Snake Girl (2021) by Yin Yue

Director: Yin Yue

Year: 2021

Country: China

Alternate Titles: She zhi nu; The Daughter of the Snake

Genre: Snake

Plot:

Heading into the jungle, a chemical research team and their mercenary guardians attempt to retrieve a special plant that grows in the area, which can cure a multitude of diseases a previous team failed to cure, but when they realize the area is guarded by a woman and her massive snake must try to get out alive.

Review:

This was a fairly enjoyable and exciting genre effort. Among the better features here is the rather strong setup, which allows the film to go through several distinct plotlines over the course of the running time. The initial reason for the group to visit the jungle is to recover the special flower that offers life-saving and, in some cases, life-extending properties, which allows them to come into contact with the massive snake and the woman living with it, resulting in the team being decimated, the snake being restrained, and the scientist taking the girl back to civilization. The subsequent search for the mystical properties of the potent flower and how it leads to the immortality of the snake through magical healing powers as it continues searching for the missing girl allows for not just the biological experimentation going on but also his trying to integrate her into society. The scenes of him teaching her manners and other measures of civility while trying to research the flowers’ properties make for a fine multi-layered storyline to start off with.

That setup brings about the fun of the massive snake going around attacking others. The opening assault on the mercenary team, where it comes crashing out of the jungle, throwing them into trees, flipping them into the air, or swallowing them whole, gets the action going right away with a fine starting point, much like the rescue mission, which is similarly quite thrilling. Knowing the snake is there this time, the tactics to stop it make for an even more exciting scene, getting the same type of action into a new grouping of victims. The city attacks are fantastic as well, with the massive size and unexpected nature of it being there generating plenty of fun mini-scenes of the creature interacting with other citizens that let its presence be known so that the high-energy finale comes off even more impactful, as the action there is quite impressive. Offering up explosive action and some heartfelt moments that all work together for a lot to like.

There isn’t much to this one that holds it down. The main detriment to this one comes from the film’s pacing slowing to a crawl once it turns into an attempt to train the woman and figure out how she survived in the jungle for so long. With limited social skills, even fewer means of communication, and still fewer senses about the modern world, the implication of what it’s attempting is all too obvious, which only highlights how little snake action is taking place. Featuring them interacting together with the fish-out-of-water mentality that leaves the snake off to the sidelines following the action-packed opening. There’s also the confusing nature of the different visions that are continuous throughout here, as they have very little context for what’s going on, are usually narration-less, so their purpose is missing, and appear out of nowhere, so it acts more as a disruption than actually clarifying the issue. These factors all combine to hold this one down overall.

Overview: ***.5/5

A rather fun and wholly enjoyable cheesy genre effort, this one comes off well enough for what it is that there’s enough to hold off the few slight issues here holding it down. Those with an appreciation for this type of genre fare, who are curious about it, or who appreciate this kind of cheesy genre effort will have the most to like, while most others out there should heed caution.