Taoism Drunkard
(1984)
Aka:
Drunken Wu Tang;
Miracle Fighters 3
Chinese
Title: 鬼馬天師
Translation:
The Cat and the Moon Monster
Starring:
Yuen Yat-Choh, Yuen Cheung-Yan, Yuen Shun-Yi, Zhu Hai-Ling, Lo
Pi-Ling, Yuen Shun-Yi, Hilda Liu Hao-Yi, Yen Shi-Kwan, Mandy Chan
Chi-Man, Tsui Oi-Sam, Tai Bo
Director:
Yuen Cheung-Yan
Action Director:
The Yuen Clan
On January 1st
of this year (2026), Yuen Cheung-Yan passed away. He was best known
as “Yuen Woo-Ping’s brother,” although he was a talented action
director in his own right. He was also an established character
actor, often playing small-but-memorable roles in a lot of movies,
especially those that were connected to his brother in one way or
another. He even made it to Hollywood, staging the fight sequences
for the first two Charlie’s Angels
films (not the reboot with Kristen
Stewart) and the Ben Affleck Daredevil.
His career as an action
director goes all the way back to 1968, at which point he would have
been 21 years old. That was alongside Chan Siu-Pang on the wuxia
film The
Flying Dragon Dagger. He went back and
forth between work at the Shaw Brothers and indy films, ranging from
the classic Vengeance! (1970)
to In Eagle’s Shadow Fist
(1973), an early role for Jackie Chan. In fact, it may have been Yuen
Cheung-Yan’s working with Jackie in that role that ultimately
helped Yuen Woo-Ping convince Ng See-Yuen to cast Jackie in Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow. It was Yuen
Cheung-Yan who wore the monster suit for the Shaw Brothers classic
The Mighty Peking Man.
By the time of his passing, he had amassed about 111 credits as an
action director or fight choreographer.
Taoism Drunkard was
Yuen Cheung-Yan’s first foray into directing. The film is part of
the Yuen Clan “Sorcery Cycle,” which started in 1982 with Miracle Fighters. Cheung Yan’s more famous
brother Woo-Ping had directed the first two entries: Miracle Fighters and Shaolin Drunkard. This third entry was produced
by Lo Wei and Yuen Cheung-Yan took up the directorial reigns—Yuen
Woo-Ping might have been busy on Drunken
Tai Chi at the time. It certainly a
B-movie classic for people who just like completely random films.
The film opens with a palm
reader being approached by Master Ruthless (Yuen Shun-Yi, of Shaolin Drunkard and Drunken
Tai Chi), also known as “Old Devil”.
Ruthless asks for his fortune, only to surprise the palm reader by
having no lines on his palms—we later learn that he had been
captured by the Taoist sect and sentenced to placed on a metal roller
coaster and having his hands run across metal plates covered with
acid as punishment for his evil deeds. He kills the fortune teller
and reveals the hiding spot of his senior brother (Yen Shi-Kwan, of
The Master Strikes and
Once Upon a Time in China),
who had betrayed him and turned him in to the Taoists. The two have a
fight and Ruthless kills his brother.
Back at the Taoist Sect’s
headquarters, the Drunken Taoist (Yuen Cheung-Yan—whom we’ll call
Bucktooth) is driving around in his wicker Ratmobile, terrorizing the
monks and just making a general nuisance out of himself. He goes to
far when he breaks the arm on one of the god’s statues and his
older brother, the head priest (Hsiao Hou-Tou, The
Evil Karate and The
Vampire Dominator), tasks him with
finding a virgin born on a specific date in order to perform a
ceremony to placate the god whose statue he destroyed. Otherwise
he’ll be kicked out of the temple.
It ultimately turns out that
the young man in question is Cha Lee (Yuen Yat-Chor, of Young Taoism Fighter and Miracle Fighters), the grandson of an old witch
(also Cheung-Yan) who had helped the Taoists to defeat Master
Ruthless back in the day. She is training her grandson to be a
powerful kung fu sorcerer and kung fu master, and is in possession of
a special sacred text that Ruthless is after. Ruthless shows up to
try to steal the text, which is protected by the Watermelon Monster
(a giant bowling ball with teeth who talks like Gonzo from “The
Muppet Babies”).
Lots of shenanigans ensue,
largely revolving around the horny widowed sister (Lo Pi-Ling, of
Calamity of Snakes)
of Cha Lee’s girlfriend, Shiu Fang (Zhu Hai-Ling, of The
Shanghai 13 and The
Thunderbolt Commander). She’s anxious
to get back in the dating game with her lover (Tai Bo, of Project A II and Ninja
in the Dragon’s Den), although a
practical joke involving séance and Shiu Fang leads her to believe
that Bucktooth is her soul mate. There is also a subplot involving a
sorceress/extortionist, Starry Devil (Hilda Liu, of A
Fist Full of Talons and Golden
Queen Commando), and her entourage. She
is ultimately blackmailed into helping Master Ruthless after he
douses her with a potion that will age her to death in a few minutes.
Taoism Drunkard is
the same style of film as its predecessors, although a bit more
scattershot in the plot territory. I mean, all of these play fast and
loose with the plot, but this one spins its wheels for much of the
first two-thirds of the running time. Eventually, this one starts to
focus itself when Starry Devil is blackmailed into helping Master
Ruthless after he douses her with a potion that will age her to death
in a few minutes. At that point, we have a running series of battles
between Master Ruthless, Starry Devil and our two heroes (Cha Lee and
Bucktooth) over the aforementioned text.
But there is plenty of
Komedy to keep viewers interested until then, provided that they can
ignore the lack of direction in the story. There are kung fu fights
involving Giant Bongs and Komically-Oversized Swords. There is a
séance played for laughs. There is a scene in which the sister’s
lover tries to kill Bucktooth for taking his place as the paramour.
And of course, there is the famous Watermelon Monster, which sounds
screwy on paper, but is even nuttier when you actually watch the
film.
The fight scenes were staged
by the Yuen Clan, who would include: Yuen Woo-Ping, Yuen Cheung-Yan,
Yuen Shun-Yi, Yuen Yat-Chor, and Brandy Yuen. I’m not sure if all
five of them were on hand for the film, but there is a good chance
that such was the case. The fights are generally wired-up and filled
with gimmicks. When Ruthless fights his senior brother, the latter
wears a vest of spikes which makes him throw himself backward in an
attempt to skewer his enemy. Later fights are bit more standard.
Starry Devil fights with long silk sashes that work like a lash,
although they have razor sharp coins on them that can slice through
human flesh. There is some pure kung fu in Cha Lee’s earlier fights
with Ruthless, or when Cha Lee goes buck wild on Starry Devil’s
entourage. It all climaxes with a big fight involving flying
explosives that leave their victims wearing pig masks and a
heat-seeking bowling ball. Personally, I prefer all the fights in
Shaolin Drunkard to
the ones in this one, but it’s all goofy enough to merit a watch
with like-minded friends
