Whilst the action scenes are first class, as one would expect given Lau Kar-leung is the man behind the film, sadly the rest of the film doesn't really hold up.
The story tone jerks about a lot, which means you go from one extreme to another. For instance, the opening twenty minutes or so, which are somewhat dark and violent, are followed by some broad, over-played comedy scenes (see the rather attractive, yet highly annoying, Mother). If you've seen The Scorpion King/Operation Scorpio (with Lau Kar-leung) and Tai Chi Boxer/Tai Chi 2 (with Wu Jing), that scene may look familiar. Sadly, those films are about 10 years old now. The comedy plays like in a Wong Jing film.
Only Wu Jing is shown really training, which means you have to trust that Lau Wing-kin has been training as well as painting, as he manages to fight against the odds at the end.
Also, Shannon Yao appears to be there as (admittedly gorgeous) eye candy, as she's given nothing else to do. She also doesn't appear to have the same level of ability as Lau Kar-leung and Wu Jing which, like with Lau Wing-kin, leaves you a bit sceptical that she'd last long against the villains.
However, as I mentioned earlier, the action scenes themselves are stunning. Gordon Liu and Chi Kuan-chun expertly add to mix in their respective good guy/bad guy roles and, despite being around 68 at the time, Lau Kar-leung can still wipe the floor with many of today's young pretenders.
In all, provided you can stomach the rather bad comedy scenes, Drunken Monkey is worth watching. Hopefully Shaw Brothers can come up with something more consistent next time. Not bad for their first big martial arts release for nearly twenty years, but a big "could do better" seems appropriate.
The story tone jerks about a lot, which means you go from one extreme to another. For instance, the opening twenty minutes or so, which are somewhat dark and violent, are followed by some broad, over-played comedy scenes (see the rather attractive, yet highly annoying, Mother). If you've seen The Scorpion King/Operation Scorpio (with Lau Kar-leung) and Tai Chi Boxer/Tai Chi 2 (with Wu Jing), that scene may look familiar. Sadly, those films are about 10 years old now. The comedy plays like in a Wong Jing film.
Only Wu Jing is shown really training, which means you have to trust that Lau Wing-kin has been training as well as painting, as he manages to fight against the odds at the end.
Also, Shannon Yao appears to be there as (admittedly gorgeous) eye candy, as she's given nothing else to do. She also doesn't appear to have the same level of ability as Lau Kar-leung and Wu Jing which, like with Lau Wing-kin, leaves you a bit sceptical that she'd last long against the villains.
However, as I mentioned earlier, the action scenes themselves are stunning. Gordon Liu and Chi Kuan-chun expertly add to mix in their respective good guy/bad guy roles and, despite being around 68 at the time, Lau Kar-leung can still wipe the floor with many of today's young pretenders.
In all, provided you can stomach the rather bad comedy scenes, Drunken Monkey is worth watching. Hopefully Shaw Brothers can come up with something more consistent next time. Not bad for their first big martial arts release for nearly twenty years, but a big "could do better" seems appropriate.