La fureur de Shaolin

The movie starts with the helpful narrator explaining about Shaolin Temple. The story starts with the well-worn tale of an entire family is killed except for one son who swears revenge. It is a simple plot, easy to understand, yet the characters keep explaining it again and again.

The edit of the movie is often jarring with many transitional frames missing. The story proceeds with scene after that scene that could never have happened. Example – the bad guys kill the family and report back to their boss that the son escaped. Angry boss tells them to get the son and one frame later they are chasing him through the woods.

I am a hard core fan of this genre and have watched thousands. This is a South Korean production with mostly South Korean performers. Even though it made its way to VHS and then DVD, I still considered it a rather obscure movie. Then I get surprised to come to IMDb and find five reviews already written.

The movie is a good example of the state of the business from the late 1970s to early 1980s. South Korean movie makers had the martial arts talent available but no one really knew how to tell a story. Their biggest stars, like Hwang Jang-Lee, went to Hong Kong for better but still not leading roles. The rest of the talent stayed home and made movies like this. "Like this" means suitable only for fans of the genre who are used to sitting through poor acting and clichéd plots just to get to a great final fight.

A very good film but frustrating as who are these people doing such good kung fu ? The cast list is : Wong Tien Lung, Hau Chiu Sing, Tin-Luen (Ting Lan), Chang Chieh, Chun Kuo Chan, Chang Yao, Little Unicorn (?). I'm pretty sure Hau Chiu Sing who went on to be a good director is the young lead. Anyway leaving aside the improbable story the scenes of training in the Shaolin Temple are very good and this is the finest example I know of using Drunken Staff technique. It is used with devastating effect at the end against Tiger Ko. Who the beautiful sister of the Japanese Samurai fighter is, is anyone's guess and she is last seen rushing off to help our young hero - then nothing, never seen again. This film has everything, hard core fighting, amazing techniques and Ninja. Worth seeking out. Royal Monks is listed as an alternative title but my copy came from Eastern Heroes under 'Shaolin Drunken Fight'.

After his family is massacred, Hsuing goes after the guys who were responsible, but before he does he masters the art of 'drunk fighting'. He also once saved the life of Karube, a samurai, and though his part is left rather pointless by the end, Karube is a super cool. The end fight scene is a 30 minute fight in itself, with lots of interesting fight choreography.

The story in Shaolin Drunk Fighter is simple and cliché, but the execution is very good. We have a young main character who becomes a Shaolin monk in order to learn kung fu so he can get revenge on the tyrant Tiger Ko, who killed his family. And then we have his Shaolin master, who's one of the senior monks at the temple. This master, I think his name is Kung, is a great character (and actor). He's sympathetic, he beats a samurai (using a pole against a sword), he always shows up just when he's needed, and most interestingly, he's a monk who frequently gets drunk! It isn't clear whether this is actually part of, or allowed by, his Shaolin philosophy, or whether it's supposed to be a secret, but it seems to be part and parcel of his general philosophy, as he can fight very well with a pole using his drunken style - which his student also learns (although the whole drunken fighting aspect actually only plays a very small part in the movie).

There are also a bunch of ninjas working for Tiger Ko, and they pull all sorts of "magical" stuff, like disappearing instantly, burrowing through the sand, turning into smoke, etc. This doesn't do them much good, though! In fact, the bits of supernatural martial arts do not really play any kind of important role in the story and could easily have been omitted.

Anyway, the student eventually perfects his kung fu at the temple, and sets out to settle his score with Tiger Ko, aided by his master. The final fight is *very* long and very good; lots of entertainment value there for kung fu fans; lots of cool choreography. The way he defeats Tiger Ko at the end, spinning Ko's spear on his pole and sending it back to impale him, is bloody beautiful! Reminds me of something I saw in a comic book from the early '90s, called "Dragon Lines" - a kung fu master returned a thrown sword to its owner by spinning it once around his finger in mid-air! THAT's freakin' cool! :-)

This movie gets from me a rating of a solid 7 out of 10 - almost 8! Its faults consist in some surplus plot lines which never get developed. The Japanese samurai just ends up standing around at the end, and his sister, who apparently pursues the young main character romantically, never actually catches up with him. The ending is, as so often in these movies, very abrupt.

Shaolin Drunk Fighters is a fantastic kung fu film that has it all! It has drunk monks, bad guys, ninjas who suddenly disappear, a beautiful girl, and a revengeful young man.

The story is about a young man whose family is killed by a bunch of bad guys. Later on, he wants to revenge the evil killers. After discovering the way to the shaolin temple in which he had been admitted, the young man studies kung fu techniques which will help him revenge the killers successfully.

In addition, I must say that Shaolin Drunk Fighters is unintentionally cheesy. Its dubbing has a cheesy delay which makes it look very funny, for instance, the narrator of the first character finnishes saying his/her speech, while the character still talks. There is also another example, when one character is supposed to talk, the narrator of the other character still talks. As you can see Shaolin Drunk Fighters is an unintentionally funny film which will totally entertain you, it sure has entertained me!

I recommend that every fan of kung fu, ninja, martial art and cheesy movies check this film. It will surely not be a disappointment. Recommended 9/10