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!

Paper Tears

The classic 1972 Hong Kong film, KING BOXER, was given an English dub and released the following year in North America as THE FIVE FINGERS OF DEATH.

Its enormous popularity opened the door, I should say floodgates, for a wave of kung fu quickie films of the early 1970s. It even preceded Bruce Lee’s ENTER THE DRAGON by several months. Quentin Tarantino called it one of the 10 best films of all time.

That’s high praise.

But when designing cover art you can’t let the pressure get to you. Just do the best you can. In the time you are given.

This cover project was for a large Blu-ray collection of remastered Shaw Brothers martial arts films presented within a digibook style package. So this art would be seen inside the packaging next to the disc itself, and not on the cover of the outer slipcase box. Also it was a “landscape” presentation instead of the normal vertical “portrait” format.

The first version I rendered is below.

I was caring for my ailing father at this time and he passed away while I was drawing this.

At his funeral I had a large black poster board with family photos mounted on it. A few days after the service I removed the photos, unintentionally ripping the poster board. The black paper turned out to be white on the inside. Never one to ignore an interesting texture, I scanned those rips and incorporated them into the design. Jaggedly radiating out from Lo Lieh, dividing the screen into 5 sections (the fingers) and one lower section (the hand/wrist.) 

(If I had a dime for every rusty truck tailgate and crumbling wall I’ve photographed with the hopes of later using it in some design.)

Sadly the client was less than enthused with the design. Particularly pointing out the rips and the "comic book" halftones in the background. So a second (more painterly?) version was done which they accepted. As seen below.

Many months later when I saw the final release, I realized that although I was afforded a full page for my art, many other films shared a single page in the digibook style package. Two movies on a single disc. Therefore, two cover images on a single page. 

And what was the divider between each film’s artwork?

A paper rip. 

So maybe they objected to it because they planned to use it BETWEEN the cover artwork on a page and didn’t want it used within a single film’s art. (Or maybe they got the “rip” idea from me. Ha. Who knows.) But one way or another, that rip is now tearing up 5 out of the 10 pages in the package. Instead of just mine.

Way to go Dad. 

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Next time. We visit a zoo. To meet a Skinny Tiger... and a Fatty Dragon.