Drunken Master

This for me is Jackie Chan's finest, and is the film which propelled him to super stardom in Hong Kong. Whilst other martial artists were trying to be the new Bruce Lee, Jackie did something different. Why replace the irreplaceable when you could do something completely different? What Jackie did was introduce slapstick into the Kung Fu formula, the rest as they say is history.

Jackie stars as Freddy Wong aka (Wong Fei Hung) depending upon which dub you watch. A juvenile delinquent with a penchant for feeling up immediate female members of his family. His father, fed up of his delinquency hires Sam Seed aka The Drunken Master to teach him some discipline as well as his secret fighting style. Naturally the two get off on the wrong foot but learn to respect each other as the film goes on whilst of course getting into the obligatory scrapes and japes. There is of course a villain of the piece in this case its the Tae Kwan Do master Hwang Jan Lee as the underworld assassin "Thunderfoot" who in real life was just as badass as he is in the film.

So it's all pretty derivative then? Well yes and no. There is a genuine rapport between Jackie and Yu Su Tien as pupil and teacher. The martial arts is brilliantly choreographed and inventive (the scene in the restaurant is probably my favourite) and the whole thing has a "joie de vivre". Watching it, it seems to me that the actors had a ball making the film. Which is just as well as I had a ball watching it.

This is my favourite jackie chan film. It's one of the funniest films i've ever seen. It starts with a fight and ends with one,so the action crowd won't be disappointed! Plus it contains the funniest scenes chan has ever put on film,such as the taunting of his idiotic teacher and the horror of realising the woman who he picks a fight with is his auntie!Brilliant.

I am not very familiar with the true story of Wong Fei Hung. I've read about him before, and from memory, he was an exceptional martial artist (he practiced Hung-Gar) and became a folk-hero to the people of China, much like his father, Wong Kei Ying. So there is the true story, and then there is the 200 or so movies made about him. 'Drunken Master' is one of these.

I haven't seen most of those 200 movies, except for the Drunken Master movies, Jet Li's 'Once Upon a Time in China' series, and 'Iron Monkey'. The 'Once Upon a Time in China' movies and 'Iron Monkey' may be somewhat over-the-top wu xia movies, but they portray Wong Fei Hung as a serious hero. 'Drunken Master' features a very different take on the character.

Jackie Chan's Wong Fei Hung is a rebellious trouble-maker. His father, Wong Kei Ying, has given up on disciplining him, and sends him to his uncle, So Hai, the master of drunken boxing, hoping that a year of training with So Hai will sort Fei Hung out. Fei doesn't seem to learn his lesson until a chance encounter with Thunderfoot (Hwang Jang Lee)...

Story-wise, it is a bit of a standard kung-fu plot. However, in a documentary on Jackie Chan (I can't remember the name, I know that as of this review, it isn't listed on IMDb, but it was shown on SBS in 2003), 'Drunken Master' was mentioned as his breakthrough hit that nearly killed his career: Apparently Chinese viewers were insulted by Jackie's portrayal of Wong Fei Hung and nearly boycotted him when he was just gaining fame as an actor.

Onto more important matters. Like kung-fu. 'Drunken Master' is one of the kung-fu classics. Boosted by the presence of martial-arts star Hwang Jang Lee, this pretty much made or solidified the careers of Jackie Chan and Yuen Woo Ping (in his directorial debut). 'Drunken Master' features some very well choreographed fights and training scenes. 'Drunken Master' is very funny too, and is one of two movies I know where a young main-character gets beaten by an older middle-aged lady (which is always funny, more movies need a scene like this) - the other movie is Battlefield Baseball.

As a matter of interest for Jackie Chan fans: 'Drunken Master' signaled the end of Jackie Chan's work with director Wei Lo. Yay. In fact, the Columbia Tristar DVD release of 'Drunken Master' includes audio commentary by experts on Hong Kong cinema. I will check that out sometime, but it sounds like it would appeal to fans of kung-fu movies. Some more trivia - the latest release doesn't have the complete Cantonese sound track, and so the English dub is used where the Cantonese track is incomplete.

'Drunken Master' features awesome kung-fu scenes, and has some interesting historical perspectives. Ah, kung-fu movies and history, some of my favourite hobbies together at last - 10/10, a must see for any fans of Jackie Chan or kung-fu movies, 'Drunken Master' is kung-fu perfection.

It is said that this is the film that made Jackie Chan a star, but that isn't really true, since Snake in Eagle's Shadow actually had a bigger impact at the time, and allowed Chan to make this film. One way we know this is that there are some two dozen films made in the late '70s- early'80's designed to imitate Snake in Eagle's Shadow, and only a couple imitate this film. By the time Drunken Master had become legendary world-wide, the chop-socky cycle (to which it still belongs, to an extent) had passed into history, and Chan himself had abandoned historical 'fu films for contemporary comedy-thrillers.

It should be noted that the idea of making a film based on the early years of Wong Fei Hong was not original to Chan; at roughly the same time this film was being made, well-known martial arts choreographer Liu Chia Leung made a straight (non-comic) version of the story (without drunken boxing) over at Shaw Brothers, Challenge of the Masters, with Gordon Liu as Wong Fei Hung.

The defining moment for the Chan-Yuen version of the film is the use of Drunken Boxing. There is no real evidence that the historical Wong Fei Hung was a master of this style; his more famous innovations involved the development of the shadowless hand technique and the no-shadow kick. Interestingly, in order to highlight Chan's use of Drunken Boxing, these other two techniques, better identified with Wong, are assigned in the film to the villain, "Thunderlegs" played by Hwang Jen Lee.

At any rate, it would not be clear that one could consider this a Wong Fei Hung film at all - if it weren't for the fact that this film effectively redefined the Wong legend, so that it has since become pro-forma to assume that Wong was a bit wild in his youth. (Just to set that record straight, Wong was actually extremely studious, and recognized as a real child-prodigy in the martial arts, winning his first major public duel at the age of thirteen.) Drunken Master is solid martial arts entertainment. There are decided weaknesses in the plot and over-all staging of the film, but these can easily be ignored, as the film thrusts us along with kung fu and comedy to the grand final fight at the end. It must also be noted that these characters - even the villain - are well acted and quite likable and familiar, and thus add a credibility to the film. And Yuen's direction is also very professional and a couple notches above the average for a Hong Kong genre film of the time.

Lives up to its own legend, and well-worth the viewing.

Directed by legendary kung fu choreographer Yuen Woo-Ping, Drunken Master is considered by many martial arts fans to be one of the best films of Jackie Chan's career, but while it certainly displays the star's kung fu and acrobatic ability to great effect, and is a thoroughly enjoyable watch, I found the plot just a little too generic (and the comedy a little too broad) to rate it any higher than an 8 (I actually give it a 7.5, but I've rounded my score up for IMDb).

There really is very little going on here in terms of storyline, and what there is most seasoned fans of old school martial arts fans will have seen countless times before: a young upstart, Wong Fei-Hung (Chan), causes trouble in his local town and is sent by his disappointed father to train with a kung fu master, Beggar Su (Siu Tin Yuen). Beggar Su's techniques are harsh but very effective, so when an assassin named Thunderfoot (Hwang Jang Lee) is hired to kill Fei-Hung's father, the young man is able to step in and save the day.

Jackie Chan's comedic style is very much in evidence here, with buffoonery, slapstick action, and fart and poo gags, plus quite a few characters with peculiar facial features (a hairy mole, a red nose, drawn on freckles and goofy teeth), and the humour will not appeal to all (I nearly always struggle with Chinese comedy). Thankfully, the excellent fighting more than makes up for the silliness, with Jackie performing some mind-bogglingly amazing feats of physical prowess, making the absolute most of his Chinese Circus training. He leaps, he flips, he tumbles, he kicks, and he punches, performing snake style, monkey style and—of course—drunken style, all with incredible energy, speed and split second timing; it's absolutely breathtaking to behold.

Naturally, Beggar Su and Thunderfoot are no slouches in the chop socky department either, the old drunken beggar pulling off some very cool moves against a baddie called The Stick King (Hsia Hsu) and Thunderfoot more than living up to his title: with his technique 30% hands and 70% legs, Hwang Jang Lee is given plenty of opportunity to show off his legendary kicking skills. Also very impressive in her small role as Wong Fei Hung's auntie is Linda Lin Ying: I don't know much about her, but the one fight scene she shares with Jackie is quite stunning—her flexibility and leg control made my jaw drop (I must check out some of the other titles in her filmography—Dance of the Drunk Mantis also stars Hwang Jang Lee, so that would seem like an obvious place to start).