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 (Siu-Tin Yuen), 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

A worried father hires a renowned martial artist known as Beggar So to discipline and train his rowdy son Chan. The trainer's reputation of his excruciating methods scares Chan n he flees home. He tries to run away from a restaurant without paying the bill after enjoying a hearty meal. He is beaten by the restaurant's bouncer but gets saved by an old drunken beggar who turns out to b Beggar So. Later aft escaping the restaurant, Beggar So tries to train Chan but due to his rigorous methods, Chan runs away n later gets into a fight with a deadly assassin who beats n humiliates Chan. The assassin makes Chan crawl on the ground n spares his life by degrading him. The humiliation makes Chan flee the scene and he later approaches Beggar So to train him.

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Plot Keywords:

kung fu classic | kung fu master | slapstick comedy | alcohol withdrawal | alcoholism | 

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Genres:

Action | Comedy

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for martial arts violence and language

Did You Know?

Trivia

Jackie Chan (Wong Fei-Hung) nearly lost an eye when Jang Lee Hwang (Jim Ti-Sam) kicked him in the head during the final fight scene. When Hwang became aware of this, he refused to do more takes for the shot.

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Goofs

Fei-Hung's shirt is dirty and clean between shots during the fight with Mr Chiu.

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Quotes

Jim Ti-Sam: I'll break every bone in your body... and send you to hell.

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Alternate Versions

German version was cut by approximately 20 minutes.

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Connections

Spoofed in Lasing Master (1980)

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.

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:

Golden Harvest Company, Seasonal Film Corporation

Technical Specs

Runtime:

111 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.39 : 1