Cantonese: Dung fong tuk ying
Mandarin: Dong fang tu ying
English: Eastern Condors

Sammo Hung Kam-po directed and stars in this terrific actioner, which smoothly blends martial arts and Vietnam war action elements together into a very satisfying whole. In 1976, the US government assembles a group of Chinese/Vietnamese prisoners (including Sammo Hung, Charlie Chin Hsiang-lin, Billy Lau Nam-kwong, Cheung Kwok-keung, Yuen Woo-ping, Peter Chan Lung, Corey Yuen Kwai, Chin Kar-lok, and Hsiao Hou) into a DIRTY DOZEN-style combat force, whose mission is to parachute back into Vietnam and destroy a hidden arsenal of US Army weapons that was left behind, before it falls into Vietcong hands. While in Vietnam, the troops meet up with three exceedingly tough female Cambodian guerillas (led by Joyce Godenzi; image with Lam Ching-ying), who act as their escorts. Later, following a close call with the VC, they also hook up with black market goods dealer Weasel and his deranged uncle (THE KILLING FIELDS' Dr. Haing S. Ngor), and the former’s knowledge of the terrain is a valuable aid in locating the underground complex. Hot on their trail is a psychotic Vietnamese colonel (Yuen Wah, in a positively reptilian performance), who locates and confronts the Condors for a showstopping final duel in the rocket base (a very elaborate and impressive bit of production design).

The fight choreography is consistently inventive, making ingenious use of the jungle environment (in one memorable instance, Hung transforms leaves into deadly projectiles) and Yuen and Hung (the latter looking noticeably thinner than usual) are at the peak of their form. The Vietnamese adversaries are played by a virtual "Who's Who" of genre regulars from this period, including Billy Chow Bei-lee, Phillip Ko Fei, Yasuaki Kurota, and Dick Wei. Location work in The Philippines and Canada, and Arthur Wong Ngok-tai's first-class scope photography also lend the production an epic feel that transcends the vast majority of HK action films from this period.