Drunken Master (1978)
"Jui kuen" (original title)

An undisciplined boy must learn Drunken Fist Kung Fu in order to stop an assassin.

Director:

Woo-ping Yuen

Writers:

Lung Hsiao, See-Yuen Ng,

Stars:

Jackie Chan, Siu Tien Yuen, Jang Lee Hwang

Cast

Credited cast:
Jackie Chan	...	Wong Fei-Hung (as Jacky Chan)
Siu Tien Yuen	...	Su Hua Chi / Sam Seed
Jang Lee Hwang	...	Thunderleg
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Siu Hung Cham
Tien Lung Chen	...	Bully
Ching Chiang
Ging Man Fung	...	Mr. Li
Hsia Hsu	...	King of Bamboo
Ying Li
Chiao Lin
Linda Lin	...	Fei-hung's aunt
Dean Shek	...	Professor Kai-Hsien
Fu Tsan Shih
Kien Shih
Han Chen Wang

Storyline

The father of Wong Fei-hong, who has been attempting to teach his son kung-fu, but has found him too disobedient to teach and decides to send him off to his uncle, a cruel and torturous master of the 8-Drunken Genii kung-fu. After much suffering the son comes back to rescue the father from an assassin who has also previously humiliated Naughty Panther.

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Plot Keywords:

master | kung fu | revenge | friend | good versus evil | 

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Genres:

Comedy | Action

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for martial arts violence and language

Details

Country:

Hong Kong

Language:

Cantonese

Release Date:

5 October 1978 (Hong Kong)

Also Known As:

Tráfico de arte

Company Credits

Production Co:

Seasonal Film Corporation

Technical Specs

Runtime:

111 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

For many of the more athletic sequences, the 66-year-old Siu Tien Yuen was doubled by his sons, Cheung-Yan Yuen and director Woo-ping Yuen.

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Goofs

After Won Fei Hung is beaten by Thunderleg and offered Beggar Su some wine, he drops the bowl, and Su catches it. If you slow-mo the DVD, for a split second you can see that the bowl goes past Su's foot, which is coming up to catch it. The film then cuts to a shot where the bowl is on Su's foot.

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Connections

Spoofed in Lasing Master (1980)

User Reviews

Jackie Chan's finest hour

This for me is Jackie Chan's finest, and is the film which propelled him to super stardom in Hong Kong. Whilst other martial artists were trying to be the new Bruce Lee, Jackie did something different. Why replace the irreplaceable when you could do something completely different? What Jackie did was introduce slapstick into the Kung Fu formula, the rest as they say is history.

Jackie stars as Freddy Wong aka (Wong Fei Hung) depending upon which dub you watch. A juvenile delinquent with a penchant for feeling up immediate female members of his family. His father, fed up of his delinquency hires Sam Seed aka The Drunken Master to teach him some discipline as well as his secret fighting style. Naturally the two get off on the wrong foot but learn to respect each other as the film goes on whilst of course getting into the obligatory scrapes and japes. There is of course a villain of the piece in this case its the Tae Kwan Do master Hwang Jan Lee as the underworld assassin "Thunderfoot" who in real life was just as badass as he is in the film.

So it's all pretty derivative then? Well yes and no. There is a genuine rapport between Jackie and Yu Su Tien as pupil and teacher. The martial arts is brilliantly choreographed and inventive (the scene in the restaurant is probably my favourite) and the whole thing has a "joie de vivre". Watching it, it seems to me that the actors had a ball making the film. Which is just as well as I had a ball watching it.