The film that made Jackie Chan a star, Yuen Wo-Ping's "Drunken Master" constitutes a departure from previous Hong Kong cinema with its intensely comedic elements, while paying tribute to more ancient Chinese cultural traditions. The movie has very little plot relying instead on Jackie Chan's low-brow, Three Stooges-esquire comedic timing, and his acrobatic ability.
It begins with an action scene and really doesn't let up until the very end of the film. The plot concerns a feckless kung fu student (Chan) whose father forces him to study the fighting style of the Eight Drunken Gods. Of course, this means that Jackie fights his many opponents acting as if he is drunk. His physical comedy is impressive, such as his drunken stagger, his slapstick demeanor, and his acrobatic artistry is breathtaking. Chan was raised in the Peking opera, where he learned acrobatics and dancing in addition to the martial arts. This gives his fighting style a unique fluidity, as he tumbles, falls, and leaps out of the way of opponent's blows rather than confronting them head on, fist-to-fist. Most of the movie is really just him using his acrobatics to escape from superior enemies rather than actually fighting them. As impressive physically as this is, few fights actually seem to have any resolution, meaning that the fights do little to advance the narrative, functioning similarly to Busby Berkeley show-stoppers in his 1930 musicals.
Most of Chan's comedy is low humor, involving bodily functions, vomiting, hitting other people a la the Three Stooges, drunkenness, and harassing the opposite sex. The action scenes become monumentally repetitive, having a mind-numbing effect on the viewer by the time you reach the end of the movie. The acting is distorted and exaggerated for comedic effect, but becomes shamelessly boring when combined with the redundant action scenes. The only reason why I give this movie a 5 is for Chan's acrobatic ability. Really, that is the only thing going for this movie, since Yuen Wo-Ping doesn't concentrate at all on mastering the film's formal qualities. The editing is choppy with poor coverage of the individual scenes. Clearly all the fight scenes were edited in camera, so the emphasis is more on the choreography of the fights rather than the filming of them, making them seem rather static and lifeless actually. The movie fails in its formal, textual qualities, so its only draw is Jackie Chan's childish humor and acrobatics.
It begins with an action scene and really doesn't let up until the very end of the film. The plot concerns a feckless kung fu student (Chan) whose father forces him to study the fighting style of the Eight Drunken Gods. Of course, this means that Jackie fights his many opponents acting as if he is drunk. His physical comedy is impressive, such as his drunken stagger, his slapstick demeanor, and his acrobatic artistry is breathtaking. Chan was raised in the Peking opera, where he learned acrobatics and dancing in addition to the martial arts. This gives his fighting style a unique fluidity, as he tumbles, falls, and leaps out of the way of opponent's blows rather than confronting them head on, fist-to-fist. Most of the movie is really just him using his acrobatics to escape from superior enemies rather than actually fighting them. As impressive physically as this is, few fights actually seem to have any resolution, meaning that the fights do little to advance the narrative, functioning similarly to Busby Berkeley show-stoppers in his 1930 musicals.
Most of Chan's comedy is low humor, involving bodily functions, vomiting, hitting other people a la the Three Stooges, drunkenness, and harassing the opposite sex. The action scenes become monumentally repetitive, having a mind-numbing effect on the viewer by the time you reach the end of the movie. The acting is distorted and exaggerated for comedic effect, but becomes shamelessly boring when combined with the redundant action scenes. The only reason why I give this movie a 5 is for Chan's acrobatic ability. Really, that is the only thing going for this movie, since Yuen Wo-Ping doesn't concentrate at all on mastering the film's formal qualities. The editing is choppy with poor coverage of the individual scenes. Clearly all the fight scenes were edited in camera, so the emphasis is more on the choreography of the fights rather than the filming of them, making them seem rather static and lifeless actually. The movie fails in its formal, textual qualities, so its only draw is Jackie Chan's childish humor and acrobatics.