Jui kuen (1978)

User Rating:

7.6/10   

Director:

Woo-ping Yuen

Writers:

Hsiao Lung (writer)
See-Yuen Ng (writer)

Release Date:

5 October 1978 (Hong Kong)

Genre:

Comedy | Action

Plot:

An undisciplined boy must learn Drunken Fist Kung Fu in order to stop an assassin.

Plot Keywords:

Master | Kung Fu | Fight | Slapstick | Revenge

Cast

Jackie Chan	...	Wong Fei-Hung (as Jacky Chan)
Siu Tien Yuen	...	Su Hua Chi / Sam Seed
Jang Lee Hwang	...	Thunderleg
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Ching Chiang
Ging Man Fung	...	Mr. Li
Hsia Hsu	...	King of Bamboo
Chiao Lin
Linda Lin	...	Fei-hung's aunt
Ying Li
Chen Tien Loong	...	Bully
Dean Shek	...	Professor Kai-Hsien
Fu Tsan Shih
Kien Shih
Casanova Wong
Pan Pan Yeung
Brandy Yuen
Shun-Yee Yuen	...	Chen Kuo-Wei

Also Known As:

Challenge (India: English title)
Drunken Fist (Hong Kong: Mandarin title) (literal title)
Drunken Master (International: English title) (video title)
Drunken Monkey in the Tiger's Eyes (Hong Kong: English title)
Eagle Claw, Snake Fist, Cat's Paw, Part 2
The Drunken Master (Philippines: English title)
Zui quan (Hong Kong: Mandarin title)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for martial arts violence and language.

Runtime:

111 min

Country:

Hong Kong

Language:

Cantonese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:M | South Korea:12 | UK:12 (video rating) (2007) | UK:15 (video rating) (1986) | West Germany:16 (heavily cut) | UK:X (original rating) | Canada:G (Quebec) | Canada:PG (Ontario) | Singapore:PG | USA:PG-13 (re-rating) | USA:R (original rating)

Company:

Seasonal Film Corporation

Trivia:

For many of the more athletic sequences, the 66-year-old Siu Tien Yuen was doubled by his sons, Cheung-Yan Yuen and director Woo-ping Yuen.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: In the restaurant fight scene when Sam Seed pulls Wong Fei-Hung underneath the table, the wire moving Wong is visible.

Movie Connections:

Spoofed in Augustin, roi du Kung-fu (1999)

Jackie Chan's finest hour

This for me is Jackie Chan's finest, and is the film which propelled him to super stardom in Hong Kong. Whilst other martial artists were trying to be the new Bruce Lee, Jackie did something different. Why replace the irreplaceable when you could do something completely different? What Jackie did was introduce slapstick into the Kung Fu formula, the rest as they say is history.

Jackie stars as Freddy Wong aka (Fong Sai Yuk) depending upon which dub you watch. A juvenile delinquent with a penchant for feeling up immediate female members of his family. His father, fed up of his delinquency hires Sam Seed aka The Drunken Master to teach him some discipline as well as his secret fighting style. Naturally the two get off on the wrong foot but learn to respect each other as the film goes on whilst of course getting into the obligatory scrapes and japes. There is of course a villain of the piece in this case its the Tae Kwan Do master Hwang Jan Lee as the underworld assassin "Thunderfoot" who in real life was just as badass as he is in the film.

So it's all pretty derivative then? Well yes and no. There is a genuine rapport between Jackie and Yu Su Tien as pupil and teacher. The martial arts is brilliantly choreographed and inventive (the scene in the restaurant is probably my favourite) and the whole thing has a "joie de vivre". Watching it, it seems to me that the actors had a ball making the film. Which is just as well as I had a ball watching it.