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Drunken Master Wikipedia

Image:DrunkenMaster_DVDcover.jpg|right|thumb|UK DVD coverDrunken Master (醉拳, Zui quan--literally Drunken Boxing) is a movie directed by Yuen Wo Ping, starring Jackie Chan and Hwang Jang-Lee, first released in 1978.
It was Chan's first big hit, and is an early example of the comedy/martial arts style for which he is famous.

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The plot centers around Chan, as a young Wong Fei Hung (sometimes dubbed as "Freddie Wong"), getting into trouble (such as showing up an overbearing assistant teacher of kung fu, unknowingly making advances on his cousin and fighting with his aunt, and beating up the son of an influential man in town). He is disciplined by his father for these things, but with the help of a friend he escapes after hearing that his father has called in a kung-fu master called Sam Seed, notorious for crippling his students.

Eventually he encounters the old teacher, who helps him out of one fight and into another. With much reluctance, Fei Hung enters the old man's training program, and is put through a harsh and rigorous regimen. He escapes this too, only to run into a feared assassin called Thunderfoot, who was seen at the beginning of the film taking a contract on another fighter's life. Fei Hung unwisely challenges him to a fight, is soundly defeated and humiliated, and crawls back to Sam Seed, knowing that his kung-fu skills are inadequate after all.

The training continues, and Fei Hung learns of the old man's secret style, called "The Eight Drunk Gods" after eight mythological figures the fighting style emulates. Fei Hung masters seven of the eight gods, but disregards "The Drunken Miss Ho", feeling that it's an unmanly fighting form. He fights other opponents during this time, and over the course of Sam Seed's training, handily defeats all comers. Returning to the old man's home after one such fight, he discovers Seed's farewell note, bidding him to return to his father and be a dutiful son.

Meanwhile, Thunderfoot has been contracted by a rival of the elder Wong, to kill Fei Hung's father. Fei Hung arrives, finding his father seriously injured after a brief exchange of blows with the confident Thunderfoot, and challenges the assassin to a duel. During the fight he is forced to improvise the final drunk god, and it is through the techniques taught to him by Sam Seed, and the use of all eight gods, that he manages to triumph, and defeat the undefeatable Thunderfoot.

A number of notable fights are featured in the film, almost all of them with strong elements of comedy: from the game of keepaway with his cocky but incompetent kung-fu teacher, to the novel "head-fu" fighting style used by one of his opponents. The movie features several distinctive styles of fighting, including the Snake and Crane, Tiger, and Monkey, as well as the famous "Eight Drunk Gods".

A sequel, Drunken Master II, was released in 1994, and rereleased in the United States in 2000 as The Legend of Drunken Master.

Category:Hong Kong films
Category:Kung fu films
category:1978 films

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Last Modified:   2005-11-07