Kiss and Kill
Director: Tai Kao-mei
Year: 1967
Rating: 7.5
I believe this is another Shaw Brothers film that
Celestial never released on DVD which is rather odd because it is one of
the better Shaw films that fall into the spy film genre that were so influenced
by James Bond at the time. It has its moments of idiocy, silly plotting
and unwelcome comedy but it is in the main part quite a bit of fun and rather
well-done with a barrage of fights, lots of scantily clad women and is sleek
and fast moving. It is rare that more than a few minutes pass without something
happening on screen. From 1966 to 1968 Hong Kong went Bond crazy and a number
of spy films were shot both in the Cantonese as well as the Mandarin film
industry.
The ones made in Cantonese - the Jane Bond films among them - are pretty
much impossible to get but the ones Shaw made are mainly available. In these
few years Shaw pumped out The Golden Buddha, The Black Falcon, Angel with
Iron Fists, Interpol, Asia-pol, Operation Lipstick, The Angel Strikes Again,
The Brain Stealers and Temptress of a Thousand Faces that I know of. I am
a sucker for these kind of films and enjoyed all of them. They share a few
common characteristics - the villain always has a lair and an evil laugh,
super spy devices, the old face is a mask trick, a bevy of good looking
women, snazzy opening credits, the good guy is always captured - never killed
- and escapes, minions who fail get executed in horrible ways, nice cars
and decent though far from great action. This film has all of that and more.
Tien-hung (Paul Chang-chung) is living the good life in Paris on the dole
of his wealthy uncle - sculpturing nude models with the Eiffel Tower right
outside his window and learning martial arts on the side. The martial arts
will come in a lot more handy than his sculpturing. He receives a telegram
(just as he is about to bed his model) that his uncle is dying and wants
to see Tien-hung. The uncle unknown to Tien-hung has invented - on his own
mind you - a ray that can shoot a plane out of the air or set off a nuclear
weapon from afar. And the baddies are after it - a group that seem to be
Chinese Communists and another group that may be the Soviet Union. They think
Tien-hung knows where it is hidden.
Fights break out constantly, two beautiful women come his way - one for
nefarious reasons, the other an innocent - played by Diana Chang-chung and
Tina Chin-fei often in a bra and panties and he has to deal with poisonous
snakes, a pool of acid, exploding golf balls and a comic relief sidekick.
Though he has his tricks as well - an exploding gas cigar, a pen that explodes,
a gun that has another gun hidden inside it and a ring that projects photos
of nude weapon. For when you get lonely I guess. And he isn't even a spy.
It is as light as a cloud burst but doesn't fall into parody fortunately.
I have been watching a number of Euro Spy films lately and I have to say this
is much better than most of them.
This was directed by yet another Japanese director that Shaw brought over.
They almost always gave them Chinese names - in this case Tai Kao-mei but
his real name was Takumi Furukawa and he directed the very influential Season
of the Sun in 1955. According to IMDB Kiss and Kiss was his last credited
film. He only directed two films for Shaw; this one and The Black Falcon.
Co-directing with him is Cheng Kang who is best known for his martial arts
films. Perhaps he directed the action as no one is credited with that.
