The Legend of Drunken Master (2000)

Wong Fei-Hong (Chan) is inadvertently caught up in a fight between foreign exporters and those who don't want ancient Chinese artifacts to leave the country.
Genre: Feature Film-Action/Adventure
Rating: R
Release Date: 6-APR-2004
Media Type: DVD Product Description

OMFG Dubs ONLY!

This movie is one of the few I showcase to friends when they talk about how much they love Jackie Chan. I often follow that statement up with, "Well, have you seen this.." I do love this movie and for every Jackie Chan fan, its one of the movies you need to watch. When my VHS version 'died', I got a copy of this version to find... f***in A, they dubbed it, and dubbed it horribly I might add. I really don't understand why you would want to lobotomize a film like this, or any film for that matter with D-list vocal talent... So my rating is for this dvd release of Drunken Master II, a 5 star movie otherwise destroyed by the stupid dubs. And though that won't matter to most of you, for some it will mean enough to keep many from even thinking about purchasing this release, and that is who this review is for. July 11, 2008

Corny, but who cares?

As said in the title, Jackie Chan movies require a specific taste in acting and dialogue. That being said, this movie still is awesome. Jackie Chan is a god, and could take on Bruce Lee AND Chuck Norris. This movie is only trumped by the prequel. June 26, 2008

Legend of Drunken Master

One of Jackie's best. This movie combines great fight scenes with an "ok" story. The consolate is stealing chinese artifacts for a museum half-way across the world. It's up to Wong Fei-hong to stop them. Just give him some booze, and watch him go.

This movie has great fight scenes, comedy, drama, everything you've come to expect from Jackie. A must have for any collector. May 9, 2008

Magnificent film, bad bad DVD

I, as so many fellow commentators here, have been an almost life long fan of the marvel that is Jackie Chan, and this particular motion picture, "The Legend of Drunken Master" or "Drunken Master II" is probably his best work ever. Definitely top three - fourish (it's quite hard to disguingish the best from the second best isn't it?).

The fights and the stunts are, as usual, stunning, defying belief, and completely bonkers. Everybody is in top form, Jackie Chan, Chin Kar Lok, Ken Lo, Ti Lung and very impressively Lau Kar Leung. Visually very pleasing, very well produced and well acted this film is nothing but impressive.

However, this DVD is the absolute opposite of impressive. There is no original language track on the DVD, only English, which is just stupid. These DVDs should be made with Mandarin/Cantonese(/English) language tracks and nothing less. There aren't any extra materials either, which isn't exactly bonus points to the average buyer.

I give it three stars which comes as a compromise of 6 stars for the film and nil for the release. Get a Chinese copy if you can get your hands on one. It will be so much better. April 9, 2008

Very Fun Movie

I can't say that I'm a connoisseur of Martial Arts films by any means. I have a few Jet Li movies that I enjoy quite a bit, but other than that I don't have much. I also can't say I'm a big fan of Jackie Chan's. The first "Rush Hour" was pretty good, though 2 was just okay, but I didn't like "Shanghai Noon" despite the fact that I do think Owen Wilson is funny. Other than that, I don't have much Jackie Chan experience. Either way, when my girlfriend picked out this movie for purchasing I was skeptical, but because she wanted to see a Martial Arts film I caved, so we watched it.

Wow, what an underestimation I made. I mean maybe it's because I wasn't expecting much so it greatly exceeded my expectations, but I still found this to be an incredibly fun movie to watch. I will warn viewers that this movie is dubbed in English and it's originally done in Cantonese. So, no sub titles, but you have the English over a different language problem where the mouths don't move in sync with the words. I could easily get over this because the movie was very well done and pretty funny. Another part that made this a little easier to deal with is, I believe, Chan dubbed his own character, so that was a nice feature. I'm personally not a Martial Arts purist, so I could let this slide.

Now, I'll probably get thrashed for saying I haven't seen the first Drunken Master yet, frankly I didn't know one existed. That doesn't change my opinion that the movie was great. The Martial Arts performed in this film were absolutely top notch! Even more impressively is Chan does his own stuff, stunts and all. Apparently I should start looking into other Jackie Chan films to see if the others are on par with this one.

Basically we return to Chan's character of Wong Fei Hung. He's a mischievous son of a healer and apparently Martial Arts trainer. Wong Fei Hung learned a style of Martial Arts called Drunken Boxing in the first film from another teacher, but his father doesn't seem to agree with that method of fighting. So when his father finds out he's been engaging in that kind of fighting he is severely chastised for it. It doesn't help that his mother is just as mischievous and was the one who encouraged him to do it! In the midst of all this Wong Fei stumbles upon a British conspiracy which involves taking ancient Chinese artifacts back to England. Wong Fei, a Royal Guard, and his friends seek to stop this from happening. The adventure is part comedy and part serious. Both are mixed excellently in a fairly seamless fashion that doesn't distract the viewer, neither tries to outshine the other style. A testament to how well written this movie is.

The best fight scenes are the one in the restaurant and the final fight. Naturally the final fight has to be one of the best or else it doesn't end on a really superb note. One thing that is added in at the end is some outtake scenes when the credits are rolling. Here you can see some of the funnier mistakes that were made during filming; some of the more shocking are when Chan was being set on fire for some scenes!

Anyway, I can't help but recommend this movie. However, the DVD doesn't appear to have that many options available for viewers. Like you can't watch it with sub titles in its original language. This might detract from some viewers, especially the purists. For me it didn't change my views much, again, I'm a little out of my element in this genre. Regardless, I recommend people see it, it has amazing fight scenes and a very well written story overall. April 2, 2008

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