Drunken Master (1978)

Drunken Master (1978)

7/10

Starring

Jackie Chan

Yuen Siu-tien

Hwang Jang-lee

Directed by Yuen Woo-ping

I was not born when this movie was made back then in 1978, but this was one of the movies that help shape Jackie Chan in the comedic action movie life we have come to know him for. Plus this is a fun movie to see.

This movie created some extremely memorable characters, with the bad guy being so strong that it was near impossible to beat him. The action and cinematography was done in a different way than the foreign movies, with no need to change view from what you are watching, just mainly a single camera focus on the fights. Add to that, the story of the movie which was written in the most simple fashion meant to cover a wide range of audiences.

Another thing to watch in this movie is the fight choreography, which was top notch in this film.

Seen as one of the best martial arts movies, this movie follows the tale of Chinese folklore hero Wong Fei-hung. Here in this movie we discover how he learned the drunken boxing. The movie had Fei-hung being played as a spoiled brat. Always cheating people, getting into fights and always trying to get a one up on everyone.

Fei-hung gets into another scuffle and beats up a hooligan who is the son of an influential man. This angers his father who decides to punish him by sending for a martial arts trainer called Beggar So.

Beggar So is known around as a wicked trainer who has crippled numerous of his students during training. Fei-hung decided to runaway to avoid Beggar So. This running away would have worked if he did not run into Beggar So on his path towards flee.

So was as brutal as they can be and trained Fei-hung hard. On the other side of town, Fei-hung's father is not having it easy, as someone is trying to kill him.

This movie was a financial success and a critical one also. It was years later in 1994 that Jackie Chan did a follow up to this movie called The Legend of Drunken Master.

This movie is a keeper and something you can watch again and again. The movie maintained a nice pace through its almost two hours of running. Then seeing a young Chan pulling out all the fluid martial art stops and jumps we have come to know him for.

If you have not seen this movie recently, I advise that you should to get the feel of a young Jackie Chan doing what he knows how to do best, entertain.