A
Certain Killer
/ A
Killer's Key
(both 1967/Daiei/Arrow)/Super
Spies and Secret Lies
(The
Golden Buddha
(1966,) Angel
With The Iron Fist
(1967,) The
Singing Thief
(1969/Shaw Bros./Eureka! Set)/Weak
Spot
(1975/Radiance/all MVD Blu-ray)
Picture:
B-/B/B Sound: B-
Extras: B/B/B- Films: B/B-/B-
Now
for some spy films, the first
two of which are murder thrillers influenced by a spy classic and the
rest humorous takes on the genre, all restored...
Kazou
Mori's A
Certain Killer
and A
Killer's Key
(1967)
are a pair of really
smart thrillers with Raizo Ichikawa (a huge star at the time) is
Shiozawa, a sushi chef who is really an assassin just doing his
current job to cover for when he is ready to get back to his real
line of work in the first film. The first appearance here of
beautiful Keiko (Yumiko Nogawa) sets him back to his first calling,
which includes Maeda (Mikio Narita) connected to some yakuza that he
asked to kill and one of his specialties is using a poisoned needle.
Barely
surviving that fiasco, Shiozawa shows up in the sequel as a dance
instructor when big money to kill again and the intertwining of
yakuza and politicians makes his next work as difficult, violent and
dangerous as the first. Yes, we get some humor here and there, but
it is always secondary to the brutal realism of both films, whose
look is more than a little inspired by the 1965 spy classic The
Ipcress File
with Michael Caine. Fortunately, they understood that film and its
widescreen scope compositions, so these are as effective and all
three films would be worth watching in chronological order.
Thus,
it thought it ought to be among these films for good reason for both
the style and realism that combine to be very effective. Acting,
pacing, editing and the fights are really well done and all serious
film fans, especially of these kinds of films, should definitely
check these out.
Extras
include:
Brand
new audio commentary for both films by critic and Asian cinema
expert Tony Rayns
The
Definite Murderer,
a brand new 30-minute introduction to the films by Japanese film
scholar Mark Roberts
Original
theatrical trailers for both films
Image
gallery
Reversible
sleeve featuring newly commissioned artwork for both films by Tony
Stella
and
an illustrated collector's booklet featuring new writing on the
films by Jasper Sharp and Earl Jackson.
Next
up is the Super
Spies and Secret Lies
set featuring three films that show how the Shaw Brothers and their
studio did what they could to capitalize and imitate the massive
success of the James Bond films. After Goldfinger
(1964) and Thunderball
(1965) went through the roof internationally, every major film
producer in the world jumped on the bandwagon and the results could
be anything from surprising to incredibly lame. The Shows did a
little better than usual with the following films:
Lo
Wei's The
Golden Buddha
(1966) is an amusing romp using some of the Hitchcock Style (everyone
is after the title object, but does the audience care about it?
Hitchcock called that the 'MacGuffin') and some people are willing to
kill for it. A weak North
By Northwest
imitator with a Bond
style, it has its moments, but it is entertaining enough and some of
its imitations are not bad. Paul Chang Chung is the businessman who
gets involved and the rest of the cast is not bad either, along with
some amusing costumes, locales and sets. Unfortunately, the fight
choreography looks more like it ought to be in a Naked
Gun
film than a spy or action picture.
Lo
Wei's
Angel With The Iron
Fist
(1967) is the best and most elaborate of the three films, with Lily
Ho as the female Bond variant and title character whose investigation
leads to an army of assassins, half of whom are deadly women that she
has to infiltrate and stop before their crazy terroristic plot
becomes realized. Cheers to all involved going all out and the Shaw
Brothers putting the cash out for this one. Very enjoyable and in
the Austin Powers/Derek Flint/Matt Helm/Casino
Royale
1967 mode for sure, but better fight scenes than Golden
Buddha.
Cheh
Chang's The
Singing Thief
(1969) is
one of those rare films combining musicals and music with the genre,
rare as that is, but like the 1984 Val Kilmer vehicle Top
Secret,
it is a very mixed bag, amusing as it can be. Jimmy Lin Chong plays
a pop song lounge singer and dancer who is so-so at that and gets
involved in a caper that he is used to, as he used to be (ala
Hitchcock's To
Catch A Thief)
a cat burglar trying to sing and dance his way away from that life.
No luck so far, it is the weakest of the three films, but its
obsession with pop culture is amusing and it is enough of a part of
the spy genre that it makes sense that it is in this set. The fight
scenes are a mixed bag, but since its a musical too, don't expect
Skyfall.
Extras
include new audio commentaries by action cinema experts Mike Leeder
and Arne Venema, Limited Edition O-Card slipcase featuring new
artwork by Darren Wheeling, International
Super Spies:
A new interview with James Bond expert Llewella Chapman on global
Bondmania in the 1960s, From
Hong Kong with Love:
A new interview with Hong Kong cinema scholar Wayne Wong, editor of
Martial Arts Studies on spy films and the Shaw Brothers, Reversible
sleeve featuring individual sleeve artwork for each film, Original
trailers and 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.
And
we conclude with Peter Fleischmann's Weak
Spot
(1975) which gives us another lone soul unrelated to spying
(Ugo Tognazzi) just having fun in Greece when two spies (Michel
Piccoli and Mario Adorf, also well cast) picks him up accusing him
(falsely) of being part of some underground resistance movement.
Instead, chaos soon ensues and the comedy we get is on the dark side,
unlike any of our other entries, but its sark undertone starts in
scene one and never ends.
You
have to pay attention to this one and no one is ever given a specific
name, so it has as much mystery as any release here and is far from
the 1960s spy style that had concluded a few years before its
release. Owing more to more gritty French films and their Hollywood
counterparts than the 1960s, it is also a political film in certain
ways with its Kafka-inspired situation, but even more and save some
slight inconsistency, very much worth your time.
Extras
include:
A
feature length audio commentary by critic Travis Woods (2024)
Archival
TV interview with Michel Piccoli discussing Weak
Spot
(1975)
Soundtrack
expert Lovely Jon discusses the Ennio Morricone score (2024)
Newly
improved English subtitle translation
Reversible
sleeve featuring designs based on original posters
Limited
Edition
booklet featuring new writing by Kat Ellinger
and
Limited
Edition
of 3000 copies, presented in full-height Scanavo packaging with
removable OBI strip leaving packaging free of certificates and
markings.
Now
for playback performance. The 1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition
image on both Killer
films have some limits from the older anamorphic lenses (likely Kowa)
and the color can be off in some ways, but the detail and definition
is pretty good to go with the impressive scope compositions
throughout. The Japanese PCM 1.0 Mono sound on each film mighty have
been at least slightly better if they were 2.0 Mono, but this is the
best these theatrical monophonic films will ever sound and the
combination more than effective enough.
The
1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image on all three Super
Spies
films look even a little better, but still have some limits form the
older anamorphic lenses used, yet color is very impressive. Iron
Fist
has the best color and best use of it because it has the largest
budget and is going out of its way to capture the later 1960s look.
The
Mandarin PCM 2.0 Mono sound on each film has been nicely restored and
this is the best three three theatrical monophonic films will ever
sound. You might wish for stereo at times, including when Golden
sounds a little compressed, but it is fine otherwise.
The
1080p 1.66 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Weak
Spot
hardly shows the age of the materials used, with fine color, detail
and even depth. Color again impresses to the point that it is the
second-best performer here next to the 4K release above. The detail
and depth can impress too. The French PCM 2.0 Mono from the original
theatrical monophonic sound is as good as this film will ever sound,
so the combination is solid.
-
Nicholas Sheffo
