1st ***SPOILER*** : you know those items in the closing credits that say "No animals were harmed during the production of this movie"? Well, you won't find one in the credits for this movie. There are scenes of animal cruelty the likes of which you may have never before seen. First, it's men killing snakes on the construction site of a luxury apartment house that has apparently cut some corners to save money. Apparently, killing any snakes under these circumstances saves money because reasons. Reasons that made no sense to me, but maybe they will to someone else or maybe the Mandarin:English translation missed something. Bottom line: if you leave at least one snake alive, he will tell all the other snakes and they will plot revenge.
2nd ***SPOILER** After killing hundreds of snakes with a backhoe, shovels, machetes and knives, in the next scene the construction crew and bosses enjoy a meal of snake soup. A snake is skinned alive and its blood and its blood and organs harvested while the snake butcher explains thay the blood and gall bladder will give those who ingest them magical powers. We also get to see the still beating heart of the snake. The Big Boss drinks the blood and gall bladder squeezings for luck, but it doesn't work.
3rd ***SPOILER*** As if the first scene of snake massacre wasn't enough, then comes a scene in which snakes in a box are introduced to a Shrew and then follows another overly long series of snake deaths that I eventually fast forwarded through.
The rest of the movie is actually at times kind of funny and the scenes with live snakes are so over the top that they become hilarious, too. Think of the famous snake scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark and multiply the number of onscreen snakes by 150. That's a lot of snakes writhing on the floor and being thrown at actors by offscreen crew. Taiwan,where this was filmed, is not that big and they must have gone into the wild to capture almost every one of them. We're talking a flood of snakes above your ankles in some scenes.
I gave it a 7 because it was just so funny and over the top.
2nd ***SPOILER** After killing hundreds of snakes with a backhoe, shovels, machetes and knives, in the next scene the construction crew and bosses enjoy a meal of snake soup. A snake is skinned alive and its blood and its blood and organs harvested while the snake butcher explains thay the blood and gall bladder will give those who ingest them magical powers. We also get to see the still beating heart of the snake. The Big Boss drinks the blood and gall bladder squeezings for luck, but it doesn't work.
3rd ***SPOILER*** As if the first scene of snake massacre wasn't enough, then comes a scene in which snakes in a box are introduced to a Shrew and then follows another overly long series of snake deaths that I eventually fast forwarded through.
The rest of the movie is actually at times kind of funny and the scenes with live snakes are so over the top that they become hilarious, too. Think of the famous snake scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark and multiply the number of onscreen snakes by 150. That's a lot of snakes writhing on the floor and being thrown at actors by offscreen crew. Taiwan,where this was filmed, is not that big and they must have gone into the wild to capture almost every one of them. We're talking a flood of snakes above your ankles in some scenes.
I gave it a 7 because it was just so funny and over the top.