Snake in the Eagle's Shadow (1978) on Netflix
Chien Fu, the orphan janitor of a kung fu school, is bullied by its teachers and pupils. He befriends a beggar, Pai Cheng-tien, a hunted master of the Snake style.
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- Netflix4.0/5
- IMDb7.3/1014,320 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes80%
Trailer
Plot summary
At a kung fu school, the orphan Chien Fu does the janitor's work and takes beatings from the teachers and the pupils alike; the cook, Ah-Wu, is the only one who shows him kindness. He offers a meal and a place to stay to an old beggar, who is in fact Pai Cheng-tien, one of the last masters of the Snake style. The Eagle Claw clan is hunting down the practitioners of that style, and its high master, Sheng Kuan, is closing in on Pai, who hides in disguise and keeps his identity from the boy. Pai agrees to teach Chien his style on one condition: that Chien never call him sifu, so that their friendship stays hidden from the men searching the town.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Snake in the Eagle's Shadow (1978)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- While shooting a fight scene, Hwang Jang-lee kicked Jackie Chan in the face and knocked out a tooth, and Chan's arm was accidentally slashed by a sword that was supposed to be blunt; the camera kept rolling as he screamed.
- For the part of the old, eccentric, wandering kung fu master, producer Ng See-yuen and director Yuen Woo-ping looked at many actors before Ng suggested casting Yuen's own father, Yuen Siu-tien.
- Distributors initially refused producer Ng See-yuen's idea of a comedy starring Jackie Chan; Ng and Chan stuck with it, and this film and Drunken Master together made Chan a national star.
- When producer Serafim Karalexis distributed the film in America in the 1980s as The Eagle's Shadow, it was given a new score because of copyright problems with the original music, and Chan was billed as "Jacky Chan".
- The 2000 Hong Kong Legends DVD was hit with compulsory BBFC cuts of about 45 seconds because of animal cruelty, and also carried a cropped image and the wrong Mandarin dub.
