Review of Snake in the Eagle's Shadow (1978) by Dave J — 07 Sep 2010

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.