One and a half minutes, a red blank-space, and a young Jackie Chan hungrily working through his animal style repertoire: the opening credit sequence to Yuen Woo Ping's traditional kung fu clash classic Snake in the Eagle's Shadow. This is pure spectacle cinema. There are no distractions, or even distance, between Chan and the viewer. It has the immediacy of a personal sideshow, Chan directly confronting the viewer with a furrowed brow and stabbing snake motions. The composition empty except for Chan's movements and the text he is apparently manipulating. His contorting body fills the entirety of the 2.35:1 frame, Jackie Chan is the special effect.
Music by French electro combo Space. The track is called Magic Fly.
Snake in the Eagle's Shadow was the movie that began to define the first Jackie Chan film persona: the talented bumpkin; prior to this Chan was mired in Lo Wei's money grabbing attempts to emulate the recently departed Bruce Lee. Stoic one-man-army did not suite Chan, as evidenced by awful hate-crime Lee sequel New Fist of Fury. Chan and Yuen followed up Snake with Drunken Master, Chan starring as Chinese folk hero Wong Fei Hung. The film was an enormous success, firmly establishing Chan as star, and sparking off a drunken fist film cash-in craze.
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