The Pacific Connection

It starts like Spanish soap opera with our hero and his teacher talking at the dinner table. Next the evil Spanish conquistadores who have taken over the Philippines are pillaging and raping. They stop at our hero's home to collect the extortion payment.

As a hard core fan of martial arts movies of the golden age from 1967 to 1984 I accept there is a lot of bad along with the good in these movies. I can accept or put up with a movie with little or no plot, one dimensional characters with no development, over-acting, goofy dialog dubbing and other cheesey things that would make most viewers turn it off. There is a general rule that the better the martial arts the more cheese that can be tolerated.

One thing I do not tolerate is bad martial arts. I have practiced kali, arni, escrima, whatever you want to call Filipino stick fighting. The stick fighting here is rather basic but authentic. I have also practiced fencing and the fencing in this movie is similar to what a child would do with a long pointy stick. Fencing is a sport not a martial art. It was invented so that male adults could play with swords and not get hurt or killed. Three kinds of swords are used. The epee and foil are both long with pointed ends. They can only minimally be considered as weapons. The only attack is a thrust and the only damage it could do to an opponent is a stab. In a real fight such a stab, even if to the heart, is unlikely to stop or even slow down an aggressive attacker. The saber is the most recent addition to the sport of fencing. It has a true blade edge and the tip is a knife not a pin point. In a real fight the saber could dismember or kill an attacker.

If I had to choose between using an epee or foil in a real fight against a skilled fighter or picking up a chopstick I'd use the chopstick. The use of fencing techniques and weapons in this movie annoyed me way beyond any of the cheese.

My copy is a digital file made from a VHS recording of a television broadcast. The original dialog is English.

I do recommend this movie for hard core fans of the genre because of the Filipino stick fighting. This style is rarely seen in these movies and here it is presented authentically although rather basic and slow. I also think Filipinas are the most beautiful women in the world and there are many to look at in this movie.

"Ben" (Roland Dantes) is a young man who is living with his parents on an island in the Philippines during the period when the Spanish governed it under the reign of Queen Isabella. "The Governor" (Alejandro Rey) is an extremely corrupt official and his two sons, "Allan" (Gilbert Roland) and "Miguel" (Dean Stockwell) are just as lustful and evil. At any rate, this movie begins with some soldiers led by both Allan and Miguel coming to the home of Ben and demanding money from Ben's father. Although they are given a bag of gold Allan decides to get fresh with Ben's mother and a fight breaks out. Not long afterward the Governor and both of his sons come in the night and kill Ben's father, rape and then kill his mother and take Ben as a prisoner. However, while escorting him to a prison the ship encounters a storm and he is swept overboard to a nearby island where he is rescued and returned back to health by the friendly islanders. Unfortunately, this isn't the end of Ben's problems with the Governor and his sons. Now rather than reveal any more of the plot and risk ruining it for those who haven't seen it I will just say that this movie had some good things going for it. For example, it had some decent actors, several beautiful women like Nancy Kwan (as "Leni") and some nice tropical scenery. Unfortunately, the director (Luis Nepomuceno) failed to take full advantage of these strengths and instead chose to feature a number of dull martial arts scenes interspersed with a couple of really ludicrous scenarios. Throw in some bad editing and the movie overall turned out to be less than it should have been. Accordingly, I rate this movie as below average.

This movie is also known as "Stickfighter." No matter what they call it....it's still bad. Lots of sword play. Lots of stickfightin' martial arts. Lots of gratuitous violence. Throw in some island girls in skimpy sarongs, bad bad acting, and incomprehensible film editing....and you end up with this mess. The stickfighting sequences were not filmed interestingly enough to hold my attention. I was downright bored. A few name actors are actually in this stinker....Alejandro Rey and Gilbert Roland look like they should have been in a better film. And Dean Stockwell camps outrageously....obviously preparing himself for Ben in "Blue Velvet."

The story is set in the distant past in the Phillipines. The Spanish governor rules the islands...the Queen of Spain is Isabella...there is a Japanese Samurai....so, I'm thinking 1500's? But the clothes look like the 1700's. Well, actually, the clothes look like they were bought at K-Mart in the 1970's, and refashioned with a few accessories. The Spaniards are mean. The indigent population is good. That's the story. Hang up now.

I first saw this film about 25 years ago at the movies and then on video about 6 years ago. There is a good cast here in this movie and thats its saving grace. Well actually one of the saving graces. Pretty good action here , even though there is a bit much of the stick fighting ! A passable story line too. Its set in the Philippines when ruled by Spain.

Roland Dantes a former Mr Philippines plays the hero's part and the wonderful Gilbert Roland plays his father. Nancy Kwan his mother. Alejandro Rey plays a very nasty role as the Spanish Governor here and Dean Stockwell is bad guy too.

Two of the most memorable things about this movie are the credits that seem to keep popping up for quite a while. The other is the perverted type of person Alejandro Rey becomes as a result of a pretty nasty event.

The hero will have to battle against the governors son who is now being tutored by a Japanese Samurai. To be able to do this there are some tests that he must first accomplish as well as learning to do things in a totally different way, Its not all as text book as other martial arts films though.

There are a few silly scenes in this film but the rest of it is pretty good. Don't worry too much about things that don't add up , just enjoy it.

Roland Dantes .. Nancy Kwan .. Guy Madison .. Alejandro Rey .. Gilbert Roland Dean Stockwell

Before I knew that I had met Remy Presas , the master who taught Roland Dantes , I loved the movie I also love cheap rubber monster flicks and need to see one every now and then for my well being.Others who have reviewed this movie negatively apparently have never studied martial arts or have indulged in silly kung fu movies where everyone yells at the screen. Tarentino I would wager is on board with this idea and I will compare this movie with the Shogun Assassin . I will not say Why they are alike . I and my sons have been looking for this silly cheezy action movie for twenty years. I rented it once in the 1980s. My oldest son and I used to watch the Shogun over a d over . I imagined we were the characters of the movie. We could have done the same with this movie.