The Condemned is a 1976 Shaw Brothers movie starring Tsai Hung and David Chiang, who also directed the movie.
When a lawful bodyguard and martial arts practitioner, Feng Da-gang (Tsai) gets framed for his employer's murder in the aftermath of a bandit raid, Feng ends up being thrown into prison for an extensive interrogation. As luck would have it, Feng's cellmate is Yang Lin (David), a pickpocket and jovial, small-time crook who spends much of his life going in and out of prison on a regular basis, the the extent where he's somewhat a celebrity among the prisoners and guards. After their first night in the same cell nearly ends with Feng bashing out Yang's brains, both men began to relate to each other and in the weeks that follows, started developing a friendship. Ultimately, both men ends up escaping prison, at which point Yang Lin decide to help Feng Da-gang uncover the truth behind his imprisonment.
Do not confuse this movie with the Steve Austin flick, The Condemned (2007).
The Condemned contains examples of:
- Alone with the Psycho: When Yang Lin crossed the line by asking his new cellmate, Feng Da-gang - who was framed for his employer's murder - that it's not like he had killed someone, Feng instantly flies into a rage and ends up attacking Yang Lin, causing Yang to scream for help that he's imprisoned with a murderer.
- Bash Brothers: Yang Lin and Feng Da-gang, the latter in a role that seems more suited for David Chiang's real-life Bash Bro., Ti Lung, instead of Shaw B-lister Tsai Hung.
- Chiaroscuro: Early scenes with Yang Lin and Feng Da-gang as cellmates in a dimly-lit prison are often framed in this manner.
- Clear My Name: The overarching storyline behind the protagonist, Feng Da-gang, after he was framed for murdering his boss and thrown into prison. He inevitably finds assistance with his new cellmate, Yang Lin, who after a while decides to help Feng.
- Edgy Backwards Chair-Sitting: Yang Lin during an interrogation scene. That was intentional, due to Yang's status as a rebellious hothead.
- Fire-Forged Friends: Feng Da-gang and Yang Lin, while getting off the wrong foot early in their initial meeting, eventually become close allies upon breaking out of prison together.
- Four Eyes, Zero Soul: Lung Wen-xuan, the employer who got Feng a job as a bodyguard, turns out to be the traitor working with the bandits, and doesn't hesitate to kill everyone who knows his secret personally.
- The Gadfly: Yang Lin really can't stop screwing around with Feng Da-gang, repeatedly trying to get him into a conversation when Feng Da-gang is in no mood to talk due to being framed for murder.
- Gleeful and Grumpy Pairing: This is the basic dynamic between the protagonists, Feng Da-gang, a former bodyguard being sentenced to imprisonment after being framed for working with bandits who robbed his former master and killed the master's family, as well as Feng's cellmate, Yang Lin, a pickpocket and thief who have a happy-go-lucky persona. Naturally, Feng is both upset, angry, and constantly quiet due to being victim of a Frame-Up, while Yang repeatedly crack jokes in front of his cellmate and tries to troll Feng and get him into conversations which Feng would rather avoid, leading to an absolutely pissed-off Feng trying to smash Yang's brains out with a brick. But as the film progresses Yang becomes sympathetic to his cellmate's condition, and when both men managed to escape from prison Yang then actively helps Feng to clear his name.
- Good Old Fisticuffs: Most characters fights unarmed and bare-handed, with the final battle being an extensive fist brawl where Feng Da-gang and Yang Lin takes on Lung Wen-xuan, the main villain.
- Hidden Villain: Lung Wen-xuan orchestrates an elaborate scheme for Feng Da-gang to be The Scapegoat in the aftermath of the Xue villa massacre in exchange for ownership over the villa's fortune, and is the film's primary Big Bad.
- Innocently Insensitive: Yang Lin, during his repeated attempts to get the upset Feng Da-gang to speak up - the latter being framed for murder - unintentionally crosses the line by saying, "it's not like you killed somebody". This is enough to trigger Feng's Berserk Button causing him to jump out his bed and attack Yang Lin.
- Loon with a Heart of Gold: Yang Lin may speak like a hyperactive child high on sugar and spends the whole movie behaving like The Ditz, but he's strictly a good person, who decides to help Feng clear his name after they escaped prison.
- Never Bareheaded: Yang Lin's cap, which he wears in every scene even when he's a prisoner. The only time he lose the cap is when he gets caught by Lung Wen-Xuan and is flogged by Long's minions, but he gets the cap back on one scene later.
- Plucky Comic Relief: The wisecracking snarker Yang Lin, whose conversations consists almost entirely of jabs and one-liners. He's played by the Shaws' favourite snarkmaster, David Chiang, after all.
- Sole Survivor: Feng Da-gang is the only survivor of the Xue villa massacre when the villa gets raided by bandits. Unfortunately, Feng ends up being knocked out during the brawl, and wakes up just in time to see several military police storming the place, at which point the police then assumes Feng is in cahoots with the bandits and arrests him on the spot.
- Undignified Death: The fate of Lung Wen-xuan, the Big Bad. Getting his eyes punched into two handful of red pulps by Feng, and then having Yang Lin deliver the Coup de Grâce in the form of a Groin Attack, is probably one of the most embarassing onscreen deaths in a film already full of deaths.
- Would Hit a Girl: When Madame Hong, a local courtesan mistress, finds out Lung Wen-xuan to be a master manipulator and murderer, Lung doesn't even hesitate to kick her to death.
