Snake in the Eagle's Shadow
Snake in the Eagle's Shadow
An orphan who has been raised at a kung fu school, where he is treated as little more than a dogsbody and practice target for the students, has a life-changing experience after helping an old peripatetic beggar.
Matthias_812 reviewedApril 11, 2025
Before Jackie Chan became a global household name, Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow marked the moment the world got a taste of what made him different. A scrappy, charming, and goofy energy without treading too far into slapstick territories.
It has the bones of the classic martial arts story- bullied orphan finds an unlikely master, learns a forbidden style, and even battles rival schools. The fights are crisp and rhythmically brilliant, and the final showdown delivers exactly what you'd want from a tale like this.
The pacing can stutter in places, takes a little while to take off. But Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow is important- not just as a movie, but as the birth of Jackie Chan’s unique voice in martial arts cinema. One of the earlier martial arts pictures that shift from stoic kung fu cinema to something looser, funnier, and wildly influential.