Every now and then the Criterion Collection selects oddball and pulpy B-movies — like House, The Blob, The Incredible Shrinking Man, Blast of Silence, and Carnival of Souls— that seemingly don’t fit their mission statement of “publishing important classic and contemporary films from around the world.” Especially in the past few years, we’ve seen martial arts movies, like Half a Loaf of Kung Fu, Police Story and Police Story 2, and The Heroic Trio, enter the Criterion Collection. Eastern Condors is a recent entry that on its surface, it’s a high-octane action film, but if you look a little deeper, you can clearly see a high level of film craftsmanship at work.
Written by Barry Wong and directed by Sammo Hung, Eastern Condors follows a group of Chinese-American prisoners who were selected by the U.S. Military for a secret mission to go behind enemy lines in Vietnam to destroy an old American bunker that’s full of weapons and missiles before the Viet Cong captures the bunker for themselves. If they survive and accomplish the mission, they’ll be pardoned, granted U.S. Citizenship, and rewarded with $200,000 each.
However, on their way to Vietnam, the mission is aborted at the last minute, but after the group parachutes into the country. They must now fend for themselves, complete the mission, and hope the United States holds up their part of the bargain. And along the way, they meet three Cambodian guerillas, who help them fight the Viet Cong, but they have their own plans for the old American bunker too.
Much like Sammo Hung’s other film in the Criterion Collection, My Lucky Stars, Eastern Condors features a ragtag group of fighters with their own distinct personalities, traits, and appearances that enriches the film. You may not know their names, but you know who they are, just based on their personalities. It added to the enjoyment of Eastern Condors, which is full of exciting action scenes, thrilling stunts, and surprisingly, side-splitting comedy. The film is just as funny as it is adrenaline-fueled.
Speaking of thrilling stunts, the stunt work and fight choreography are the main reasons why Eastern Condors is worth watching and why there’s just so much craft in the movie. Summo Hung is an expert at letting his fighting and graceful moves do all of the talking, while stylish editing brings you into the scenes, rather than confusing and punishing — like most action movies of today.
Edits linger on the hits and make it feel like you were punched twice, instead of cutting at the point of attack, which feels too rapid and delirious. It seems like young and aspiring filmmakers should watch movies from Summo Hung and Jackie Chan to get a clear sense of action and editing, if they hope to make memorable films.
As for the release itself, Eastern Condors is presented with a new 2K digital restorations (sadly, there’s no 4K Ultra HD edition, only Blu-ray) of picture and audio. The film is in Cantonese with English subtitles, but also comes with the English-dubbed version called the “export cut.” It’s good to see this movie get a proper release instead of the bootleg DVDs you’d find at comic book conventions, gas stations or Chinatown markets.
It has a number of bonus features, including interviews with Sammo Hung and actor Yuen Wah. The release also has a very bizarre on-stage reenactment of key action scenes from the movie called “Eastern Condors Live!,” which was performed during the 1987 Miss Asia Pageant. It’s just strange and reminiscent of the interpretive shadow figures during the 79th Academy Awards in 2007. If you know, you know. If you like dynamite action or men on a mission movies (you can see where Quentin Tarantino took some inspiration here for Inglourious Basterds), then give Eastern Condors a watch. You won’t be disappointed. It features the best of Summo Hung and Golden Harvest Productions have to offer, while it would be nice to see more Hung movies in the Criterion Collection — namely Millionaires Express and the rest of the Winners and Sinners movies. Also, if you take a closer look, you can see why these films deserve a seat at the table with the likes of other movies from Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, and Charlie Chaplin.
