Fighting Mad

With the belated rise in popularity of Asian exploitation, groovy Grindhouse icon, Cirio H. Santiago, has become somewhat of a bona fide underground cinematic hero; this is due in no small part to his electrifying series of low-budget, high-octane, Post-Apocalyptic actioners that proved so exceptionally popular during home video boom of the 80s. The doyen of Post-Holocaust automotive Armageddon, Santiago noisily perfected the machismo-soaked iconography of swarthy, leather-clad heroics, wherein dusty, embattled muscle cars, festooned with gaudy Motley Crue accoutrements blazed a furious trail of calamitous carnage across a noxiously corrupted landscape, whereby brutality and automotive prowess were the only viable remaining currency! Santiago directed these dystopian vistas with their crimson-hued skyline, mottled by the choking dust of deathly radioactivity with great gusto; so it came as no great surprise to discover that his earlier exploitation winner, the wildly entertaining revenger, 'Fighting Mad' (aka) 'Death Force' was by no means an impoverished backwoods cousin to his better known PA extravaganzas!

Brawny charismatic actor, James Iglehart, is part of a roguish trio of opportunistic thugs, and after completing a particularly frantic blag upon a yacht, things go rapidly pear shaped, as he is left to rot in the midst of the pitiless expanses briny sea. Being a pure bred Grindhouse classic, Death Force's unerring goal is unrelenting, blood-thirsty revenge; and after washing up upon a deserted island he is trained by two Japanese soldiers fortuitously stranded there since the end of WW2. Naturally, we have to endure a little ham-fisted cross-cultural observations, but Santiago ably constructs some tasty training vignettes, while certainly NOT on par with '36 Chambers of Shaolin', they prove to be an excellent aperitif before our vengeful black samurai, (fortunately not the far less dynamic, Al Adamson interpretation) armed with his trusty quicksilver Katana blade proceeds to bloodily exact a most furious and dreadful revenge! Ostensibly, 'Fighting Mad' is the timeless fists of fury fable of a hypertrophically muscular, gleefully gangster goring, powerhouse African American badass vengefully decapitating multitudinous dumbbell Mafiosi with a diamond edged katana blade! So, what's not to like?

Now this is more like it! When two crooks decide to bump off their partner and pocket all the loot from a profitable crime, little do they suspect that our man not only survives their murderous attempt, but is washed ashore an island where he is nursed back to health by two Japanese soldiers who have been stranded there since the second world war and who in addition, don't even know that the war has ended! In fact not only do they nurse his wounds, but one of them additionally teaches him the way of the samurai thus paving the way for our man to return to the states and take a bloody revenge!

This is a great little film and very much a product of its time featuring cool seventies fashions, proud looking afros, some soppy romantic scenes (in glorious seventies slow motion obviously!), a groovy seventies soundtrack and last but not least some cool and gory action throughout including our hero cutting off one of his enemies ears, and later sending the same guy his crime lord associates head in a box!

Highly entertaining stuff and it even has a happy ending! What more could you possibly want?

Cirio H. Santiago seems to have been a bit of a legendary Filipino director from the period when many cheap and cheerful genre flicks were being knocked out in the Philippines. From the little that I have seen, his output seems to be a guarantee of a good time on at least some level. One thing I have noticed is that he is fond of throwing everything at the screen no matter how disparate, with Future Hunters (1986) for instance he combined a post-apocalypse, time-travel, religious artefacts, Shaolin monks, neo-Nazis, dwarfs and Amazonian women. With the earlier TNT Jackson (1974) he simply combined martial arts with Blaxploitation, which was a tactic he returned to with Fighting Mad, with the added bonus of a vigilante revenge story and Hell in the Pacific thrown into the mix as well. The story itself has a lot going on in it. Three Vietnam veterans steal a cache of gold and then two of them double-cross the third by killing him and throwing him in the sea. Trouble is he doesn't die and winds up on a tropical island inhabited by two Japanese soldiers who are still fighting World War II in the late 70's. They nurse him back to health and train him to be a martial arts expert and samurai sword master. He eventually ends up back home in L.A. and seeks out his ex-buddies - who are now crime lords - for a slice of violent revenge.

It would be churlish to complain too much against a movie which has a synopsis like the above. In true Santiago style its attempt to mash genres up does result in something a little bit different for sure. It's full to the brim with fighting, training montages, heads and ears being lopped off, soul singing, 70's hats and Afros. So while it's not always entirely engaging stuff it tries its best to deliver a bit of stupid fun and you really can't argue with that too much.

Like the case with so many "notoriously awful" Z-grade exploitation directors, I have a love/hate relationship with Cirio H. Santiago. Of all that movies that I have seen of him, I honestly couldn't award any with a rating higher than 3 out of 10, but at the same time I certainly don't regret having seen them! Some of his works are just plain terrible ("Demon of Paradise", "TNT Jackson") while others are hilariously inept but non-stop entertaining trash hits ("Equalizer 2000", "Future Hunters", "Caged Fury"…). With "Death Force" Santiago delivers one of the better titles of his impressive repertoire; a vigorous and raw action picture with a couple of ludicrous plot ideas, flamboyant characters and – especially when approaching the finale – a bunch of cheap but gory massacres! Lots of bad muthas losing their heads in the final act, I guarantee you! But the thing that makes "Death Force" particularly unique is that it can be categorized in no less than three different exploitation sub genres. With its many story lines and colorful cast of characters, the film qualifies simultaneously as Kung-Fu/Samurai action, Blaxploitation and revenge thriller! And what's really funny is that there are also enough alternative titles to fit the different categories, as the film is also known as "The Black Samurai", "Fighting Mad" and "Vengeance is Mine". At the end of their tour of duty in 'Nam, three buddies named Morelli, McGee and Doug (the former a white boy, the other two black guys) have smuggled a fair stash of gold. Morelli and McGee have the ambitious plan to become the mob bosses of Los Angeles, but they righteously fear that Doug is too much of a soft family man that will hinder them. Morelli comes with the idea of killing Doug and McGee immediately agrees, also because he's always been jealous of Doug for having such a beautiful wife. They cut Doug's throat and throw him off a yacht, but apparently they didn't properly lean to kill in Vietnam, because Doug survives and washes ashore a small island. Seriously, how do you fail slicing somebody's throat? The plot gets even more deranged when the little island turns out to be inhabited by two ancient Japanese samurai warriors that still believe WWII hasn't finished and refuse to surrender. While Doug receives a full samurai training on the island, Morelli and McGee work themselves up to fearsome LA crime lords (illustrated through dozens of shootout sequences) and McGee also aggressively stalks Doug's wife. Dough eventually leaves the island - though not before a cheesy and fake-sentimental farewell to the 2 samurais - and head backs home with only vengeance on his mind. You can say a lot about our pal Cirio H. Santiago, but not that he didn't do his homework and carefully studied action blockbusters of the 70s decade! "Death Force" is a typical product of its time, stuffed with redundant romantic interludes, wannabe groovy music and costumes martial arts. Bad blokes Carmen Argenziano and Leon Isaac are the most familiar faces in the cast, and it shouldn't come too much as a surprise to learn that Q. Tarantino is a big fan of this junk as well.

Classic cult martial arts movie i had this movie on vhs back in the day