White Force (1988) Review

“White Force” Film Artwork

Director: Eddie Romero
Cast: Sam J. Jones, Kimberley Pistone, Tim Hughes, Raul Aragon, Jaime Fabregas, Vic Diaz, Ruben Rustia, Ken Metcalfe, Mike Monty, Tsing Tong Tsai, Anthony Ogunsanya, Eric Romero, John Falch, Mauricio Go
Running Time: 90 min. 

By Paul Bramhall

The Philippines has always had a slightly different take on the action genre compared to its South East Asian counterparts. The western influence through being an American colony for almost 50 years, gaining independence in 1946, saw it become a haven for actors who didn’t quite make it in Hollywood, and all manner of directors – from A-list names like Francis Ford Coppola using it to double as Vietnam in Apocalypse Now, through to B-movie maestros like Edward D. Murphy leveraging the budget-friendly conditions to create masterpieces like Raw Force. Plenty of Filipino directors got in on the action as well, from the post-apocalyptic madness of Cirio H. Santiago (Equalizer 2000, Stryker), to the bullet riddled mayhem of Teddy Chiu (Ninja Warriors, Blood Ring). 

Another Filipino director synonymous with the B-movie was Eddie Romero. It wasn’t always that way though, with the young Romero directing his debut just one year after the Philippines gained independence, with 1947’s Ang kamay ng Diyos, made when he was just 23. It would be his latter work though that would define his legacy. The likes of the Blood Island Trilogy, made during 1968 – 1970 and starring frequent collaborator John Ashley, found Romero embracing the world of B-movie horror (although whether it was an intended embrace is up for debate), and would lead to trashy fun like Twilight People and Beyond Atlantis. Soon he was also directing blaxploitation and women in prison exploitation flicks like Black Mama White Mama and Savage Sisters, but by the time the 80’s rolled around he turned his focus once more to the dramatic fare that he was associated with at the start of his career.

Which brings us to 1988’s White Force, which must have been an unintentional blip in his filmography, considering his output at the time was centred around tales of Filipino history and folklore. Quite what the title is alluding to is never made clear, however one theory could well be that it’s referring to its leading man – Sam Jones. Most famous for playing Flash Gordon in the 1980 production of the same name, Hollywood never really knew what to do with Jones, and as with many actors who find themselves on the fringes (George Lazenby and Chris Mitchum – we’re looking at you), Jones eventually ended up in Asia. In 1985 he turned up in Jungle Heat, the international version of Hong Kong’s Vietnamese actioner Last Breath, which featured the likes of Dorian Tan Tao-Liang and Chan Sing. In 1987 he’d star alongside Bruce Lee Fights Back from the Grave lead Jun Chong in Silent Assassins, and a year later, he hit the Philippines.

White Force would be the first of two movies he’d make in the Philippines, with the second being the 1989 Teddy Chiu actioner Trigon Fire, before he was temporarily rescued in the early 90’s by PM Entertainment. Despite being made in the late 80’s, save for the technological references, White Force could just as well be a Filipino actioner pulled straight from the 70’s era. Jones plays an undercover agent who’s a part of some kind of non-descript international intelligence agency which is never clearly explained, whom we meet in the opening navigating the jungles of northern Thailand (re: Philippines). I have to say the post-dubbing job that White Force has been subjected to makes for a rather surreal experience. All of the actors are dubbing their own voices, however the fact that Jones spends the whole time trekking through the jungle making breathless wisecracks belies the swelteringly humid conditions he’s supposed to be enduring.

Anyway, he’s on the trail of a drug ring, who his mentor and partner intended to infiltrate and bring down. Played by Ken Metcalfe (Master Samurai, Enter the Ninja), his identity has been discovered, and Jones arrives too late to save him. Returning to Manila, Jones finds himself framed for Metcalfe’s murder, and is forced to go on the run with his partners daughter, played by Kimberley Pistone (Plain Clothes, About Last Night). With only a laserdisc holding the truth (the 80’s equivalent of the microfilm!), can he convince Pistone that he didn’t kill her father, bring down the corrupt members of the agency in cahoots with the drug gangs, and will he ever take off that Glenn Miller bomber jacket that he wears in every scene!?

It’s not too much of a spoiler to say the answer to the last question is no. It should be pointed out that the laserdisc in question isn’t the same size as the laserdisc that competed against the VHS and DVD formats in the following decade. In fact, the laserdisc here is portrayed onscreen by a cymbal. I wish I was kidding. However even once the disc is in his possession, Jones still needs a way to decode it, which leads to the introduction of the Wizard – yes that’s the characters name. Played obnoxiously loud and teeth gratingly unfunny by Jaime Fabregas (Fatal Vacation, Black Mamba), unfortunately his character is one we’re stuck with for the rest of the movie, joining Jones and Pistone as a trio on the hunt for the truth and to clear Jones’ name.

Sadly, when compared to his contemporaries output from the same year like Teddy Chiu’s Final Reprisal and Cirio H. Santiago’s Future Hunters, White Force is a slog to get through, and tends to frustrate more than it entertains. Jones is at least invested in his character, and does his best to spark up some chemistry with Pistone, but onscreen it just isn’t happening. What we’re left with instead is a lot of exposition, interspersed with just enough outbursts of action and bizarreness to keep you watching. The bad guys are particularly entertaining, played by Australian actor Tim Hughes (The Quest, Killer Elite), and Filipino B-movie regular Mike Monty (The Black Cobra 2, Eternal Fist). 

Together they build Jones’ character up in a way that’s usually reserved for the likes of Forrest Taft and Casey Ryback (that’s right, I’m referencing not one but two Steven Seagal characters), but pre-dates both. We’re told that “Quinn thrives on the impossible”, and in a latter scene Monty exasperatedly announces, “He’s only human for Christ’s sake!” They even hire what I assume to be a super-assassin to get rid of him, which leads to one of the few bright spots in White Force’s runtime, a car chase which ends on an entertainingly gory note involving a mid-air impaling. For those Filipino B-movie fans out there, it’s worth noting that the stunt driving is handled by Eddie Nicart, the man responsible for directing most of Filipino midget Weng Weng’s starring features (of which For Your Height Only is the most well-known).

Despite the general lethargy of White Force, it still threw in a couple of memorable scenes. I think my favorite was a completely random scenario involving Jones breaking into the police chief’s family home to kidnap him at gun point. Played by Vic Diaz (Fighting Mad, Bloodfist), the scene opens on an extended sequence involving Diaz giving his teenage son (who we never see before or after) a telling off at the dinner table for dressing like a punk and hanging out on “the streets”. How does this randomly inserted family moment involving a supporting character have any bearing on the plot? It doesn’t! Jones then bursts in gun in hand, and politely tells Diaz’s wife and kids that he just needs him for a short while. Instead of panicking as you’d expect, his wife asks if he can take a cup of coco with him, as he usually drinks one before bed! It’s Twilight Zone stuff.

In another we have Jones get involved in a tussle with some cops in a public bathroom at a market, one of whom drops his gun, only for a kid to pick it up and run off with it. I was expecting Jones to run after him, but instead he just lets it be. I mean, a kid with a loaded gun, what can go wrong? For those that make it to the end, we get the traditional warehouse shootout, over which plays a truly bizarre soundtrack which literally sounds like someone tapping away on a keyboard blindfolded. However even this offers up nothing spectacular, and ends with one of the sloppiest fights ever committed to screen. In one scene Hughes plans to torture the captured Pistone, using a technique that will “reroute all your nerve-centers to your eyes, the rest of your body will be paralysed.” Ironically, watching White Force could well be said to have a similar effect.

Paul Bramhall’s Rating: 3/10