No comments about 52 Blocks Show and Prove.

No comments about Turbo Jam Turbo Sculpt.

5 comments about Hapkido Self-defense Volume 1.

1. this series is not for novice martial artists. But for those who have some experience in martial arts, especially in hap-ki-do, you will find these moves beneficial and deadly. Just know that when practicing the techniques, joints can easily be dislocated or broken.



2. I have a black belt in hapkido and have twice visited Korea to train and I have to say, the instructors on this DVD are top notch. I had to laugh when I saw that another reviewer said that someone might get hurt practicing the techniques taught here. Well, if we're talking about self-defense, then that would seem to be the point.
   
   Practicing with a partner is another matter, and I'd recommend that you proceed with caution when it comes to many of the techniques found in this series, especially the strangulation defenses and many of the throws. These are not techniques to fool around with if you are not knowledgeable or working under a qualified instructor. Some of the defenses are more practical than others. Some would make great demonstration techniques but I doubt I would choose to use them on the street. However, this DVD does present a good portion of the hapkido self-defense curriculum systematically with expert demonstrations and good explanations so if you are a hapkido student, you can go wrong here. Highly recommended to anyone looking for authentic Korean hapkido.



3. This DVD provides a good overview understanding of the self-defense applications of Hapkido. This DVD is Good for the martial artist who already possesses some experience in the self-defense application of the martial arts; most particularly the Hapkido stylist at the early stages of training. If you are an advanced practitioner of Hapkido, however, then you are not going to learn too much from this DVD as it only presents the basic, elementary applications of Hapkido that you have no doubt learned in class.
   
   The one comment I believe needs to be made about this DVD is that you are not going to watch it and immediately understand the subtle aspects of Hapkido's understanding of self-defense. The techniques presented on this DVD really need to practiced with a partner to be understood. The problem is, it is very easy to hurt your partner or yourself if you really do not know what you are doing and are not under the supervision of a qualified instructor. So, keep this in mind when you view this DVD.



4. Hapkido Essentials and the two Hapkido Self Defense volumes are great for technique review. These products are good for those individuals that are now training or having had some previous experience in Hapkido or other similar Korean martial arts. It is difficult to see the hand positions for many of the techniques. Other than that you will see super rolling, throwing, blocking, locking, rotation, and flexion.



5. Volume 1 (about 1 hour)
   Locks from wrist grabs (same side, cross, two hands, etc) - techniques 1-29
   Throws - techniques 30-39
   Standing Self Defense (collar grabs, belt grabs, wrist grabs) - techniques 40-48
   Self Defense vs Hug (front and rear bear hugs, collar grabs, elbow grabs) - techniques 49-58
   Defenses vs Punches - techniques 59-78
   Defense vs Kicks (side and roundhouse) - techniques 79-100
   
   Volume one packs a lot of material onto a one hour video. The English overdub is clear and concise and accentuates the excellent picture quality. There is a limited number of replays and not many close ups. In general, the video provides a very nice catalog of material but I wouldn't consider it an "instructional" video, i.e. this is a reference for people who know this material already for the most part.
   
   The material in general is very good and is representative of Jin Jung Kwan's material and the Korea Hapkido Federation (KHF) material as far as I know. I have a few quibbles based on my own opinions (although judging by the number of stripes GM Myung Yong Kim is wearing on his belt, I think he's been around this art a long time!)
   
   -In many of the techniques, he leans very far forward at the end of the technique, with his body and arms extended. I personally would prefer a more "straight up" finish and closer arms to keep my balance.
   
   -Some of the finishes leave the opponent within easy grabbing distance of the defender's legs... hopefully the pain will keep them from taking advantage of that but I'd rather be "safe than sorry".
   
   -I like the material shown and I think the attention paid to certain manipulations is very valuable. More close ups and descriptions of the manipulations would be useful. On areas where "tips" are given, they are excellent.
   
   - This style seems to use a lot of dropping to a knee to complete the techniques and has a few where the defender ends up on a knee while the attacker is still standing. I'm not a big fan of this personally.
   
   - Some of the throws seem contrived and overly complicated, including a few where the person being thrown gets thrown along a very different trajectory than the easiest path.
   
   -The punch defenses are decent, including a nice group of simple ones (69-73) although many of the others are very complicated even at a slow speed and some seem to leave the defender very much extended and off balance.
   The kick defenses work off a nice progression of introducing the basics and becoming more difficult. Some are quite complicated though and seem clumsy at slow speed, let alone high speed.
   
   -The videos in general don't seem to have any real pattern of material or progression of techniques. Some very complicated techniques are shown before easy ones, and there doesn't seem to be any sort of spiral curriculum of building on previous material. Then again, I look at the video as a catalog instead of an "instructional" tape.
   
   -Some of the partners whine and scream to excess, distracting from the techniques being shown.
   
   In general I like this volume. The techniques are shown with speed and power and with a clear description. There is a lot of material on here without too many replays or "fluff". I imagine that when put with the "essentials" volume that the necessary striking, footwork, breathing, and falling all come into focus. For videos on traditional Korean Hapkido this is pretty good. Keep in mind that this is actually the second video in the series, the first being "Hapkido Essentials" that covers basic strikes, movement, and etc.

2 comments about King of the Cage: Underground Extreme.

1. This mostly feels like the undercard to a UFC event, but this is not too far off from the big leagues. 5 double sided dvd's give you 10 events with about 125 matches of various calibre. You will spot a few faces you might recognize and many more you will not. Some great fights, some terrible and a lot in between. For the money you can't go wrong. Though for some of the bigger and better names in the KOTC, they put out single event dvd's which are reasonably priced compared to the UFC/Pride counterparts. This is the 3rd box set for KOTC. A box set best of is being released in July.



2. Mostly third-rate matches with some guys quitting after the first round because they are out of breath. Now and then, a good match is thrown in, like the one between Dean Lister and Jeremy Irons, but it is marred by incompetent ringside reporting. Visual quality is only fair.
   I'd much rather watch a UFC or Pride disc-10 bouts of highly skilled fighters, shot with quality camerawork and reporting instead of 135 fights between mediocre fighters, with mediocre camerawork and reporting.

5 comments about The Magic of Martial Arts.

1. God forbid that my tape breaks. For the first time I can leave my children for half an hour and not worry if they are allright. They eaven read the credits. My children used to watch Power Rangers, but it is to violent. Magic of Martial Arts should be made into a serries.



2. Your kids will love this wonderful video. It teaches children about self-defense without any of the hype or violence we see so much of on TV today. And the characters even sing, too... Great music. I give it two thumbs up! Highly recommended.



3. This video is an excellent introduction of the true spirit of martial arts to children. In good taste, it discusses the realities of environmental violence to children and teaches them
   the wisdom of running away from potential trouble, whenever possible. Furthermore, it emphasizes that the use of physical techniques against another person is a last resort.

   The ingenious and creative uses of "magic", music, and comedy make this presentation fun and amusing to watch for both children and adults.




4. My son is 4.5 and goes to Karate. He loved this video. It is also very good for kids who don't do Karate as it shows them how to handle bullys and also their anger. Highly recommended.



5. bad design
   never want to watch it again
   does not teach much
   really want to return it
   poor quality

4 comments about Pride FC - Collision Course.

1. Pride 13...Anybody favored to win in this event lost. That doesn't mean it wasn't one of the best Prides ever. Full of surprises sums it up.
   This event is known for the rule change of allowing soccer kicks to a downed opponent's head. It turned out to be a real factor here.
   Buy this for the legendary Sakuraba vs Vanderlei Silva 1. Their rematch is in Pride 17 but the first one is a classic.
   Dan Henderson vs Renzo Gracie is also a stunner.
   You gotta have this one if you consider yourself a fan of MMA at all. This is simply the best there is.



2. PRIDE 13 WAS AN EVENT THAT IN MY OPINION WAS WORTH THE COST. VITOR BELFORT SHOWED SOME GRAPPLING SKILL, GUY MEZGER AND EGAN INOUE WENT TOE TO TOE,HEATH HERRING AND SOBOLEV DENIS WAS LOBSIDED, DAN HENDERSON AND RENZO GRACIE WAS A FLUKE, COLEMAN AND ALLAN GOES WAS A JOKE,T. YASUDA AND MR. SATAKE WAS DESCENT,TRA TELLIGMAN VS. IGOR VOVCHANCHYN WAS A STANDING BATTLE, AND SILVA VS. SAKURABA WAS AN INSTANT CLASSIC!!!!!ALL IN ALL THE PRICE OF ADMISSION WAS WELL WORTH IT.



3. Yes the matchups were good, but the new Pride rules were really the story of this DVD.

   Kicking and kneeing a down opponent was now legal in Pride. This would have given Igor Vovchanchyn a KO victory over Mark Kerr in their first encounter. But enough with the what ifs; this Pride was to be the first under these controversial rules.

   The new rules really favored the "strikers" and gave the "grapplers" something to think about. These old terms are dated. Every good fighter is well-rounded in grappling and striking skills. Maybe it safe to say that the good strikers really got a kick off these new rules. No pun intended.

   The night kicked off with BJJ sensation Vitor Belfort against Pride newcomer Bobby Southworth. We got a glimpse of Belfort's submission skills in this fight. A mismatch, but entertaining.

   Next up was to be a grudge match between Enson Inoue and Guy Metzger. In an earlier UFC tournament, these two were to fight, but Enson suffered and injury that prevented this. Words were tossed, as they always are and a grudge was born. Unfortunately for Guy, Enson had retired. So in came older brother Egan Inoue to challenge Metzger. While Egan was the more muscular of the two, Metzger was actually bigger in size. A good striking fight with a solid KO for a finish.

   The ever tough Heath Herring was up next against Denis Sobolev. Herring at a young age had taken out perhaps the most dominating wrestler in Tom Erickson. With his stock rising, nothing was to stop Herring this night, not even a tough-guy in Sobolev.

   The next fight featured two MMA's classiest fighters. As classy they are, of course they happen to be very good fighters. On one corner we had Renzo Gracie, the most active of the famous Gracie family. His fights were against formidable opponents. With wins over Taktarov, Kikuta, Otsuka, and Maurice Smith, speaks volumes. In the other corner: Dan Henderson. Henderson was/is all business. He is a quite man who just wins. His victories include wins over Goes, Newton, Yvel, Nogueira, Babalu were also impressive. So these two great (in and outside the ring) fighters fought with a sneaky punch resulting in decisive KO. No phantom-punches, it may require the slo-motion of your DVD to really catch the quick right.

   An interesting matchup between heavyweight Mark Coleman and middleweight Alan Goes was next. The last the world saw of Coleman was in Pride winning the Grand Prix tournament. His return was anticipated even if was against a smaller opponent. Goes the superb BJJ technician was the first true submissions expert Coleman was to face. The new rules turned this fight into lights-out for the loser. A funny sequence of events follow the stoppage of this fight. It cannot be missed.

   The next fight was the Japanese treat fight. We had Masaaki Satake vs. Tadao Yasuda in a fight catered to entertain the Japanese crowd. A match of little to no significance. I did disagree with the decision, though.

   Fight 7 was originally the battle between Ken Shamrock and Igor Vovchanchyn. The buzz behind was huge, but Shamrock was forced to step down due to an injury. His "last second" replacement was fellow Lions Den fighter Tre Telligman. Telligman while respected, was on paper no threat to Igor. Tre had fought (valiantly) and lost to many good fighters. Igor was ready to use this fight as a springboard to a highly-anticipated rematch against Mark "the Hammer" Coleman. The biggest shocker in recent MMA history. Really something special!

   In the end...the Main Event! The battle between Japanese sensation Kazushi Sakaraba and Vanderlei Silva. Saku was on top of the world. His victories over almost every fighting Gracie and widely regarded as the best middleweight in the world. He had earned his high remarks by exhibiting truly unorthadox fighting. On the other corner was Muay-Thai sensation Vanderlei Silva. The "Axe Murderer" as he is known, Silva had a reputation as bruising striker. Silva didn't want to be another Brazilian to fall to Sakuraba. Sakuraba was eager to take out a powerful striking specialist. This fight best describes the title of the event: Collision Course! A brutal finish to say the least.

   The best Pride show maybe since Pride 10 (Return of the Warriors). A great buy, trust me.




4. Many fighters were caught at a transitional stage in this event. The new rule, which allowed the fighters to kick and knee their opponents when they are on their all fours, really played a big factor to the upsets in this event. This rule is what made Pride as close as it can be to a "no rule" contest. The change gave the strikers a lot of advantage over the grapplers. However, the fights were pretty dull except for the main event.

5 comments about The Princess Blade.

1. 500 years have passed. That is what is says at the start. Now maybe these movies are like really common, but I need a story that is at least explainable. But the good news is that the drama is great. The comedy is really funny even though sparingly used. The action is done in a very hong kong type of style. Not what I swas expecting, cuause that is like what I always watch, but good none the less. I could have used a lttle more action, btu man was it spectacular. The wire work is noticeable, but not to make that actors look better, rather to show what happens when you get REAL athletes on wires. The fighting is VERY real throughout the whole film, and even though I like really bloody stuff, I thought this just hit the spot, but went a tad too extreme midway through. Not complaining, just warnign people it is rated R for a reason. But seriosly this movie is a 5/5. The story just needed to be A LOT better. Great acting, just no story. But I remember one scene in particular where the princess is taking on like 7 people all by herself, and the action is just seriously second to none. Add in like 5 other scenes that almost, just almost match that one. Wow what a violently spectacular film. WHEW, now that I got that point across, I can discuss the actual movie. OH BTW, I did see AT LEAST one of donnie's kicks in here, so look closely:)
   
   So the story is about a japanese girl who is part of a team of assasins. I guess that assasins rule the world by killing people who are uprising or something in this. But anyway, the girl in this movie is like the last of her blood line and once she rebels, the other assasins want to kill her. It talks briefly how she is descended form like LONG ago and this is of great importance. But the part that captured me was the dark mood of the movie. the story is not good, but the huuman conflict going on is a very good movie watchign experience for anyone. There is a subplot which turn even darker at teh end. But overall, a wonderful movie. Also the music is great and really helps to capture the mood.
   
   Now I have the adv films dvd and have to disagree with the pervious reviewer and say that the english dub sucks. The japanese track is AWESOME and is full of all types of emotion. If he would haev said it was better than most, I would have agreed, cause it certainly was! Sound is wonderful when the music is playing but the volume is a bit slow when it is not. The picture quality is perfecto and is widescreened. Special features-nothing. Just some anime trailers.



2. I didn't the story to be quite the way Amazon tells it. To me it seems the monarchy has been long overthrown, something about 500 years (even though the cars, clothing and so on are unchanged- you don't really see much of that world)and Japan is an isolated country with a repressive government that sounds to me something like what Cuba has these days. The assassins are out after the rebels (who seem to use a lot of violence although you won't see it)who oppose the government.
   
   I found the movie to be very depressing, a couple of characters even saying, "Let's leave this country and find someplace to be happy". The action/violence comes in spurts- most of it suprisingly not very bloody. Yumiko Shaku (who in her interview says she had no experience and only a week or so of practice before filming to get it) seems to be the best of the actors and have the best scenes in my opinion, without her work I don't know that I'd even want to see this movie again.
   
   When I played my copy I noticed that it seems to be set for English (the dubbing is very well done) but can be set for Japanese with English subtitles, there's no closed captioning but you can use the subtitle function with the English dubbing if you need it as a substitute. The extras include some bloopers and behind the scenes things and some cast/ crew interviews. Most of these are in Japanese with English subtitling although Donnie Yen (the action choreographer) does his bit in English with Japanese subtitling.



3. I was all geeked to watch this but was disapponted...I don't feel lke they picked the right person to direct this movie. It seemed very empty to me! The fighting scenes were blah and that was what really blew it for me...maybe if it was longer it would have been better? I don't know...and then there was a mini plot with a brother and sister that SEEMED OUT OF PLACE!! sigh...Azumi was a much better martial arts sword movie.



4. The plot was a little lacking , but made up for it with alot of sword playing action. After on a rollercoster of action the plot came into play now. At first , not much.. but towards the end..you'll never guess. If you like cute girl with sword and knows how to use it..get it. The action scenes are great.



5. THE PRINCESS BLADE (a.k.a. Shirayuki Hime) is based on the manga by Kazou Koike with the same name. The film is not a remake of the Japanese classic; "Lady Snowblood" (Lady Snowblood greatly influenced Tarantino's Kill Bill) but rather a tribute film to that classic. The film is a post-apocalyptic vision of the future; however, it does successfully preserve the essence and motif of Japanese samurai films. Director Shinsuke Sato's vision on the manga is very interesting as his execution deals with typical samurai films in a futuristic vision of an industrialized Japan.
   
   The House of Takemikazuchi is a clan of assassins. Due to modernization and the majority of people with undesirable lives, these once noble warriors are now assassins for hire who will kill anyone for the right price. There is no way one may relinquish ties to the clan. Yuki (Yumiko Shaku, SKY HIGH), an orphan who was raised by the clan is among the best killers among them. Unbeknownst to her, she is the true heir to the Takemikazuchi bloodline. One day, she was told by a stranger that her mother; Princess Azora was killed by Byakurai, the current clan leader. She tries to kill him but fails. Forced to flee, and to fight for her survival against her brethren; Yuki comes across Takashi, a young activist leader and finds comfort in his company. Meanwhile, her past threatens to catch up to her as Byakurai plots to hunt her and down and kill her.
   
   At first impression, one may think that "Princess Blade" is a Jidai Geki swordplay spectacle but in truth, this film is a bit slower paced than most Japanese action flicks such as Versus. There is a hint of existentialism in its plot; this film carries more of the "samurai" essence in past films and focuses more in its humanity. "Hime" does give a hint of the samurai philosophy and characteristics; such as nobility, loyalty, allegiance and honor. When watching "Hime", please consider a modern feudal Japan with characters seeking isolation. Samurai usually are willing to die for his beliefs/ideals with honor as the road to glory, Yuki, upon her discovery of the truth and her betrayal finds something more worthwhile to live for; she discovers something more to her life than her past killing ways. Her meeting with Takashi (Hideaki Ito) after an attack, allows Yuki to appreciate a peaceful existence as they discover each other's lives. Takashi serves as a conscience for Yuki as he once performed some assassinations in the form of terrorism against the state; he questions her moral beliefs when he finds out her links to the House of Takemikazuchi. I believe this approach is a nice touch since it takes the film from a simple revenge premise to a warmer one of one's desire to escape their past choices to happier and warmer pastures.
   
   The action/swordplay choreography by Donnie Yen raises the expectations of the action fanatic. His choreography is quite inventive as he mixes in almost anime-like posturing with the usual chaotic swordplay. The Donnie Yen touch is omnipresent in each duel with each ascending and sliding sword strokes; grappling is even used in close quarters with superb execution that shows ferocity. However, even with the sheer intensity of the action footages, one may notice and give comparison to previous samurai films; the KATANA sword is NOT a one-handed sword. Yen choreographs the scenes with the usual wire-fu at times and the mentioned Katana swords are sometimes wielded like a one-handed flat TAI-CHI sword whose concept is to wound an opponent before a kill. This presents a little inaccuracy in the sequences. However exciting the swordplay sequences may be, they aren't without fault and I've definitely seen better ones executed in other modern chambara films such as AZUMI and ARAGAMI.
   
   "Princess Blade" may not be a perfect film but it does offer interesting concepts of redemption and gives homage to past samurai period films. The director may have become a bit over-ambiguous with his views of way too many topics and philosophical issues that the proceedings seem to lose their intensity and the film almost stops to a crawl around the middle. With its darker setting and the post-apocalyptic atmospheric feel, the themes of samurai films by Kurosawa and Inagaki are still the main ingredients. Fans expecting a non-stop action spectacle may be a bit disappointed; as with most Japanese films it leans more towards its humanity and focuses on its philosophy. Still, the gorgeous visuals with the action choreography do create a unique experience for samurai aficionados.
   
   RECOMMENDED! [3 ½ stars]
   
   I have the region-3 release from IVL with Anamorphically Enhanced picture transfer. The U.S. release is Letterboxed and carries a Japanese Language track as well as an English Dubbed track. Use the Japanese track with the subtitles. The U.S. region 1 release does have a lot of extras I've heard.

No comments about Street Stick Fighting.

4 comments about The Green Jade Statuette.

1. This flick is no joke! When I first got this one off of Amazon.com, I wasn't particularly enthusiastic about the title. But let me tell you the title will straight up throw you off. Don't let this one slip by you. The acting is a bit cheezy, but it's easy to live with. Also whoever ran the cameras had some of the actors bodies chopped out of the scenes. For example, you will hear people talking but you won't see who's talking. This takes place in several scenes. Kind of distracting, but it doesn't take nothing away from this action-packed flick!
   
   This one starts out with a vicious fighting scene. A family was viciously murdered and had their precious Green Jade Statuette (The Jade Monk) stolen by three ruthless thieves (The Three Tigers). Unknowingly to these killers, a daughter hid in the the closet quietly and watched her family being killed execution style by these three bandits who vowed they would meet in exactly one year in Stone Village to sell the statuette and split the proceeds among them. After overhearing this, the daughter hired a professional killer (Chin Chang) to retrieve her family's precious statuette. and to wipe out The Three Tigers. I call him the man in white, because he always wore white throughout the picture. This killer is awesome. He carries this very short brass pole/stick around that has a blade in the center of it. I have never seen anyone use or swirl a weapon like this before. Anway, anyone who comes up against him is at his mercy with this weapon. He even stated on one occasion that if anyone opposes him they will get one result, "and that's death!"
   
   Although the daughter wanted her family's precious Green Jade Statuette back, the real motive for hiring Chin Chang was to take revenge on the Three Tigers who wrecked her household. She poses as a prostitute in a brothel in Stone Village waiting for the moment to seek her revenge. Chin Chang never knew that she was the one who hired him until near the end of the movie. Also, the madam (Pearl Lee) of the brothel, who is the younger sister of the eldest of The Three Tigers, knew about the statuette. Chin Chang believed that if he located Pearl he would also locate the statuette. How? You will have to watch the movie for that answer! Before long, you have other characters looking for this same statuette as well - such as Pearl's boyfriend (Wu Kang)- who is an excellent fighter, who soon discovers that his lying girlfriend is in fact related to one of the Three Tigers.
   
   I just gave a small overview without giving too much away. There's much more to this action flick than what's stated here. Judge for yourself.
   
   This flick is filled with great fighting scenes and the plot carries throughout. This kept to the plot and this is what I particularly liked about this one. The cheezy acting and the voice overdubs are something to be desired though. If you can get past these two negatives you have a great 4-star flick. In this one, you don't know who to trust and that what keeps your interest. People are not who they apear to be. Hey, if you got to grab that snack, make sure you press the pause button or you'll miss something.



2. This is a keeper, a lot of good fights. I gave it four stars and not five because I thought the last fight scene was to short. Good action through out the movie.



3. Meng Fei is after a Green Jade Statuette and there are a lot of people who don't want him to get it. Chi Kuan Chun helps him out and Wang Kuan Hsiung (Horse Boxing Killer) plays a mysterious type of character who leaves roses on all of the dead bodies he finds. But the most mysterious character is played by Tommy Lee (Along Comes a Tiger, Seven Steps of Kung Fu, Shaolin Red Master...). He plays his usual hunchback role but is not a fighter (or is he?). This is an above average kung fu flick with plenty of fights, and there is a nice little surprise towards the end. Meng Fei and Chi Kuan Chun are in top form and there are plenty of other actors on hand. Jimmy Lee (Rebellious Reign), Lung Fei (One Armed Boxer), Shan Mao (One Armed Boxer), Phillip Ko (8 Diagram Pole Fighter), Leung Kar Yan (Thundering Mantis), Chan Wai Lau (World of Drunken Master), and Hu Chin (Lost Swordship) all have good small roles. And there are a lot of other recognizable faces that I didn't even name.
   
   The fights are very good and they never let up. Chi Kuan Chun and Meng Fei have a good fight against eachother, Wang Kuan Hsiung looks good, and the best stuff is saved for the last 10 minutes. It doesn't get too much better than seeing Chi Kuan Chun have a 2 on 1 fight with Lung Fei and Leung Kar Yan, and the very last fight is amazing as well.
   
   4/5
   
   Picture quality is decent. Full screen, lots of scratches, and the picture is too dark, but still more than watchable. The dubbing is bad. The voice actors don't seem like they put much effort into it.



4. Chi Kuan Chun ("Showdown at the Cotton Mill") plays Wu Kang, protector of all businesses in Stone Village and fiance of Madame Pearl (Hu Chin), who runs the local brothel. When known assassin Chen Chang (Meng Fei, The "Prodigal Boxer") shows up at the brothel and leaves an ultimatum that could result in Pearl's death (should she not comply), Wu Kang must figure out what's going on... which will require a lot more than just asking questions and kicking faces.
   
   What a pleasant surprise this was. A unique entry in my collection of old school flicks, with a cool, easy-to-follow story and plenty of twists. The fights are kinda slow at first, but nonetheless enjoyable, and they occur frequently. Plenty of big names have smaller roles including Jimmy Lee, Philip Ko, Lung Fei, and even Leung Kar Yan.
   
   Tai Seng's Martial Arts Theater version is a bit of a disappointment, mostly because it's fullscreened. Though the picture quality is quite good, you will often be given a view of the side of someone's head when they are the only one speaking. Luckily this has little bearing on the action. The only reason I did not award this 4-stars is because repeat viewings won't likely be as enjoyable as one's first time with this. It's still a very good film and is certainly recommended. English dubbed only. 3.5/5
   
   1978. aka: Killer's Game

5 comments about Eastern Condors.

1. While it's not flawless, this Fox DVD edition of EASTERN CONDORS is clearly the best we've ever seen of this 1987 Hong Kong action classic. Sammo Hung, the star and director, had graduated from old school kung fu films to contemporary stunt-filled action comedies with his Peking Opera classmates, Jackie Chan and Yuen Biao, and then a new direction (minus Jackie) with his all-star action comedy, MILLIONAIRES' EXPRESS in 1986. EASTERN CONDORS borrows liberally from THE DIRTY DOZEN (1967) and THE DEER HUNTER (1978), while injecting massive doses of kung fu, acrobatics, gunfire, black humor and tragedy into its tale of Asian and Asian-American military prisoners ("the Condors") sent on a dangerous mission into Vietnam in 1976, a year after the American withdrawal.
   
   The Condors' mission in Vietnam is to find and destroy an underground cache of American weapons to keep it out of Vietnamese hands. When they get to Vietnam they hook up with a trio of female Cambodian guerrillas (led by fighting femme Joyce Godenzi) who act as guides, but have an ulterior motive of their own. The group also picks up a local Cantonese-speaking black market dealer who's expert in kung fu (Yuen Biao). Thanks to a spy in the group, the Vietnamese army follows the Condors' every move.
   
   The nonstop action is quite cleverly staged, although some of it is a bit far-fetched. The characters and their relationships are generally quite interesting and we tend to feel sadness and grief when a member of the group dies (or is seriously wounded or maimed). Partly filmed in Canada, with outdoors action shot in the Philippines, the film offers a spectacular climax staged in an underground weapons complex designed and built to resemble the sets Ken Adam built for so many James Bond films.
   
   The film's expert cinematography is finally given a transfer that allows us to appreciate it in widescreen with 16:9 enhancement. However, both the English-dubbed and Cantonese language tracks are slightly but noticeably out of sync. The English dub is pretty awful. The subtitles for the Cantonese track are not the original ones we saw in earlier editions of the film. They're "dub-titles," transcriptions of the English dub dialogue which is far less interesting and dramatic than accurate translations of the original dialogue. So don't discard your earlier copies.



2. Although it has a couple of good actors the movie itself was very poorly done with a lot of work needed on the speech syncronization. The action was slow and unrealistic.



3. When I first watched it I thought to myself "this is so bad it's funny". After watching a little further I finally realized that it was a parody. I found it funnier if I watched it in 4:3 ratio instead of letterboxing, maybe because it cued in more on all those bad martial arts/action movies I'd seen before on television. Outstanding comedy/action (how many in this genre are there?)



4. But the fight scenes as a whole are awesome. this is possible my favorite yuen biao performance as he plays the pretty boy who is a bad boy. A bit out of place, but he is is top top top form. Add in Sammo(he stars and directs in this), Billy Chow, Yuen Wah, lam Ching Ying, Yasaiki Kuratu, Woo-ping, Phillip Ko...
   Not all these guys fight, but most do, and you WILL be happy. I thought that there also was too much gun play with people gruesomely being shot in the head. But then the guns get intersting and it is certainly not your average 1980's extremely low budget movie. They put some freaking time into this thing.
   So the movie is a true classic of the genre(not the war one) and it is truly an epic experience for people like me who are both old chool kung fu fans and love movies like Platoon. Platoon happens to be my favorite movie ever so I certainly can't compare it to that, but beats the holy hell out of ANY war movie in terms of INSANE stunts and hand to hand combat. And Sammo also has a very nice scene with a machetti, but then it gets even better when he gets hold of the heavy duty machine gun. It was just such a brilliant mix of war and kung fu. There will never be another movie like this. And tell me if the 3 guerilla women are not you're new favorite characteres. I know I will certainly be checking out Joyce Godenzi's works:)
   
   The picture quality is PERFECTO without a blemish on the print. Best Fox release I have seen yet. Also it has dual languages in 5.1 sound, you gotta love that.



5. the only reason i rate the movie one because i cant give it a zero
   worst movie ever made
   dont waste your money on it