Drunken Master
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Drunken Master | |
|---|---|
 DVD cover |
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| Directed by | Yuen Woo-ping |
| Produced by | Ng See-Yuen |
| Written by | Lung Hsiao Ng See-Yuen, Yuen Woo-ping |
| Starring | Jackie Chan Richard Norton Gabrielle Fitzpatrick Miki Lee |
| Music by | Chow Fu-Liang |
| Cinematography | Chang Hui |
| Editing by | Pan Hsiung |
| Release date(s) | 1978 |
| Running time | 110 mins |
| Country | Hong Kong |
| Language | Cantonese |
| Followed by | Drunken Master II |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Drunken Master (醉拳, zuì quán--literally drunken fist) is a movie directed by Yuen Woo-ping, starring Jackie Chan, Yuen Siu Tien (aka Simon Yuen), and Hwang Jang-Lee, first released in 1978. It was Chan's first big hit, and is an early example of the comedic martial arts style for which he is famous.
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[edit] Plot
The plot centers on a young and mischievous Wong Fei Hung, (sometimes dubbed as "Freddie Wong", and played by Chan). He gets into a variety of trouble, including showing up an overbearing assistant teacher of kung fu, unknowingly making advances on his own cousin and fighting with his aunt, and beating up the son of an influential man in town. His father disciplines him for this behaviour, but after hearing that his father has called in a kung fu master notorious for crippling his students, he escapes with the help of a friend.
Eventually he encounters the old teacher, Su Hua Chi, the Drunken Master of the film's title (aka the Beggar So, dubbed in some versions of the film as Sam Seed or So Hi, and played by Yuen Siu Tien). Su Hua Chi helps Wong out of one fight and into another. With much reluctance, Wong enters the old man's training program, and is put through a harsh, rigorous regime. He escapes this too, only to run into a feared assassin called Thunderfoot (Hwang Jang-Lee), who was seen at the beginning of the film taking a contract on another fighter's life. Wong unwisely challenges him to a fight, is soundly defeated and humiliated, and crawls back to Su Hua Chi, knowing that his kung fu skills are inadequate after all.
The training continues and Wong learns of the old man's secret style, a form of Zui Quan called "The Eight Drunken Immortals", after eight mythological figures the fighting style emulates. Wong masters seven of the eight gods, but disregards "The Drunken Miss Ho", feeling that it's an unmanly fighting form. He fights other opponents during this time, and over the course of Su Hua Chi's training, handily defeats all comers. Returning to the old man's home after one such fight, he discovers his master's farewell note, bidding him to return to his father and be a dutiful son.
Meanwhile, Thunderfoot has been contracted by a rival of Wong's father to kill him. Wong, finding his father seriously injured after a brief exchange of blows with the confident Thunderfoot, challenges the assassin to a duel. During the fight he is forced to improvise the final drunk god, and it is through the techniques taught to him by Su Hua Chi, and the use of all eight gods, that he manages to triumph, and defeat the undefeatable Thunderfoot. .
[edit] Fight scenes
A number of notable fights are featured in the film, almost all of them with strong elements of comedy: from the game of keepaway with Wong's cocky but incompetent kung fu teacher, to the novel "head-fu" fighting style used by one of his opponents. The movie features several distinctive styles of fighting, including the Snake and Crane, Tiger, and Monkey, as well as the famous "Eight Drunk Gods".
[edit] Sequels
A sequel, Dance of the Drunk Mantis, was again directed by Yuen Woo Ping and Simon Yuen reprised his drunken beggar role, but the film did not feature Jackie Chan.
Drunken Master II (1994) did star Jackie Chan, and is therefore considered as the true sequel. The U.S. release of the film in 2000 was entitled The Legend of Drunken Master.
[edit] Imitators
As with many successful Hong Kong action films, several films were released in the wake of Drunken Master (and its sequel) that could be considered spin-offs, or at least trading on the fame of the original film.
In 1979 Yuen Siu Tien reprised the role of "Su Hua Chi" / "The Beggar So" / "Sam Seed" in the film Dance of the Drunk Mantis, which is entitled Drunken Master Part 2 in some releases. The film, which was again directed by his son, Yuen Woo-ping, focuses on the drunken beggar character rather than on Wong Fei Hung and is therefore not generally considered to be a true sequel. Yuen played this same role again in the films Story of the Drunken Master and World of the Drunken Master.
Whilst those three films shared a principal actor, character and director with the original film, other films were released with much less in common. These include:
- The Drunken Fighter (1978)
- Drunken Swordsman (aka Drunken Dragon Strikes Back) (1979)
- The Shaolin Drunken Monk (1982)
- Drunken Tai-Chi (directed by Yuen Woo-ping and starring Donnie Yen) (1984)
- Revenge of the Drunken Master (1984)
- Drunken Master III (aka Drunken Master Killer) - starring Andy Lau (1994)
- The Little Drunken Masters (1995)
However, it should be noted that not all films that feature the Zui Quan "Drunken Fist" style (or variations on it) can be considered as imitators of Chan's films. Films such as Drunken Monkey may feature this style of kung fu, but have a fundamentally different plot and sufficiently different title to separate it from Drunken Master.
[edit] Trivia
- Drunken Master was a sort of semi-sequel to Snake in the Eagle's Shadow, which had been made the previous year and featured the same cast and director.
- The character of the Su Hua Chi, the Beggar So, is a character from Chinese folklore who was said to be an associate of the real life Wong Fei Hung.
- Director Yuen Woo-ping is the son of star Yuen Siu Tien.
- The Drunken Master was the title of a PC Engine fighting game released in 1987.
- In the Playstation videogame Gex 2: Enter the Gecko in the level "Mao Tse Tongue" a poster on a wall says "Drunken Gecko I & II".
- The Playstation game Jackie Chan Stuntmaster also includes a bonus level in which he wears his traditional Drunken Master dress and drinks wine while fighting.He even gives the Drunken Punch as his charge punch throughout the game.
- In the Namco Tekken Game Series the character Lei Wulong copies Jackie Chans Drunken Master fighting styles throughout the game play.
