REVIEW:
Not to be confused with Jackie Chan's Snake in the Eagle's Shadow, this film bears its own distinction for displaying some terrific snake style kung fu versus a wicked drunken monkey technique.

John Cheung is Lung, a fishmonger who spends more time than he should dreaming of learning kung fu. After arriving late to the village's leading family with a shipment of old fish, Lung is beaten and sent packing by the Yan's eldest brothers. He eventually gets his revenge after talking Ho (Hau Chiu Sing), a local kung fu master into allowing him to join his school. Lung is relegated to cleaning the place but proves his devotion by practicing everything he has seen performed by the other students at night. Ho finally takes Lung on as a student and teaches him drunken boxing.

While showing off his skill to Ting Sang (Pomson Shi), a monkey style expert, Lung humiliates the two Yan sons which only causes their father to seek a fight with Teacher Ho. This time Ho beats the father and his two sons which only adds more fuel to the flames. Yan hires two fighters who kill Ho and even kill Ting Sang who was an old adversary. Lung is beaten, but survives to train further by combining the drunken boxing and monkey style to defeat the duo's formidable snake style.

Snake in the Monkey's Shadow is simply old fashioned kung fu goodness. The story is indistinguishable from countless other Hong Kong films of the '70's, but the actual combat stands out. John Cheung plays an affable protagonist who ends up performing some rather entertaining training sessions and combat. The highlights include his sparring with a revolving set of poles while hopping around on tables and his final battle with the two villains. At one point, he bites the hand of Charlie Chan and throws him over his head with his teeth still clenched. He flips over and deals Chan a death blow, all while biting the guy's hand. Its a brilliant, if seemingly ignoble piece of choreography.

While some of the early action is somewhat dull, the creativity of the action scenes increases as the film reaches its conclusion. Pomson Shi, who is relatively unknown does a great job performing monkey kung fu. The whole significance of these combat styles which is set up at the beginning of the film is that monkey style beats snake. Since Charlie Chan, who plays the lead villain loses with his snake attacks, he comes back with screen veteran, Wilson Tong to double-team his old foe. Tong really shows off his experience as fight choreographer in these scenes towards the end.

There is nothing new to be seen, but with fast and furious old school action and a lot of great talent going into this production, its a safe bet that most classic kung fu fans will enjoy this title.

Even though he is learning from afar, Liang proves himself adept at Drunken Style, so Master Ho takes him under his wing and begins to train him one on one. One day while going to repay Koo for saving him, Liang runs into the Yan brothers again, and this time is confident that he can beat them. He even goes so far as to insult the eldest Yan brothers Tiger and Crane Style, telling him he looks like “a crippled duck”. He soundly trounces the Yan brothers, leaving them bruised, bloodied, and angered. The Yan brothers go home and complain to their father, who takes the matter up wiht Master Ho, wanting him to turn over Liang for punishment. Master Ho refuses, noting that the Yan siblings are spoiled brats deserving of a good beating, which leads to a further scuffle between Master Ho and the Yan father, with Master Ho winning. The father hires two deadly Snake Style experts, one of whom is Sia Sa, to seek revenge, which they do, and they even defeat Koo when Liang runs to him for help. Now alone, Liang must figure out a way to beat the two snake style experts and get revenge. Could combining the two styles, Drunken and Monkey be the way to do it?

THE FILM
Snake in the Monkeys Shadow (1979) is a classic animal style film, and it is one of the great formula perpetuators in kung fu cinema. Here we get the same old Style Vs Style motif- with combining styles being the ultimate way to defeat the enemy, you get the reluctant master, the elitist rich family, the young, good-natured guy who gets both humiliated and has too seek revenge first for himself and later for his master. Plus, like so may films of the late 70’s, you get the blatant attempt of trying to have a Drunken Master style of comedy. But, chop socky kung fu is probably one of the most formulaic genres out there, and what really matters is the fighting, performance, and directing, which is what makes a martial film rise above the clichés in the story. Snake in the Monkeys Shadow has a good reputation in animal style (Monkey Kung fu being the most popular style) genre, but I was pretty lukewarm on it. It’s a mediocre kung fu movie until the snake style masters show up in the final twenty minutes, and their scenes make the film rise from mediocre to good. I guess what makes it pale is the story sort of goes nowhere too much. While the fighting is fine, especially the end, the entire middle of the film is just running through the paces, bad comedy, doing the same old routine, with no tension, no bad guy backstory going on until the rich brats and the snake style masters suddenly show up. Something like Mad Monkey Kung Fu (made the same year), while having the same, “loser becomes master kung fu expert and seeks revenge”, plot, sets up its villains and heroes struggle much better, and benifits from a better budget as well as master Liu Chia Liang directing.

The cast of Snake in the Monkeys Shadow features regulars like Wilson Tong, from such films as Shaolin Mantis, Shaolin King Boxer, and Snake Deadly Act, who plays one of the snake style masters and co-directed the action. The star of the film is John Chang, who I swear I knew, but couldn’t place until I looked up his bio, and instantly realized he was one of Jackie Chan’s stunt team, appearing in many Chan films as a thug, lackey, fighter, such as one of the mad bombers in Police Story 2, as well as Winners and Sinners, Project A, and he was also in Master Killer. He makes an okay lead, with a brawnier frame than many kung fu stars, but he doesn’t have the comedic chops of Jackie or the intensity of a Gordon Lui. Director Chueng Sam also directed John Chang in Mantis Fists and tiger Claws of Shaolin and Kung Fu Master Named Drunk Cat, and later co-directed Daggers 8 with Wilson Tong.

THE DVD
Xenon’s DVD is a bit of a disappointment. Sure its another basically tape mastered transfer, but it is also cut, editing out the scene in which Liang watches a monkey fight a snake and develops how he will beat the snake style masters. Obviously this scene was cut because its a real monkey fighting a real snake, (probably the source Xenon used was a tv edit) but kung fu fans are not the kind of people who usually get offended at this kind of thing. Yes, its harsh, but its a different culture, and the story is badly hindered by this scene being excised.
PICTURE: Another fullscreen, worn out, aged kung fu transfer. Other than the usual wear and tear, loss of color and picture softness, the film is way too dark. Because a lot of fight choreography in kung fu films is filmed wide, framing the entire bodies, giving a lot of detail, fullscreen doesn’t always hurt too much. You can usually still see the fights, but much of the fighting in Snake in the Monkeys Shadow is close up, making the fullscreen a hindrance. Plus, adding to the mess, is that it is pan and scan, very blatantly, sloppily, further adding to the confusion; it would have been much better just to center the picture. – Because of this lack of picture but mainly the lack of content quality, I have to give it a RENT IT, unless you are a big time kung fu fan.
SOUND: Usual mono English dub with some slight distortions here and there but more than adequate overall. Extras- 6 Chapter selections and a 15 min feature called Greatest Hits & Kicks, which shows fight scenes from Invincible Obsessed Fighter, Fearless Dragons, and Jade Claw.