The Legend of Drunken Master
(1994)
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The Legend of Drunken Master
(1994)
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Watch Trailer 0Share... |
Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
Jackie Chan | ... | ||
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Lung Ti | ... | |
Anita Mui | ... |
Ling - Wong's Step-Mother
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Felix Wong | ... |
Tsang
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Chia-Liang Liu | ... |
Master Fu Wen-Chi
(as Lau Kar-Leung)
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Ken Lo | ... |
John
(as Low Houi Kang)
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Kar Lok Chin | ... |
Fo Sang
(as Chin Ka Lok)
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Ho-Sung Pak | ... |
Henry
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Chi-Kwong Cheung | ... |
Tso
(as Tseung Chi Kwong)
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Yi-Sheng Han | ... |
Uncle Hing
(as Hon Yee Sang)
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Andy Lau | ... |
Counter Intelligence Officer
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Wing-Fong Ho | ... |
Fun
(as Ho Wing Fong)
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Chia Yung Liu | ... |
Marlon
(as Kar Yung Lau)
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Siu-Ming Lau | ... |
Mr. Chiu
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Suki Kwan | ... |
Chiu's Wife
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Returning home with his father after a shopping expedition, Wong Fei-Hong is unwittingly caught up in the battle between foreigners who wish to export ancient Chinese artifacts and loyalists who don't want the pieces to leave the country. Fei-Hong has learned a style of fighting called "Drunken Boxing", which makes him a dangerous person to cross. Unfortunately, his father is opposed to his engaging in any kind of fighting, let alone drunken boxing. Consequently, Fei-Hong not only has to fight against the foreigners, but he must overcome his father's antagonism as well. Written by Murray Chapman <muzzle@cs.uq.oz.au>
I may be wrong about this, but I think Chan is responsible for the avalanche of ironic performance fights we have now.
Here's the deal: movies need to be cinematic and fights are cinematic so we have them.
Movies fall into two rough buckets: various concepts of sincerity and those that have (incorrectly as it turns out) been conflated under the concept of irony. Anything that exists in the first eventually has a sibling in the second; that's the way the world works.
So if you have fights, even elaborate kung fu productions that are sincere, sooner or later someone will figure out how to annotate them. Chan was the guy that found a way to turn fights into a show and at the same time produce a simultaneous commentary that says: "watch this, its funny."
To do the annotation, a requirement is that first level be excellent. Chan IS an excellent fight performer, and key to this awareness is the much publicized fact that no cheating is done on the effects. But he also a great humorist as well.
This particular film isn't the turning point for all fight irony that follows. That was much earlier, but this is probably the best and most explicit.
Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.