User Reviews

THE DRAGON'S SNAKE FIST is another South Korean-shot martial arts adventure directed by the one and only Godfrey Ho and starring what must have been his favourite actor, Dragon Lee, occasionally breaking into his best-known Bruce Lee impersonations (wiping his nose aggressively and the like). The opening credits play over one of those fun and strenuous training exercises accompanied by library music and the main theme borrowed from ENTER THE DRAGON.

Once the plot starts for real, I soon realised that the inspiration for the story is another of those 'rival school' tales that the Shaw Brothers and Jimmy Wang Yu used to make back in the day. Dragon Lee is a member of an upstanding Jeet Kune Do school who compete with a rival school of the ruthless Dragon Fist style. When one of the Dragon Fist masters is badly injured in a bout, he vows vengeance, and bloodshed ensues. It's left to Dragon Lee to clear up the mess and bring the evil ones to book.

It's undeniable that THE DRAGON'S SNAKE FIST is a cheap film because it looks cheap throughout and never pretends to be otherwise. The fights are more slapdash than profound and if you're here expecting top-level choreography then you're going to be sorely disappointed by the whole thing. In order to combat these problems, Ho decides to make his film rather gory and in doing so he also makes it memorable. Eyes are gouged out, fighters are brutally blinded while fighting, and there's even an extended torture sequence in which a young girl is used and abused. It's bloody stuff indeed that leaves a nasty taste in the mouth. There are also some cool fighting styles in the film, including some metal ring combat and even a fire eater at one point. Hardly a classic, then, but good fun nonetheless.

Two men meet as planned on the beach to fight style versus style. One is left crippled. After the opening credits we meet Dragon Lee. He is setting off for another town to meet his future wife and open a martial arts school. His master (of snake fist kung fu) gives him some words of wisdom.

Dragon Lee made about 24 movies from 1976 to 1986 and if you have seen one you have seen them all. As a martial artist he was certainly competent, as were hundreds of others, and his acting was passable. His star status was built on looking, acting, and fighting like Bruce Lee. Most of his movies are stinkers and the more he nails the Bruce Lee impersonation is inversely proportional to the stink. In this one he achieves 100% Bruce and 100% stink. Even without the personal stink Dragon Lee provided, the movie would still stink. The story line of style versus style was totally exhausted, the fights are the same moves over and over, and the acting is nothing but overacting.

I have noted in my other reviews that I consider Yuen Qiu to be the best female actor in the history of this genre. She appears in this movie and at least one other with Dragon Lee. Though she had an important part, the script of this movie called for her to do nothing more than be Dragon's wife.

My copy is wide screen but small and dubbed in English. The release date I have is January 1982 not 1979 as listed here. Overall I rate this movie below average and cannot find a kind word to say for it.