Overview: Following the enormous international success of Dr No and From Russia with Love, Bondmania swept the globe and initiated a cycle of Bondsploitation movies. Studios all over the world sought to capitalize on James Bond and the concept of the super-spy - including Hong Kong’s venerable Shaw Brothers, who began producing tales of intrigue, espionage, and grand theft in the mid-1960s.

Eureka Classics presents three of their best in this special-edition set: The Golden Buddha, Angel with the Iron Fists and The Singing Thief.

In The Golden Buddha, businessman Paul (Paul Chang Chung, Police Story) finds himself in the crosshairs of the Skeleton Gang after he picks up the wrong briefcase on a flight to Singapore - one containing a small golden Buddha that might just play a part in a vast criminal conspiracy. In Angel with the Iron Fists, a mysterious woman (Lily Ho, Lady with a Sword) arrives in Hong Kong carrying a cache of stolen diamonds and quickly becomes embroiled with the infamous Devil Girl’s Gang.

Finally, in The Singing Thief, a master cat burglar (Jimmy Lin Chong, Tropicana Interlude) makes the decision to go straight and pursue a new career as a singer - that is, at least, until he becomes a suspect in a series of jewel heists.

Directed by studio regulars Lo Wei (The Big Boss) and Chang Cheh (The One-Armed Swordsman), The Golden Buddha, Angel with the Iron Fists and The Singing Thief filter a craze for films centered on super-spies and master criminals through the inimitable style of the Shaw Brothers Studio. All three films are presented on Blu-ray for the first time from HD masters supplied by Celestial Pictures.

Blu-ray Verdict: Opening on The Golden Buddha (1966), Paul (Zhang Chong) is a businessman who gets caught up in an international espionage plot when he accidentally switches briefcases with a friend aboard a Singapore-bound plane. The friend turns up dead, and Paul discovers a small Golden Buddha inside the briefcase that contains a set of instructions.

The instructions are only one of three parts, the other two being held in similar Golden Buddhas by Lo Wei (doing double duty as actor and director) and Lin Cui. When combined, the three Buddhas will lead the bearers to a buried treasure. But the nefarious Skeleton Gang is after the Buddhas, along with a buxom femme fatale (Fannie Fan) who isn’t above showing a little skin to get her way. Luckily, Paul knows kung-fu, so the bad guys had better watch out!

At last, Shaw Brothers takes a crack at the super-spy genre, using the usual story of a regular guy caught up in something he doesn’t understand - this time three golden Buddhas, that together mark out the location of a buried treasure. Paul Chang Chung is our everyman hero - well, every man who knows Karate and Judo, at any rate - on a layover in Bangkok.

There’s switched briefcases, murder, tattoo parlors, belly dancing, and a secret underwater lair with a supervillain in gold silk pajamas and sunglasses, a look my dad may complete after just one more impulse buy of knock-off no-brand clothing from Amazon (he still needs the cape).

There is also some nice location shooting in Bangkok and in the ruins of Ayutthaya, but the studio sets are just as fun to look at here - look at the scene on a train, for example, outside the window the scenery whipping by - and it appears to be hand painted scenery on a roll on repeat back there!

Also, a scene where someone knocks on a door and the door opens, we see outside, the same hand painted scenery. And the climax at the end in front of a big buddha, well, sadly it’s a lavish studio set designed to look like the real thing, but hey-ho!

All the interiors, whether real or studio bound, are colorful mid-century modern oranges and greens. The movie is a real feast for the eyes in every way. Jeanette Lin Tsui is our heroine, and Fanny Fan Lai is the sultry counterspy trying to seduce our hero, introduced in a fabulous blouse and later in nothing much at all.

Then we get Angel with the Iron Fists (1967) where a father whose daughter is killed by the Devil Girl’s Gang, goes in search of justice.

Personally, I think Lo Wei was a much better producer and talent discoverer than he was a director although there were some notable exceptions. Films like Fist of Fury, Dragon Swamp or Brothers Five come to mind. This early effort, a mix of Martial-Arts movie and James Bond rip-off, from 1967 unfortunately isn’t one of those exceptions. It does have a funky style that I liked, the sets are pretty and the girls even prettier. But the story is nonsensical and there’s no real tension to speak of.

That’s an especially big issue here because the film runs almost two hours. Much too long to hold ones interest in a messy, convoluted and discombobulated plot like this. This ends up feeling more like an Austin Powers movie or the Peter Sellers Casino Royale from the same year then a legit James Bond adventure. And that could be fun (and it certainly is at times) but it needed a better structured script, more focused direction and much much tighter editing.

One thing the movie benefits from immensely is the sexy and charming screen presence of leading Lady Lily Ho Li-Li. Next to Cheng Pei-Pei she was probably the biggest female star at Shaw Brothers from the mid 60’s to early 70’s. And it easy to see why. I feel though, that outside the hardcore Shaw Brothers fan-base she and most of her films have been largely forgotten these days. That needs to change!

Lastly comes The Singing Thief (1969) where a jewel thief decides to turn over a new leaf. He starts anew as a professional singer; but before long, the he becomes suspect again for a series of robberies. He sets up a trap to snare the copycat thief, but will it snare him instead?

A sugar-coated fever dream mix of Danger: Diabolik and Austin Powers starring pop sensation Jimmy Lin Chong as a pop star-cum world famous diamond thief.

Its mix of poptastic song and dance numbers are what Ming Tea (Austin Powers’ band) have for breakfast, lunch and dinner, while its romantic plotting between Chong and Lily Ho, all set against the backdrop of trying to catch another thief impersonating Chong and avoiding the clutches of the Inspector Clouseau-esque Yan Mui, is devilishly breezy.

It all just gets a bit much however, especially when its final act suddenly takes a turn into darker pure Bond territory, jettisoning much of its high camp in favor of a more traditional and far less fun action spectacle.

The kind of film that makes a wild ride of a trailer, but its constant poptastic and forcibly groovy sensibilities end up being a little too much at over 90 mins. That said, and although this is a defined lack of actual singing within The Singing Thief, the action is choreographed by future legends Tang Chia and Lau Kar-Leung and is as perfectly inspired as you could have ever hoped for, trust me.

Special Features:
1080p HD presentations on Blu-ray from masters supplied by Celestial Pictures
Original mono audio tracks
Optional English subtitles, newly translated for this release
New audio commentaries by action cinema experts Mike Leeder and Arne Venema
International Super Spies – A new interview with James Bond expert Llewella Chapman on global Bondmania in the 1960s
A new interview with Hong Kong cinema scholar Wayne Wong, editor of Martial Arts Studies
Reversible sleeve featuring individual sleeve artwork for each film Original trailers
Limited edition of 2000 copies only
Limited edition O-Card slipcase featuring new artwork by Darren Wheeling
PLUS: A limited edition collector’s booklet featuring new writing on all three films by Iain Robert Smith, author of The Hollywood Meme: Transnational Adaptations in World Cinema

Official Purchase Link