Rating:

Stars: Jackie Chan, Yuen Siu Tien, Hwang Jang Lee, Tino Wong, Roy Horan

Director: Yuen Woo Ping

1978, Hong Kong, Seasonal Films

Chien Fu (Jackie) helps an old beggar (Yuen Siu Tien) from a fight and brings him to his kung fu school. Fu is used as the schools punching bag and beatings are a daily thing for him. The beggar, who in fact is the last Snake stylist alive Pai Chang Tien, leaves and as way of thanking Fu he has Snake Fist footworks printed on his backyard ground so he can learn how to defend himself from the beatings.

But the poor beggar has the manchu Eagle Claw sect, who have killed all of his Snake brothers, after him. The Chang Tien gets beaten up badly by one of the manchu's and runs to the forest for hiding. Once again he meets the young Chien Fu and to preserve the art he teaches him the Snake Fist. Now a Snake stylist himself Fu must fight the manchu Eagle Claw master Shang Kwan Yi Mun (Hwang Jang Lee) who is after them.

 

Yuen Woo Ping directs once again a kung fu masterpiece. He was actually going to put the famed Fu Sheng in the role of Chien Fu, but he wasn't available so he and producer Ng See Yuen decided to cast a young and unknown star by the name of Jackie Chan. Together with Jackie's fascinating athletic and comedic abilities they created a new genre, comedy kung fu.

The movie was such a hit that it took HK$2,7000,000 in its first run and made Jackie an overnight star.

A mighty tasty piece of work it is and of course one of my personal faves, I can't really decide if I like this one or "Drunken Master" more but this one has more beatiful costumes and it seems longer with more plot twists and more characters. I love them both. Every old school fan should have both of these movies cause they are gems.

 

Jackie is great here. He really makes you feel sorry for his character who gets beaten up all the time. He also has some great training scenes, as you expect from an old Jackie flick, including Snake and Cats Paw forms, which are both famous kung fu styles.

Hwang Jang Lee is great here too with his usual Eagle Claw and kicks.

Tino Wong as a Mantis stylist is sharp too. This guy seems to bee great in every damn movie he's in.

Yuen Siu Tien is a mighty old man as always, but not really as cool as in "Drunken Master".

Roy Horan (the crazy white guy from "Tower of Death") plays a Christian priest here, but beware he's not as good as you might think. I don't know if his Mandarin was dubbed but it sounds pretty funny, maybe it's just because he kind of screams all the time and looks like a two meter long maniac (compared to the small Chinese actors).

Famed Hung Gar stylist Chu Chi Ling has a small role here too, but doesn't do much.

Ohh, there's also a cameo by Fong Hak Onn that kind of reminds me of the intro in "Snake Deadle Act".

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