Story of the Drunken Master (1979)

Story of the Drunken Master (1979)
aka Drunken Fist Boxing
Chinese Title: 醉俠蘇乞兒
Translation:  Drunken Man Su Qi Er (“So Hat Yee” in Cantonese)

Starring: Sharon Yeung Pan Pan, Casanova Wong, Simon Yuen Siu-Tin, Yuen Lung-Kui, Yen Shi-Kwan, Dean Shek, Fung Gin-Man, San Kuai, Johnny Cheung
Director: Ngai Hoi-Fung, Hu Peng
Action Directors: Lam Moon-Wah, Liu Hok-Ming

 

Story of the Drunken Master is a strange beast. It barely qualifies as a drunken kung fu movie, let alone a kung fu movie. Should we bring the Truth in Titling Act of 1971 into the picture, this movie would be a guilty party indeed. Not only does it skimp on the drunken boxing, it’s also pretty low on plot, despite there being only three real fight scenes during the film’s 82-minute running time. Even more deceptive about the film is that it was once marketed as a Jackie Chan movie, released on VHS under the moniker Drunken Fist Boxing. Of course, this wasn’t a Jackie Chan movie in any sense of the word, but that didn’t stop the good folks at Xenon from inserting unused training footage from Drunken Master into the film, sticking a picture of Jackie from Drunken Master 2, and reaping a small profit from gullible newbie fans hungry for anything Jackie.

That last part shouldn’t be a detractor from enjoying this film. After all, it has a solid cast including female fighting diva Sharon Yeung Pan Pan, Korean superkicker Casanova Wong, and veteran kung fu villain Yen Shi-Kwan (who played a good bad guy in the Drunken Master rip-off The Fearless Hyena that same year). Co-director Ngai Hoi-Fung has done some reasonably entertaining films, like Young Hero of Shaolin 2 and his frequent choreographer partner Lam Moon-Wah has shown us that when given the right cast, he can be pretty darn good action director. Unfortunately, something went extremely awry while making this movie and the end result is a thoroughly worthless film save the last 15 minutes.

The movie begins promisingly…well, sort of. The famous “General’s Mandate” piece begins playing and we get to see Simon Yuen Siu-Tin (Sleeping Fist and The Mystery of Chess Boxing) perform a drunken boxing routine. Joining him are his three students: Casanova Wong (The Master Strikes and Warriors Two), Sharon Yeung (Angel Terminators and Angel Enforcers), and Yuen Lung-Kui (whom I suspect is one of Simon Yuen’s sons, considering how much he looks like a thinner version of Yuen Yat-Chor). Lots of acrobatics are performed and Sharon Yeung performs some snake fist. The scene also goes on quite a while, which will set the precedent for almost every other scene in the movie.

After that long opening sequence, we meet a fellow named Cougar (San Kuai) who’s on his way to the local casino. As most characters are in these movies, Cougar is a pretty crappy gambler and soon loses all his money. Unexpectedly, instead of leaving the establishment with his head down, he loudly accuses the casino of cheating him, grabs the money, and takes off. A big chase ensues, but nothing really comes of it, beyond us learning that Yuen Lung-Kui’s character is a noodle maker by trade.

We cut to a pawn shop, where Cougar shows up and tries to sell a piece of old leather for an exorbitant amount of money. When he starts making a ruckus about it, the shop’s owner, Chi Wai (Casanova Wong), shows up and tries to calm him down. A fight breaks out between the two, and then between Cougar and Beggar So (the English dub is interesting in that Beggar So is actually called Beggar So and not Sam Seed). Beggar So recognizes Cougar as the student of Bill Chan (Yen Shi-Kwan), a fellow whom he humiliated years before.

In the next scene we learn that Beggar So’s female student, Gam Fa (Sharon Yeung), is a professional entertainer of sorts. She works at her uncle’s restaurant, performing acrobatics while spinning plates on her fingers. I hope you like plate spinning, because the film will treat us to several interminable scenes of them, including a long, dull comic segment where Gam Fa shakes off the romantic advances of some rich guy, played by comic vortex Dean Shek.

Meanwhile, Cougar reports back to his master, who appears to be making a living as some sort of extortionist. Bill Chan and Cougar head over to the casino where they strike up an alliance with the casino owner (Johnny Cheung Wa, who made a living playing background thugs in films like Dragons Forever and Fight Back to School II). Casino guy has the hots for Gam Fa, and Bill Chan is more than willing to help force her into a marriage with the guy, if it means shaming Beggar So. At one point, Bill proclaims that his goal is to show Beggar So just how successful he really is and make die alone.

Now wait a cotton-pickin’ minute here! What sort of low-grade kung fu villain has a revenge scheme whose ultimate scheme is to make the good master jealous and lonely? This is a post-One Armed Swordsman kung fu movie, not sort of a half-baked soap opera! Now, just stick with me and I’ll start assigning blame in a moment.

Bill’s first item of business is to get Beggar So’s landlord to evict him. Considering that Beggar So is…well…a beggar, I’m sure being homeless isn’t really going to screw with his head that much. Casino guy then picks a fight with Gam Fa. Chi Wai steps in and the two give him a nice thrashing. When Bill Chan shows up demanding retribution, Beggar So is forced to dislocate Chi Wai’s shoulder in order to save face. This leads to a laughably melodramatic where Beggar So himself almost breaks down into tears when he has to explain his actions to Gam Fa. Apparently our writers wanted a kinder, gentler drunken kung fu master this time around.

Casino boy then shows up at Gam Fa’s doorstep, making her father an offer he can’t possibly refuse. So now Gam Fa is engaged to Casino dude, much to everyone’s dismay, and if her father goes back on his word for any reason, there’s going to be good reason to have a fight scene…finally.

Compared to Drunken Master and Dance of the Drunk Mantis, Story of the Drunken Master is incredibly pokey when it comes to pacing. Non-fighting sequences are often dragged out way past the point when the audience stops caring, so unless you like long scenes of people gambling or spinning plates, you’re probably going to consult your watch often while watching. Of course, this is worsened by the general lack of fight action in this movie. If you ignore both the training sequences and the Dean Shek cameo, there are really only three fights in the entire movie. Compare with Yuen Woo-Ping’s classics about Sam Seed/Beggar So, both of which have three fights in the first ten minutes. This one takes longer than that just to reach the first fight scene, and then another half hour to get to the second.

I’m willing to place the blame for this on co-director Hu Peng. This movie was one of two capstones on Hu Peng’s forty-year career, which started in 1939 and spanned nearly 200 films. However, a bulk of those were made during the 1940s and 1950s, including numerous films about Wong Fei-Hung. Hu Peng only made a few films in the 1970s and before this one, his last film had been in 1973. I can only surmise that he was at a loss at how to direct a kung fu movie in 1979 when the rules had changed so much from his heyday. Endless scenes of people talking and women twirling plates around might’ve easily entertained audiences a few decades before, but by 1979, audiences wanted more. The 1940s filmmaking mentality simply didn’t have a place in 1970s kung fu films, even a relatively goofy 1970s kung fu comedy.

The kicker is just how insubstantial the plot of the movie is, considering how much attention it’s given. Beggar So is given not one, but three students this time around, but none of them have much personality. Casanova Wong’s Chi Wai is practically a non-entity, showing up mainly when there’s a fight to be had. Sharon Yeung’s character a bit more meat, even though she spends good portion of her non-fighting scenes weeping, which is unbefitting a kung fu diva, save when her father, husband, or son is killed. The other student just sort of takes up space when you get right down to it.

Hu Peng’s lackluster direction also robs the film of any forward momentum. There’s no sense of rising action in terms of what Bill Chan does to Beggar So. In a better movie, the villain would persecute the hero at every turn. By the time the movie reached the climax, we’d all be rooting for the protagonist to break every bone in the guy’s body. In this movie, Bill Chan’s attempts to torment his foes are met with a strangely casual attitude. I’m pretty sure that Ngai Hoi-Fung only stepped in order to give the film a bit more energy after the producers saw what Hu Peng was doing.

Even the training scenes are almost completely botched. Action directors Lam Moon-Wah and Liu Hok-Ming stage the training sequences competently, but they completely disengaged from the plot itself. There’s no training for revenge or redemption or anything like, nor are we given any motives as to why or how Beggar So got these particular students. The film simply cuts to random scenes of Beggar So training with his students at random intervals with no regard whatsoever as to how they connect with the preceding scene. It’s also bit strange for a film about Beggar So with the word “Drunken” in the title to not have any drunken boxing training.

That said, it must be pointed out that there’s almost no drunken boxing whatsoever in the movie. After Simon Yuen’s initial demonstration, the style only shows up during the last fight, when Yuen Lung-Kui inexplicably gets drunk and starts using it on Yen Shi-Kwan’s mantis boxing character. There’s nothing explicitly wrong with its execution, but it feels shoehorned into the fight, as if Lam Moon-Wah and company just had to do it, not because it really had a place in the action.

The final fight is the only worthwhile part of the film. I’m sure that Ngai Hoi-Fung was more actively involved with this portion of the film than he was the rest. Casanova Wong, aka The Human Whirlwind (not to be confused with the Human Tornado, played by Rudy Ray Moore), is known for his fast and furious spin kicks. They get some showcase here, and it’s a bit ironic that a Korean superkicker is the hero instead of the villain here. Watch for a aerial kick that starts as a splits kick and ends in a flying front kick. Casanova gets to take on Johnny Cheung before teaming up with the others against Yen Shi-Kwan. Sharon Yeung’s acrobatic snake fist is a lot more entertaining to watch. But then again, Sharon Yeung is infinitely more fun to watch than Casanova, what with his limited acting abilities, hairstyle that was popular back in Ancient Egypt, and strange-looking face. Simon Yuen does get to fight a bit, too, even if he is obviously doubled for the acrobatics. Yen Shi-Kwan’s mantis style looks great, a nice compliment to the Eagle Claw he used in The Fearless Hyena. At one point, he uses his belt as a rope-dart, which is actually pretty cool. The choreography is occasionally cheapened by some undercranking, but Lam Moon-Wah and company do a good enough job that you wonder why their talents were wasted so much during the first hour.