Drunken Master (1978)

Wong Fei-Hung (Jackie Chan) is a mischievous, yet righteous young man, but after a series of incidents, his frustrated father has him disciplined by Beggar So (Yuen Siu-Tien), a master of drunken martial arts.

Director:

Woo-Ping Yuen

Writers:

Lung Hsiao (as Hua-An Hsi), See-Yuen Ng

Stars:

Jackie Chan, Siu Tin Yuen, Jang Lee Hwang

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Jackie Chan	...	Wong Fei-Hung (as Jacky Chan)
Siu Tin Yuen	...	Beggar So (as Yuen Hsiao Tien)
Jang Lee Hwang	...	Jim Ti-Sam (as Huang Cheng Li)
Dean Shek	...	Ko Choi (as Shih Tien)
Kau Lam	...	Wong Kei-Ying (as Chiao Lin)
Linda Lin	...	Fei-Hung's Aunt
Tien Lung Chen	...	Bully (as Chiang Wang)
Hsia Hsu	...	Ceoi King-Tin
Chiu Jun Lee	...	(as Shih Fu-Tsai)
Han Chen Wang	...	Restaurant Boss
Kwai Shan	...	Iron Head Rat (as Yung Liu)
Chin Chiang	...	Da Kuai-Dai
Shun-Yee Yuen	...	Chen Kuo-Wei
Ging Man Fung	...	Li Wan-Hao
Hui Tsai

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.

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Plot Keywords:

kung fu | kung fu classic | kung fu master | cult film | martial arts | 

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Genres:

Action | Comedy

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for martial arts violence and language

Details

Country:

Hong Kong

Language:

Mandarin Cantonese

Release Date:

5 October 1978 (Hong Kong)

Also Known As:

Drunken Master

Filming Locations:

Jardim de Lou Lim Ioc - 10 Estrada de Adolfo de Loureiro, Sao Lazaro, Macau, China

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

There is a clip (possibly a teaser or a deleted scene) in which Wong Fei-Hung demonstrates drunken boxing on the front lawn of Beggar So's home; the latter calls instructions throughout, with characters subsequently appearing on-screen. It appeared in the documentary "Cinema of Vengeance" and later as a "deleted scene" on some home video releases.

A photograph from this (Fei-Hung with his leg raised, holding both a tea cup and wine jar) is commonly used in various artworks.

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Goofs

The bowl of wine offered to Beggar So is accidentally dropped and passes his foot in the first shot, but lands on it in the following one.

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Connections

Referenced in The Matrix (1999)

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 (Fong Sai Yuk) 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.