The Legend of Drunken Master (1994)

You won't be disappointed!

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

So this film is fairly uneven. On one hand, its story is either lacking in tonal coherence or is generally scatter brained. On the other hand, the fight choreography and stunt work is genuinely breathtaking.The story isn't necessarily incomprehensible, though it seems to try very hard to be. I get the distinct impression that there was either difficulty in getting all the coverage required for the plot, or that the editor had a very fuzzy understanding of how to put all the scenes together in a way which made sense, mostly it feels like the former. At a certain point it literally feels like scenes are missing from the film. It doesn't ruin the experience, but it makes it difficult to be especially invested in the characters and their motivations. Speaking of characters, they're mostly fine I guess. Jackie Chan at least represents some kind of arc or emotional conflict that the audience can get involved in. For the most part though, a lot of characters feel underdeveloped to the point of being sort of place-holders. I guess the main takeaway is that this film would be kind of bad if not for the martial arts. The martial arts and accompanying stunt work in this film is of the highest caliber. It's sort of to be expected of a Jackie Chan feature, but even so, there are some fights in this film which seem to defy all conventions of action and the laws of physics. Admittedly, a lot of it is pretty cornball. The sort of levity which is characteristic of a lot of the action is very fitting I think. It better compliments the light comedic tone of this film than more serious encounters might have. I mean, the fighting can often be a lot funnier than the sort of weird attempts at humor that come during the "down time". I'm not trying to undermine the legitimate tension that comes during some of the fighting. I'm just saying that the tone of the action fits very well into the rest of the film. Despite the largely messy story, the martial arts action in this film is executed with absolute mastery. It's worth checking out by virtue of its highlights. Go for it, it's good.

Drunken Master was a rather mediocre movie with some of the most amazing martial arts fights of all time. The Legend of Drunken Master is a somewhat better movie, overall, yet honestly, I didn't enjoy it quite as much. I liked the fight scenes, but somehow I felt less moments where I was blown away. Surprisingly, my favorite thing about the movie is not Chan's fighting but rather a wonderful comic performance by Anita Mui as Chan's stepmom. I never really understood why she was always so intent to help Chan at the expense of her husband, but she was wildly entertaining.The story is mainly coherent and moves well, and Chan does offer up some terrific fights, but I would not be as inclined as some here to declare this Chan's best movie. (caveat, I had a terrible cold when I watched this movie, which honestly could have affected my perception somewhat.)

A young martial artist is caught between respecting his pacifist father's wishes or stopping a group of disrespectful foreigners from stealing precious artifacts.In 2005, "Drunken Master II" was named one of the top 100 best films of all time by Time magazine. Wow. It is good, sure, but one of the top 100 of all time? Would it even be in the top ten for martial arts films? Time magazine thinks so.Roger Ebert wrote, "When I did a seminar at the Hawaii Film Festival several years ago, comparing the physical comedy of Chan and Buster Keaton, martial arts fans brought in their bootleg Hong Kong laser discs of this film." This is an astute point. While they have a very different kind of genre from each other, Keaton and Chan are very much two sides of the same coin: comedy and action, through a complete control of their own bodies.

Unmissable for any martial arts fan, this film contains what many regard as the best fight scene of all time, and I am inclined to agree, making this film unmissable for MA fans.The other fight scenes in the movie are almost just as good, the film features Jackie getting drunk and fighting his enemies using Drunken Fist which makes for hugely entertaining bouts.Unlike most of Jackie Chans movies, this doesn't have any stunts or any strictly comedy related antics, and instead is held up by the sheer quality of the fight scenes.Obviously the plot is completely irrelevant, and in this film it doesn't matter as the fights come thick and fast, and leave no chance you leaving you underwhelmed.