Pretty Good

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

I watched this film as a cheap English dub under the title SNAKE IN THE EAGLE'S SHADOW II, although the alternative title of SNAKY KNIGHT FIGHT AGAINST MANTIS is a lot more fun. It's your typical cheap period kung fu effort from the era, shot in Taiwan, featuring Carter Wong in brief support and a leading role for bottom-of-the-barrel go-to guy Don Wong as the erstwhile hero.Some versions of the print seem to tag on scenes from the Jackie Chan film in order to justify the sequel tag, although the version I saw didn't. In any case, this is a typical kung fu movie, full of average fight scenes, exaggerated character humour, and some knockabout comedy. Much of the humour comes from a silly old master type who the bad guys are convinced has a fake moustache, so they're forever trying to pull it off, which for some reason makes him into a great fighter.Wong's character seems to be one of the dimmest heroes in Hong Kong cinema, given that he's scammed out of all his money in the early scenes. Chen Sing turns up for a while too. As is usual with this type of film, the best part of SNAKE IN THE EAGLE'S SHADOW II is the climax, a lengthy one-on-one bout between hero and villain. The hero employs some cool cat and snake styles in his fighting and there are some fun, cheap special effects to entertain the viewer, with the 'snake slithering' effect a favourite.

Like the Western, the Eastern eventually developed familiar tropes. In the Western, there were characters like The Gunslinger, The Sheriff, The Cowboy, The Homesteader, etc., and they functioned within an eventually well-established world. The same thing happened with the Eastern. There were characters like The Teacher, The Master (not necessarily the same thing as the Teacher), The Student, The Beggar, etc., and they, too, had specific functions within their specific world (often referred to as The Martial Arts World in the movies themselves). THE SNAKE IN THE EAGLE'S SHADOW II is a fairly standard Eastern, with "Don Wong," Chen Sing and Lung Fei going through the motions pioneered (in part) by Jackie Chan in THE SNAKE IN THE EAGLE'S SHADOW. This kinda sorta sequel features one or two interesting bits: at one point, using the "Snake" style, "Snake Fist" Ah Fu (Wong Tao, aka "Don Wong") goes SLITHERING across the ground at his opponent like his namesake. I don't recall Jackie Chan (or anyone else) ever manifesting this particular skill before. It's a nice little touch, though.

I personally watched this movie before snake in the eagles shadow with Jackie Chan. I personally like Jackie Chan over any other martial artist. But I believe this movie is better than the original snake in the eagles shadow. This movie was quite entertaining to say the least. It had plenty of fight scenes and they were top quality. The characters actually fight good unlike many martial art movies that aren't a Jackie Chan or Gordon Liu movie. This movie actually made me interested in the Kung Fu genre and is why i'm a martial artist.The main girl was very beautiful and sexy. the sidekick was funny always stealing and tricking. In the boss scene unlike many martial art movies outside of Jackie Chan and Gordon Liu movies didn't downgrade the hero fighting skills to make the boss look tough. Difinitely worth a buy. This remains one of my favorite movies.( and i've watched a lot)

Version: English dub.What's that? A sequel to one of Jackie Chan's earliest hits, 'Snake in the Eagle's Shadow'? I'm not so easily fooled. A very cheap DVD, with Jackie Chan on the cover of a movie I'd never heard of? I've seen enough of these movies to know that, generally, these are movies that were made before Jackie was even famous in Hong Kong, and in which he usually appears as a minor character.My "Cheap Hong Kong cash-in" sense was tingling, and it was quickly justified. Aside from a short montage of the first movie at the start of this, and one of the fight scenes from the first randomly inserted into this one, the only link between original and sequel was the main character using Jackie's Snake & Cat style from the first. and making no other reference to the first film.Ah Fu was a very rich and famous fighter was working for a security company when he suddenly became not-so-rich by giving away all his money to some needy thieves. While trying to find more work, Ah Fu meets an old man whose name I never quite caught. Old Man is a thief, and a master of kung-fu whenever his mustache is pulled. Together they form a Kung-Fu Odd Couple, looking for work and defending good kung-fu schools from bad kung-fu schools.Like the majority of 70s kung-fu movies, 'Snake in the Eagle's Shadow II' tries incredibly hard to insert fight-scenes at every possible opportunity, in order to prevent any logical development of plot or characters. So while the lack of story the hilariously bad dub will confuse the hell out of you, take solace in the fact that it will only be a few seconds before the characters start fighting again. Awesome. Of course, the fights in this aren't even close to the level of the original Jackie Chan film, there are a hell of a lot more. They aren't always fast and furious, but the film occasionally features some impressive acrobatics.'Snake in the Eagle's Shadow II' - laughably bad attempt at emulating Jackie Chan. If you're a kung-fu fan, you should check it out if you have time and brain cells to spare - 4/10Awesome count: Strangely, the word 'awesome' was only used once in this review.