Kungfu actionmovie clip snake in monkeys shadow

I've seen an enormous amount of old-school kung fu in my day, and a lot of the enjoyment I get from it depends directly on whether or not I'm watching the same bad comedy I've seen a million times before. I would've liked this a lot more had it been within the first couple of dozen fu flicks I'd ever seen. However, just as it started being cliche, it started to weave a little spell on me and I ended up liking it quite a bit. There's some originality waiting to surprise patient viewers.

We begin with a Monkey stylist (Pomson Shi, "Star Runner") fighting a Snake stylist (Charlie Chan, "Legend of a Fighter")! Not too shabby. The Monkey fighter is not only victorious, but virtuous and refuses to kill his opponent. It then cuts to a young man (John Chang, "Project A") who delivers fish but neglects his work to sneak to the roof of the local school and watch them practice Drunken Boxing. He eventually talks the master (Hau Chiu Sing, "Sun Dragon") into taking him as a student. Around the same time he meets the Monkey master who saves him from a potential attack by a cobra. Soon afterward, two Snake fighters (Chan again, accompanied by the always awesome Wilson Tong, "Daggers 8") kill both his masters and he must come up with his own hybrid style to defeat them.

I knew when I purchased this that the infamous "baboon fighting the cobra" scene was deleted, which is the entire basis for Chang's climactic style. There are uncut versions available, but I'm told that they have terrible picture quality. This was cheaper and I figured if I liked it enough, I would eventually get it uncut. Not sure if I will or not. It's good, but not quite a classic. I will say that the final fight is pretty good, and the way Chang takes out the two snakes (Chan especially) is awesome. I also like the way the story unfolds. Now this ain't a Thomas Harris novel, but it's a little more structured and confident than much of its breed.

This version from Xenon is full-screen and English dubbed only. Though there is no mention of remastering, the picture quality looks better than many of their releases that actually claim to be remastered. There is only one special feature but it's interesting. I'm not sure why, but there are major fight scenes (not trailers) from "Invincible Obsessed Fighter", "Fearless Dragons", "Jade Claw", and "Fighting Ace", respectively. Not what I would've put for special features, but hell yeah! Recommended for collectors and animal-style-enthusiasts, though you may want to wait for a better, complete version.

1979. aka: Snakefist vs The Dragon