Drunken Fist (1981)

recommended

Purely Joyful Movie!

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

REVENGE OF THE DRUNKEN MASTER is less a sequel to the Jackie Chan hit and more of a random spoof of it. It was made by Godfrey Ho, who never seemed to sit still in the 1980s, churning out martial art flavoured film after martial art flavoured film. He was a money maker more than a film maker, but a lot of his films provide surprising - if cheesy - entertainment. This film follows the template of DRUNKEN MASTER in having a young student mentored by a crazy old drunk guy, although with it being a Godfrey Ho film and all, a pack of 'blood ninjas' are added to the storyline. Plus a young woman and a bounty hunter, who are involved in a rather dubious rape sequence which is out of place in the production.There's a lot of action here, some of it quite acceptable, as well as a lot of goofy humour. The main character is played by one Johnny Chan, who seems to have been manufactured for this movie because he certainly wasn't heard of before or after. He has some skill with an acupuncture kit and one of his bizarre hobbies is shooting people in a specific spot that makes them burst into laughter. It's that kind of movie, and the absolutely terrible English dubbing either adds further to or detracts from the already surreal experience, depending on your taste for it.

Around 1980, the name Godfrey Ho was attached to a series of low-comedy action films starring an actor with the unlikely name Elton Chong". Although no masterworks of the genre, they remain surprisingly entertaining films for those with a high tolerance for silliness.It is altogether unclear why Ho (or whomever) would want to make a film that would attack Jackie Chan's Drunken MAster, the film that legitimated the making of comedy-action films in Hong Kong. But that's what this is, a savage attack on the Chan film (the imitation Chan who stars in this movie learns to cause his opponents to laugh themselves to death - a pointless gimmick in any genre).Along with all the flaws one expects from a Godfrey Ho film of this period - no continuity, no motivation, incomprehensible plot line, irrelevant and unbelievable characters - the film suffers from two unforgivable faults that effectively make it unwatchable: the fight scenes stink, and the comedy isn't funny.Pointless.

The evil Blood Ninjas are out to kill the Drunken Master and his students. Drunken Kid escapes with his girlfriend but is pursued by the Ninjas, and also by a mysterious bounty hunter clad in white.What at first appears to be a fairly routine old school kung fu film eventually becomes a more memorable affair thanks to some crazy comedy and a few truly bizarre scenes. Director Godfrey Ho has taken a well worn basic plot and filled it with enough martial arts wackiness and original touches to ensure that the proceedings never become boring.Witness the wonders of acupuncture kung fu: our hero, Drunken Kid, is a dab hand at acupuncture as well as Kung Fu, and is able to make people laugh uncontrollably with a well-aimed needle.Tremble at the sight of the evil leader of the Blood Ninjas: his chair fires arrows, he has a one-eyed gimp, and he uses flying cymbals to attack his enemies.Scratch your head in confusion at the relationship between the bounty hunter and his female companion: he rescues her from bandits, proceeds to rape her, and yet somehow becomes the object of her affection.Laugh out loud at the dubbing: I am sure one of the characters was voiced by Zippy from Rainbow!The fight scenes between these strange happenings are also pretty good, and the action comes thick and fast. Revenge of the Drunken Master is perfect post-pub entertainment and is recommended for all fans of martial arts madness.

this is a below average martial arts films which is worth watching for the comedy value due to the part where a pair of symbols are used as weapons. Thats it really there is much to say about this film it lacks in every department because the martial arts are not that great either and with all movies of this type the dubbing as BAD