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| Images courtesy of Eureka Entertainment |
By now you’re probably aware of Shaw Brothers and its
competitor Golden Harvest and their joint efforts towards production of Hong
Kong based martial arts driven action-adventure films. With the familiar ShawScope logo prefacing
every film with those brassy horns signaling a cacophony of kung-fu kick-punch
fighter films, they’ve carved out their own niche in world cinema as one of the
premier corporations of elegantly oversized wuxias. What they’re not known for, however, are
riffs on the James Bond phenomenon replete with stock trade Bond villains, sexy
femme fatales, trained killers and stunning if not absurdist action set
pieces. Yet, following the European
success of two quintessential Bond films Dr. No and From Russia with
Love, it became clear this was the next big thing the ShawScope empire had
to get in on.
Ranging from 1966 to 1969, Eureka Entertainment and
Celestial Pictures media have joined forces on a unique chapter in the Shaw
Brothers history: Super Spies and Secret Lies. Consisting of pictures that could easily be
mistaken for a Seijun Suzuki mod sixties psychedelic offering with gunslinging
well-dressed heroes dueling with many adversaries leading towards ridiculous
underground hideouts, the three films The Golden Buddha, Angel with
the Iron Fists and The Singing Thief comprised together here
represent an unusual out-of-the-ordinary extension of the Bondmania phenomenon
sweeping mainstream international cinema as perceived by the ShawScope
empire.
In the first film by key Shaw Brothers player Lo Wei The
Golden Buddha which feels posited somewhere between Goldfinger and Tokyo
Drifter, businessman Paul (Paul Chang Chung of Police Story) finds
himself in an Out of Bounds type situation involving accidentally
picking up the wrong luggage on a trip to Signapore. Inside the mistakenly apprehended briefcase
lies a titular Golden Buddha housing intricate secrets pointing to an
international criminal conspiracy.
Replete with treacherous sexy femme fatales, red herrings and sneaky
assassins trying desperately to reach the Golden Buddha first, the story
eventually boils down to a sister on the run looking for her brother with each
participant housing a different secret key to unlocking the mystery of the
Golden Buddha.
Just a year later, Lo Wei was back in the director’s chair
for the femme fatale superspy actioner Angel with the Iron Fists involving
Tang Ching as a man seeking vengeance against the Devil Girl’s Gang for the
murder of his daughter. On his way he
meets Lorna (Lily Ho) a mercurial woman arriving in Hong Kong going by the name
agent 009 (a riff on 007 anyone?) and soon learns Lorna is far more than meets
the eye. A skilled jewel thief keen on
infiltrating the Devil Girl’s Gang spearheaded by the ruthless Madame Jin (Tina
Chin-Fei), it becomes a saga where we the viewers ourselves aren’t really sure
whose side she is actually on. As with The
Golden Buddha, the exercise is characterized by outlandish underground set
pieces and both Lily Ho and Tang Ching wade through increasingly silly
predicaments and more than a few tight situations to think their ways out
of. A big chunk of the fun of the film
is seeing Lily Ho fighting, taking punches but never backing down or giving up
and we believe she can beat up everyone in the room. Also for those who are really looking, see if
you can spot Mei Sheng Fan as the warden from Riki Oh: The Story of Ricky.
Lastly in the trilogy of Super Spies and Secret Lies is
the unlikely psychedelic musical action piece The Singing Thief by
eventual Crippled Avengers director Cheh Chang. Starring Jimmy Lin Chong as Diamond Pan and
co-starring Angel with the Iron Fists star Lily Ho as Darling Fang, the
film opens on former jewel thief Diamond going straight as a club singer. Trouble is, someone is stealing right and
left in a series of jewel heists and every crime scene is left with the former singing
thief’s calling card of a red rose.
Determined to clear his already tarnished name as an ex-con, he finds
himself kidnapped by another woman intent on finding the real thief of her
jewelry, leading towards unexpected double crossings from seeming close
friends.
What separates this one from the pack of spy movies is the
film’s emphasis on song and dance or the musical number of some sort. From the title sequence of the character
cavorting about the screen singing on a stage about his past crimes and desire
to go straight to all of the diamond decorated club scenes, there’s a
musicality to this Bondmania spinoff.
However, as characters start dying or crime scenes are left covered with
his fingerprints, the film and the action sequences gradually get steadily
grittier with the thief running out of allies trying to find out who is trying
to frame him and why. To say that the
latter half of the film is almost completely different from how it began is
putting it mildly.
Published in a 2-disc set limited to 2,000 copies replete
with an o-card slipcase, newly conducted interviews with James Bond expert
Llewella Chapman and Hong Kong cinema scholar Wayne Wong, the collector’s set
also comes with an exclusive booklet featuring new writings on all three films
by Iain Robert Smith. Having seen this
immediately after ShawScope Vol. 3 which waded through fourteen films of
the Shaw Brothers library, it was a refreshing step in the completely opposite
direction to dive into Eureka’s Super Spies and Secret Lies set. Giving viewers a side of ShawScope that fits
in nicely with the Bondmania craze, this set is entertaining, colorful and
educational for those keen on uncovering any nook and cranny left undiscovered
by Shaw Brothers disciples.
--Andrew Kotwicki
