Snake Crane Secret (1978)

Snake Crane Secret (1978)
Aka Secret of the Dragon
Chinese Title: 蛇鶴丹心震 九州
Translation: Heartbeat of Snake and Crane in Ancient China

 

Starring: Meng Fei, Dorian Tan Tao-Liang, Elsa Yeung, Wu Ma, Dean Shek, Fang Fang, Yu Tien-Lung, Tung Li
Director: Wu Ma
Action Director: Lee Chiu

 

At some point in my life, not too many years ago, I had the idea of writing some amateur reference book to the film works of Dorian “Flashlegs” Tan Tao-Liang. Since Bruce Lee probably has more books than his career will ever deserve, as does Jackie Chan (although his career deserves it more than Bruce) and Hong Kong Cinema on the whole, I thought that good ol’ Flash Legs deserved his own work of literature. The idea was especially fascinating to me since the man spent a good portion of his career working with low-budget filmmakers who never knew how to milk the man’s (admittedly) limited talents for all they were worth. The man could kick like nobody’s business, but few action directors knew how to creatively build on those kicking abilities. It’s really sad, especially when you consider that his protégé, John Liu, had far more (and better) showcases for his kicking skills than Tan ever got.

Anyway, during the early stages of my book idea, I dedicated a lot of thought as to how I would acquire Tan’s films. The original plan was to buy them from a vendor on Ebay based in Canada, who sold DVD-r’s of all sorts of rare and obscure kung fu movies for cheap. Said fellow has since disappeared, so how I’ll ever get a hold of films like Dynasty is beyond me. Some of Tan’s films are available in Brazil, but mainly the ones that are in the public domain—the same ones that are part of the Martial Arts Film 50-pack that was released during the previous decade.

Those would include films like Shaolin Invincibles and The Tattoo Connection. This film was also released here, with the original street value of R$ 15.00 (this was circa 2006). The price has more or less skyrocketed since, now that’s considered a rare DVD. Apparently Brazilian vendors don’t understand that it’s really not worth it to charge exorbitant prices for Public Domain films, but that’s neither here nor there. I ended up paying R$ 10 for it at some little DVD shop/shack in downtown São Paulo. For whatever reason, I actually wanted a physical copy of a movie that has at least four different uploads on Youtube. Make of that as you will.

The first couple of minutes is dedicated to stars Meng Fei and Tan Tao Liang (who co-starred together in films like Young Hero of Shaolin and The Dragon, the Lizard and the Boxer) performing the crane and snake styles. Tan Tao-Liang was a great kicker, but not a very good hand stylist. Thankfully, the snake style was supposedly easy enough to master that Tan could fake it rather well. This will serve Tan well throughout the film, although somebody should’ve told fight director Lee Chiu to put a little more effort into incorporating Tan’s kicking into the film, since we don’t watch a Flashlegs Tan movie to see him use the snake style, darn it!

After that we see a scene of an old man, Hang Kei (Tung Li, The Shaolin Brothers and Adventure At Shaolin), talking to an abbot about the story of his life. He was blood brothers with two other men, Mustache Guy (Wang Hsieh, who made a living appearing in sleaze films like Spirit of the Raped and Virgins of the Seven Seas) and Hung (Yu Tien-Lung, from Ways of Kung Fu and Heroes of the Eastern Skies). Hung convinced the old man that Mustache Guy was joining the Chings/Manchus and stealing the coveted martial arts manual, the Snake and Crane Secret. There’s a big fight and Mustache Guy dies, but not before we find out that Hung was a Ching dog from the start. Mustache Guy had two sons, both of whom were saved by Random Kung Fu Monk, who took them away. The younger son, Erh (Meng Fei), was taken to Shaolin. The other son (Tan) remained with Random Kung Fu Monk. Now he’s a bodyguard for Hung, a high-ranking Ching official.

These days, Hung is spending his days looking for the Snake and Crane Secret and trying to kill off the members of the Sun and Moon Sect, a band of ethnic Chinese bent on ousting the Manchus from power. The Sect wants Erh to join them, although he’s a bit reluctant at first. There’s a good 30-minute lull in the film where Erh and Tan’s character have nothing to contribute to the film at all. Frankly, I forgot a good portion of what happens during the first 40 minutes, and I’m writing this two days after the fact. Finally, Erh decides that he wants to join Hung and become an official. He gives them the Snake and Crane Secret, which seems to double as one of those rebel name lists that always show up in these films. Of course, it turns out to be a half-a**ed plot to kill Hung. Tan reveals himself as a Sun and Moon Sect member working undercover, and everybody eventually teams up to kill Hung.

The last time I saw Snake and Crane in the same movie title together, it was for the totally awesome Snake and Crane Arts of Shaolin starring Jackie Chan. That’s one of my all-time favorite old school kung fu flicks period. How does this fare on the snake and crane meter? Well, the two leads do fight using the Snake and Crane styles. That should speak for something. There is a book called the Snake and Crane Secret, but it never amounts to anything (much like the book from the Jackie Chan film). So I suppose that’s OK B-movie titling right there.

Lee Chiu’s action is pretty solid. The man has some fairly obscure credits to his name as an action choreographer, but appeared to spend a large portion of his career as one of the action kings of Taiwan after the old school period died, including Little Hero on the Run, which I shall be reviewing soon. Meng Fei’s crane style looks great and it’s refreshing to see this style performed without being mixed together with other styles, like the snake and tiger. I’m not sure if I can call it one of the “best” showcases for the Crane, as I have yet to see One-Foot Crane, but I’m going to go out on a limb and say that it is. Tan’s snake fist is solid, if nothing special. It’s pretty clear that the Lee Chiu isn’t demanding a whole lot out of Tan this time around. His kicks are still high and fast, but they ultimately don’t get the showcase they deserve.

Everybody else doesn’t impress all that much. The villain does a variation of the Southern Eagle, but lacks the sadistic charisma that people like Chang Yi and Hwang Jang Lee poured into their roles. Elsa Yeung, best known by kung fu fans as the titular character from the surrealistic kung fu/cheesecake film Challenge of the Lady Ninja, gets to swing a sword around here, but is ultimately rather forgettable. Same goes for actress Fang Fang, who wields a three-section staff in her fights. The movie is notable for featuring comedian Dean Shek in a serious villainous role. On the whole, none of the fights stand out, especially because Tan Tao-Liang comes across as being so restrained in his fights, including the finale.

The problem to this movie is the pacing. There are very few fights during the first forty minutes, which is almost a kiss of death for a film like this, especially when the story jumps around between so many characters that we don’t have time to care about any of them. As I stated above, the movie promptly forgets about Meng Fei and Tan Tao-Liang during the first act, and even once they have something to do, they don’t really start fighting until the last half hour. The final fights are also structured in a bizarre manner, as the final thirty minutes give us no less than three showdowns between the good guys and Hung, each interval between fights being punctuated by a training sequence. It really kills the forward momentum of the last act. Also hurting the film is Meng Fei’s character, whose impetuous routine (and dubbing, which makes him sound like a complete brat) gets old very quickly.

In the end, Snake Crane Secret is a rather bland affair, despite the obvious martial talents of the two lead actors. I actually had to watch the movie in three different intervals because I nearly fell asleep during the first big action set piece (the second time was because the computer had problems). When a choreography nut like me falls asleep during a martial arts film’s first big fight sequence, you know you’re doing something wrong. Snake Crane Secret is not outright horrible, but it is extremely forgettable and recommended only for Meng Fei and Dorian Tan completists. Yes, I’m one of the latter.