in May 2011] in my post box. Ten minutes later, I can confirm Bruka is no Devil Woman. Although made by the same production team and with many of the original’s cast, its immediate sequel Bruka is an entirely different creature. A quantum improvement on Devil Woman, the film throws open Manda’s own personal narrative, giving her both a legacy and a destiny, and adds a new protagonist’s magical quest against a seemingly improbable array of oddities. 

Bruka begins as Devil Woman ends, with Manda engulfed in flames as she falls over a cliff. Miraculously she survives and wakes in a cave next to a white-haired hag and a cadre of predatory and aggressively sexual dwarves. “I’m your grandmother,” the hag Bruka declares, and to prove the point, unfurls her fifteen-foot snake body. She then shows Manda flashbacks to her birth in a crystal ball, revealing Manda’s mother to have chosen a mortal husband over her reptilian heritage. Manda’s so happy at the family reunion, she literally dances for joy! Surrounding her is a brand-new arsenal for her protection: bats, rock creatures, tree-men, and shape-shifting dwarves into snakes. Veteran contrabida Charlie Davao is the test case, a poor villager who sees a figure under a sheet in his yard. It turns out to be a wooden cross covered in reptiles who almost drown him in venom. And with that, the Devil Woman sequel has already shape-shifted itself to the next level of weirdness. 

Grandma Bruka now gives her granddaughter a special gift – a black stone which turns her head full of angry snakes into human hair for as long as she keeps the stone in her mouth. To test the theory, she goes for a jungle stroll and kisses the first unfortunate hippie with a guitar (singer Darius Razon) who stumbles upon her. Spitting out the stone, the snakes pounce. Exssssscellent! In Bruka, Manda is no longer killing simply for revenge, and is instead awakening her true inner evil, and exploiting her outward normalcy to indulge her more primal, destructive instincts. In short: Evil has a new Mestiza and gloriously patrician Queen.

As Bruka unfolds, Manda faces a new antagonist in the shape of poor and intensely angry Chinese Hong Pin (Pascual’s kung fu kicking regular Alex Lung). He loses his bar job after saving a bumbling waiter (comedian Tintoy) from a beating from some brawling thugs (led by an old SOS Daredevil, Sancho Tesalona); desperate to look after his ailing mother and younger sister, he takes on the dangerous task of rescuing Louisa (Sandra de Veyra), the daughter of rich gangster Mr Tong (Alfonso Carvajal), from Manda's clutches. In an eerily effective sequence he walks into a village obliterated by Manda’s snake scourge, bodies strewn everywhere covered in flies and bite marks, and he helps bury the bodies alongside a priest (Ramon D’Salva) and his hunchbacked assistant. The forest is full of peril, warns the hunchback, and Hong Pin must seek a hermit’s help. And as if on cue, Bruka’s dwarves burst into the church, dissolve into snakes and cover the priest and cripple. With the hermit’s favourite rope-belt-turned-into-a-pole trick, Hong Pin makes his way through hostile territory, through all manner of creatures - and those include knocking out Yukio Someno and his mutant pig-man, and kicking a rock monster right in the stones! - to the cave containing Louisa and her virginal companions, all ready to be sacrificed to the Snake Queens’ insidious blood cult. 

As with Devil Woman, where Rosemarie Gil's daughter Cherie makes her first screen appearance as Manda's daughter, her son Michael de Mesa - youngest boy to her rocker husband Eddie Mesa - appears in the restaurant scene trying at first to seduce her, before tucking into a plate of live snakes. Another first is the earliest known screen credit for future director "Teddy Page"/"Irvin Johnson" etc under his real name Tedmund Chiu.  

Pascual’s immediate Philippines output for his Emperor Films International included another starring role for Lung, Dragons Never Die (1974), released in the US on a double bill with Devil Woman, and three Tagalog horror films released in 1975 alone for the local market (Isinumpa, Pagsapit Ng Dilim and Pandemonium: Lupa, Langit At Impiyerno). But if there was ever destined to be Filipino Lords Of The Rings with evil, fondling, River-Dancing hobbits, Batmen with huge bat wings and nasty bat claws, and bleeding trees, this is the one film to rule them all. Those with a snake phobia, BEWARE; those with eyebrows ready to be raised and a keenly-honed appreciation of the absurd, enjoy, and I’ll see you at Ermita’s all-dwarf bar Hobbit House for after-movie rum cocktails.

A rare contemporary newspaper review (and, as predicted, not very complimentary)...

The Grand Rapids Press, 3rd October 1978, p.20

Review from The Bloody Pit Of Horror blog: "While it's occasionally bogged down by the kung fu scenes, the pacing is a lot brisker, it manages to weave the plot threads together in a more streamlined and cohesive manner and it's filled with memorably insane bits and cheap-o monster creations to boggle your mind."

Review from the Cool Ass Cinema blog: "The kung foolery continues in BRUKA, QUEEN OF EVIL, the infinitely entertaining, unjustly obscure HK-Filipino co-pro sequel to DEVIL WOMAN. Doubling up on the snakes and piling up as many demented ideas as its near 100 minutes will allow, BRUKA throws that film's serious tone right in the garbage. In its place is this tale of vengeful Ophidio-females that embraces pure nuttiness with its menagerie of majestically rock-bottom creatures including giant stone monsters; angry midgets; a walking killer tree you could've made in your backyard; and a bat man that looks like a stunt guy in thermal underwear with kites glued to his arms. Yes, staples of the best bad cinema has to offer are all present and accounted for. Fans of wacky Asian cinema will be riveted; all others--especially Ophidiophobics--will be repelled. Fangs for the good time, nonetheless."

Alex Lung (Hong Pin)

Rosemarie Gil (Manda)

Etang Discher (Carol Pak, aka Bruka)

Sandra de Veyra (Louisa)

Yukio Someno (Jungle Fighter)

Anthony Lee (Hermit?)

Michael Kwan 

Charlie Davao (Manda's First Victim)

Connie Angeles (left - Sacrificial Virgin)

Darius Razon (Young Man With Guitar)

Tintoy (Waiter)

Matimtiman Cruz (Bar Owner)

Roldan Rodrigo

Bruno Punzalan (far left - Drunk Bald Thug)

Greg Lozano

Ramon D’Salva (Monk)

Pedro Faustino

Alfonso Carvajal (Mr Tong)

Eileen Montinola

Ben Manalo

Michael de Mesa (Restaurant Patron)

Rocco Montalban (Mr Tong's Guard)

Kristina Kasten

Sancho Tesalona (Bald Restaurant Thug)

Eddie Nicart

Jimmy Cruz

Gigi Vellasenor

THEATRICAL

HONG KONG - released worldwide by producer Jimmy Pasquale's Emperor Films International; Hong Kong release date 18th June 1975 [according to the Hong Kong Movie Database]

USA - screens around the country from July 1976.

HAWAII - premieres at the Hawaii and Kaimuki theatres on 25th August 1976, then screens around the islands as part of kung fu double bills until at least 1981.

GUAM - screened at the Johnston Theatre in Agana from May 1st to 7th 1977.

CAMBODIA - mentioned screening in the countryside as early as February 1975.

- mp4s [feature in Mandarin with English subtitles, trailer dubbed into English]

Sleeping Dragon (1975)

1975 – Sleeping Dragon (Sultan Films/Emperor Films International)

[A Filipino-Hong Kong co-production filmed in the Philippines, Philippines release date 24th April 1975]

Directors Ishmael Bernal, Jimmy L. Pascual Story Ophelia San Juan Screenplay Wilfred D. Nolledo Producers Ophelia San Juan, Elizabeth Pascual Executive Producer Jimmy L. Pascual Cinematography Chris Chang Music Lucio D. San Pedro

Cast Raymond Lui [Shing-Gung] (Ricardo "Carding" Lung Guevarra), Lotis Key (Maria Linda), Eddie Garcia (Don Andres), Charlie Davao, Chan Ling-Wai, Lou Salvador Jr (Carding's Filipino Friend), Johnny Delgado (Carding's Filipino Friend), Joe de Castro (Carding’s Filipino Friend), Maricru del Gallego, Greg Lozano, Lee Chiu, Lau Jun-Fai, Danny Chow Yun-Gin [as Chow Kin], Lau Chong, Carlos Padilla Jr, Lucita Soriano, Tony Carreon [as Tony Carrion], Jose Garcia, Jose Villafranca, Alfonso Carvajal, Paolo Baron, Philip Coo, Jun Garcia, Paquito Salcedo, SOS Daredevils, Bayanihan Philippine Dance Co & Rondalla, Georgie Quizon, Manok, Penggot

KUNG FU/PERIOD DRAMA

NOTES by Andrew Leavold: I have been searching for two decades for a copy of this film and am yet to find trace of a single film print, video tape or digital transfer. If anyone can help me out, I would be immensely grateful!

A co-production between Jimmy L. Pascual’s Emperor Films International, a Filipino producer based in Hong Kong from the early Seventies until around the time of this release, and Filipino company Sultan Films credited to Ophelia San Juan – a writer turned producer (Ophelia San Juan Productions) – and Elizabeth Pascual, believed to be a Philippines-based relative of Jimmy’s. From all evidence available, it was Sultan Films’ only production; within the year, Jimmy Pascual had returned to the Philippines and his Emperor Films concentrated on the local market.

Sleeping Dragon is remarkable as co-director Ishmael Bernal’s solitary export title – the future National Artist had already helmed a number of critically-acclaimed but commercially unsuccessful films in various genres (action, comedy, fantasy). Although Bernal shares screen credit with Emperor Films’ Jimmy L. Pascual, we can only assume that Pascual’s directorial input was minimal, and the glowing Pilipino Express review reprinted below fails to even mention Pascual once.

From its historical sweep and attention to detail, Emperor Films clearly had high hopes for international sales, yet I can find very little evidence of theatrical releases outside of the Philippines, Hong Kong, and Pascual’s familiar hunting grounds (the Filipino diaspora in Hawaii, Guam, and the Continental US). Perhaps the kung fu market was on the decline; and although the subject must have held considerable appeal to its Chinese-Filipino producers and co-director, maybe the film was too “Filipino” for a global audience. Sleeping Dragon was certainly a disappointment for Jimmy Pascual, and one of the main reasons why he left Hong Kong and made smaller films for a Tagalog audience. 

 

ISHMAEL BERNAL on Sleeping Dragon: “Tapos naligaw ‘yong [then you have the lost] Sleeping Dragon, another high point in my ‘distinguished career’ as an observer of social situations. It starred Raymond Liu, a Chinese kung fu actor, and Lotis Key, who was also into martial arts back then. It was a script by Wilfriedo Nolledo and I did not understand it at all. I went through this thing blindly. There was this Hong Kong fight instructor who would take over – since the movie is a series of fights – and I would sit and go to sleep most of the time because I cannot direct a kung fu fight scene.” [from his autobiography Pro Bernal Anti Bernal edited by Angelia Stuart-Santiago, ABS-CBN Publishing, Quezon City, 2017, p. 101]

 

T.D. Agcaoili, “Sleeping Dragon Has Its Historical Values”, Pilipino Express, April 1975, pp.29-30 [exact date unknown]

The Wilfredo D. Nolledo screenplay of Ophelia San Juan’s story, Sleeping Dragon, has been translated into an outstanding film by Director Ishmael Bernal with artistic evocations of the historical period – 1603 – in which the story, that of the events that lead to the first Parian or Chinese rebellion in the Philippines, occurred.

Yet, aside from its historical values, Sleeping Dragon utilizes popular materials such as kung fu and arnis de mano, and also romantic love, to reach a mass-oriented entertainment level. And by this method, presumably, put across to a wider audience some political values that belong more to a Rizal novel than to a standard Filipino movie.

In this case, however, Sleeping Dragon is not a standard Filipino movie. It is Philippine cinema that rightly belongs to the concept of culture that the New Society is energetically developing in all the arts, more eminently in music, the dance and theatrical stage than in the mass medium of the cinema, which is more complex as an art form.

Briefly, the story of Sleeping Dragon concerns the struggles of a Crisostomo Ibarra-Elias synthesis of a Chinese-Filipino hero, Ricardo Lung Gueverra (Raymond Lui) to relieve the oppression suffered by Chinese and Filipinos from the Spanish colonizers during the first century of the Spanish occupation of the Philippines through heavy taxation and forced labor. There is a love story, a triangle actually, between Carding (as Lung is called in the story) and Maria Linda (Lotis Key), daughter of a Laguna town alcade, and the Spanish alguacil mayor Don Andres (Eddie Garcia). Maria Linda is the antithesis of the proverbial Maria Clara: she is headstrong, wilful and, allegedly typical of the “indios” that the early Spanish colonizers encountered – not demure, and far from being subservient to the politics of their elders.

Sleeping Dragon is well-researched into the history of the Parian rebellion of 1603: there are the Three Mandarins who came to Manila from Cathay, ostensibly to look for the fabled Mountain of Gold (Paracale, possibly) but were suspected by the Spanish governor, Acuna, of espying on the fortifications and Spanish defenses in Intramuros, and the Chinese Governor Eng Kang who counted the number of his adherents to the fight for justice and freedom by the quantity of needles handed secretly to him by the Chinese residents of Manila and surrounding provinces.

The film also notably presents, side by side with kung fu, the Philippines’ own martial arts, the kali system of fighting. This is eminently and, we have to admit it, gloriously presented in Sleeping Dragon by a trio of Filipino actors, Johnny Delgado, Lou Salvador Jr and the late Joe de Castro. Delgado uses a prototype of the modern Batangueno knife, and he uses this weapon adroitly. Salvador practiced the art of arnis fighting, according to the credits, under Ernesto Presas, a sergeant in the Philippine Air Force who took time out to train Salvador in the intricacies of the ornate and lethal art, De Castro employs a pair of tui-fa (handle), a weapon introduced in the Philippines by the early Okinawan-Japanese settlers.

The Filipino system of martial arts supports the kung fu of Lui, and the sequences of fighting that punctuate the romantic and political dramatic situations in Sleeping Dragon point to a colorful Philippine past that might well revive the interest in Oriental martial arts, this time specifically on the Philippine kali system.

Sleeping Dragon is also notable for its original musical scoring, including the main title music that is symphonic, organic to the theme of the picture, and Filipino in idiom, composed and directed by Lucio D. San Pedro.

But the overall excellent quality of Sleeping Dragon, which involves a mixed group of Filipino, Hong Kong and Japanese players and technicians, can be easily attributed to the persipicacious direction of Ishmael Bernal, who handles crowd scenes effectively and whose training in the nouvelle vague cinema of the French is put into intelligent use in this entertaining, yet artistic, film.


 

 

 

Raymond Lui [Shing-Gung] (Ricardo "Carding" Lung Guevarra)

Lotis Key (Maria Linda)

Eddie Garcia (Don Andres)

Charlie Davao

Chan Ling-Wai

 

 

THEATRICAL

PHILIPPINES – 24th April 1975

HONG KONG - date unknown

 

GUAM – 9th to 15th April 1976 (Hafa Adai 2, Tamuning); December 1976 (Cinema, Tamuning, as the second feature to a Jimmy Wang Yu film) 

HAWAII – 4th August 1976 (two weeks at the Hawaii Theatre in Pauahi and the Kam Drive-In); November 1976

USA - 29th June 1976 (Tampa, Florida); March 1977 and June 1978 (Miami)

 

 

 

 

- Trailer (mp4)