Now available from Eureka Classics
This set of three Shaw Brothers film represents their Bondsploitation era where they produced a bunch of spy films in their style, bringing the stories to their land and their studio. This new set from Eureka Classics includes The Golden Buddha, Anger with Iron Fists, and The Singing Thief.
The Golden Buddha (aka Jin pu sa) (1966)
Three people travel to ancient ruins to find treasure which three small Buddha statues should help unlock while bad guys are on their trail. This Shaw Brothers Bond-inspired film is written by Wei Shih and directed by Wei Lo, bringing the spy story to Bangkok, Thailand where the universe created is fun, entertaining, action-packed, and a wee bit cheeky. The colorful decor is great, the costumes are fun, the direction and writing work hand in hand, and the performances are good, leading to a film that works quite well while adapting the spy story to Asia with that Shaw Brothers flare.
Angel with the Iron Fists (aka Tie guan yin) (1967)
This Shaw Brothers take on female spy movies is one that is a boatload of fun. Coming from writer Wei Shih and director Wei Lo, this one is sold as a father looking for revenge for his daughter’s death but comes off as the story of a woman who goes undercover to take down that gang with the help of a friendly colleague. The film here is pretty to look at with great decor and wardrobe that really set the tone with color after color, a look that is specific to the late 1960s, and cinematography that works with these elements really well The cast is led by Lily Ho who is a familiar face for anyone watching Shaw productions regularly and who gives an entertaining performance here. She is joined by Fanny Fan, Tina Chin-Fei, Hsin Yen-Chao, and a bunch of other fun performers. Yes, the word fun is used many times for this film because it is exactly that, fun.
The Singing Thief (aka Da dao ge wang) (1969)
A jewelry thief changes his career path to become a singer who then is forced into the jewel thief world once again. Written by Kang-Chien Chiu and directed by Cheh Chang, this third entry in the set is fun, but not as good as the other two. The singing parts are a bit dated, to be nice, and they will not work for many modern audiences. The action is decent, and the acting is uneven. The film loses the attention here and there and sometimes struggles to get it back. It’s feels less like a true 1960s spy film and more like it loses sight of its own goals. The film isn’t bad, but it’s definitely the weakest of the three.
This new set looks great here with beautiful new art for the packaging and solid transfers for each of the films with decent sound quality. The 1080p definition looks great on Blu-ray. The extras here are fun with brand new audio commentaries, a new interview with Wayne Wong, and a new limited edition booklet with writing by Iain Robert Smith.