I wanted to but couldn't!

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

An old-school Jackie Chan chop socky flick from prolific producer Lo Wei, Snake and Crane Arts of Shaolin sees the star playing Hsu Yin-Fung, a skillful martial artist (what else?) who attracts the attention of several clans when he reveals that he is in possession of 'Art of the Snake and Crane', a rare book written by the eight Shaolin Masters.After lots of not particularly memorable bouts of fighting between Hsu Yin-Fung and various clan leaders (JC is both athletic and acrobatic, but the choreography lacks the inventiveness and attention to detail that can be found in his later HK work), it is revealed that our hero is deliberately flaunting his book in order to try and discover the identity of a man with a scarred shoulder who was responsible for killing all but one of the eight masters.After much mayhem, and some rubbish about a dirty faced ragamuffin who turns out to be the daughter of one of the clan leaders, the villain's identity is finally revealed, and Hsu Yin-Fung does battle against the bad guy and his hired killers—a trio of tough nuts wielding a variety of weapons. The action in these closing fight scenes is terrific, and makes ploughing through the earlier rather repetitive action and weak comedy worthwhile.

This Kung Fu film has some really good ingredients. The thing that doesn't quite come through for it are the production values. The action sequences, the plot, the characters, the settings are all interesting and worth filming, but the actual cinematography and audio quality are quite poor, and so I found it unusually difficult to watch.If you can put these issues aside, the film is great for it's time. Jackie Chan really begins to show his immense talents for what is probably the first respectable time. His acrobatics are great, as are the Snake & Crane styles he employs further on in the film.Interestingly, his character is a little bit cocky, and his body language is a little unusual for him, as if he was told to act a little more American or something. Also, his back-hand strikes seem a little odd and over-used. One of the other great things is the appearance of all the different clans in the film. Th Black Dragons, the Flying Tigers etc really add some colour and interesting rivalry - not to mention the opportunities for various back-stabbings and double-dealings.I would give everything in this movie an A, but the production values a C.

This is definitely one of Jackie's best movies from this era. A lot of his films from this time are sub-par, and a lot of the "Jackie Chan" movies in the video stores aren't even Jackie movies. However, be assured that this is probably the most butt-kicking Jackie movie from the late 70's. I have it about tied with Fearless Hyena. The fighting really never stops, and we see Jackie fight groups of people numerous times. This is also one of the few Jackie movies where he fights women. Overall, definitely worth at least a rental, I liked it enough to buy it.

This movie's actually really good, especially considering how old it is... There's a wonderful cast of characters, each with their own particular weapon/style, and it doesn't dwell too much on plot like some earlier pics. Jackie Chan refers to this in his book as his "First Dream Project", and it shows, because it really looks like he's in control with the action and story. Not bad at all.