Film Details: Eastern Condors [Universe] DVD | Dir.: Sammo Hung Kam-Bo | Cast: Yuen Biao, Sammo Hung (Kam Bo), Lam Ching-Ying, Dr. Haing S. Ngor, Joyce Godenzi (Ko Lai-Hung), Yuen Wah, Yuen Wo Ping, Yasuaki Kurata (Shoji Kurata), Phillip Ko Fei, Billy Lau Nam-Kwong, James Tien Chun, Ng Hon
We didn't get much out of this film. A typically solid performance by Sammo, but nothing particularly noteworthy in the way of martial arts, acting, story, or action...
It's "Dirty Dozen" meets "Rambo" meets "Apocalypse Now" as action heavweight Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao lead the extraordinary cast of "Eastern Condors" into the Vietcong territory for some brutal and in-your-face action.
Overview:
Set in 1976, Eastern Condors tells the tale of commando team sent to Vietnam to destroy a secret store of missles left behind by the departing American forces. Led by Lt. Col. Lam (Lam Ching Ying), the force is a seedy bunch of Chinese and Vietmanese criminals picked from an American prison and promised their freedom if they complete the mission. Airdroping over Vietnam in the dead of night, the team rendevous with three female Cambodian guerillas (led by Joyce Godenzi) and the mission gets underway. Naturally, things don't go smoothly as personalities clash and the commandos are killed off one by one. The first stop is a local village, where the team hooks up with with Rat Chieh (Yuen Biao), a chopper-riding contraband dealer, and his doddering, feeble-minded uncle (Yeung Lung), who is also the brother of Lt. Col. Lam's superior. The commandos tangle repeatedly with the Vietnamese, and are pursued by an effete, spectacle-wearing general (Yuen Wah), who is prone to hiccuping, fanning himself, and laughing like a demented loon. The team finally reaches the base with the VC hot on their heels, and after much sound and fury our hero, Tung ming-sun (Sammo Hung) faces off against the general, who turns out to be a kung-fu dynamo.
Eastern Condors is the Dirty Dozen by way of Hong Kong, with a liberal sprinkling of the Deer Hunter thrown in as well. The movie features serviceable, if unremarkable battle scenes; one of the heroes grabs a machinegun, and then we cut to a scene of dozens of soldiers falling backwards as bullets riddle their bodies or grenade blasts fling them skyward. There are also the requisite scenes of wounded commandos giving their gutsy-yet-tender last words to their grieving-yet-determined comrades in arms, plus the required character clashes, frayed tempers, and a "what is this mission all about scene." Of course, what were really here for is to see Sammo and Co. kick butt with kung fu, and in this they do not disappoint, though for the real meat, you have to wait for the final confrontation between Sammo and Yuen Wah. Overall, it's an entertaining film, just not a particularly original one.
II - "May be Inappropriate For Children" (Broad rating may be roughly equal to an MPPA rating of "PG-13" to "R". In the late 1980s this rating splintered in two ratings: IIA and IIB) Films rated Category II may contain mild to strong violence, nudity that is usually not sexually oriented, explicit language and adult situations.
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