Snake in the Monkey's Shadow (1979)

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

Entertaining kung fu comedy/drama, typical of its kind and evocative of a period in which the Jackie Chan film DRUNKEN MASTER and others led to a wave of then new-style Hong Kong flicks all following the same premise. Fans should know the routine by now: a young, accident-prone young man decides to learn martial arts after being beaten by one or more bad guys. The teacher refuses to let him learn but eventually the young man's skill and enthusiasm lead the teacher to accept the offer of a new pupil. The young man uses his new-found skills to beat up those who had previously fought him, and the bad guys fight back by attacking the school. Eventually, outside help is called in, people die, the story takes a dramatic turn, and things play out in one long battle to the death at the film's finale.Where SNAKE IN THE MONKEY'S SHADOW excels is in the quality of the action offered. The various martial artists are very very good indeed and their fights and training kept interesting through the three different styles involved: the bumbling, idiotic "drunken" style; the agile, flexible "monkey" style; the quick and deadly "snake" style. Add in plenty of fight sequences involving the various styles battling against each other, a whole new style being developed in the process ("drunken monkey") and an almost profound fight scene between a real-life snake and monkey and you have an evening's worth of entertainment for the average kung fu fan. Ignore the lack of budget and familiarity of the plot and instead sit back and witness some great kung fu fighting which doesn't let up. There are no slow spots or weak areas in the film, instead it offers action-packed entertainment from start to finish.John Cheung is no Jackie Chan but performs well in the title role, making an effective transition from clueless newbie to new-fangled martial arts master. The supporting cast is highly effective and blessed with some very skilled performers who make complex moves look simple and easy to perform. The fight choreography is outstanding. The comedy value is high, especially at the beginning of the movie, and the typical dubbing job plays out the comedic aspects of the storyline by giving the one of the villains a stereotypically homosexual-sounding voice. As such the film stands head and shoulders above similar fare from the period – even over praised classics.

I haven't seen many Hong Kong kung-fu classics, but watching this somewhat demented zero-to-hero pic has certainly perked my curiosity about a genre I know little about but which, on this evidence, offers delirious pleasures.After an abstract credits sequence showing human bodies in mortal combat, the film begins with a kind of prologue in which a master practitioner of the snake style of kung-fu is beaten by a master of the monkey-style. The snake-master begs his vanquisher to kill him, but the monkey-master spares his life. Snake tells monkey that he will regret this...Years later, a rube of a fishmonger's assistant yearns to study the drunken-style of kung-fu at a local school. After being beaten up by a couple of arrogant sons of a local feudal lord, the fishmonger begs the drunken-master to teach him, but instead is taken on as a skivvy. He clandestinely practises the moves he sees being taught, and soon proves himself more adept that the official students. He gets his revenge by beating the sons, and drags his master into the fray when their father seeks redress. The rich man hires two snake experts to teach the drunken-master a deadly lesson, and one of the snake experts is the master from the prologue.The monkey-master is also involved, as he is now living in the same village as a hermit who befriends the hero. When the snake-assassins have killed both drunken-master and monkey-master, the novice learns to combine the monkey-style and drunken-style in a way which proves fatal to his foes.The film is basically a string of fight sequences, linked by this flimsy story-line. In their way, the fights are equivalent to musical numbers in musicals and sex sequences in pornography - in fact, the careful choreography of the fights and the eroticism of the young male flesh in Snake in the Monkey's Shadow makes the comparison to these two genres very apt. Yet the most striking sequence doesn't involve human combat - there's a truly nail-biting fight between a tethered monkey and a hissing snake which is prolonged, vicious and chilling, not least when you think of how the animals in question must have suffered to get it on screen.Animal cruelty, campy dialogue, paper-thin & polarised characterisation, unfunny slapstick and eye-popping set pieces strung together in a flimsy storyline - Snake in the Monkey's Shadow is classic exploitation fare. It's kinetic displays of human and animal flesh contorted into extraordinary shapes and stretched to the limits of endurance, all with kinetic fury, makes the film a text-book example of what popular cinema is all about, for better or worse.

I loved this film from the moment it started, The opening credits alone are worth viewing. The Kung fu on display during the movie is top notch and the story is well above par for a Hong Kong flick of it's era. The dubbing is a bit suspect in places, but it adds to the whole 'chop-suey' atmosphere. There are funny moments (usualy to do with the dubbing), there are sad moments and of course the down right excellent action scenes in between. The music is amazing, The same as that from Jackie Chan's Drunken Master, and it fits perfectly.There is one tiny downside; the DVD version is ever-so-slightly cut. Only one scene, but an important one. It is the scene in which our young hero studies a monkey killing a snake and adapts it's movements to combat the evil snake style killers. In the VHS version of the film which was released years ago, we witness the whole 'fight' and act of a real monkey killing a real snake. Due to animal cruelty laws (I would imagine) this scene is not in the DVD; instead we see a monkey and a snake, followed by the lead's face as he watches and then back to the monkey holding the now dead snake. We are left to figure what happened in between (not a difficult feat, but I preferred the original with its more graphic fore-shadowing.) That aside, this film leaves me with fond memories of watching it while I was growing up. Watch it as well and create some of your own fantastic memories.

I saw this movie with a large audience at a film festival recently and it nearly blew the roof off the place. It's a perfect example of an entertaining film, without a single unnecessary scene. Of course the fight scenes (the reason you're watching a kung fu flick in the first place) are great. This film has a real sense of humor and a great pace; it could be useful for converting new fans to the whole genre.