Eastern Condors (1987)

Eastern Condors (1987)
Chinese Title: 東方禿鷹
Translation: Eastern Condor(s)/Vulture(s)

 

Starring: Sammo Hung, Yuen Biao, Joyce Mina Godenzi, Lam Ching-Ying, Dr. Haing S. Ngor, Yuen Wah, Charlie Chin, Cheung Kwok-Keung, Billy Lau, Yuen Wo-Ping, Hsiao Ho, Chin Ka-Lok, Peter Chan Lung, Ka Lee, Corey Yuen Kwai, Ha Chi-Chun, Chiu Man-Yan, Yasuaki Kurata, Billy Chow, Dick Wei, Phillip Ko Fei, Wu Ma, Melvin Wong
Director: Sammo Hung
Action Director: Sammo Hung’s Stuntman Association

 

Tai Seng Video had a horrible reputation among Asian video importers back in the early and mid-1990s, mainly for their tendency to break regular feature-length movies into two tapes and sell them individually for HORRENDOUS prices, like 80 bucks a pop. Sure, they were also the way that Cambodian, Vietnamese and other SE Asian families had access to their favorite Chinese series, but that is some grade-A thievery right there when it comes selling to collectors. Things began to change in the second half 1990s, thankfully.

They began to sell their catalog for more affordable prices...and on one tape. Although establishments like the former Virgin Megastore would often have the original subbed VHS’s in clamshell covers for 39.95, by the time they reached more conventional retailers like Sam Goody and Suncoast, they were only 19.95. Better still, they also began selling newly subtitled prints of various Jackie Chan, Michelle Yeoh and other HK action classics, doing away with the infamous burnt-on subtitles that read like “Do you scare of death?” One of the earliest such releases that I got my Jackie-hungry mitts on in the fall of 1997 was The Young Master.

On that tape, there were two trailers that I can recall. The first was for the Shaolin Classic Series, three completely unrelated films (in their dubbed versions) that were sold individually for 14.95 a pop. For the record, the films from that particular series were: Descendant of Wing Chun (1978); Legend of the Drunken Tiger (1991); and Shaolin Avengers (1994). The second trailer was for Eastern Condors, which looked like the Greatest Action Film Ever Made. The VHS reached my local Tower Records probably in the spring of 1998, which I bought at the first opportunity. I watched it the same night I got it. And then watched it again the next night. I showed it to my friends probably a few months later, and it immediately joined the ranks of the Classics.

Eastern Condors is the war movie that Sammo Hung had apparently always wanted to make, but never did because Hong Kong producers were always hesitant to make war movies. Interestingly enough, Taiwan has had a long history of making these sorts of films, but Hong Kong audiences have traditionally been less interested in it. In any case, Sammo had accrued enough hit films by the mid-80s that his studio Bo-Ho films could go to the Philippines and make one. Although the film was reasonably successful (clocking in at #7 at the box office), it was expensive enough that it wasn’t able to turn a profit—sort of the Cleopatra principle.

The film opens in 1976 with two Chinese military officers (for what country?)—Lieutenant Lam (Lam Ching-Ying, of Mr. Vampire and The Magnificent Butcher) and Colonel Young (Melvin Wong, of Righting Wrongs and The Rape After)—being given the mission to destroy a hidden munitions depot in Vietnam. Since America has officially ended the war and left Vietnam, the Armed Forces can’t send in any white guys to perform what is essentially a suicide mission. So, they decide to send in a bunch of Chinese and Vietnamese-Chinese convicts to do the job for them, with the promise of an official pardon and a large cash bonus upon completion (and extraction).

There is a slight snag to the plan: there are actually two groups that are supposed to enter the country. One appears to be made up of regular soldiers (of Asian) extraction led by Colonel Young, while the convicts, under the command of Lt. Lam, are to act as a decoy. The problem is that after all the men have jumped from the plane, a soldier informs Lt. Lam that Colonel Young’s plane has crashed and the mission has been aborted. Not wanting to leave his men to fend for themselves against the Viet Cong, Lam jumps and assumes command of the mission by himself. Joining our ragtag outfit is a trio of Cambodian mercenaries, led by Joyce Mina Godenzi (of She Shoots Straight and Slickers vs Killers).

Although Lieutenant Lam is in charge of the mission, the convicts’ ringleader (and best fighter and shooter and everything else) is convicted murderer Tung Ming-sun (Sammo Hung, of Winners and Sinners and The Odd Couple). He more or less keeps the men together whenever they feel like deserting the mission and putting themselves at the mercy of the Vietnamese. Lam takes Tung and “Joyce” into the nearby Ngau Village to pick up Colonel Young’s uncle, Yeung Lung (Dr. Haing S. Ngor, of The Killing Fields and Heaven & Earth). Yeung is a bit of a nutcase, so they find themselves forced to shanghai him, with the local contraband hustler, Rat Chieh (Yuen Biao, of Those Merry Souls and Kick Boxer), following along. Of course, the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese Army, led by Yuen Wah, will be at their heels the entire time.

Eastern Condors is a pastiche of almost every single famous war movie cliché that had been made in the 20 years or so preceding its production. The central premise of sending convicts into combat was oviously taken from The Dirty Dozen, while blowing up a munitions dump can be seen in films like The Mountain Road. There’s a prison camp sequence, complete with Russian Roulette, which will remind viewers of both The Deer Hunter and Missing in Action 2: The Beginning. A traitor is discovered in the group’s midst, which is handled like a similar scene from The Guns of the Navarone. There’s also the Uncrossable Bridge, which was dealt with in classic war films like A Bridge Too Far and The Bridge at Remagen. And of course, there’s an obvious Rambo: First Blood Part II feel to the scene where Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao stalk and kill a platoon of Viet Cong members one by one.

Normally, when a movie so slavishly throws in so many clichés and rips off scenes wholesale from other films like Eastern Condors does, critics immediately dismiss the film as unoriginal. That would be the case here, but it’s the glue holding all these scenes and tropes together—Sammo Hung’s marvelous fight choreography—that transforms Eastern Condors from the Hong Kong equivalent of your average Italian rip-off into something original…into an awesome action extravaganza! The fight scenes are top-drawer, even if a lot of them are a bit on the short side. Said the folks from Stomp Tokyo back in the day: 

“Our favorite part of the film, though, is the climatic kung fu fight between Tung and Rat and the giggling general and a couple of his cronies. Oh sure, there should be a plethora of guns lying around on the floor of the base that the combatants could use against each other, but nobody seems to notice them. Instead we get an amazing display of martial arts prowess. This is pretty much the best kung fu fighting we've ever seen -- and we've seen plenty of Jackie Chan and Jet Li films to compare it to. Yuen Biao is one of the best on-screen fighters ever, and the (slightly) slimmed down Samo Hung is amazingly agile and fast[1].”

Yuen Biao indeed steals the show with his second-to-few bootwork, which includes a vertical front kick to the chin that will make most viewers wince, plus a few aerial spin kicks that are classic Biao. Sammo, who lost a lot of weight for this role, is no slouch in the fighting department, either. Whether it’s a whirlwind kick performed while someone is grabbing his other leg, or a double jump kick (one kick to disarm the opponent and the other to boot him in the neck), that man is simply on fire.

he fighting is complimented by the use of knives and, obviously, guns…lots of guns. The gunplay is staged for in the traditional Rambo or Commando style as opposed to the complex Bullet Ballet that John Woo and Stephen Tung had done the year before in A Better Tomorrow. So, expect lots of people getting mowed down in a single spray of bullets, while the Viet Cong are subject to the Storm Trooper effect. And, of course, expects lots and lots of explosions, including one that destroys an entire mountain at the end. So, for fans of The Expendables, 80s action in general, and those Rambo fans who didn’t care for the fifth and final entry in that franchise, watch Eastern Condors for your fix of machine guns mayhem and martial arts madness!

 

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[1] - https://web.archive.org/web/20010302151703/http://www.stomptokyo.com/movies/eastern-condors.html