Eastern Condors (1987)

In a time of desperation the American army call in two Chinese lieutenants. They are asked to go on a mission to Vietnam to destroy dozens of American warheads that were left behind during the Vietnam war. On this mission they take10 criminal convicts with them. The only thing is they don‘t know what the mission is. As all 10 men jump out of their plane to reach ground level their lieutenant is alerted that the mission has been cancelled. They all jump down to start their dangerous mission.

“Eastern Condors”, AKA “Dung fong tuk ying”, was directed by Sammo Hung; a Martial Arts expert who has his own style of making Martial Arts movies. He also made classics like “Twinkle Twinkle Lucky Stars” and “Mr Nice Guy”. Sammo also plays one of the lead characters in the film named Ming-Sun Tung. This film also stars famous action choreographer Yuen Woo Ping ( choreographer of Kill Bill Matrix etc…)

One of the many things great about this film is the way characters stand out in the memory, they come across as real people with their own idiosyncrasies rather than bland cardboard soldiers whose only role is getting killed; that job’s been taken by the bad guys. Their liveliness adds warmth to the film and makes each death scene matter. The action in this film is different from that in other war movies. Fast moving Martial Arts is combined with more standard bang, bang action. The skills of Yuen Biao and Sammo Hung are well employed to make every scene visually memorable.

For me the stand out scene was the final battle in the arms depot between Yuen Biao and Yuen Wah, the chief villain whose slim form and almost comical laugh belies the fact he is the most powerful fighter in the film. When Yuen Biao finally collapses, Sammo steps in and finishes Wah with a grenade sandwich.

Eastern Condors is a truly fascinating variation on the men on a mission type of movie such as “The Dirty Dozen” and “Inglorious Bastards”. Well worth the rental price.