Eastern Condors

 

Combine the Dirty Dozen with Rambo, mix in martial arts and what do you get? Eastern Condors, perhaps the most awesome, ridiculous, action-packed movie about the Vietnam War you’ll ever see. Directed by and starring Sammo Hung, Eastern Condors seems like something of a passion project – the man even lost weight for the role. It’s a big departure from the films he usually made, with a more serious tone and more brutal action. It’s also a big showcase for the Hong Kong action talent of the time, with a cast made up of big Hong Kong action stars. I cannot stress enough how bizarrely entertaining this movie is. It just all works so immensely well.

Twelve convicts taken from various prisons, including the tough no-nonsense Hung (Sammo Hung) are conscripted into a secret mission by Asian-American Lieutenant Colonel Lam (Lam Ching-ying) at the height of the Vietnam War. Their objective: go behind enemy lines in Vietnam and destroy a hidden US munitions dump before Vietcong forces get their hands on it. Their mission is tough from the get go, being called off just as they’ve parachuted into enemy territory. With no support or backup, barring black market trader Rat Chieh (Yuen Biao), his mentally unstable uncle and a trio of Cambodian lady guerrillas with their own agenda, the team hurry to find the munitions while being hunted down by an eccentric Vietnamese general (Yuen Wah) and his forces.

Action-wise, it’s great, with a massive amount of variety and combat with a real punch to it. There are gun fights, fist fights, double crosses, explosions; all that good stuff. Knives are thrown into throats and flying kicks seem to solve every problem. There are also many of the staples of Vietnam War movies thrown in; gunboats travel across rivers, the main cast get taken prisoner in an enemy camp complete with a bamboo water prison and there’s even a Russian roulette sequence. It’s also surprisingly violent at times. Apart from the shooting and stabbings, some of the fist-fighting ends pretty brutally.

The cast is absolutely amazing, being a great collection of Hong Kong action stars of the time. There are so many of them in there it’s astounding, and the movie gives room for them to show off their skills. Sammo Hung, looking slimmer and more athletic, does a great job in a role that’s the complete opposite of the roles he usually did. Hung traditionally played mischievous scamps, but here he’s serious, mostly silent and no-nonsense, showing off a toughness he didn’t have in his usual roly-poly comedic roles. Lam Ching-ying is great and authoritative as the Lieutenant Colonel, wanting to both succeed in the mission and also protect his team and Yuen Wah is fun as the villainous general. Yuen Biao does a very familiar and Yuen Biao-like role as the happy-go-lucky trader, bringing humour to counteract Hung’s more serious role. He still shows off all sorts of flip kicks and the like though. The characters are given just enough characterisation that you start to feel bad when some of them die. The focus is more on the action than the simple story, but they make sure to give most characters some quirks or character to differentiate them, and even the few brief exchanges between them make most of them likeable.

There is some occasional nonsense to be had – a scene in the jungle involves Sammo Hung killing Vietcong by shooting palm leaves at them like arrows. I have no idea how that would even work but it’s still entertaining and awesome. That’s very much how the entire film is, entertaining and awesome. It all works together so well, with an excellent pace that keeps it entertaining throughout. It’s a really good time and a lot of fun, and easily one of the best films Sammo Hung has done.