I had seen Jackie Chan in Drunken Master (1978) before, but I had yet to see this movie, which was called Drunken Master II when first released. From what I remember of the former, I like the plot of Drunken Master more than the plot of Drunken Master II.
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| Wong Fei-hung (Jackie Chan) |
On the plus side, I thought that Wong Fei-hung's mother (Anita Mui) was so funny. Granted the voice is dubbed by an English voice actor, but the acting and expressions were hilarious. For example, I liked the scene where she got punched in the jaw and she keeps her lower jaw shifted to the right.
Speaking of the English dubbing, I happened to wonder what the original version sounds like. Doing some Google searches, I learned that apparently there's still dubbing, just in Cantonese (this is done for various reasons).
During this time, I also discovered that the film has background music not found in the English dub. It's too bad Netflix doesn't have the Cantonese audio with English subtitles.
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| Ling - Wong's Step-Mother (Anita Mui) |
Overall, it was a solid Jackie Chan movie that's intertwined with a good balance of comedy. I would recommend this to anybody who likes Jackie Chan's older movies and those who enjoy martial art movies in general. As mentioned above, I would have enjoyed the movie more with the original Cantonese audio accompanied with English subtitles; do your best to watch that version instead of the English dubbed version.
Note: I think its funny how the DVD cover doesn't have any indication of the film.
20191127:
Today I watched the film on Netflix because it was expiring soon. In contrast to the last time I watched the film on Netflix, this time it was only available with the original Cantonese audio with English subtitles.
On 20191127, Netflix determined the movie for me as a 89% match. I decided to give the movie a thumbs up.
Instant Comments:
1: "Fei-hung, what's this?" "We call this cheating."
2: He didn't even make his cheating subtle.
1: That fight under train and after was pretty cool.
1: Ha. That ginger root ruse. Funny mother.
1: What if they just don't return the next day? [2: This comment refers to the workers being forced to work.]
1: Ha. "If you have job, you wear the pants."
2: You got to learn to be more vocal. "Robbery! Robbery!" Matched with flair.
2: She keeps her shifted jaw.
2: His father bests him (I suppose that's expected).
2: I don't remember this scene where Fei Hung's father pours wine over him and throws him out.
1: What? Breaking someone's instrument? That's uncalled for.
2: Shouldn't this guy have brought the ginseng back though? I guess that makes the ginseng a MacGuffin.
2: Who would actually bring that many people to fight one man?
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| Wong Kei-ying, Wong's Father (Lung Ti) |
1: Damn, an ax to the back.
2: Ouch. Is that splayed bamboo? Whatever it is, they made it look like it hurts.
2: I couldn't remember or not if she was actually pregnant. Earlier in the film I thought she was just pretending. She continued to say she was only four months pregnant in absence of her husband so I guess she really wasn't pretending.
2: Love the repeat on the hot coals.
2: "A boat can float in water, but also sink in it"
2: A great part of the final fight is repetition of moves shown earlier.
1=20141023, 2=20191127
Watched 20141023 (Netflix, Instant) (English vocals)
Watched 20141023 (Netflix, Instant) (Cantonese audio, English subtitles) (Streaming until 20191130)
Watched 20191127 (Netflix, Instant) (Cantonese audio, English subtitles) (Expiring soon)
The Legend of the Drunken Master (1994) Chia-Liang Liu. 102 min
Relevant Links:
Drunken Master II (Wikipedia.org)
The Legend of the Drunken Master (IMDb.com)
The Legend of the Drunken Master (RottenTomatoes.com)
