Drunken Master

L’un des meilleurs films de Kung Fu des années 70 mais également une belle référence en la matière ! et s’il se trouve qu’il s’agit aussi d’une comédie digne d’un dessin animé dont les ficelles sont grosses comme des amarres, eh bien soit ! c’est en effet le cas… Et Jackie Chan ne se prive pas de cabotiner tout en exécutant des prouesses à l’écran, accompagné de toute une distribution de comédiens qui sont tous tombés dans le chaudron magique des arts martiaux lorsqu’ils étaient gamins… L’humour est parfois scatologique et très (trop ?) enfantin, infantile même, mais d’autres gags se révèlent néanmoins fort efficaces, car outre les bêtises de Jackie, l’acteur (Yuen Siu-Tien) qui joue le vieux sadique est tout simplement impayable. Si les bruitages font sourire d’indulgence, ils participent à cette ambiance particulière des films de baston de cette époque ; ce qui ne fait pas sourire mais nous rend béats d’admiration par contre, c’est l’excellente mise en scène de Yuen Woo-Ping, connu pour ses épatantes chorégraphies et sa rigueur des plans, du cadre et du montage : quel magnifique spectacle !

It has the humor, good martial arts, stunts and lovable characters you associate with an old Jackie Chan movie. Sadly he does not make those anymore. His newer movies end at the DVD / Blu-Ray bargain bin in my country and are mostly ignored while the older ones are considered classics and must sees. He has a loyal fan base here in Germany especially in my age group. Back to the review: It is a martial arts comedy which should not surprise anyone ;-). This Drunken Master movie was a huge success and helped Jackie Chan's career a lot while also spawning sequels that makes this a successful franchise. The story follows Wong Fei-Hung who is student in his father's Wong Fei-ying martial arts school. He is however a troublemaker and a bit of a misfit that gets himself in trouble if not to better said hilarious situations. His last prank however was too much even for his father and he will teach him manners by sending him to his friend Beggar So (So Chan) who is famous for crippling his students with his harsh training (They call him bonebreaker ;-). This is the set up for the enjoyable story. It is charming, humorous and entertaining. You are well entertained and get what you expect in a satisfying way. Before I continue with the characters here is a short history lesson. The characters are based on real life. (Beggar) So Chan and Wong Fei-Ying were members of the legendary “Ten Tigers of Canton” and Wong Fei-Hung while also being a master martial artist became a legend as physician. All of those are legends in Chinese history and many tales of them were told. Maybe the fame and legends are comparable to the Wild West gunslingers in the USA (Maybe a bad example by me but should give you perspective). Back to the cast. Jackie Chan plays Wong Fei-Hung. You get what you expect from Jackie Chan and he does an amazing performance. Yuen Siu-Tin as Beggar So is amazing too. He sometimes steals the show and enhances this movie. Hwang Jang-Lee as “Thunderleg” Yen Tie Hsin is an amazing antagonist and menacing foe. The side characters are memorable to with Lam Kau, Linda Lin and Tong Jing to name a few. Per genre standard we got a really good cast that delivered a great performance. The martial arts is well done and has good choreography. I should not need to mention this in a Jackie Chan movie but the martial arts is well mix with humor and hilariousness scenes or aspects. Some hate this but then again why then even watch a Jackie Chan movie? The humor works well and we got real black humor scenes too. Overall this is a great and entertaining Jackie Chan movie. Maybe I am bit to much nostalgic to give a fair representation So lets conclude it is a must see for Jackie Chan fans and lovers of martial arts movies with humor.