1986. OOP but sometimes on Ebay. Beware folks, this film gets confused with other films (Mrs. Firecracker, Firecracker).
Took me 3 years to get the tape but it's a B-movie, so let's have some fun.
Fire in the Night is a coming of age romance (and the love song at the end), starring martial artist, MOD Ladyhawk designer, and writer Graciela Casillas as Terry Collins, a college student paying her way as a small town waitress. Simeon Muni Zano is Manolo Cagul, an old Filipino WWII vet who's a landscaper by day and folk dance teacher
at night. He comes ten minutes into the movie, sucessfully stopping a knife fight barehanded in front of the local sheriff who has no deputies but has a secretary.
Enter Mike Swanson, an ex-Spec Ops guy and the son of the a local millionaire, who only wants his son to marry a fellow blueblood and "uphold the family image". But Mike's having too much fun as the local bully and though he's already got a new girlfriend, he just has to prove to Terry who's boss. One call to his dad, Terry gets fired, the whole town decides to boycott her family's grocery, and no one is allowed to hire her.
In comes Jason Williams, a painter and ex-Spec Ops guy who just happened to serve in Mike's unit. He buys a cabin near the river and rescues Terry from an attempted rape by Mike just outside. Jason silently loves Terry, painting a few portraits of her but the local sheriff "accidentally" runs him over with his car, for interfering in Mike's fun. So he's forced to hobble about with a cane but he can still paint damnit!
Terry decides it's time to learn how to fight and visits Burt Ward's dojo (Batman and Robin) and for $575 and 3 year commitment, he'll make her a green belt. She declines even when Burt gives a $100 discount. Her parents take her to a Filipino folk dance school headed by Manolo and want Terry to learn Arnis (or if you're Terry's father "Arniece") but Manolo denies he knows Arnis even though he disarmed two knife fighters. He refuses to teach Terry, saying she should learn to forget about evil so she can live with evil in the world.
Next day, Terry goes to Manolo's landscape business to find a job but three guys with sticks tell him not to hire her. Terry gets slapped and Manolo whips out a bowie balisong and tells the guys to come and talk outside. They follow and Manolo whittles a stick with his bali before he throttles them. Manolo goes back in, agrees to teach Terry AND hires her as his assistant. Terry learns masonry and how to break ground with 1-2 sledgehammers by day, by night learning Tinikiling (Filipino pole dancing), Pandango sa ilaw (Candle dancing), and festival style sinawalli. She gets good enough that she performs in the local Filipino arts festival, which is important because in the parking lot are five of Swanson's friends waiting.
Terry manages to beat all of them (barefoot and in a wedding dress) one of armed with a nunchaku in front of Manolo. Swanson hears about this, hits the weights and breaks into Jason's cabin breaks into the cabin and is greeted by Jason's 1911A. Of course, Jason won't shoot him because he wants to see Terry "beat him and push him into
the river." since Terry challenged Mike to a duel and the movie would end too soon. Meanwhile, Terry has issues about her feminity while learning more Sinawalli and body conditioning exercises. We also learn Manolo is a widower, grandfather of sixteen children and that he can't convince Terry to study knife fighting because she hates knives. Which is sad because we never see the balisong again, except on the box cover where it's held edge UP.
And this is just the first hour.
Terry's having second thoughts about the fight and the training, accidentally side kicks an aggressive panhandler who was really just a man with a bible. She goes to Mike and tries to call off the duel, which he accepts but he wants to "claim his prize". Terry decides the fight is back on and goes back to sledgehammer sinawalli, empty hand drills, and kickboxing combinations. Manolo decides to make Terry his partner in the business and explains "defanging the snake", the psychology of fear and the importance of wearing red in battle.
Mike hires a kung fu instructor (Buddy Reyes) to train him
who incidentally did all the sketches and paintings in the movie. Mike's dad tells his son to drop the fight because it's not funny anymore, Mike responds by defanging the cigar with a wakizashi.
The duel is held on a pier and some townsfolk even make signs supporting Terry, because she's not just fighting for her but for them. Well, the duel is fought empty handed till Mike pulls out
his wakizashi forcing Jason to pull out his .45, however the gun is knocked away by the elder Swanson. Manolo steps up but Terry says she can handle it, yeah.
The movie ends with an ending and to quote Bram "It wasn't great Arnis but it was Arnis." This is basically the PG-13 version of every FMA movie, particularly Stickfighter, and makes it worse by taking out weapons in the duel. "Exposure" will seem like "Saving Private Ryan" after watching this. I did like Muni Zano's part because he didn't deny he was teaching CQC.
For you newbies, here's the list of FMA movie reviews
http://www.bladeforums.com/ubb/Forum34/HTML/000046.html
Kamagong
http://www.bladeforums.com/ubb/Forum34/HTML/000043.html
Exposure
http://www.bladeforums.com/ubb/Forum34/HTML/000041.html
Hawk's Vengeance
http://www.bladeforums.com/ubb/Forum2/HTML/002021.html
Club Vampire (footage of the 6 count Dexterity Drill)
http://www.bladeforums.com/ubb/Forum34/HTML/000236.html
Stickfighter/The Pacific Connection
http://www.bladeforums.com/ubb/Forum34/HTML/000061.html
Sticks of Death
_______________________________________________
The preceding review does not reflect the views of the owner of this site.
Took me 3 years to get the tape but it's a B-movie, so let's have some fun.
Fire in the Night is a coming of age romance (and the love song at the end), starring martial artist, MOD Ladyhawk designer, and writer Graciela Casillas as Terry Collins, a college student paying her way as a small town waitress. Simeon Muni Zano is Manolo Cagul, an old Filipino WWII vet who's a landscaper by day and folk dance teacher
at night. He comes ten minutes into the movie, sucessfully stopping a knife fight barehanded in front of the local sheriff who has no deputies but has a secretary.
Enter Mike Swanson, an ex-Spec Ops guy and the son of the a local millionaire, who only wants his son to marry a fellow blueblood and "uphold the family image". But Mike's having too much fun as the local bully and though he's already got a new girlfriend, he just has to prove to Terry who's boss. One call to his dad, Terry gets fired, the whole town decides to boycott her family's grocery, and no one is allowed to hire her.
In comes Jason Williams, a painter and ex-Spec Ops guy who just happened to serve in Mike's unit. He buys a cabin near the river and rescues Terry from an attempted rape by Mike just outside. Jason silently loves Terry, painting a few portraits of her but the local sheriff "accidentally" runs him over with his car, for interfering in Mike's fun. So he's forced to hobble about with a cane but he can still paint damnit!
Terry decides it's time to learn how to fight and visits Burt Ward's dojo (Batman and Robin) and for $575 and 3 year commitment, he'll make her a green belt. She declines even when Burt gives a $100 discount. Her parents take her to a Filipino folk dance school headed by Manolo and want Terry to learn Arnis (or if you're Terry's father "Arniece") but Manolo denies he knows Arnis even though he disarmed two knife fighters. He refuses to teach Terry, saying she should learn to forget about evil so she can live with evil in the world.
Next day, Terry goes to Manolo's landscape business to find a job but three guys with sticks tell him not to hire her. Terry gets slapped and Manolo whips out a bowie balisong and tells the guys to come and talk outside. They follow and Manolo whittles a stick with his bali before he throttles them. Manolo goes back in, agrees to teach Terry AND hires her as his assistant. Terry learns masonry and how to break ground with 1-2 sledgehammers by day, by night learning Tinikiling (Filipino pole dancing), Pandango sa ilaw (Candle dancing), and festival style sinawalli. She gets good enough that she performs in the local Filipino arts festival, which is important because in the parking lot are five of Swanson's friends waiting.
Terry manages to beat all of them (barefoot and in a wedding dress) one of armed with a nunchaku in front of Manolo. Swanson hears about this, hits the weights and breaks into Jason's cabin breaks into the cabin and is greeted by Jason's 1911A. Of course, Jason won't shoot him because he wants to see Terry "beat him and push him into
the river." since Terry challenged Mike to a duel and the movie would end too soon. Meanwhile, Terry has issues about her feminity while learning more Sinawalli and body conditioning exercises. We also learn Manolo is a widower, grandfather of sixteen children and that he can't convince Terry to study knife fighting because she hates knives. Which is sad because we never see the balisong again, except on the box cover where it's held edge UP.
And this is just the first hour.
Terry's having second thoughts about the fight and the training, accidentally side kicks an aggressive panhandler who was really just a man with a bible. She goes to Mike and tries to call off the duel, which he accepts but he wants to "claim his prize". Terry decides the fight is back on and goes back to sledgehammer sinawalli, empty hand drills, and kickboxing combinations. Manolo decides to make Terry his partner in the business and explains "defanging the snake", the psychology of fear and the importance of wearing red in battle.
Mike hires a kung fu instructor (Buddy Reyes) to train him
who incidentally did all the sketches and paintings in the movie. Mike's dad tells his son to drop the fight because it's not funny anymore, Mike responds by defanging the cigar with a wakizashi.
The duel is held on a pier and some townsfolk even make signs supporting Terry, because she's not just fighting for her but for them. Well, the duel is fought empty handed till Mike pulls out
his wakizashi forcing Jason to pull out his .45, however the gun is knocked away by the elder Swanson. Manolo steps up but Terry says she can handle it, yeah.
The movie ends with an ending and to quote Bram "It wasn't great Arnis but it was Arnis." This is basically the PG-13 version of every FMA movie, particularly Stickfighter, and makes it worse by taking out weapons in the duel. "Exposure" will seem like "Saving Private Ryan" after watching this. I did like Muni Zano's part because he didn't deny he was teaching CQC.
For you newbies, here's the list of FMA movie reviews
http://www.bladeforums.com/ubb/Forum34/HTML/000046.html
Kamagong
http://www.bladeforums.com/ubb/Forum34/HTML/000043.html
Exposure
http://www.bladeforums.com/ubb/Forum34/HTML/000041.html
Hawk's Vengeance
http://www.bladeforums.com/ubb/Forum2/HTML/002021.html
Club Vampire (footage of the 6 count Dexterity Drill)
http://www.bladeforums.com/ubb/Forum34/HTML/000236.html
Stickfighter/The Pacific Connection
http://www.bladeforums.com/ubb/Forum34/HTML/000061.html
Sticks of Death
_______________________________________________
The preceding review does not reflect the views of the owner of this site.
