SPIES AND LIES

 

This Blu-ray packaging design project provided me a fun opportunity to explore mid-to-late 60s spy movie visual asthetics. This three-film collection of Shaw Brothers modern actioners is full of clever characters, glamorous gals, groovy gadgets, furious fisticuffs, and of course, outragiously "sixties" set designs. That's what makes them so fun to watch.   

For this triple feature, SUPER SPIES AND SECRET LIES (which includes THE GOLDEN BUDDHA, ANGEL WITH THE IRON FISTS, and THE SINGING THIEF) I split the real estate vertically and contained the actor's inside "surfboard" ovals with various related iconography breaking the borders. Since I went with a consistant "themed" color palette, I decided to make the art grayscale to achieve a more cohesive overall appearance. I also added some weathered aging and a psychodelic font treatment to help sell the time period. 

For the booklet cover I simplified it down to the various MacGuffin iconography representing each film.

The James Bond movie series was a pop culture phenomenon all over the world. With the craze perhaps reaching it's boiling point in 1966. But the ripples continued for a few years, with action "spy" films riding out the decade. With each culture adding their own local flavor. The Hong Kong filmmaking giant, Shaw Brothers, was no different. These 3 films certainly flaunt their cinematic inspiration proudly. But they are more than low budget copies of Her Magesty's most popular agent, they illustrate the tastes of the HK film audiences of the time. Less sex, more fist fights. Less WORLD DOMINATION, and more down-to-earth, localized stakes.

For cinema buffs, it's fun to spot the recognizable shooting locations. Two of the films included here were filmed on the Shaw Brothers Movietown lot in Sai Kung, without much effort to hide the fact. In ANGEL, our heroine rappels down the face of SHAW HOUSE (the iconic administrative building), while in THIEF, our protagonist has his climactic finale battle on the Shaw backlot amongst various standing, but dimly lit, martial arts film sets. 

Hey, whatever saved them a buck. But, I'm glad they did, because getting an "behind the cutain" glimpse into Shaw Movietown, however obscurred or lightly camouflaged, holds as much interest to me as anything they could've constructed for the film. Sadly, the glory days of Shaw's filmmaking dominance are long gone, and the site is due to be redeveloped into apartment flats.

Getting back to the packaging. I was under the mistaken impression it was to be a three-disc affair. So each film got it's own disc art and menu design. I don't think these were used in the final presentation. So here they are for posterity.

The disc art:

And the menus:

See you in 2025!