Snake in the Eagle's Shadow (Se ying diu sau) (Eagle's Shadow) Reviews

Teachings are only as valuable as the lessons they serve, putting wisdom into practice with understanding shows how promising one can learn from it.

Snake in the Eagle's Shadow seems to me to have been tragically overlooked and missed by many. It's the perfect balance of martial arts and humour. It's the first film that really put Jackie Chan on peoples radars and personally I much prefer seeing him in his original roles rather than the now stereotype roles he takes in Hollywood. Often when I'm recommended a good martial arts film it's either too heavy on the humour and doesn't have enough action or vice versa, this is the perfect balance, if all martial arts films were like this I'd be a much bigger fan of the genres.

Jackie Chan es uno de los mas carismaticos y talentosos representantes de las artes marciales en el cine. En "Snake in the Eagle's Shadow" observamos a un joven Chan interpretando a un aprendiz de la tecnica del puño de serpiente bajo la tutoria del maestro Pai Chang-tien, quien es buscado por sus enemigos. Esto es practicamente todo el argumento de esta cinta, el resto son coreografias incesantes y un humor bastante ingenuo e infantil.
"Snake in the Eagle's Shadow" contiene todos los elementos de una cinta de artes marciales de los setentas (exagerado aun mas si la veen con su terrible doblaje en ingles). En realidad es una cinta muy divertida.

Excellent martial arts film, with a young Jackie Chan,showing his great talent for Kung Fu as well as for drama sprinkled some comic moments.The best moments are certainly wonderfully choreographed fighting and the friendly character of the beggar.

This movie has a young Jackie Chan as a bullied servant for a low level martial arts school. When the master is away, the meaner teachers pick of Chien Fu, who is tormented and is used as their punching bag. He collides into the path of another, a beggar with incredible martial arts skills. The two become friends quickly, and the beggar teaches Chien the art of Snake Fist kung fu. Unbeknownst to Chien, there is a deadly conspiracy of Eagle Claw kung fu fighters who wish to wipe out the remaining users of Snake fist. Chien must find battle these vicious enemies, or the Snake Fist will be lost forever.

Full of incredible fight and gag choreography, Woo Ping Yuen definitely entertains in the second half of the movie. The plot takes a bit to get into momentum, but when it does its a fantastic mix of comedy and action. Its always a pleasure with Hwang Jang Lee, who plays the villainous Chang. This hidden gem of martial arts is one of Jackie's best and underrated features.

Breezy, campy, and soft "Snake in the Eagle's Shadow" was Jackie Chan's first taste of domestic popularity. While it lacks the sophistication and panache of Chan's future releases and ultimately pales in comparison to its fraternal twin ("Drunken Master") "Snake in the Eagle's Shadow" is still even by contemporary standards a fun way to knockout 90 minutes of your day.

In terms of Jackie Chan movies this is an excellent martial arts movie, much better than the commercial stuff he has being for Hollywood for the past few decades. Aside from Chan this also has a very entertaining story despite using the worn story of competing schools of the art.

It is a great classic with great humor and great fight choreography and great fight scenes as well.

It may be as (or even more) cheesy than the many other similar chopsocky films that were inspired by it, but Snake in The Eagle's Shadow is a kung fu classic. Fantastic fight scenes and a top-form Jackie Chan is all you need for a great kung fu film. The story may be frustrating and flat, and the cheesiness gets a bit in the way, but you can still easily enjoy the film that started Jackie's career.

Such a great classic!

Snake in the Eagle's Shadow is not a forgotten classic but it is an underseen gem from the creative team that brought us the great Drunken Master later the same year. Simon Yuen Siu-tien and Jackie Chan create an early screen chemistry as master and pupil that would become an iconic relationship in film history. With some remarkably impressive fight sequences (Yuen Siu-Tien has a particularly impress one showing the old bat really had some kick to him) the film more notably began the comedic put-down character that Chan would later use to make himself an international filmstar. Arguably a top 10 Jackie Chan film but only a minor entry to the kung-fu genre as a whole.

A brilliant kung-fu film, with very nice characters and great fight scenes. The story goes a bit thin in the end, but it's still a gem.

The film has a little bit of a story, but only what is needed to fill in the spaces between the fight scenes.

Good technique and a true classic in Chan's initial abilities with Kung Fu.

I have this in a two movie pack along with:
* Drunken Master (1978)

Pretty entertaining. It's completely bare-bones production. (Just people & a camera.) But it's pretty allright especially watching Jackie's youthful abilities.

A Grenade of a Kung Fu Movie Jackie Chan is hillarious in his Tragicomic Part of a Poor Young Man who is a Talented Fighter but get used as Cleanboy, Kitchen Help and Punching Ball in a Kung Fu School which he is terrorized by the Mean Teachers who are only in Charge because the Big Master is otherwise and then gets the Pupil of a other Kung Fu Master who is a Rebel and in Trouble with the Secret Police which are also High Skilled Kung Fu Fighters. It's the Perfect Combination of High Skilled Martial Arts, Charming Humour, Touching Drama, beautiful Pictures of the Chinese Culture & Nature and Beautiful Music. It's also contains Superb Camera Work and is the perfect Movie for Learning Kung Fu because it explains the Basics. Unforgotten Scene when he learend the Tiger Style from his Cat who beat a Python.

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

(1978) Snake in the Eagles Shadow
(In Chinese with English subtitles)

Jackie Chan's breakthrough film since he was still doing alot of mediocre films with Lo Wei(Wei Lo) by trying to have Jackie as well as other actors imitate Bruce Lee after his untimely death! And because Jackie still had a contract with Lo Wei and that the films weren't doing too well at the Hong Kong boxoffice he decided to "loan" Jackie Chan out to another studio- some you may have seen which in my view suck like "New Fist of Fury" made in 1976 and Killer Meteors made during the same year to name a few..
The result was a boxoffice hit with Hong Kong audiences resulting to audiences wanting to see more. But because Jackie was working with director and martial art affionardo Yuen Woo- Ping, tensions clashed. This was because Yuen Woo- Ping hired "Korean" born martial arts master Hwong Jang Lee (who can't understand a speck of Chinese) as the lead vilian who actually punched and kicked Jackie for real(notice near the film's end while Jackie was talking he was missing a tooth which was not like that in much of the film) Because Jackie was getting the sh-t kicked out of him for real by this Korean born martial artist- Jackie wanted director Yuen Woo- Ping to fire him even vowed to make sure that he'd never have Jang Lee work in the film industry ever again and Yuen obviously didn't listen to him otherwise he wouldn't have called Hwong Jang Lee back to do "Drunken Master" released later on during the year! Ironically, after "Snake in the Eagles Shadow" and "Drunken Master" became major hits in Hong Kong, Jackie claimed that all of this was his idea and never worked with Yuen Woo- Ping ever again (Don't give credit where credit is due)- If you ask me the comedy routines was Jackie's idea but being hit for real was Yuen Woo- Ping's idea or it just sort of happen by accident! And as far as I know those two films were the only ones Hwong Jang Lee ever starred in- for the last time I've heard of what he was up to, he was teaching martial arts in some school in Japan!

This is another one of those films that sounds better in Chinese than with the English dubbing! One of the best highlights include tying a real live cat onto a post with a real live snake! This scene was key for Jackie to beat his nemesis!

4/4

More serious than Drunken Master. Started the master-student formula that Drunken Master followed. Consists of the same director and cast members from Drunken Master. It plays more like a thriller/martial arts comedy. Very fun to watch.

martial arts: two thumbs up!