Throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, Hong Jinbao was proud of the spring breeze, and his Baohe killed in all directions in the 80s, and the best films were in the limelight. In 1980, "Ghost Fighting Ghost" was the first ghost action film to be the first ghost action film, which was The nominal entrepreneurial work of Baohe. When Jiahe Company fully supported the satellite system, Baohe, which had been silent for 4 years, reappeared in the jianghu, and in 1984, it produced three films in a row: "Divine Courage Double Cannon" took the police comedy, and the "Provincial Hong Kong Flag Soldier" cooperated with Ma Dangxiong was at its peak, and cooperated with Debao, and "Waiting for Dawn" directed by Liang Puzhi was also a rare atmospheric work.
In 85 years, Hong Jinbao fully explored the potential selling power of ghost action films, "Time to Run" went to fashion ghosts, "Mr. Zombie" was promoted to Lin Zhengying as a spokesperson for ghost hunting masters, and became very popular, Liu Guanwei also stepped into the ranks of blockbuster directors with the help of this film, "Dragon's Heart" is Jackie Chan Hong Jinbao's eye-catching family police gangster action film.
In 1986, Baohe began to enter a high-yield period, "Rich Train" was the first star New Year film, "Best Lucky Star" was combined with New Art City, "Zombie Family" continued zombie comedy, "Divine Courage Double Cannon Sequel" and "Law Enforcement Pioneer" continued to be police action comedy, and at the beginning of the year, the second friend's entrepreneurial work "Two In-laws and Eight Hearts" was released. In 1987, the strategy of grasping the ghost action was carried out, and the stars of "Oriental Condor" were gathered and fiercely hot; "Little Life Dream Horror", "Cousin To", "Mr. Spirit" have their own strengths. In the mid-to-late 1990s, even if Hong Jinbao was slowly replaced by his disciple Jackie Chan and occupied by Zhou Xingchi, he still had a position that was difficult to shake, which was really not eating the old book.
Today I want to say that it is a masterpiece that everyone can ignore, the box office revenue of 21 million in the top ten of the box office that year, but the results are average compared to the same period, and until today many people have mixed reviews of this film, that is, the Chinese version of "Garrison Death Squad" or "Field Platoon", its name is "Oriental Condor".
First of all, this play has several things worth saying for Hong Jinbao, Qian Jiale almost died in an explosion scene, and he almost received a box lunch in a car jump scene. And this time is the thinnest Hong Jinbao we have seen since the film, and it is said that he lost weight for this play. In addition, he gained love, and Gao Lihong, who debuted on the screen in the play, later became his second wife, until now.
In 1987, Hong Jinbao was able to ascend to a high level, the era of the crowd of people, and he was not a person who slept on top of his grades, Hong Jinbao seemed to be born not to love to eat the old book, Jackie Chan only made some works of different themes today, but also because he could not move, but Hong Jinbao has been doing continuous attempts, ghost films, kung fu, martial arts, literary and artistic themes cover a wide range, one is unparalleled. And this "Eastern Vulture" is particularly different.
The reason why it is different is that before this, Hong Kong's film history basically did not have such a large-scale scene of war themes, although Zhang Che had filmed "Eight Dao Louzi", although Xu Anhua also filmed "Surrender to the Fury Sea" and related to the Vietnam War, but the genre was completely different. That is to say, the soil of Hong Kong is actually unable to grow and control films with such themes.
Later, Although Wu Yusen's "Street of Dripping Blood" showed the cruelty of war, it was not tepid at the time. Hong Jinbao is different, he is willing to try differently, he does not like to be the director of a certain genre film. So this alternative "Eastern Condor" turned out to be.
Today we watch this film is really shocked by the cast, Hong Kong at that time the first line and green leaves basically participated, many people are still hot stars today. The film tells the story of a group of criminal repeat offenders who parachuted into Vietnam with the goal of blowing up the arsenal left by the U.S. military during the Vietnam War, and each person can receive a bonus of 200,000 yuan afterwards to become a U.S. citizen.
Chinese audiences who love old films should be familiar with them, and the bridge section is copied from 1967's Garrison Death Squad, a twenty-six-episode American war television series directed by Nicholas Cara Santo, starring Ron Habbose, Sardanova, Rudy Solari, Brandon Bonn and others. The play tells the story of a group of runaway young people from the United States, who behave in a bohemian manner and are full of evil, but they continue to build meritorious deeds and become heroes. However, Garrison is talking about the late stages of World War II, the war is getting more and more brutal, Lieutenant Garrison from the prison to find some murderers, liars, robbers, thieves to form an unprecedented death squad.
Hong Jinbao is talking about the late Stage of the Vietnam War, and it does not have the same pattern and content as the film, after all, the space for movies and TV series to play is not the same. The plot of "Oriental Condor" is much simpler, there is no puzzling business logic, the main line is clear, and the information needed to advance the plot is fully displayed at the beginning. The Vulture Squad follows a established route to its destination, eliminating the obstructing Viet Cong halfway through. The conflict is obvious, relying on wonderful action scenes to impress people, so there are many fight scenes in the movie.
Of course, because the mainland introduced "Garrison Death Squad" that year, the older generation of viewers are more familiar with the plot of this TV series.
Many classic movies of Hong Jinbao's era were not released in mainland theaters, and everyone watched through VCD, video halls and other channels, and when they saw it, it was a few years later. But this does not affect the greatness of this film.
Many people criticize the pattern and logic of this movie, but in fact, I think it is a kind of pretense. "All overheated, all crazy" is David Podwell's evaluation of Hong Kong films in the book "The Secret of Hong Kong Cinema", which is precisely the biggest contribution and characteristic of Hong Kong filmmakers at that time.
"Oriental Condor" is a bold attempt by Hong Jinbao, and when Hong Kong was busy with jianghu films and ghost films in 1987, it was risky for Hong Jinbao to shoot such a large-scale war film. Hong Kong films have been hovering at the level of B-grade films, and investors have no intention of making big-budget films, just hoping to make money quickly. Therefore, the style of Hong Kong films is single and the production is rough.
After the glory of the 80s, it is normal for Hong Kong films to fall into decline in the mid-to-late 90s. When Hong Jinbao was at the peak of Hong Kong films, shooting a film that Hong Kong was not good at showed his courage and ambition. Although the film is not perfect in many details, the biggest selling point is the action. But it was much better than the people who only knew how to make ghost films and hero films at that time. Unfortunately, such a film did not catch fire, and few people filmed it later, and slowly the road of Hong Kong films was narrowed and broken. The departure of Hong Kong film talents is officially due to the short-sightedness of the Hong Kong film market, lack of innovation, willing to follow the trend, remake.
This film is led by Seven Xiaofu, if Jackie Chan (but Jiangyang Gu has a mystery here for many years has not been solved, I because Jackie Chan actually made a cameo in the film, if you are admitted to the 8 minutes and 6 seconds of the film there is a to call them to start, about three seconds of the shot, give a close-up, I think this person is Jackie Chan) also joined, then this film for the action film at that time the significance will be more intense. There are also Qin Xianglin in the Double Qin, Tang Zhenye in the Five Tigers, Miao Qiaowei, the gold medal action villains Kurata Baozhao, Zhou Billy, Gao Fei, And Di Wei, the heroine is played by the wife and apprentice gao Lihong of the eldest brother Dahong Jinbao, and the action and acting skills are speechless.
This film has a strong lineup, which has also led to a serious shrinkage of the actor's role, but this does not affect the actors' play, the director cleverly grasped their characteristics on the screen, resulting in the roles also have flesh and blood, Uncle Ying's conscientious duties, Yuan Biao's playing treasure funny, Yuan Heping's disrespect for the old, Yuan Kui's stubbornness and seriousness...
Because it is a war theme, the plot is inevitably a little heavy, and the death of one character after another is undoubtedly stained with sadness, but the hilarity interspersed with it also greatly dilutes this tone, and the combination of the two makes the plot more attractive.
Although "Eastern Condor" is a less serious Vietnam War film than movies such as "Run to the Fury Sea" and "Hu Yue's Story", it has actually done well enough.
First of all, in terms of action, it really achieved the ultimate of violent aesthetics, Hong Jinbao's leaf shooting, Yuan Biao's multi-stage fight for coconuts, and the last warehouse, Yuanhua once again played a master who looked sick and crooked, almost let Hong Jinbao and Yuan Biao stop cooking. Yuan Baye rarely goes out, and the dubbed version of this play has a Shandong accent, which is also quite funny. And the American officer played by the zombie road chief Lin Zhengying is upright and looks down on the Americans, and it seems that people are in the heart of Cao Ying.
The film does not confront the cruelty of war, but each of their participants is already a tragedy, and the whole movie seems to have no position. There is no righteous party, only the subconscious mind's likes and dislikes for one party. All of them have unknown origins and unclear histories, like the outcasts of the times, who have left their hometowns but cannot find a way to live a good life, and can only go to other places to die in exchange for the legal residence of future generations. In that sense, they were all cannon fodder, and if it was a real war, the plane would never come, like a force abandoned in a foreign land and out of touch. When their positions change, they are on their own.
In 1987, Hong Jinbao took a risk, and almost died, but he left a strong mark in the history of the shadow, I think it is very worthwhile, thanks to Hong Jinbao and their old shadow people, to bring them those joys, blood and passion, although life is plain, but once accompanied by your light and shadow, foot also.