The Malaysian/Singapore Connection

The Garrick Theatre in Singapore, home of Filipino films in the early 50s

The Singapore/Malaysian Connection (slowly being constructed)

A list of Filipino films and filmmakers associated with Singapore and Malaya/Malaysia. Films marked with an * are already in digital form in the Bamboo Gods Collection

1948 - Sword Of The Avenger screens in Malaya

1952 - Filipino films begin screening in Malaya, mostly distributed by Lim Eng Kwan's South-East Asia Film Company, who also distributed Hindi and Egyptian films throughout the Malay Federation. Their years-long string of releases - what the newspapers dubbed "The Filipino 'Invasion'" screening mostly at the Garrick Theatre on Geylang Rd in Singapore - started with a English-subtitled Og (22nd June) and Lebran's English-language version of Nothing But Women (19th July). All subsequent releases are dubbed into Malay: Prinsipe Amante (September), Los Tres Muskiteros (released as "The Three Musketeers", 3rd October), and Sultan Palasig (7th December). Shaw Brothers responded with a release of Waling-Waling (7th September). 

1953 - South-East Asia Film Co releases Darna (3rd January), Aladin (15th February), Tungku Amante (8th March), Malaya (26th March), Principeng Hindi Tumatawa (14th June), as well as an April re-release of Og dubbed into Malay.

1954 - South East Asia Film Co distributes Darna At Ang Babaeng Lawin (2th January), Juan Tamad (20th March), Florante At Laura (21st July), Nuno Sa Punso (released as "Kapitan Hikmat", 1st November) and Servan Petani (December). 

1955 - South-East Asia Film Co releases Ukala (January) and a proper release of the "First Filipino-Malay Film Production", Perfidia (22nd September). 

1955 - Elephant Girl/Gadis Liar (dir. Eddie Infante) Produced by the Shaw Brothers' Malay Film Productions, premiered 28th August

1956 - South-East Asia Film Co releases Dyesebel (March)

1956 - Filipino films screen at the Majestic Theatre in Penang

*1957 - Kembali Sa-Orang/"One Came Back" (dir. Ramon A. Estella for the Shaw Brothers' Malay Film Productions)

*1957 - Badjao (Singapore/Filipino co-production filmed in the Philippines; dir. Lamberto V. Avellana)

*1957 - Taufan/“Typhoon” (dir. Teodorico C. Santos; released 31st December)

1957 - South-East Asia Film Co releases a subtitled Guerrero at the Garrick on 25th December.

*1958 - Anak Pontianak/"Child Of Pontianak" (dir. Ramon A. Estella for the Shaw Brothers' Malay Film Productions; released 10th February) 

*1958 - Azimat: The Seal Of Solomon/"Talisman"/Tatak Ni Solomon: Seal Of Solomon (dir. Rolf Bayer for the Shaw Brothers' Malay Film Productions) Filmed in Singapore late 1957; premiered 31st May 1958.

*1958 - Sergeant Hussain (dir. Lamberto V. Avellana for the Shaw Brothers' Malay Film Productions; a charity gala premiere was held in Kuala Lumpur on 20th August, with a regular season from 31st August) 

*1958 - Mata Hari/"The Rape Of Malaya" (dir. Ramon A. Estella for the Shaw Brothers' Malay Film Productions; released 30th November)

*1959 - Saudagar Minyak Urat/"Love Crazy" (dir. Ramon A. Estella for the Shaw Brothers' Malay Film Productions; released 1st March)

*1959 - Samseng/"Gangster" (dir. Ramon A. Estella for the Shaw Brothers' Malay Film Productions; released 7th May)

1959 - Black Gold (dir. Rolf Bayer; produced by Shaw Brothers for the Chinese market, filmed in Singapore and Malaya in May/June 1958)

1959 - In December, actress-producer Maria Menado announces a lavish new film Siti Zubaidah, to be directed by Ramon A. Estella and filmed in Singapore, Malaya, Indonesia and India; sadly the project is never realized.

1963 - Raja Bersiong/"King Of Dracula" (dir. Ramon A. Estella for Cathay-Keris and Maria Menado Productions; released 30th March)

*1963 - Darah-Ku/"My Blood" (dir. Ramon A. Estella for Cathay-Keris and Maria Menado Productions; released 24th August)

*1963 - Bunga Tanjong/"Cape Of Flowers" (dir. Ramon A. Estella for Cathay-Keris and Maria Menado Productions; released 4th December)

1964 - Pontianak Kembali/"The Pontianak Returns" (dir. Ramon A. Estella for Cathay-Keris and Maria Menado Productions, released 3rd January)

1964 - Melanchong Ka-Tokyo/"Holiday In Tokyo" (dir. Ramon A. Estella for the Shaw Brothers' Malay Film Productions, released 23rd May)

*1964 - Dupa Chendana/"The Enchanted Island" (dir. Ramon A. Estella for the Shaw Brothers' Malay Film Productions, released 30th August)

*1965 - Pusaka Pontianak/"The Accursed Heritage" (dir. Ramon A. Estella for the Shaw Brothers' Malay Film Productions, released 30th April)

*1965 - Hong Kong, Manila, Singapore (Shaw Brothers musical comedy partially shot in Singapore and the Philippines)

1975 - Interpol Malaysia Five (Jun Aristorenas and Sarimah) Filmed entirely in Malaysia in early 1974.

*1977 - The Bionic Boy (produced by Bobby A. Suarez)

*1978 - They Call Her Cleopatra Wong (dir. Bobby A. Suarez)

*1978 - Dynamite Johnson (dir. Bobby A. Suarez) 

1978 - Code-Name: The Destroyers and Queen Cobra, two of Bobby A. Suarez's unfinished projects, partly filmed in Malaysia with Marrie Lee 

Sunny Lee's association with Davian International

c.1996 - Phillip Ko's co-productions with Malaysia's HVD Entertainment: Bad Blood (1996), Desperate Hours (1997), Nightmare Honeymoon (1998), The Resort Murders (1998), and Murder On The Menu (1998)

Malaysia's mysterious HVD Entertainment TV films

 

Phillip Ko (left)

 

NOTES by Andrew Leavold: Some of the most mysterious films involving the Philippines in the Nineties is a series of made-for-TV movies funded by Malaysian consortium HVD Entertainment - a comprehensive overview of the company can be found HERE - and overseen by Hong Kong actor/director Phillip Ko, with much of the writing credited to Mike Cassey, a UK expat living in the Philippines at the time. 

To date I haven't found any trace of the films other than brief cast and crew credits on the IMDB. If anyone can please help out with more information or, even better, copies of the movies, I'd be immensely grateful!

Mike shared with me his scant memories of doing (he estimated) nine films back-to-back in Malaysia around 1996 - his comments are below. 

1996 - Bad Blood (HVD Entertainment)

Director Phillip Ko Writer Mike Cassey Executive Producer Choo Leomg Meng Cinematography Eduardo "Baby" Cabrales Assistant Director Mike Cassey 

Cast Rando Almanzor (Danny), Mike Cassey (Photographer)

THRILLER

1997 - Desperate Hours (HVD Entertainment)

Director Phillip Ko Writer Mike Cassey Executive Producer Choo Leomg Meng Cinematography Eduardo "Baby" Cabrales Assistant Director Mike Cassey 

Cast Heather Van Vleet (Girl Waiting), Zoren Legaspi (Max)

THRILLER

1997 - Nightmare Honeymoon (HVD Entertainment)

Director Phillip Ko Writer Mike Cassey Executive Producer Choo Leomg Meng Assistant Director Mike Cassey

Cast Rando Almanzor (Eddie)

THRILLER

1998 - The Resort Murders (HVD Entertainment)

Director Teddy Chiu Writer Mike Cassey Cinematography Eduardo "Baby" Cabrales Production Manager Max Paglinawan Assistant Director Mike Cassey

Cast Zoren Legaspi   

THRILLER     

1998 - Murder On The Menu (HVD Entertainment)

Director Teddy Chiu Cinematography Eduardo "Baby" Cabrales Production Manager Max Paglinawan Assistant Director Mike Cassey

Cast Mike Cassey (Resort Manager), Dan Fernandez (Danny)

THRILLER/COMEDY

Mike Cassey on the HVD films (interview with Andrew Leavold, 2009 - the full interview can be found HERE)

Andrew: I'm fascinated in the series of video features you scripted in the late 90s directed by Teddy Chiu and Philip Ko for what looks like a Malay company? The Resort Murders, for instance.

Mike Cassey: That was all through Philip Ko, who was wheeling and dealing to get movies projects from all over Asia. Because of Philip's "unique" style of directing (he would often change actors and locations in the middle of the shoot!) I scripted most of those "on the fly" rewriting the stories, scenes and characters on a yellow pad on the set during the shooting. No time to type them up!

These are between '96 and '98 - where are the markets he's selling to at the time?

We often had a mixture of Chinese actors, Korean actors, Malaysian actors, Western actors...all speaking their own languages! Pure bedlam! But a great way to improve my writing skills. No writer's block on those movies! Philip was trying to cover and sell to all the Asian markets. Some were shown theatrically in some countries, some only on TV and some direct-to-video. I think most of them made money...for someone!

Not to the West, at this stage?

Philip's style meant that he could never really break into the mainstream and so his market was always "B". that also meant low-budgets, short shooting schedules...and lots of confusion. I was never in on the marketing schemes to most of these productions, so don't know much about their back-end deals. I'm sure some of them wound up on in Western video stores. Most of the post-production was done in the countries that financed them, China, Hong Kong, Malaysia...we just provided the raw footage. So I never saw the final cut of these movies...or even knew their release titles!

Do you remember the name of the company? I've found "HVD Entertainment" listed.

Yes...I think that was a Malaysian company. We never met the producers at all, just the actors. Philip released several of them under his "One Take" company in Hong Kong.

So you don't remember much about the individual films...

Sorry I can't be much more help. We shot around nine movies back-to-back and I was writing, acting and Assistant Directing (with Teddy) on all them so it's all pretty much of a blur! And I usually had to baby-sit the actors that didn't speak Cantonese...you know, take them to restaurants, sight-seeing, etc. Whew!