Snake in the Eagle's Shadow (1978)

Chien Fu (Jackie Chan) is a boy who is used as a janitor at his kung fu school. Fu can't fight and is always getting bullied by the teachers and pupils. One day, an old man helps Fu train ... See full summary »

Director:

Woo-Ping Yuen

Writers:

Chi Yuan Hsi, Huo An Hsi

Stars:

Jackie Chan, Siu Tin Yuen, Jung-Lee Hwang

Cast

Credited cast:
Jackie Chan	...	Chien Fu (as Lung Cheng)
Siu Tin Yuen	...	Grandmaster Pai Cheng-Tien (as Hsiao-Tien Yuan)
Jung-Lee Hwang	...	Lord Sheng Kuan (as Cheng-Li Huang)
Dean Shek	...	Teacher Li (as Tien Shih)
Roy Horan	...	Russian
Hark-On Fung	...	Snake Fist School Master
Lung Chan	...	Substitute Instructor
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Tien Lung Chen	...	Three Provinces Champ
Yao Lin Chen	...	Master Hung (Hung Wei School)
Kam Cheung	...	Ah Kwai, Magistrate's son (as Kam Chiang)
Hsia Chien
Chi Ling Chiu	...	Mr. Liang - brick-breaking demo
Hsia Hsu	...	Su Chen
Chiang Wang
Gam Yam	...	Chang, The Cook

Storyline

Chien Fu (Jackie Chan) is a boy who is used as a janitor at his kung fu school. Fu can't fight and is always getting bullied by the teachers and pupils. One day, an old man helps Fu train in an art of kung fu called the "Snake's Fist". Fu doesn't get bullied again. Then Fu creates his own style and mixes it with the Snake's Fist. His style is based on the movement and actions of a cat. One day, the old man is in trouble by a man who does "The Eagle's Claw", and Fu helps the old man.

---

Plot Keywords:

cat | beggar | kung fu | fight | martial arts | 

---

Genres:

Action | Comedy

---

Certificate:

PG

Details

Country:

Hong Kong

Language:

Cantonese

Release Date:

November 1982 (USA)

Also Known As:

Eagle's Shadow

Filming Locations:

Hong Kong, China

Company Credits

Production Co:

Seasonal Film Corporation

Technical Specs

Runtime:

93 min (Blu-ray)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

(At around one hour and twenty-two minutes) While filming a sword fight, Jackie Chan's arm was accidentally slashed by a sword. He went on fighting, and the footage appears in the film.

---

Goofs

About 53 minutes in , while training, as a snake would to pluck eggs from the nest, Jackie misses placing one of the eggs safely into the old mans basket, but neither break character and just keep on going.

---

Quotes

Grandmaster Pai Cheng-Cheh: What a bitch. I hope she drops dead.

---

Alternate Versions

The UK version is cut to remove the Cat/Cobra fight as it contravenes the Cinematograph Films (Animals) Act 1937.

---

Connections

Referenced in Amber Alert (2012)

User Reviews

Jackie's First Success

I believe this was Jackie Chan's first widely successful movie freed from the constraints of Lo Wei and working with a different director allowed Jackie to move into a different direction and stop trying to be the new Bruce Lee (as if anyone ever could be!).

Surprisingly the humour translates pretty well and both Jackies cruel martial arts school employer and the kindly martial artist he meets and befriends are well drawn comedic characters. The sometimes bizarre fighting styles all named after animals are a joy to behold and Jackie and all the other martial artists involved show just how skillful they are with some truly memorable twists on the old school kung-fu style fighting. Many of those in this film came together again a year later to make the equally excellent Drunken Master.

I would recommend this film to any martial arts fan as a must see, it's also an excellent entry point if your interested in looking into martial arts action films in general. 8/10