Operation Eastern Condors

Eastern Condors has few equals in the action genre. Directed and starring Sammo Hung, Sammo turns the action to eleven in this hybrid of modern action and kung fu. Also appearing is Yuen Biao and Yuen Wah as the ever reliable villain. E.C. is Hong Kong's answer to The Dirty Dozen where a group of Chinese/American criminals go on a suicide mission to destroy a missile ammunition dump left behind by Marines in Vietnam. The tone is lighter than John Woo's Bullet In The Head, but is taken serious enough to care about the characters, move along the story and sell the abundant and insane action scenes. There is enough bonebreaking martial arts, crazy stunts, as well as a barrage of machine gunfire and explosions to please the most jaded of action fans. Overall, Eastern Condors more than delivers and I always enjoy re watching this action classic.

Eastern Condors is a war movie which is filled to the brim with cool action and great kung fu acrobatics. A contingent of Chinese-Americans go to Vietnam just after the end of the Vietnam War in 1976 to find and blow up a U.S. weapons cache. As they arrive they are joined by three female Cambodian guerrilla warriors, the leader of which being played by the stunningly gorgeous and superbly kung fu capable Joyce Godenzi, who's only made a few movies (a friend tells me that she probably retired from movie-making after marrying Sammo Hung).

Yuen Biao is very cool in it, though his role could have been larger. The main spotlight goes to Sammo Hung, whose character is aflame with constant guerrilla action, and to him also goes the final showdown with Yuen Wah.

All in all, a very cool Sammo Hung actioner. The story and its execution are strictly speaking not great, but the action makes it eminently watchable. I rate the movie a 7 for the overall story, with an added point for Joyce Godenzi's coolness.

Thus, 8 out of 10.

In the early 90s, after reading a glowing review of the film in a fanzine, I shelled out mucho dinero for a pirated un-subtitled VHS copy of Eastern Condors. And even though I didn't have a clue what was being said, the movie blew me away with its OTT gung-ho action, bullet-riddled battle scenes and unbelievable martial arts madness.

These days the film is available on DVD remastered, fully restored and subtitled, so fans of fantastic fight action have no excuse for not checking out this marvellous movie.

Director and star Sammo Hung takes the basic plot of The Dirty Dozen (a group of criminals take part in a dangerous mission with the promise of freedom if they succeed), adds a touch of The Deer Hunter and Rambo, and throws in a ton of amazing kung fu to deliver one of the best Hong Kong flicks of the 80s.

Joining Sammo on his dangerous mission (into Vietnam, to destroy a hidden US munitions dump) are the brilliant Yuen Baio (as a Vietnamese profiteer dealing in smuggled goods), Oscar winner Haing S. Ngor, Lam Ching Ying, Yuen Woo-ping, Corey Yuen, Charlie Chin, and Sammo's real-life wife, the gorgeous Joyce Godenzi. Playing nasty bad-guys out to foil the mission are Billy Chow and the fantastic Yuen Wah. With a line up like that, and Hung calling the shots, excellence is almost guaranteed.

From the moment our 'heroes' parachute into a Vietcong infested jungle, Eastern Condors is non stop brutal action and unmissable fare for those who enjoy their war films violent and unfettered by serious political comment. The bad guys are pure evil (Wah's sniggering fan-waving general is as despicable as they come) and deserve to die. End of story.

And die they do: blasted by machine guns, knifed to death in guerrilla attacks, hacked by machetes, and even killed by imaginative use of jungle flora! In a blistering finale in an underground, missile laden bunker, the surviving good-guys take on the enemy in a vicious showdown that will leave you breathless. Yuen Baio and Sammo take the spotlight in the final fight against Wah and Chow, and the result is some of the best martial arts action ever committed to film. Baio's acrobatic skills are well showcased, whilst Hung, who slimmed down in order to be able to perform more incredible stunts, is on particularly fine form.

Only the occasional 'silly' moment (such as the death of a stuttering character who dies when he fails to reach twenty before opening his parachute), and the rather strange nutter played by Haing S. Ngor (I'm still not sure what the point of his character was) stop me from giving this top marks.

But 9/10 is nothing to be sniffed at, and any fan of the genre should definitely check this one out.

This is one of my favorite martial arts films, it's also my third favorite film from one of my favorite martial artists Sammo Hung whom also of course directed this film and I must say he really outdid him self once again.

Not a lot to say, the plot line is pretty simple as it's rag tag solders sent on a secret mission during wartime. It's pretty much "The Dirty Dozen" mixed in with a little "James Bond", I know it's kinda a crazy combo but this is a movie that is a little in the pulp action route so it doesn't take itself too seriously.

The production value is great, I really love the use of the jungle location with all the dirt, grit, darkness, tall grass, trees, darkness, you name it. Even the music I thought was very good there is a good song or two. The pacing is solid, the film isn't too long so there's no lagging.

The Condor platoon characters are solid, they all have unique persona's, a hint of depth and they do have good chemistry and even moments of humor which makes us kinda care about them. Though the characters that stand out for me are the two characters played by none other than Sammo Hung and Yuen Bieo, and the character Benny whom has those Phil Silvers like glasses he was really funny, as he says my favorite quote in the film in the end which made me crack up. But there are even moments of tragedy when we see certain characters die, which can be really sad but this just goes to show how war is hell.

However were in this film for the action and it delivers it real well. From the shootouts but most importantly the Martial arts sequences both well chorigraphed, Sammo as usual delivers with his strong kung fu and Yuen his kung fun and gymnast skills which are just excellent. I like some of the jungle skirmishes one of them of course is one of my favorite battles is the stealth combat sequence where both Sammo and Yuen have to take out the enemy soilders one by one, this obviously takes it's cue from the stelth action sequences in both "Rambo 2 and 3" but all the same it was a lot of fun and suspenseful. There are plenty of creative ways they dispatch the soilders, my favorite one was where Sammo uses some tall reeds and then shoots out the branch ends of them like harpoons toward each of the enemy soilders. That wouldn't work in real life but it was fun and really cool to think it could.

but my favorite action sequence in the film which of course is one of my favorite battles and another of one fights of all time is in the hidden base of the enemies. Love how they utilize the hide out as their battle ground and the set pieces they used, but I really love the one on one battle with the main enemy whom looks like a James Bond villain, he practically has the Dr.No outfit. This guy just has some of really good moves, here he seems to have some gripping power which I'll admit is unusual but kinda interesting, when ever he attacks he's always trying to get his opponents into his grip of death when in one instance it look as though he was going to crush or rip Yuen's face off; this really give both Sammo and Yuen a run for their money in the fight.

Well that's really it, if your a fan of Sammo then this film is worth the flight. Eastern Condors flies high.

Rating: 3 and a half stars

If you only know Sammo Hung for his more happy-go-lucky roles, then Eastern Condors will be a massive shock to the system, going as far as to tread into John Woo's territory of heroic bloodshed. Taking the idea of The Dirty Dozen but setting it in Vietnam, Sammo got serious with this one, even cutting his trademark hair and slimming right down. There are no mincing words about how brutally violent Eastern Condors gets... Hands get chopped off, Vietcong kids play Russian Roulette and people are shot point blank with no hesitation, in the wrong hands it's distasteful stuff, but Sammo treats it all with sincerity, marking this film out as one of his finest accomplishments as an actor, martial artist and director.

Although the majority of the action is hyper-intense gun fights occasionally punctuated by a familiar moment seen in Western war films like The Deer Hunter or the Rambo franchise, there is a spectacular final bout of full-contact fisticuffs for the patient ones among you. The cast is populated by plenty of familiar names and faces, although I do wish they got a bit more characterisation outside of their nicknames and who plays them, they all commit often coming away bloody and bruised from the hyper-dangerous stunt work. For better or worse, Eastern Condors has a gritty edge that makes it truly stand out amongst Sammo's filmography often feeling like what Heroes Shed No Tears had originally wanted to be, it's an absolute must-see!