Eastern Condors | Blu-ray (Criterion)
On December 12, 2024, Criterion will be releasing the Blu-ray for Eastern Condors, a 1987 Golden Harvest actioner directed by, and starring, Sammo Hung (Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In).
Legendary actor-director Sammo Hung delivers a bazooka blast of pure adrenaline in this exemplar of Hong Kong action cinema at its most entertaining. Drawing inspiration from Hollywood war films like The Dirty Dozen, Eastern Condors follows a ragtag band of Asian American prisoners dropped into Vietnam on a secret suicide mission to prevent a cache of weapons from falling into the hands of the Viet Cong, who are more than ready for a fight.
Propelled by a dynamic ensemble cast that includes the ever-charismatic Yuen Biao as a black-market trader and a superhuman Yuen Wah as a giggling martial-arts monster, this rip-roaring spectacle offers a nonstop barrage of turbocharged set pieces that defy death, logic, and gravity itself.
Features:
- 2K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
- New audio commentary featuring film critic Tony Rayns
- 2K digital restoration of the English-dubbed “export cut” of the film
- Meet the Filmmakers, a new interview with director Sammo Hung
- Interviews from 2001 with Hung and actor Yuen Wah
- Eastern Condors Live!, an onstage performance from the 1987 Miss Hong Kong Pageant
- Teaser and trailers
- New English subtitle translation
- PLUS: An essay by film critic Sean Gilman
- New illustration by Sam Hadley
If you can’t wait for Criterion’s version, Goodie Emporium currently has Eureka’s Blu-ray (Region B) release, which also includes Iron Fisted Monk and Magnificent Butcher.
For so long Criterion turned up their noses at HK cinema but now they figured out HK aficionados are one of the few left that still buys physical media. Not cynical at all Criterion. Also don’t mess with the color grading like you did with the Police Story release.
In their defense, Harvey and Quentin squatted on their releases, such as The Killer and Hardboiled.
True but all the Golden Harvest titles have been available for license since 1993. It only took them 27(ish) years before they realised that being snobby about movies was hurting their balance sheet.
Also just went to my dusty DVD bookcase to confirm, The Killer and Hard Boiled actually made it to Criterion DVD in the late 90s. Picture quality on a modern TV is absolute dogsh1t but its got some cool commentaries on there. Its a shame that the best versions of these movies are now German bootleg Blurays. Not up to the standard of Fortune Star remasters (Arrow, 88, Eureka) but a step up from your old DVDs/HK Bluray upscales
Maybe I should give this another chance as I didn’t enjoy Eastern Condors as much as most people.
The Universe HK DVD wasn’t the best, but it’s all we had. I’m sure properly translated subs would make a big difference. Other than that, there was a level of mean spiritedness of the film that made me not care that much about the characters. (Yuen Biao twisting the head off a real snake didn’t help!)
Even though other films like The Wild Bunch and Heroes Shed No Tears didn’t have noble protagonists, and they had a lot of unlikable qualities, they were more interesting. I also didn’t like seeing Joyce Godenzi and her squad being ineffective, and Sammo Hung vs Billy Chow was way too short. (It was pretty much over before it started)
Yuen Wah was excellent as an over the top sadist, and I could buy that it took the combined efforts of Yuen Biao and Sammo Hung to beat him.