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I knew The Snake Prince was going to be fun the moment I saw three giant rubber snakes slither into frame, accompanied by a 70s rockabilly musical number. A musical martial arts fantasy combining Chinese folklore, kung fu, horror, eroticism, song and dance routines, kaiju action, and some rather chaste snake-on-woman sex, you know damn well this is destined to be a cult classic some day. The well-told legend of the White Snake is at the film's heart, although in this version it has been gender-swapped from a mortal man meeting a female snake demon to a mortal woman meeting the titular Snake Prince. Technically speaking, the film has, as is typical of Shaw Brothers fantasies, bitten off more than it can chew; the budget seems to stretch and shift for quite a majority of the runtime with visual and make-up effects being of the cheap-and-cheerful kind, but the whole affair is alarmingly colourful, with a lurid in-your-face palette, wonderful set design and some genuinely staggering direction courtesy of Lo Chen. It is quite surprising to see Ti Lung perform in a complete departure from his usual heroic bloodshed antics, but he manages the transition with flair, all the while sharing a wonderfully engaging chemistry with Lin Chen-Chi. Musically, the film is an odd blend of Chinese opera and contemporary pop-rock, which provides a unique style, kitschy vibe and tone that can be rather enjoyable. While far from the greatest film of any of its genres and the large amounts of gutless animal cruelty aside, The Snake Prince is a delightful, cheesy and wonderfully odd slice of Hong Kong pop culture. The film is certainly distinctive and, if nothing else, a prime example of just how far the Shaw Brothers were prepared to stretch their formats and styles to reach a new audience.

THE SNAKE PRINCE is a bizarre and unsatisfying fantasy musical from the team at Shaw Brothers, starring martial arts legend Ti Lung. Here, he's essaying a very different role indeed, that of a gigantic snake which has the power to transform itself into the form of a man. He ends up falling in love with a village girl, which is when the plot really falls into motion. There are shades of KING KONG here in the setup, but most of the running time is wasted in boringly repetitive song and dance numbers that take dated tweeness to the next level. Thankfully, things pick up for a shockingly violent climax, but sadly it's too little, too late by that point.

I like Ti Lung. He made a lot of good movies, and I own many of them.

Snake Prince is not one of the good ones. Snake Prince must almost be seen to be believed how wrong a good idea went, and how talent can be thrown away.

Imagine a typical Shaw Brothers studio shot of a wooded glade, a palace, the usual settings--now, imagine it with colors worthy of 1968 and music from 1966. Every time the story needs to get moving, mediocre rock music intrudes, along with droves of dancers all dressed alike.

Alas, this is not one of the movies that is so foul it is amusing, like Wolf Devil Woman. Snake Prince is just foul; every time it hints at getting itself organized into a story, things fall apart once more, even with Ti Lung's game portrayal of the nice-guy snake prince.

After getting the film, I had a short look on it.

As I loved so much the song in the beginning, with its kind peaceful seventies spirit... the actress was just so cute and sung so well

that I decided to stop the movie and spare it for a later viewing, on an quiet evening.

I really thought it was going to be a Peace and Love martial movie (if possible !)

So, one evening, I put it on... guessing to have a gentle movie, with villains not too bad and charming women and cool music...

Oh boys, on some way I had it... yes, music is 70th and naive, yes, first song is superb to me, and the others are OK...

The girls were pretty ! Especially Chen Chi Lin has a beautiful face and voice (unfortunately she did only few movies and mainly horror ones I don't like)

Now the dark points : the villains are really bad... as are made the snakes, cheesy, sort of chewed paper completely unreal... and the end, logical,understandable, but deceptive

So, this supposed to be peaceful movie was not that type; a kind of colourful fantasy, yes, with funny parts, yes, but finally deep dark drama! ! What makes the last sentence not definitely true, is because the snakes and Special effects are so poorly made (usually the special effects are supposed to make us believe it is for real, no?) that brings everything close to a comedy !

And the positive points, even if I really dislike the end, are :

• an adored song, others OK - nice chicks (should I say girls?) - Ti Lung and his friends are cool - a Romeo and Juliet love story

Don't expect as I did any real martial arts in this half kind movie.

Not a great achievement realized, but still pleasant for the above mentioned points, I sometimes listen to the songs, yes, I like their naive spirit !

8*** but the half of them just go only for Chen Chi Lin, Ti Lung and the songs... and 5-6*** max if we talk more seriously...