Many Hong Kong actors and martial artists tried to fill the void left after the tragically premature death of Bruce Lee. None succeeded, but at least one of them managed to become international star and he did so mainly by building his own screen personality based on his very personal style of films. Jackie Chan began that process in late 1970s by starring in films that mixed martial arts with physical comedy. One of the first such titles was Drunken Master, 1978 comedy directed by legendary martial arts choreographer Yuen Woo-ping.

Protagonist, played by Jackie Chan, is Wong Fei-hung (dubbed “Freddy Wong” in some versions of the flm), legendary Chinese martial artist and folk hero who lived in second half of 19th Century. The plot shows his early days when he was irresponsible and mischievous youth whose lack of respect for teachers, local powerful men and his own family got him in all kinds of trouble. His father Wong Kei-Ying (played by Lam Kau, dubbed “Robert Wong”) had enough and decides to punish him by sending him to be trained at the martial arts master known for his brutal discipline. Wong Fei-hung decides to prevent this by running from home, but along his flight he ends at the seemingly harmless old drunk who actually happens to be Beggar So (played by Yuen Siu-Tin, dubbed “Sam Seed”), the dreaded martial arts expert whose speciality are kung fu techniques known as “drunken boxing”. Wong Fei-hung predictably doesn’t like his master’s discipline so he escapes again only to stumble into Thunderleg Yen Tie-hsin (played by Hwang Jan Lee, dubbed “Thunderfoot”), brutal professional assassin whose martial arts skills prove to be superior to Wong’s. Wong is defeated and humiliated and forced to return to Beggar So to finish his training, which comes at right time, because Wong’s father happens to be Thunderleg’s target.

Viewers need to have at least some familiarity with 1970s Hong Kong cinema and its brand of martial films if they want to properly enjoy Drunken Master, otherwise relatively low budget, lack of proper plot and character exposition, as well as lack of music might leave wrong impression to the uninitiated. Those who have some familiarity with subject matter, on the other hand, will enjoy combination of the impressive martial arts choreography, slapstick and near anarchic silliness. Both Jackie Chan and Yuen Woo-ping’s father Yuen Siu-Tin make impressive characters despite their one-dimensionality or, in Jackie Chan’s case, lack of consistency. Drunken Master turned out to be great hit in Hong Kong and played big part in popularising “drunken boxing”, spawning a number of martial arts films trying to repeat its formula. Drunken Master became one of the most popular films in Jackie Chan’s career and even those accustomed to his later, more polished and sometimes less formulaic, action films will be impressed with skill displayed in his early days.

RATING: 7/10 (++)

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Movie URL: https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/11230-jui-kuen
Critic: AA