Also known as Fangs of the Cobra (1977), this is a lite contemporary romance adventure from Shaw Brothers studio, not the usual costume martial arts for which they are best known. Young man returns from studying abroad to take over management of the large family farm, and falls for the daughter of a tenant farmer. The unique twist is that her pet, best friend, confidante and protector is a cobra - but he hates snakes because his mother was bitten and killed by one when he was a child. The scheming cousin who wants to marry his money ends up naked quite a lot more than I expected, though without sufficient attributes for me to find it anything but surprising. There are conflicts, and some fighting, and some misunderstandings about people's motives, all pretty predictable except for the hero snake idea. Unique and startling in a few small ways, while remaining quite mediocre overall.
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ONenslo26 November 2010
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BandSAboutMovies5 August 2023Ah Fen (Hsiao Yao) is best friends with Xi Xi. Just look at them having fun in the fields together.
Xi Xi is a snake.
Ah Fen is his owner.
Rich college boy Tang Shi-De (Tsung Hua) is in love with Ah Fen.
And then there's Man-Ling (Dana), who has a plan with her lover Hu Lin (Frankie Wei Hung) where she'll seduce Shi-De and steal his family's money.
Hu Lin has some of his gang kidnap Man-Ling and Tang Shi-De, but they get Ah Fen instead. The poor daughter of a farmer and child of high caste fall in love and get married, so Hu Lin tries to blow up their limo, but the bomb gets foiled by the snake. Yes, this really happens.
But Shi-De hates Xi Xi.
He hates all snakes.
A snake killed his mother.
Now he's forced his wife to leave her reptile friend forever, just in time for Hu Lin to try and kill her again.
As if that's not enough, it feels like there's a sex scene between Man-Ling and Hu Lin every few seconds.
Ah, Shaw Brothers, you are more than just martial arts. You have directors like Sun Chung, who also made Human Lanterns and The Devil's Mirror, creating movies where gorgeous actresses handle cobras and a mongoose vs. Snake scene is the best fight in the whole film. Actually, this movie, if anything, needs more Xi Xi and less humans.