Operation Condor (DVD)

...as Armour of God II: Operation Condor and Armour of God II. This was one of the most expensive of the Hong Kong cinema's productions costing an estimated 115,000,000 H.K.Dollars (at 1990 prices)


Let me give you some biographical details of Jackie Chan, the Star of the film. Jackie was born in Hong Kong on 7th April 1954 to poor parents. At the age of 7 he was enrolled in the Peking Opera School, operated by Shu Master Yu Jan-Yuen. ...
...practising for up to 18 hours a day. Beatings were common both from the
masters and other students. He would never return to academic education. Though he speaks 7 languages, he still cannot read or write with great proficiency, and has someone else write his scripts for him.

After graduation he undertook some film work as a stunt man. Following the death of Bruce Lee, Jackie was only one of the proposed poor replacements. ... more

Fei ying gai wak is the Cantonese title of this film. Right away you can see why they would change it for something else for the foreign speaking market.

This is not a Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon type of film. Whilst it is Asian Cinema and Martial Arts it is also something more and something less. This is an Indiana Jones spoof take off type film.

Briefly the plot. Jackie Chan plays a treasure finder and is called in to find a horde of gold buried by the Nazi forces towards the end of WWII in the North African desert.

In opposition we have a force of very nasty mercenaries and two comic Arab characters. These are the excuse for some slapstick type humour and fight sequences.

Jackie Chan is 'helped' in his quest by not one, but three attractive ladies. This gives rise to some very brief nudity, but even that is played for laughter.

In fact, to me, this whole film is played for the humour content. It could have been just another Indiana Jones take off or a type of Tomb Raider with the hero after some treasure or other and some villains also after it.

But with the comedy elements the film enters a whole new area. There is no congenial romantic element in that at the end the hero rides into the sunset with the adoring love interest (and the girl). Nothing like that happens here.

There are some very good sets, some very well scripted fight scenes and car chases. The film was made with location shooting in Madrid, Spain and Morocco.

As was usual with some of the earlier Jackie Chan films, the story took second place for the martial arts scenes. There are some very good fight scenes in this film. Not that he hasn't done better in some films and sometimes worse. For some of his fans it is the chance to see him performing some of his acrobatic and death defying stunts that they will get the film.

The end credits include as usual a selection of outtakes where Jackie or someone has messed up some shot or other. This usually involves the cast dissolving into laughter. There are some where the stunt has gone wrong and medical help is rushed onto set. In most cases this has not proved too serious. Jackie Chan is also somewhat of a perfectionist and will script his fight scenes very carefully to avoid injury as much as possible though accidents will happen.

I have reviewed this as 'film only' as there are no special extras included in the package. The only option on the menu is to play the film.

I purchased my copy of this from Amazon.co.uk for £5.93 now priced at £5.97
from £12.99. Now at 1-2 weeks for delivery.
Rated 15.
Region 2 coded
Run time 102 minutes
Cast list: - Credited
Jackie Chan ...Jackie Condor
Carol 'Do Do' Cheng ...Ada
Eva Cobo ...Elsa
Shôko Ikeda ...Momoko

Directed, staring and co written by Jackie Chan. Should you wish to follow the career path of any film personnel, try the Internet Movie Database (IMDb). Carol Cheng and Eva Cobo have both appeared in other Cinema productions. This is the only film I can trace for Shôko Ikeda. You will have to forgive me mentioning only the ladies in addition to Jackie Chan. I am not slating the male cast. All performed their parts very well. Do not concern yourself about the plot. Just sit back and watch the action.

The film was made in 1990. Re-released on DVD in 2001, newly re-dubbed into English to capitalise on Jackie Chan's popularity in U.S.A. after "Rumble in the Bronx".The dubbing is not too bad. A slight American accent but not as noticable as some of his other films where the original language was not English. There may be other versions out there. I understand that the dubbing on the original version was not particularly good. It has been known under a variety of names Such as Armour of God II: Operation Condor and Armour of God II. This was one of the most expensive of the Hong Kong cinema's productions costing an estimated 115,000,000 H.K.Dollars (at 1990 prices)

Let me give you some biographical details of Jackie Chan, the Star of the film. Jackie was born in Hong Kong on 7th April 1954 to poor parents. At the age of 7 he was enrolled in the Peking Opera School, operated by Shu Master Yu Jan-Yuen. Here they concentrate on acrobatics, music and the martial arts practising for up to 18 hours a day. Beatings were common both from the
masters and other students. He would never return to academic education. Though he speaks 7 languages, he still cannot read or write with great proficiency, and has someone else write his scripts for him.

After graduation he undertook some film work as a stunt man. Following the death of Bruce Lee, Jackie was only one of the proposed poor replacements. However he had discovered something extra, Comedy.

In an interview he gave, he stated that where as Bruce lee never showed pain only a determination, he (Jackie) would grimace or shake himself after giving or receiving a blow. This is a similar effect to Buster Keaton. When a waiting posterior was kicked, Chaplin would display no feelings. Keaton and others however would. This is the same with Jackie as I understand that the Hero's of the silent comedy films are also his Hero's.

Doing his own stunts has not been without injuries. A broken nose three times, Cracked ankle (Rumble in the Bronx I think), most of his fingers, both cheekbones and a broken skull (Armour of God). His skull was repaired with steel plate. No stunt is too dangerous for the star, who has shattered every bone in his body and who is now considered such a risk that insurance companies won't provide cover for his movies.

If you want to learn more of this amazing man, he has an official web site.

Some Jackie Chan trivia for you. He promised his father No Drugs, No Triads. He has never played the villain in his films though he has been offered such parts in some big budget films.

Sept 11th 2001. Jackie Chan was scheduled to be filming on the roof of The World Trade Centre, making a film about a person who gets mixed up with terrorists. The script was late that day and filming was cancelled. We all know what happened later that same day.

Would I recommend this? Yes, if you want a good laugh and have become tired of the Hollywood formula for such films. I have rated this as 'Good' rather than 'Exceptional'. It is good but not necessarily his best work but one for the collection.

 

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