Drunken Master & Drunken Master II [1978 & 1994] [with Thriller style English Subtitles & Dubbed versions as well]

About

Drunken Master (Chinese: 醉拳; lit. 'Drunken Fist and Jui Kuen'), also known as Drunken Master The Beginning, is a 1978 Hong Kong martial arts comedy film directed by Yuen Woo-ping and produced and co-written by Ng See-yuen.[1] The film features much of the same crew as Yuen's Snake in the Eagle's Shadow released earlier the same year, including lead actors Jackie Chan, Yuen Siu-tien (Woo-ping's father), and Hwang Jang-lee; although narratively unrelated, Drunken Master bears similarities to its predecessor in its story and style.

Drunken Master features Chan and Yuen Siu-tien as fictionalized versions of martial artists Wong Fei-hung and Beggar So; in the film, Wong is an irreverent young man forced under the fierce tutelage of So, master of the drunken fighting style; although the two do not originally get along, Wong eventually gains humility and respect for So.

Considered an early milestone of martial arts comedy and one of the best films in the genre, the film was a large box-office success, earning two and a half times the revenue of the already-successful Snake in the Eagle's Shadow;[2][3] it had a significant cultural impact, inspiring numerous later films, music, manga, anime and video games with its depictions of teacher-student relationship and the drunken style, and helped establish Chan as one of Asia's most popular actors. The film was followed by two sequels directed by Lau Kar-leung in 1994: the direct sequel Drunken Master II, in which Chan reprised his role, and the mostly-unrelated Drunken Master III. Drunken Master would be Yuen Siu-tien's final film released during his lifetime, although he would portray Beggar So again in several films released posthumously, including the Drunken Master spin-off Dance of the Drunk Mantis (1979), also directed by Woo-ping.

Plot

Wong Fei-hung (sometimes dubbed as "Freddie Wong") is a young and mischievous son, who runs into a series of troubles. Firstly, he teaches an overbearing assistant martial arts teacher a lesson, and later makes advances on a woman to impress his friends. He is consequently thrashed by her older female guardian. His shame is compounded when these two are later revealed to be his visiting aunt and cousin, whom he had not met before. Lastly, he beats up a hooligan, who turns out to be the son of an influential man in town. His father decides to punish him for his behavior by making him train harder in martial arts. Wong's father arranges for Beggar So to train his son in martial arts.

Beggar So has a reputation for crippling his students during training so Wong flees from home in an attempt to escape his punishment. Penniless, Wong stops at a restaurant and tries to trick a fellow patron into offering him a free meal. As Wong was about to leave after his meal, he discovers that the man is actually the owner of the restaurant. He fights with the owner's lackeys in an attempt to escape. An old drunkard nearby is drawn into the fight and helps him escape. The drunkard turns out to be Beggar So (who is known in some versions of the film as Sam Seed, So-Hi or Su Hua-chi), the Drunken Master. Beggar So forces Wong into his brutal and rigorous training programme, but he flees again to avoid the torturous training and runs into the notorious killer Yim Tit-sam (known in some versions as Thunderfoot or Thunderleg) by accident.

Yim is known for his "Devil's Kick", a swift and deadly kicking style which has never been defeated. Wong provokes and challenges him to a fight and is soundly defeated and humiliated. He makes his way back to Beggar So and decides to commit himself to the Drunken Master's training program. The training resumes and soon Wong learns Beggar So's secret style of martial arts, a form of Drunken Boxing called "The Eight Drunken Immortals", named after the eight xian that the fighting style references. Wong masters seven of the eight styles with the exception of Drunken Miss Ho's as he feels that her style of fighting is too feminine.

Meanwhile, Yim Tit-sam is contracted by a business rival to kill Wong's father. Wong's father fights with Yim and is defeated and injured by him. Wong and Beggar So arrive on time and Wong continues the fight with Yim. Beggar So promises not to interfere in the fight. Wong employs the new skills he has learned and outmatches Yim's kicking style. Yim then resorts to his secret technique, the Devil's Shadowless Hand, which is too fast for Wong to defeat. Wong confesses that he did not master the last style so Beggar So tells him to combine the seven styles and create his own version of the last style. Wong follows the instruction and discovers his own unique style of Drunken Miss Ho, which he uses to overcome the Shadowless Hand and finally defeats Yim.

Background

The film's protagonist Wong Fei-hung was a Chinese martial artist, a traditional Chinese medicine practitioner and a revolutionary who lived towards the end of the Qing dynasty. He became a Chinese folk hero and the subject of several Hong Kong television programmes and films. Beggar So, who plays a supporting role in the film, is also another character from Chinese folklore and one of the Ten Tigers of Canton. The Beggar So character is often cast as an associate of Wong Fei-hung or Wong's uncle.

Cast

Jackie Chan as Wong Fei-hung / Freddy Wong (UK version) (voiced by Tang Wing-Hung[4])

Archive

Internet Archive, in More feature films

Licence or status

CC BY-NC 4.0, as the Internet Archive states it.

Credit

KonCategory3

Language

English

Who can watch

The archive gives no rating. Invisible Network shows it to Teens profiles and older, judged from its collection and subjects. How films are placed