The Big Picture
- Jackie Chan's film, Drunken Master II, or The Legend of Drunken Master, is considered his best work, showcasing his action-comedy style and martial arts choreography.
- The movie features impressive fight sequences, with clean camera work capturing every moment of contact between the characters.
- The cast of Drunken Master II, including Anita Mui and Ken Lo, add humor and intensity to the film, making it a must-watch for Jackie Chan fans.
The year 1978 would be important in the career of Jackie Chan. Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow and Drunken Masterwere big hits for him. The success from these films helped turn Chan into the superstar the world knows and loves. In fact, Jackie Chan has made many films and many can be thought of as his most exceptional, especially in the 1990s. Some might think Supercop, in which he stars with Michelle Yeoh, is his best work. However, in 1994, 16 years after the original, Chan gave us Drunken Master II, also known as The Legend of Drunken Master. Drunken Master II is his best work, putting a new spin on the action-comedy style he crafted in the years between the original and the sequel. There are plenty of stunts, but the martial arts choreography is where the true power lies.
‘Drunken Master II’ Is Both a Sequel and a Remake
You don’t have to see the 1978 classic to understand the story here. Set in 20th-century China, tensions are rising from the British consul’s occupation in Canton, home of folk hero Wong Fei-hung (Jackie Chan). He journeys back with his stern father, and it isn’t long before Wong gets into trouble. Two yellow packages end up as a mistaken MacGuffin between Wong and Fu Wen-chi (Lau Kar-leung). Chan plays an older version of Wong last seen in the original Drunken Master, although there is little else to continue the story. Instead, it works as a redo by Chan, who at this point had developed his slapstick-kung fu style. In Drunken Master II, the action scenes are complicated, but look effortless.
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When on his way home, Wong’s train makes a stop, and he goes to retrieve the package that will prove to be a nuisance. Before long, Wong fights with the older Fu under the train cars, with Fu taking what Wong thinks is his father’s ginseng and Fu thinking the package has the Imperial Seal that he wants to stop from being smuggled out. What should be ginseng ends up being an Imperial Seal in Wong’s possession. One problem after another arrives, and Wong's rash personality doesn’t help. He knows the style of drunken boxing and when Wong fuels himself with alcohol, he may turn more powerful, but he also becomes sloppy and uninhibited. Still, Wong is his community’s only chance at freedom from the conniving abuse at the hands of the British consul and his henchmen.
Fu handles a Qiang, a feathered spear, against Wong’s Tiger sword, the two furiously hitting each other’s weapons or ducking out of harm’s way. The camera catches the movements cleanly, making sure not one single moment of contact is missed. The use of weapons and the period setting could remind fans of Jackie Chan's later projects.In the two Shanghai movies, Chan is paired with Owen Wilson in the Wild West. In the first Shanghai Knights, Chan plays Chon Wang, an Imperial Guard that leaves the Forbidden City, getting stuck with Wilson’s Roy, who sucks at being a cowboy. In the finale, Wang must confront his fellow Imperial Guards and not be cut by their Qiang spears. In the sequel, the theft of an Imperial Seal is of importance, just like in Drunken Master II. The action keeps getting better, but the cast does their part to make sure it isn’t just the fight sequences you should be paying attention to.
There’s More To Watch Than Just Jackie Chan
Anita Mui is a standout, playing Chan’s stepmother Ling, who loves to gamble and is as mischievous as her stepson. Mui’s face is always expressive, and the character is a bad influence, often getting Wong drunk so he can be a better fighter. During a brawl in town, Wong goes up against the British consul’s henchmen and Ling gathers her friends around to throw in any bottle of liquor or alcohol they can find. “What does it mean when there’s a picture of a skull?” she asks. Wong, far gone in a drunken stupor, yells back, “Good stuff!” Ling is always on her stepson’s side, much to the headache of Wong's father.
Another standout is Chan’s bodyguard at the time, Ken Lo who plays John, one of the top foes with supreme Taekwondo kicks. Each one of the henchmen seems to be unable to defeat Wong, but John finds Wong inebriated and makes sure to leave him humiliated for neighbors to see. Lo’s character gives that important element to Chan’s movies where his characters usually fail before finding the strength to become a winner. Mui and Lo make the situations all the funnier and more intense.
Looking back on Drunken Master, Chan saw there was something different he could do with the story. It has slapstick but also a more arrogant Jackie Chan, with a version of Wong that is more volatile and happily getting drunk to be an expert fighter. Chan, reaching new levels of fame by 1994, didn’t want to be a bad influence on his younger fans. He explained in an interview for the 35th anniversary of Drunken Master that he saw the older movie as saying it was acceptable to get into drunken fights. For the ‘90s follow-up, Chan doesn’t only get to show off his fighting skills, but some emotional acting chops too, something he would go on to deliver more of in later projects. Back in Drunken Master II, Wong is defeated harshly by John and feelings of shame are explicit across Chan’s face. His eyes are swollen from tears as he understands the downfall of excessive drinking. Of course, this being Drunken Master II, the pathos isn’t too long-lived before getting right back into what everyone is watching it for.
Chan Delivers One Amazing Fight Scene After Another
The action sequences are surprisingly longer than one might expect. After the train car fight, there’s the one in town where Chan fights wildly against henchmen without breaking the alcohol bottles in his hands. Later, Wong and Fu reunite as they confront the Axe Gang. Wong tries to keep as many of them from climbing into the windows. At the top of a staircase, Fu stomps hard and the stairs collapse as the gang rushes up. Wong soon arms himself with the destroyed pieces of a table or shredded bamboo to push off the gang members. It's exhilarating to watch, and there is still more! What makes this sequel Chan’s best comes down to the last half.
The final fight is audacious at nearly 20 minutes long. It takes place in a British-owned steel factory that has forced the local workers to do overtime without proper pay. After Wong arrives to save the workers stuck inside, various henchmen prepare to stop him. The finale is busy with stunts, especially involving fire. Wong catches on fire, he falls back onto hot coals at another point, and he even does fire breathing thanks to a mouthful of ethanol alcohol. As the movie’s title promises, Chan’s character chooses to drink up one last time to stop the last of the henchmen in John, whose high-flying kicks seem like the footage is getting sped up. Taking the ethanol alcohol used to keep the fires alive in the factory, Wong guzzles it down, giving himself the intensity to perform a frenzied drunken boxing style to clash with John’s kicks. There is enormous speed in Wong’s fists, arms, knees, legs, and head as he finally, triumphantly, defeats John.
Wong does win, but it comes at a cost. The ending isn’t great, but it’s too quick to ruin what has come before. It’s revealed Wong suffers from temporary brain damage (or maybe a bad hangover depending on the subtitles) before there is a freeze-frame on the happy faces of several faces in the cast, characters other than Wong. This ending makes sense to the alcoholism theme that Chan wanted to reinforce, a clearer message the first Drunken Master wasn’t too concerned about. In the 35th anniversary interview, Chan got to explain why he thinks his movies are so popular: “If you train hard, you can do it too. There are many action movies which no one can do the action. For instance, Superman or Spider-Man, no one can do it!” The fight choreography of Drunken Master II exemplifies his thoughts, it's really him on-screen, and it's all the more impressive because of it.
In the review for Drunken Master II, film critic Roger Ebert praised Chan, writing, “Some people love Jackie, others have no interest in ever seeing his films because they think they know what they will see. The bottom line is: Chan has earned his place in movie history somewhere in the same hall of fame that also houses the other great physical performers who really did their stuff themselves: Buster Keaton, Douglas Fairbanks Sr., Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly and, yes, Jackie Chan.” Of the many projects Chan did and went on to do, Drunken Master II is a recognition of why this is true. It shows the artistry within Chan’s style of fighting and the humor within it that made him an international star. The plot is slim enough, the action scenes long enough, that Drunken Master II is a breezy watch for a slapstick, kung fu, period movie that makes for the ultimate Jackie Chan experience.
