Drunken Master 2 has finally received a worthy release on Blu-ray courtesy of Warner Bros., with its Warner Archive Collection release, finally restoring the Cantonese version uncut. It now feels like the right time to examine this film in the cold light of day, as it has split opinion with Kung Fu and Jackie enthusiasts, ever since grainy versions were available on pirate VHS in the mid ‘90s. Is this the greatest modern Kung Fu film ever made or a complete mess that squandered its potential. I open this up to the opposing councils…
Japanese “Drunken Master 2” Promotional Flyer Side A
The Prosecution
Despite the fantastic action on show, Drunken Master 2 is a poor film, both tonally and structurally. We are introduced to Wong Fei hung (Jackie Chan) at a chaotic train station accompanied by his stoic father Wong Kei-ying (Ti Lung) and his comedy dogsbody Tso (Chi-Kwong Cheung). Immediately he is acting like the same immature fool from the ’78 original, despite clearly being 40 years old, as he tries to smuggle goods onto a train so they don’t have to pay tax. What follows is a brilliant opening sequence where Wong faces off against original director Lau Kar-leung, first utilising hung gar and then spear vs sword. Unfortunately, we then get an hour of Jackie and his step Mum (Anita Mui, who was only in her early 30s here, which feels jarring) trying to conceal things from his Dad, in the first instance, passing off a tree root for ginseng when they realise it was switched on the train in error, and then his Mum’s gambling habits.
The dynamics feel completely skewed here, why not just have Jackie and Anita as husband and wife, surely Wong Fei-hung should be past the petulant child stage? This is compounded even further when Chan is eventually punished for letting a client use a potentially dangerous root instead of the ginseng. As described by critic James Berardinelli –‘some sequences are laced with slapstick comedy while others are acutely uncomfortable as a result of torture and the nearly-abusive disciplining of a grown child by a parent.’ When Lau Kar-leung eventually turns up again, your left thinking – what have I just witnessed? The eventual story of foreigners stealing Chinese treasures could have easily been explored 60 minutes earlier instead of the dull, unfunny sequences we have been forced to witness. Even though the original film was driven by comedy, the scenes worked within the context of a young rebellious Wong, what was needed here was evolution, which we don’t get.
“Drunken Master 2” Tai Seng VHS Cover
We eventually fall into the plot of Wong having to become a hero and take back the Chinese treasures, housed at the steel factory that is exploiting the workers. A nice idea that is only really introduced at the last minute. Our resident evil gweilo who owns the factory, also wants to buy the land where Wong Kei-ying’s legendary Po Chi Lam clinic is situated. This sets up the final action sequence, which will not be mentioned here as it’s simply excellent. However we never see the evil gweilo again, we just have to assume he just got away with it, and is the clinic now safe? The arrival of Bill Tung as a government official with a banner makes you think it is, but it’s not clear, in a clearly rushed ending.
This leads us onto the most egregious scene and probably the only necessary cut made by Miramax to a Chinese film in its history (it was removed from The Legend of the Drunken Master release in 2001) where we are told Wong’s brain has been affected by all the alcohol and he is temporary blind. Jackie then proceeds to practice ‘retard Kung Fu’ in the most politically incorrect way imaginable as the film freezes and concludes. This was clearly an attempt by Jackie to show the evils of alcoholic abuse, it just couldn’t have been handled any worse. Will he even recover from this, or is Wong Fei-hung permanently damaged in this iteration of the character? What a sad way to bow out.
Ladies and Gentlemen I ask you: is the action worth sitting through such a poorly constructed film, where the disagreements and eventual decision of Lau Kar-leung to leave production are plastered all over this tonal mishmash? What we have here is the opportunity for the greatest Kung Fu film ever made, squandered, drowned in its own ginseng tea. Prosecution rests.
Japanese “Drunken Master 2” Promotional Flyer Side B
The Defence
My right honourable friend clearly underestimates the talent on show in Drunken Master 2, and its significance as the only modern Kung Fu film Chan has made, complete with some of the most wholesome action of his career. He brushed over the opening exchange between screen legend Lau Kar-leung and Jackie Chan, in which they spar using classical hung gar Kung Fu in three locations. Firstly the cramped confines under a steam train and then under a bridge, Lau using his spear form to outmanoeuvre Chan’s tiger sword. Then finally they go toe-to-toe in a barn, and Chan gets to show us his Drunken Boxing skills for the first time, what a sequence! Yes of course some of the comedy falls flat in the next section of the film, but has my friend never seen a Hong Kong action movie, as they always rely on sections of comedy to fill out the runtime? The best films balance this most affectively, such as Mr. Vampire, whereas even classics can get bogged down in comedic set pieces and esoteric cultural norms, exhibits 1 and 2 – Iron Monkey and The Legend of Fong Sai Yuk, the latter featuring a woman falling in love with a woman dressed as a man. This is what you sign up for when you watch foreign films and cutting these scenes detracts from the art form. Even though Drunken Master 2’s story isn’t the strongest, we do get a fantastic cast, sparring with one another. Jackie Chan, Ti Lung and Anita Mui work brilliantly well together and Jackie fits the mould of the rebellious fool who must stand up for what’s right.
“Legend of the Drunken Master” Blu-ray Cover
Finally, Jackie gets to let loose as he uses his Drunken Boxing against a group of thugs. What transpires is a wonderful mix of traditional styles with modern editing and nicely concealed wire work, accompanied by a brilliant side story, featuring Anita Mui throwing him expensive wine to improve his performance. Wong Fei-hung’s dressing down by his Dad also provides the film with the ‘Ordeal’ of the ‘Hero’s Journey’, forced to come back stronger and fuelled by the return of Lau Kar-leng’s government agent, ready to take part in another astonishing action sequence – the tea house fight. Sometimes forgotten about, Jackie teams up with Lau Kar-leng to fight off hundreds of axe wielding maniacs, a sequence that involves set destruction, weapon work and no Drunken Boxing, holding this back for the finale. This fight is long, intricate and must have taken weeks if not months to film. It’s also a fitting death for Kar-leng, showing that only a gang of warriors were strong enough to defeat him. Take a deep breath because this was only the build up to the finale.
Before we get to the most famous of all the action, we are treated to two other great set-pieces. Firstly Wong takes on a French fighter with a nasty chain, dispatching him with the use of a white fan and flaming kick. These sequences were too dark and fuzzy on the pirate versions but look great on the new Blu-ray. Then Jackie must dispatch a group of lackeys armed with metal rods, while the new foreman and kicking maestro Ken Lo literally throw fire at him. In a show of true heroics, Jackie stops to pour dirt over a henchmen burning on the floor and gets kicked for his troubles, true character building in action. Famously Ho-Sung Pak, who plays the pyro loving foreman of the steel factory, was going to fight Chan but got injured, his substitute turned out to be inspired.
Ken Lo unleashes a barrage of deadly leg strikes with a speed and ferocity not seen before or since. Like all Jackie Chan’s best end fights, he is the under dog and looks like no match for his adversary. If it would please the court I’m showing a picture of Benny Urquidez and Hwang In-shik from Wheels on Meals and The Young Master respectively, to bolster my point. Jackie has to use the power of Drunken Boxing to break Ken’s will. This is done with subtle use of wire work, intricate back-and-forth exchanges and the use of techniques foreshadowed earlier. One of the greatest and simplest segments, is when Wong dodges a kick by falling back onto the wall, only to push himself back with a punching strike to Ken’s head. As encapsulated by Robert Ebert ‘Coming at the end of a film filled with jaw-dropping action scenes, this extended virtuoso effort sets some kind of benchmark: It may not be possible to film a better fight scene.’ Defence rests.
The Prosecution
I noice you didn’t mention the ‘retard Kung Fu” ending?
The Defence
The Defence agrees with the Prosecution on this point.
Well, thank you for presenting your cases. One thing is for sure, this is a unique movie that brought together a bunch of actors at the top of their game. Is it a masterpiece or an unfunny mess with great action sequences? It’s time for you the jury to decide…
The film is good, but could have been so much better. The prosecution is correct about a lot of the films shortcomings. The theft of Chinese treasure really could have used some some extra time to lend gravity to the ending.
I have always just taken the man-child thing for granted and the Prosecution rightly points out how stupid and unnecessary it is. I guess Jackie wanted to avoid stepping too hard on Jet Li’s toes? Jet had adult WFH down. The fight action is great, but the film around it is really poor at times.
Prosecution wins.
I guess it all comes down to personal taste, & opinions are just that, opinions, everyone has one, but I’d guess that bashing Drunken Master 2 is kind of like being a Bruce Lee hater; there are so many people who love what you hate your voice is drowned out by all the cheering & applause.
I always enjoyed DM2, though I do consider it to feature Jackie at least a couple years past his prime, loved the soundtrack, loved Anita Mui, loved the action (including, I’ll admit, more subtle wirework & use of doubles), I think of it almost as the last great Jackie Chan movie. But, hey, to each his own.
It’s been a long time since I’ve watched Drunken Master 2, but I remember thinking it was a pretty middling film. I’ve never quite understood why it came to be held in such high esteem. As this article makes clear, the fight scenes are good but everything else is a bit lousy. And the fight scenes while good, aren’t Chan’s best, which means it’s automatically a notch beneath his very best films. The likes of Police Story and Project A both provide more for action junkies as well as better comedy/drama.
D3SH, my thoughts are aligned with yours to a “T”. Drunken Master 2 and Fist of Legend are two Hong Kong martial arts classics that are highly overrated. But hey, what do I know, my favorite Bruce Lee films are The Big Boss and Game of Death ’78. lol I do think DM II has some of the best fight scenes in JC’s career, but solid fight scenes don’t equate to the overall quality of the film. The in-between stuff is just as important.
You’re just the emperor of unpopular opinions! ;-P
You have no idea. I naturally go against the grain all the time lol
Ok, it’s probably correct to say movies like Police Story & Project A were better films/better examples of Jackie’s abilities than Drunken Master 2, but Drunken Master 2 was made roughly 10 years after those classics. Compared to the movies Jackie had been making around the time of DM2 (Crime Story, for example), DM2 was refreshing, a new twist on an old fashion, so widely appreciated that it was even successful in dubbed & re-edited form when released in American theaters several years later.
First of all, cool article format! I’d love it if you guys did more of these. Did Miramax do more harm than good? Did Bruce Lee star in any actual good films or was he the only thing worth watching in them? Did Tarantino really steal from Hong Kong movies? Do modern Hollywood action like Kingsman, John Wick, and Shang Chi all owe something to Hong Kong stuntmen? Are long oners starting to become the new “Paul Greengrass editing”? So much potential…
As for Drunken Master 2, I have mixed feelings. The prosecution makes good points, to which I’ll add: The Lau Kar Leung character/sideplot was clearly meant to be more developed, and so it’s weird when there’s a big emotional death scene for a character who amounts to a cameo. It’s clear Kar-Leung bowed out of the film to make the crappy DM3 even when watching it. The story is messy in that classic Hong Kong way: lots of meandering nonsense for two acts until our heroes cross the villains too much and we build to a third act finale. The defense mentions Iron Monkey and Fong Sai Yuk as comparable, but those have way more coherent structure and direction as stories. Iron Monkey is about Wong Kei Ying and his son crossing paths with Iron Monkey, who are adversaries at first but unite against a common enemy. This was set up from early on and it never really strays from that. Fong Sai Yuk seems like Drunken Master 2 at first, but juggles all its threads way better: the mom and son dynamic is bolstered by Josephine Siao who exhibits so much range, the light romance on the side that doesn’t get in the way (but nicely concluded), and the looming dramatic threat that is Vincent Chiu, a scowling menace that’s a great match against Jet Li’s clownish Fong Sai Yuk. Now I know shooting without a script and changing lots of story on the fly is typical for Hong Kong filmmaking, but Drunken Master 2 feels like it starts at point A and ends up god knows where, dropping a lot of plot threads along the way. It doesn’t help that it comes on the heels of OuaTiC, a very grand, big budget (for HK) spectacle utilizing Tsui Hark’s flashy cinematic style that makes DM2 look downright dated.
But goddamn as the defense says, the action is so damn transcendent. It tries to meld the more modernized filmmaking/faster fighting pace of 90s action with the old school 70s stuff Chan use to do. No one has really done anything like it before or since, including Chan himself. Corey Yuen and Sammo Hung’s more rapidly edited works from the same period are really advanced stuff from a technical standpoint, but Chan tries to do it all in camera. I love Police Story and Project A and they are better films, but one must be blind not to appreciate the attention to detail, the flow, and ingenuity Chan constructed in the hand to hand of Drunken Master 2. They spent 3 months just shooting the final fight and you can really feel the precision of every movement.
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“First of all, cool article format!’
Favorable witness! I think Paul hinted that some more “Case Numbers” are in the future. =)
I call prosecutorial misconduct! Lol
While the fight scenes are the best part of Drunken Master 2, it’s not a movie where I fast forward to them. The story is good enough to where I like seeing how everything plays out. Plus, the action is so frequent that there’s not much fast forwarding to do in the first place.
Jackie may have been 40, but he didn’t look or move like his age, and he was just as charming as usual. He may have been mischievous and naive, but there was still a level of light maturity that came with all of Jackie’s years of experience and lent itself well to his role.
Not everything is perfect by any means, but it certainly doesn’t make the movie bad or “overrated.”
“I call prosecutorial misconduct! Lol” =)
Masterpiece for me.
“Ladies and Gentlemen I ask you: is the action worth sitting through such a poorly constructed film, where the disagreements and eventual decision of Lau Kar-leung to leave production are plastered all over this tonal mishmash?”
Frankly your honor I find it ridiculous that this case even made it to court. For me ‘Drunken Master 2’ is a masterpiece, and the movie I’ve used to switch various friends on to Hong Kong cinema. Is it perfect? No, but then many of the points raised by The Prosecution could be applied to much of Chan’s 90’s output (not to mention 80’s and 90’s HK action cinema in general). Chan’s branding of “immature fool” is equally relevant to his roles in the likes of ‘Rumble in the Bronx’, ‘Mr. Nice Guy’, and ‘First Strike’ – so for me his performance isn’t so much about him trying to play a character much younger than he actually is, but more to do with the persona he had onscreen at the time, and for the most part here it works.
I never really got the whole uproar about the ‘retarded kung fu’ ending, I mean, if you look at Hong Kong cinema of the era it ranks pretty low in terms of offensiveness. Nobody has an issue with the final freeze frame of Sammo’s ‘Encounters of the Spooky Kind’, where he’s violently punching his wife in the stomach for comedic effect? No issues with the plot of ‘Twinkle Twinkle Lucky Stars’, which basically involves a group of men plotting ways to rape Rosamund Kwan for almost the entire runtime? Chan wanted to warn against the dangers of alcohol, and in typical non-PC fashion portrayed it as effectively frying his brain. I’ve always found it to be pretty funny and harmless.
“This is what you sign up for when you watch foreign films and cutting these scenes detracts from the art form.”
Objection! I think the use of the term ‘foreign films’ is a little broad in the context of what’s being discussed here, but for those that sign up to HK action cinema from the 80’s and 90’s in particular, completely agree that nobody should be expecting coherent plots or Shakespeare-esque scripts. Often scripts were made up as they go, and especially with Lau Kar Leung’s departure mid-production, there’s obviously some gaps in ‘Drunken Master 2’s’ narrative. With that being said, I never find my attention waning when I watch it, and as The Defence points out, the joy of watching the likes of Chan, Ti Lung, and Anita Mui share the screen together is rewarding in itself.
My verdict is that ‘Drunken Master 2’ is Jackie Chan’s final masterpiece, and should be seen by any self respecting fan of kung-fu cinema!
Thank you the jury, for many great comments. I think the overall consensus is that the movie is an action masterpiece that can be forgiven for its sins. Like many films of this era, we just have to be grateful it exists. I sentence you all to watch it on Blu-ray immediately, if you haven’t already of course! I am in no way affiliated with Warner Brothers but if they want to give me a cut of the profits I will welcome that too
Case dismissed!