Leofwine_draca 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.

InjunNose In the wake of Jackie Chan's success in "Snake in the Eagle's Shadow" and "Drunken Master" came movies like this one. But while it prominently features three kung-fu styles (drunken style, monkey style, and snake style) popularized by Chan in his breakthrough films, "Snake in the Monkey's Shadow" does not adhere to the comedy kung-fu formula. There's some clowning, but it's kept to a minimum--and it ends abruptly as the tone of the film becomes deadly serious halfway through. John Chang stars as Lung, a hapless young man who works at a fish shop. When he arrives late at the home of the wealthy Yan family with a delivery of fish, he is humiliated by Mr. Yan's sons. A drunken-style sifu takes pity on Lung and soon he is the teacher's prize pupil--but Lung gets cocky, beating up Mr. Yan's sons and dishonoring his teacher. In retaliation, Yan sends a couple of hired killers (Wilson Tong and Charlie Chan), both experts in the snake style, after Lung's sifu. The sifu and all of his students--except for Lung--are murdered. Seriously wounded, Lung takes refuge with his friend, a master of the monkey style. Unfortunately, the hired killers are after Lung's friend, too, because he bested one of them in a fight three years earlier. After the villains kill the monkey stylist, Lung trains rigorously for revenge, developing a new technique by combining the drunken and monkey styles. (For the record, there is a real drunken monkey form! Dr. Leung Ting has even authored an instructional book on it.) The final fight is sensational and, at its conclusion, delightfully brutal. In my book, "Snake in the Monkey's Shadow" outshines the Jackie Chan films from which it is derived because it isn't just for laughs. Chan has some dazzling moves, but the comedy wears thin pretty quickly. Like all the best kung-fu films, "...Monkey's Shadow" is full of tragedy and righteous rage. And great fighting!

jaibo 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.

cinemaisdope Be prepared to be converted to being a life long fan of monkey kung fu movies after seeing this movie! This is the *granddaddy* of monkey kung fu movies! Prepare to have your world rocked with movie coolness monkey kung fu style! One of the all time most entertaining movies ever made! This is what kung fu movies are supposed to be... highly entertaining, jaw dropping edge of your seat fight sequences and great humor.I had the chance to see this fine movie as the 4th Annual Tarantino Film Festival. When Tarantino introduced the movie he showed off his monkey kung fu and drunken style kung fu skills which were dead on. Though I will note that in the version shown at this fest it shows about a 2 minute sequence involving a monkey fight a snake, which is crucial to the plot towards the end... which on most video versions of this movie is completely cut out which pretty much renders the end of the movie sorta confusing and disjointed. So if you do look for this film be sure and look for the uncut complete version of it with the full monkey fighting the snake sequence. There are various movie places out there that sell the uncut version. If you watch a edited version of this movie you will probably scratch your head and wonder why anyone would rave about this movie... you know the slightest of cuts to a movie in any length at crucial points in the movie can have the hugest effect on it... and this is one of those cases.From the opening scenes of someone jumping from tree to tree monkey kung fu style I was hooked with this movie. The movie gets you involved from beginning to end. The good guys in the movie are all fight monkey kung fu style with some mixing in some drunken style, which makes for a super super cool combination. The bad guys all fight snake fist style which makes for an awesome adversary in fighting techniques.I can say I haven't seen an audience so into a movie and so full of joy afterwards since I first saw the movie The Matrix. This is like one of those ultimate kung fu movies that fires and hits on all cylinders. Many of us have seen so many bad kung fu movies we forget there are those gems like this one that revitalizes you, takes you to movie paradise... that magical feeling you get when you walk out of a movie that makes you remember why you love movies in the first place. The climax and final fight sequence in the uncut version of this film is one of the best fight sequences I've seen in any movie. You are literally almost on your feet or at the edge of your seat with your arms and legs reacting with kung fu moves to what is happening on the screen as you root for the good guy.I have become the hugest fan of monkey kung fu movies after seeing this movie and I'm sure anyone out there that sees this movie will want to run out and rent or buy every monkey kung fu movie they can find... though there aren't too many movies in any genre quite as entertaining and cool as this one. Hopefully the fine folks at Criterion will someday turn this into their fine collection of DVD releases.