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

Jackie Chan nearly lost an eye when Hwang Jig Lee kicked him in the head during the final fight scene.

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Goofs

At the Begining of the movie, when Wong Fei-Hung is being punish by his father and has to fight one of Mr. Li's men. Fei-Hung's Shirt was dirty, but in the other shots his shirt was clean.

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Connections

Spoofed in DragonBlade (2005)

User Reviews

not only lives up to legend, it creates it

It is said that this is the film that made Jackie Chan a star, but that isn't really true, since Snake in Eagle's Shadow actually had a bigger impact at the time, and allowed Chan to make this film. One way we know this is that there are some two dozen films made in the late '70s- early'80's designed to imitate Snake in Eagle's Shadow, and only a couple imitate this film. By the time Drunken Master had become legendary world-wide, the chop-socky cycle (to which it still belongs, to an extent) had passed into history, and Chan himself had abandoned historical 'fu films for contemporary comedy-thrillers.

It should be noted that the idea of making a film based on the early years of Wong Fei Hong was not original to Chan; at roughly the same time this film was being made, well-known martial arts choreographer Liu Chia Leung made a straight (non-comic) version of the story (without drunken boxing) over at Shaw Brothers, Challenge of the Masters, with Gordon Liu as Wong Fei Hung.

The defining moment for the Chan-Yuen version of the film is the use of Drunken Boxing. There is no real evidence that the historical Wong Fei Hung was a master of this style; his more famous innovations involved the development of the shadowless hand technique and the no-shadow kick. Interestingly, in order to highlight Chan's use of Drunken Boxing, these other two techniques, better identified with Wong, are assigned in the film to the villain, "Thunderlegs" played by Hwang Jen Lee.

At any rate, it would not be clear that one could consider this a Wong Fei Hung film at all - if it weren't for the fact that this film effectively redefined the Wong legend, so that it has since become pro-forma to assume that Wong was a bit wild in his youth. (Just to set that record straight, Wong was actually extremely studious, and recognized as a real child-prodigy in the martial arts, winning his first major public duel at the age of thirteen.) Drunken Master is solid martial arts entertainment. There are decided weaknesses in the plot and over-all staging of the film, but these can easily be ignored, as the film thrusts us along with kung fu and comedy to the grand final fight at the end. It must also be noted that these characters - even the villain - are well acted and quite likable and familiar, and thus add a credibility to the film. And Yuen's direction is also very professional and a couple notches above the average for a Hong Kong genre film of the time.

Lives up to its own legend, and well-worth the viewing.