As a rare war-themed film in Hong Kong films, "Oriental Condor" can be said to be Hong Jinbao's ambitious work, its transnational shooting costly, not only mobilized the entire Hong family class members, but also invited most of the action stars of the film and television circle to join
Qian Jiale even almost died in Vietnam for the filming of this film, a subject that everyone did not dare to touch, Hong Jinbao used it to create a classic in the history of Hong Kong films, but such a significant film, why did it finally encounter box office Waterloo, today let us walk into the behind-the-scenes story of "Oriental Condor"
This film is a bold attempt by Hong Jinbao, in the seventies and eighties of the last century, Hong Kong films are still in the dominant period of comedy and fantasy films, in order to make a good war movie, there are actually many restrictions, not to mention how difficult it is to shoot the film, just to say whether the audience can accept this new type of film is a problem, after all, the film finally has to serve the market
However, the difficulty of shooting war films is really higher than that of ordinary films, it is not good to take materials on the one hand, on the one hand, the grand field is also very demanding for directors, coupled with its huge cost, so at that time, Hong Kong investors had no interest in this kind of film at all, after all, capitalists wanted films that could make money quickly
Seeing that no one is willing to invest, Hong Jinbao does not want to give up this new type of film, so he paid for the filming of "Oriental Vulture", which also highlights the efforts of the older generation of Hong Kong filmmakers to develop new types of films, I have to say that in this regard, Hong Jinbao's courage is really admirable, so he began to plan for this war blockbuster
The film takes the real history as the background, the plot is based on the Vietnam War, the time is set in the second year after the end of the Vietnam War, because the US military left a large amount of ammunition when it withdrew from Vietnam, and he could not solve it in a fair and bright way, so he found several murderers led by Tong Mingxin and let them form a squad to blow up the ammunition, the United States named this operation "Eastern Condor", which is the origin of the name of the film
The film is quite strong in the cast, Hong Jinbao gathered more than 20 martial arts stars to participate, and the members of the "Seven Little Fortunes" alone have Hong Jinbao Yuanbiao Yuanhua Yuankui four, if it were not for the injury during the filming of "Dragon Brother Tiger Brother", perhaps Jackie Chan would have come to star in this movie
In addition, there are Devi Lin Zhengying Zhou Billy Kurata Baozhao and other strength stars, just from this lineup can be imagined, this film must be quite eye-catching in the action scenes, after all, these martial arts actors are not vegetarians, one of the four villains, Zhou Billy, or Hong Jinbao personally called to invite
At that time, the world boxing champion was playing in Hong Kong, and Hong Jinbao contacted him to hope that he would star in this movie, because before that, the two had worked together once in "The Bride of the Port", when Hong Jinbao had seen Billy Chow's fists and feet, and this time invited the boxer to join, but also hoped to provide greater help for the film
Although this film is a war film in terms of genre, it is essentially an action film with a hard bridge and a hard horse, so it is still very remarkable in the design of the fight scene, especially the two battles between the jungle and the arsenal, everyone has shown a deep kung fu foundation, and the punches and feet are very visually impactful
Yuan Biao's leg skills are also perfectly played in the film, and when he fights against Di Wei and Kurata Hosaki, he uses a lot of kicks and flying kicks, which is first-class in terms of difficulty and ornamentation
There is a shot of Hong Jinbao jumping from a mountain to a military vehicle in the film, in fact, this is not Hong Jinbao himself jumping, but the stunt Qian Jiale completed, it is said that at the beginning Hong Jinbao also skipped once, but because he did not grasp the time, he fell and injured his leg after jumping, and then Yuan Biao Yuanhua also tried, but none of Qian Jiale's completion was high, so finally Let Qian Jiale complete this thrilling jump
However, although he was skilled, an accident almost killed Qian Jiale in Vietnam, that is, during the filming of an explosion scene, he was injured by six gasoline barrels on the spot, and his entire arm was burned off a layer of skin, but during the treatment, Qian Jiale not only did not return to Hong Kong to recuperate, but also went to the set to complete some stunt shots
So this incident made Hong Jinbao feel very guilty, so later when filming "Uncle Zombie", he let Qian Jiale be the protagonist once, and it can be said that this protagonist was exchanged for Qian Jiale's life
In addition, the heroine of this film is Hong Jinbao's wife Gao Lihong, it is said that the two were in love because of this drama for a long time, Gao Lihong worshiped Hong Jinbao as a teacher in 1986, and the two were officially married in 1991, although the age difference is 13 years, their marriage is very happy, and it has gone through 30 years now
There is also the supporting role named Yang Long in the film, I don't know if you have an impression, this character is also a major attraction of the film at that time, because he was played by the Chinese star Wu Hanrun, who won the Academy Award in 1985 with "War Slaughter City", but unfortunately he was assassinated on the streets of the United States in 1996
In addition, there is yuan heping's title of "eight masters", which is actually from this movie, because in the play everyone calls him "uncle", and the Cantonese pronunciation is similar to "eight masters", so over time the name of eight masters has spread
Although the film strives for perfection in many aspects, its final box office performance is not ideal, in addition to the market's restrictions on new films, the film itself also has some problems, the star lineup is too strong to lead to a serious shrinkage of personal roles, the whole film from beginning to end is constantly receiving box lunches, sudden death so that many viewers are a little caught off guard
Secondly, the positioning of the film is not accurate, whether it is the main war or the main action, there are many big scenes in the early stage, but in the end, I still choose to end the whole film with a fight, which makes people have a feeling of abrupt stopping, but although there are some imperfections in this movie, it is undeniable that it is of great significance to the entire Hong Kong film industry