This 1987 action movie, Eastern Condors, is a little different than most movies made by Sammo Hung in the 80’s. A serious action story which takes place in Vietnam just after the war, it combines gun fights and martial arts stunt work to create a fun and action packed movie.
The movie has a very straight forward premise. Lieutenant Colonel Lam is an officer in the US Army, and he has been given a top secret mission. To help out, due to dangerous conditions, Lam is to take a group of Chinese American convicts who are ex soldiers on the mission with him.The reward for the convicts being a complete pardon, US citizenship and nice $200k when they return home.
Excited, the men agree and they head out by chopper to be dropped off into Vietnam – only the mission is cancelled after all men have left, so Lam decides to tell his superiors he has already left the plane (although he hasn’t) before jumping out and parachuting down himself.
The most calm and respected of the convicts is Tung Ming-sun (Sammo Hung). Tung takes the lead in a lot of the fights and eventually they end up meeting a young man and his uncle who get pulled into the situation also. The young man, named “Weasel”, is played by Yuen Biao and seems to be as strong and fit as Tung Ming-sun.
They then set out on their mission and face imprisonment as well as many dangerous gun fights before the finale in which the surviving team members must fight (in a very Kung Fu fashion) against their enemies before accomplishing their final objective.
Forget the Comedy!
Being a film starring and directed by Sammo Hung, I expected a lot of comedy and awkward situations – but this movie is the exact opposite!
Sammo plays a more serious and capable soldier, bringing somewhat the backbone of the group. Sammo even went on a chicken & rice diet to lose 30lbs in 3 months for the role of Tung Ming-sun! We see the team getting chopped down by gun fire, dealing with loss when facing the harsh reality of the life of a soldier.
I really appreciated the serious Sammo Hung / Yuen Biao partnership as Sammo can only do so much of the same thing before it gets unbelievably repetitive – this movie was definitely a breath of fresh air. Even the environment and general feel of the film was completely different, as it had a much larger scope being out in the jungles of Vietnam (or Phillipines, where it was shot). A nice contrast to what we’re used to.
The Action & Martial Arts
This movie cranks the stunt work up to an awesome level!
Through most of the film we see small quick flashes of fantastic stunt work and martial arts mixed with some cool gun fights. Sammo and Yuen lead the way in the action with their world class abilities, although I think Yuen Biao had the edge on Sammo. Yuen’s stunts and fights were so impressive as he is just unrivaled when it comes to acrobatic fight scenes.
My only complaint is the over use of slow motion shots, so many shots were unnecessarily done in slow motion and would have been really impressive at normal speed. Half way through the film I remember labelling this movie ‘slow motion condors’ as a bit of a joke.
But the repetitive slowmotion does dwindle and the final fight at the end of the film proves to be the strongest, showing off some solid moves and exciting fights with a couple of slowmotion shots which, for the moves captured, were absolutely required.
The Verdict?
A classic, check it out for sure! It’s a martial arts / war story with a serious tone to it backed by impressive action.
On Blu Ray –
Region A (US & Canada)
Eastern Condors (Blu-Ray)
On DVD –
Region 1 (US & Canada)
Eastern Condors
Region 2 (UK, Europe, etc)
Eastern Condors [DVD]
Region 4 (Australia, New Zealand, etc)
Eastern Condors on DVD
