Siu taai gik (1984)

User Rating:

6.3/10   

Director:

Woo-ping Yuen

Writers:

Peace Group (writer)
Brandy Yuen (writer)

Release Date:

31 May 1984 (Hong Kong)

Genre:

Action | Comedy

Plot Keywords:

Shaolin

Cast

Donnie Yen	...	Chan Chuen Chung
Cheung-Yan Yuen	...	Puppetteer
Lydia Shum	...	Fatty
Shun-Yee Yuen	...	Iron-Steel
Mandy Chan	...	Ta Sha
Yat Chor Yuen	...	Yu Ping
Don Wong	...	Ta Sha's father
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Chung-Kwai Cheung	...	Ta Sha's friend 1
Chang Hsun
Wong Kin-Mi	...	Muscle Man
Alan Lee	...	Thug
Kun Li	...	Chung & Ping's father
Ge Liu
Yun-pao Lu
Pooi Tak-Wan
Yao Wang	...	Ta Sha's friend 2

Also Known As:

Drunken Tai Chi (Hong Kong: English title)
Drunken Tai Chi Master (International: English title)
Laughing Tai Chi (Hong Kong: English title) (literal title)
Xiao tai ji (Hong Kong: Mandarin title)

Runtime:

91 min

Country:

Hong Kong

Language:

Cantonese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Company:

Peace Film Production Co.

It's no Drunken Master, but good fun nonetheless

Look up 'Shameless ripoff' in the dictionary, and you'll find a picture of Donnie Yen practising tai chi. The startlingly original plot -- our hero gets beaten up and sees his family killed, forcing him to learn a new style of martial arts so he can defeat the evil killer -- is enhanced by... well, okay. Not enhanced. But there are a few slight variations from tradition in an effort to give this film some semblance of a plot, such as the evil baddie being a loving daddy. But let us gloss over such trivia as plot --as did the director -- in favour of the characters and the kung-fu, the two essential ingredients in any movie of this type. Plot? Pah!

Anyway, the Sam the Seed character is a drunken tai chi master (that's a master of tai chi who's drunken, not a master of drunken tai chi. If you you were expecting differently from the film's title, tough). There are no amusing styles, and the tai chi bears as much resemblance to the actual art as does real-life kung fu to its cinematic equivalent. Do I sound like I didn't like the film? I hope not, because I *did* enjoy it, while recognising that it hadn't a shred of originality or thought behind it. Most of the fight scenes were good fun, and the bits in between, while unfunny, weren't as painfully so as they usually are in this sort of film. Yuen Woo Ping's reputation was made by Drunken Master, and this film was his most obvious attempt to cash in. I'm inclined to blame the studio more than the director for this though; not that blame particularly needs to be apportioned. You won't come away from this film thinking it was a masterpiece, but you won't be grumbling and demanding your money back either.