This review is spoiler-free!!
How to watch: Netflix (at the time the article was written)
Starring: Jackie Chan, Yuen Siu-tien, Hwang Jang-lee
Runtime: 1 hour 51 minutes
Language: Cantonese (dubs and subtitles available in English and other languages)
Director: Yuen Woo-ping
Writers: Siao Lung, Ng See-yuen
Rating: 13+
Release date: October 5, 1978
Style: Action, Adventure, Martial Arts
For more details, you can find them on IMDB, Wikipedia
Drunken Monkey in the tiger’s eye
A few years after I started training kung fu, my Sifu started a sort of movie rental service for students. All martial arts movies, most of them Chinese. It was cheap and I didn’t know 90% of the movies. Most of them were awesome, at least for a high schooler. Between those titles was this undisputed absolute gem of Hong Kong cinema. It was a Spanish dub of the original and the title was changed to the title of this section (but in Spanish of course). Suffice it to say, catchy title, Jackie Chan, came well recommended, so I rented it. And of course, I loved it. It’s one of Jackie’s early movies before he went to the west. It featured drunken boxing, that famous kung fu style everyone’s heard of, but almost never seen in real life. This was my first (or second) introduction to classic Hong Kong Jackie Chan movies.
Overview
Jackie plays famous real-life kung fu master Wong Fei-hung, albeit in his younger years. You can see a glimpse of the hero he’ll become as he stands for the oppressed when the time comes, but he gets in fights and lots of trouble. Because of this, his father Wong Kei-ying punishes him by getting him to train with So Hak Yi (aka Beggar So another real-life kung fu master). Fei Hung tries to escape his punishment (and his father) but ends up meeting So in the midst of one of those troublesome situations. The movie then follows our hero as he’s put through rigorous training, gets into more trouble, some character growth and finally masters Drunken Boxing.
Movie Review: 6/10
The Good
This is a young Jackie Chan directed by the great Yuen Woo-ping. As is the case with many Chinese martial arts movies, you get gorgeous fights, training montages, and a more or less decent plot. His mix between comedy and action though is right there, blossoming. You can see the seeds of what will be the norm for some of his most popular movies. Yuen Siu-Tin as So Hak Yi also does a wonderful job. He’s your quintessential old master with the added twist of being a drunkard. He’s a happy drunk but a stern master when he needs to be.
The Bad
Jackie plays Wong Fei-hung as if he was a character from one of those college movies (Porky’s, Revenge of the Nerds, etc.). He’s young, he’s impetuous, and he likes to play pranks and gets into fights a lot (mainly by accident). Within the story, there are very dramatic moments but also comedic ones. All of this, in one film that’s less than two hours long. This is a mix of storytelling styles. Also some of the humor might be too local. Not something of the movie itself but important to the experience. Some subs contain mistakes, and the dubs are horrible (in the Uk version Wong Fei-hung is Freddy Wong). The antagonists lack substance. Hwang Jang Lee plays an assassin and you don’t really find out why he’s in the film until almost the end.
Martial Arts Review: 8/10
The Good
Jackie Chan directed by Yuen Woo-ping, ’nuff said. OK, let me be a tad more thorough. Drunken Boxing is a thing that’s been in kung fu pop culture for as long as there has been one. Even the early Wong Fei-hung silent movies with Kwan Tak Hing featured a bit of that. And Jackie here does a wonderful job making it sort of believable. Of course, it’s still fiction. It still choreography, and all that, but it looks amazing. You can almost believe it’s a real thing. It’s a 70s movie, it’s not quite a typical chop-socky Shaw Brothers kung fu film, but it’s not yet what eventually became Jackie’s style.
There’re two notable antagonists. King of Bamboo played by Hsu Hsia and Thunderleg Yin Tie-Hsin played by Hwang Jang-lee. Both of them appear briefly in a couple of fights. But each one bears his own personal style. King of Bamboo uses a staff and, as his nickname suggests, he’s quite good at using it. Then there’s Thunderleg the expert kicker, masterfully done by a Taekwondo master. His kicks are as deadly as his character is evil and his fights are some of the best, especially against Jackie.
The training montages really shine a light on Jackie’s fitness. Some of that stuff looks gruelingly painful.
The Bad
As I said it’s not a typically chop-socky Shaw Brothers flick but it still has some chop-sockyness in it. Especially the fights where Jackie is not using Drunken Boxing. Hung Gar feels like it could’ve been better at times. This being a Wong Fei-hung film it should show some decent portrayal of his signature style. That said, there’s nothing really bad, it’s just the way things were done back then. If you like movies with more “realistic” fights, this is definitely not the one for you.
Overall Rating and Review: 7/10
If you like Kung fu movies and Jackie Chan, then this is a must see. It’s one of his most seminal works. It’s an old film, and some aspects of it might be a bit dated, but it’s still thoroughly enjoyable. The final score reflects this in my opinion. I love the film but watching it again after so many years (of training and watching other films) made me a bit more critical of it.
Have you seen it? What did you think of it? Let me know in the comments section.
Drunken Master
The Good
- Drunken boxing
- Great fight scenes
The Bad
- Dated
- Not enough character development
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