Shaolin contre Mantis

My children and I are big fans of Gordon Liu; in fact, one of the first Chinese kung-fu movies that we've ever seen together was Shaolin Drunken Monk. It's been sitting on the top shelf for years. Last night, we watched it again for the first time in years.

The plot was the standard revenge plot; however, the martial arts sequences were pretty good, especially the drunken boxing sequences. The most distracting part of the movie was the dubbing. Where is it written that every voice has to sound vastly different from every other voice...to the point where they were sounding cartoonish.

And worse, the characters developed British accents over time. They started with American accents and by the end of the flick, they were all sounding like David Niven...

Also, the ending was standard for a Gordon Liu movie: It looks like the movie was over when they suddenly ran out of film...

Gordon works out under a waterfall. A man with one hand kills a guy. Gordon kidnaps a girl for revenge on her father. The backstory is Gordon's family was killed, they thought they drowned him but now he is back and he knows kung fu.

I always start my review with a summary of the opening action. This is to make sure we are talking about the same movie. Many of these movies have alternate titles and many titles are similar or have nothing to do with anything going on in the movie.

I am having a problem with the title of this movie at IMDb. It is currently listed as "The 36th Chamber:The Final Encounter", but the picture on the DVD is labeled "Shaolin Drunken Monk" which is the correct title. Other alternate titles are incorrect. I am using HKMDB as an alternate source and they are usually more accurate in regards to these movies.

My copy is the Ocean Shores VHS release English dubbed and converted to a computer video file. It is not the A-team of voice actors but they did a good job.

The story line makes a good start but the second flashback destroys the pace. One flashback can be okay but two, especially when so extended, never works. My only other complaint is the drunken boxing that has nothing to do with the fighting until the final three minutes.

The fights are outstanding and make up for any other minuses. Overall I think the movie still barely amounts to a knick less than average for the year and genre.

I remember watching this film when it was released in India in the early eighties. I was barely a teen then. I remember this film being the best martial arts film i ever saw. It was entertaining, had great fights, amazing training techniques, etc. But please remember, all my memories about this film (and the rating I have given it) are based on watching it as a 11 or 12 years old. I have no idea how I would react if I were to watch it now. Maybe find it funny at times. Or even silly, maybe. I don't know. I remember watching a movie called Five Deadly Venoms even earlier than 1982, and when I rented it recently, I found it to be garbage :)

Awesome Chia Hui Liu movie the fights are great.Now Albeit it is a low budget and the editing and dubs are pretty weak stuff.However the bad parts of this movie are just plain funny and the good parts wow.I would have to say the fight sequences in this movie are highly realistic no phony jumps or extraordinary feats.What you see is just good old plain Gung FU.And Gordon looks great in this so do all the actors as far as the Gung Fu.Even the story is decent I suspect it had a very low budget and slim timetable to make it.Don't expect polish there isn't much do expect bad dubs(Eng. Version),cheap camera tricks and a very brief ending!You will also see Gordon at his best and the one handed fighter is to good to be missed!

If you're a fan of crazy kung-fu then this is a must-see. Just the idea alone of learning kung-fu from a drunken master is enough to make it a hit. Don't look for an ocsar winner here just plain funniness. There was tons of fight scenes and freaked out moves...and really isn't that all we want in a martial arts film?