It took a kung fu movie to turn Jackie Chan’s film career around and make the martial arts actor famous in Hong Kong. That’s what it was.
It took a kung fu movie to change Jackie Chan’s career and make her a star. Long before he became the biggest star of the martial arts genre in the 1980s and 1990s, the actor was really struggling to make a name for himself in Hong Kong. He began acting in the early 1970s, but it wasn’t until 1978 that his fortunes in the film industry finally took a turn for the better.
After starring in a string of box office bombs, Chan became a kung fu star.
The snake in the shadow of an eagle hit the cinemas of Hong Kong. Directed by now acclaimed director Yuen Wuping, Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow was a martial arts comedy starring Chan as Chien Fu, an inexperienced kung fu student who is bullied by his peers. Under the wing of the kung fu master Snake, Chien becomes a formidable martial artist and goes into battle with another kung fu clan. Throughout the film, Chien’s fights were filled with the trademark comedic antics for which Chan is now known the world over.
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Why was the snake in the eagle’s shadow so successful?
Period pieces about young men learning martial arts from mysterious kung fu masters were a dime a dozen in Hong Kong during that time, but it didn’t stop snake in eagle’s shadow By making waves at the box office. A large part of its success was its comedy and Jackie Chan’s unique fighting style. Admittedly, humor was nothing new to kung fu films in the 1970s, but even so, audiences loved how the film combined Chan’s acrobatic skills and comedic talent. found humor in snake in eagle’s shadow Something that was lacking in his previous films.Prior to making the film, Chan had starred in several unsuccessful kung fu films, beginning with New Fist of Fury. Each took a serious tone and saw Chan playing characters that were in stark contrast with his current image. In Chan’s autobiography, never grow upThe actor explained that hebox office poison” before this snake in eagle’s shadow Because filmmakers were trying to mold him into the next Bruce Lee. It wasn’t until the 1978 film that Chan was able to bring a more comical approach to action.