User:FrostFairBlade/sandbox/Drunken Master II

Plot

In early 20th-century China, Wong Fei-hung, his physician father Wong Kei-ying, and their servant Tso are returning home from picking up medical supplies. To avoid paying tariffs on some ginseng for his father's client, Wong and Tso sneak it into the luggage of the nearby British consul. When they try to retrieve the ginseng however, they encounter former military officer Fu Wen-chi, who is looking for a box containing the Imperial Seal. The two parties unintentionally switch boxes, and Wong narrowly avoids getting caught with the Seal after being searched. Unbeknownst to him, the Imperial Seal is one of the many Chinese artifacts that the British consul is trying to smuggle out of China to Britain.

Back home in Canton, Wong gives the client a fake ginseng root made out of his father's favourite penjing tree. His sympathetic stepmother, Ling, tries to help him raise funds for a new ginseng root by loaning her necklace out. This causes their neighbours to think the Wongs are in financial difficulty. Angry about the missing Imperial Seal, the British consul orders his henchmen to track down Wong and take back the artifact. They steal a bag from Ling, thinking it contains the Seal. At his stepmother's instigation, Wong gets drunk and beats the thugs up using drunken boxing; he is eventually stopped by his embarrassed father, who is upset that his son is fighting drunk in public. After learning that his client fell sick consuming the fake ginseng, Wong's father disowns his son and kicks him out of the house.

Upset by his disownment, Wong gets severely intoxicated, making him too drunk to fight back when the thugs find him again. The henchmen beat up and publicly humiliate him by stripping him naked and tying him to a post. After being rescued by his family, an ashamed Wong promises his father he will never drink again. Fu visits the Wongs and tells them about the consul's smuggling operation. The next day, he and Wong are attacked at a restaurant by members of The Axe Gang hired by the consul. Fu is fatally shot and the Imperial Seal is taken by the consul's men. Before dying, Fu implores Wong and his friends to retrieve the Seal and stop the consul from stealing Chinese artifacts.

At night, Wong and his friend Tsang disguise themselves and break into the British consulate at night. They are caught, assaulted and held for ransom by the consul, who demands that Wong's father sell his land in exchange for their release; the elder Wong reluctantly agrees. Later, Wong's friends discover that the British consul is planning to smuggle the stolen artifacts out of Canton using boxes meant for steel shipments. They inform Wong and Tsang, who then join the local steel workers in a violent protest at the British-owned steel factory. Out of desperation, Wong breaks his promise and drinks industrial-strength alcohol to use drunken boxing against the henchmen. Wong and his friends defeat the consul's henchmen and put an end to the smuggling operation. When a Chinese general presents the Wongs a commemorative plaque honouring them for their service to the country, they find that Wong has suffered brain damage due to his drinking.

Cast

• Jackie Chan as Wong Fei-hung: A rebellious martial artist specializing in drunken boxing
• Ti Lung as Wong Kei-ying: Fei-hung's stern and traditional father who runs a clinic
• Anita Mui as Ling: The sympathetic stepmother of Fei-hung
• Lau Kar-leung as Fu Wen-chi: A former military officer trying to stop the smuggling efforts from the British

Drunken Master II also features the henchmen of the British consul: Ken Lo as John, Chin Ka-lok as Fo-sang, and Ho-Sung Pak as Henry. Ram Chiang plays Tso, the Wongs' family servant, and Felix Wong plays the fishmonger Tsang. Andy Lau makes a brief appearance as a counter-intelligence officer.

Production

Conception

The difference between my Wong Fei-hung and the other Wong Fei-hungs is the others are like superheroes—they can fly everywhere [...] People have got tired of all the wirework, and tired of all the stunt doubles that are being used—they want to see the real martial artists performing real kung fu again.

Jackie Chan, 1994 interview for the television program Movie World

For years, Chan had wanted to make a follow-up to Drunken Master (1978), which initially propelled him to stardom in Asia. However, he stated that Drunken Master "was such a great film that I never had the self-confidence to try a sequel." After starring in the period piece Dragon Lord (1982), Chan went on to star in more modern action-comedies, such as Wheels on Meals (1984), Police Story (1985), and Armour of God (1986).

Following the disappointing box office of a more serious film, Crime Story (1993), Chan decided to reprise his role in a sequel to the film. According to film expert Frank Djeng, his decision was in response to the success of Tsui Hark's Once Upon a Time in China series, which utilized wire fu to enhance Jet Li's portrayal of Wong Fei-hung. Chan was adamant that audiences wanted to see realistic fight scenes, saying, "[...] when I play Wong Fei-hung in Drunken Master II, make it real. We only show what I can do. What my stuntmen can do."

• A Sina Entertainment report notes that the Hong Kong Stuntmen Association, established in the early 1990s with Lau Kar-leung as its first president, was looking to make a film to help finance a new headquarters for the organization
• Lau recalled that he had reached out to Chan to ask if he was interested in the fundraising effort

Writing and development

The film was written by Edward Tang, Yuen Kai-chi, and Tong Man-ming. Tang was a frequent writing collaborator on many of Chan's most popular films, including the first three Police Story films, Project A (1983) and Project A Part II (1987), and both Armour of God films. Yuen had been active as a writer in the Hong Kong film industry, with writing credits for A Chinese Ghost Story (1987) and Once Upon a Time in China (1991). Tang, who also served as assistant director, remembered that Mui's character was not part of the original script, but was added in to serve as a character foil to the stern Wong Kei-ying.

The film was developed as a collaboration to help the Hong Kong Stuntman Association raise money to build a new headquarters.In an effort to differentiate from the more comic approach of the original Drunken Master, Chan said that he wanted to "show the audience more complex kung fu" in the sequel. For this, Lau Kar-leung, a veteran director known for his insistence on showing authentic displays of martial arts, was hired. Lau stated that the intention was to combine his and Chan's approaches to film together, stating, "If you put [the two styles] together, you get a whole new thing. It works out very well, as you get both the light, relaxed Jackie flavour and the heavier Lau Kar-leung flavour. That ignites a spark."

Drunken Master II was scheduled for a tight turnaround in order to meet the deadline of Chinese New Year in 1994. In an effort to free Chan's schedule to begin filming, the Crime Story production crew worked around the clock in thirty-six-hour shifts to finish their film in time.

• Chan hired famed martial arts choreographer and director Lau Kar-leung to direct the film
• Lau was a veteran director of Shaw Brothers Studio, and liked to direct authentic displays of martial arts
• The film was developed as a collaboration in order to help the Hong Kong Stuntman Association out financially with a new headquarters
• The production crew of Crime Story worked around the clock in thirty-six-hour shifts to finish the film in time in order for Chan to begin filming on Drunken Master II
• The film was scheduled for a tight turnaround in order to meet the deadline of Chinese New Year in 1994
• Jingle Ma, Cheung Yiu-cho, Cheung Tung-leung, and Nico Wong Wan-man served as cinematographers for the film
• The film was produced by Leonard Ho, a veteran producer in the industry

Casting

• Mui was a close friend of Chan's; she had earned the lead role in Stanley Kwan's Rouge (1988), which Chan co-produced
  • Since then, she had acted alongside Chan in his own film, Miracles (1989)
• Korean-American actor Ho-Sung Pak was supposed to be cast as the main villain
  • Ken Lo recalled that Originally, Pak and Lo would team up to fight Chan at the film's climax
  • However, according to Lo, there were several complications involving Pak: the actor had difficulty keeping up with the fight scenes, and he had to keep flying back to the United States to promote his role as Liu Kang in Mortal Kombat
  • After Chan began working with Lo, he realized that his bodyguard could handle the stunts, and ended up promoting Lo to play the main villain
  • According to Chan, Pak struggled with the rhythm of the fight scene, and had to take days off due to injury
  • Chan: "[Ho-Sung Pak]'s a very good martial artist, but he couldn't get the rhythm down—he keeps twisting his ankle, so I used Ken Lo."
  • Chan had Lo train for three months before filming with him
  • Chan recalled that Pak had been invited by Lau to act in the film, as the two of them had been working on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III as part of the stunts team
• Lau's half-brother, Lau Kar-yung, played a supporting role
• Mark Houghton, a martial arts actor and Hung Ga practitioner who trained under Lau, was hired to be one of the major antagonists at the end of the film
• Ken Lo had previously fought Chan on-screen in Crime Story and Supercop (1993)

Filming

• The film was beset with ten months of production delays; while some of it was scheduling problems, there were tensions between Chan and Lau on the direction of the film
• The majority of the film was shot in Shanghai
• Some wire work was used, such as when Lo performs kicks in the final fight in order to balance himself
• Some of the sets were constructed in Changchun in northeastern China
• Production had rented a section of train track for shooting, involving a steam engine in Changchun
• The idea was to combine the styles of both Chan and Lau
  • Lau: "If you put [the two styles] together, you get a whole new thing. It works out very well, as you get both the light, relaxed Jackie flavour and the heavier Lau Kar-leung flavour. That ignites a spark."
• Chan reportedly fired Lau halfway into the shooting schedule, after an argument over how realistic a scene involving a mob with axes would be
• However, Lau retained directorial credit
• Chan did not change anything while they were shooting in Shanghai, out of respect for Lau
• When returning to Hong Kong, Chan re-directed 30% of the completed film himself, cutting over ten minutes of completed footage
• Chan recalled that a lot of what was cut was Lau's interpretation of drunken boxing; he said that Lau did not care for Chan's interpretation of drunken boxing
  • Many of the edits involved piecing together already-filmed footage in a way that made sense
  • For example, for the scene where Chan fights with a fan, Chan struggled with coming up with a reason why his character would have the fan
  • He then realized that he could use the scene if the fan had a message on it that inspired his character to change his fighting tactics
• He heavily reduced Andy Lau's supporting role in the film, and brought back Ti and Mui to reshoot additional scenes over a six month timeframe
• According to author Ric Meyers, Chan was frustrated that Lau wanted Chan's character to only use drunken boxing during the climactic fight, where Wong Fei-hung would kill nearly hundreds of people using it
  • Chan made the decision instead to introduce drunken boxing earlier in the film, and to design an impressive, yet smaller-scale final fight scene
• He shot his own ending on the Golden Harvest backlot
  • Chan: "I felt that Lau's style was the old style. When it came time to shoot the ending, I wanted to shoot in the new style that the audience wants to see."
• Chan: "[Lau's] ideas are very traditional, almost like classical music; mine are more like jazz."
• Chan also wanted to ensure that Drunken Master II would not glorify drinking and fighting, out of concern for young children that might watch the film
• In the scene where Chan first drinks to unlock his drunken boxing, a shot of him bent nearly 90 degrees backwards while keeping his feet on the ground is an homage to the same move Chan performed in Shaolin Wooden Men (1976)
• The sequence where Chan fights an opponent using a Chinese paper fan was reminiscent of a similar scene in The Young Master (1980)
  • Leon Hunt notes that the final fight with Lo also references the final fight in The Young Master (1980), where Chan drinks to anesthetize himself from pain in order to defeat the villain (tobacco juice in The Young Master, wood alcohol in Drunken Master II)
• Lo recalled that the production crew worked on the ending consistently for a month and a half
• Some sources state that the time taken to shoot the final fight scene with Chan and Lo took around four months
• Chan noted it was very important to not rush the choreography: " I like to have a schedule, but it is important not to hurry the fight scenes. In order to fight there must be the right mood or it won’t look good on camera."
• Chan has stated that he felt very fortunate to have the backing of Raymond Chow and Golden Harvest, who accepted that Chan would take his time to perfect the fight scenes: "[...] Many companies do not have the time to spend on getting things just right, they have to rush their productions out. For me, I'm lucky that I have support, that I can spend one day for one shot."
• Chan incorporated elements of Choy Li Fut with drunken boxing, whereas Lo utilized Muay Thai boxing techniques
  • Jackie Chan: Inside the Dragon notes that some moves were inspired by an earlier film directed by Lau called Operation Scorpio (1990), where Chin Ka-lok's character imitated an eel in order to defeat an opponent that used scorpion-like moves
  • Some of the moves were reprised from the original film, such as the ones from the Eight Drunken Fairy training his character did
• According to Chan, he was able to perform the stunt where he scoots across a pit of burning coals by padding the seat of his pants with ice cubes
• He also used protective gloves
• He performed the stunt twice: after the first take, Chan requested they perform it again because he didn't feel his captured reaction was good enough; on the second take, he seriously burned his lower back and buttocks
• Chan and Lo also injured their noses when they accidentally butted heads
• Chan suffered a slashed eyelid on-set and needed twenty stitches
• In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Chan stated that he took inspiration from America's Funniest Home Videos for a gag where he blows a bubble out of his mouth
• Leon Hunt identifies that Drunken Master II took inspiration from both the Once Upon a Time in China series (the introduction of the British as the colonial antagonist) as well as Fong Sai-yuk (1993) (Mui's stepmother character)
• Chan was concerned with how the film's themes of drinking would influence children watching his films: "Now I have to have more education for the children—don't fight and don't drink. It's wrong. But it's a comedy and I have to drink but mostly just at the end."
• Chan's character drinks twice in the film for comedic effect
• According to Jeff Rovin and Kathy Tracy in The Essential Jackie Chan Sourcebook, Chan insisted on drinking industrial-strength alcohol in the final fight scene
• While Andy Lau was supposed to have a larger role, his screen time was significantly cut to the point where he does not reappear after the opening train sequence
• Chan's thoughts on the film:
  • While Chan liked the film, he was disappointed with how some parts turned out: "Of course I am happy that it was very successful in Asia and internationally, but, to tell the truth, I am not 100 percent satisfied with the film. If from the very beginning I had been the director myself, it would have been a better film and very different in style from the released one. If I'm just an actor in a film, then I have time to do other things, so I invited Lau Chia Liang to direct. He was a very good director, and when I spoke to him I could see that he wanted to make a good film too. But I don't think his directing style is up to date; the film looks like an old movie. I wasn't always in China during the early part of filming, I was very busy on some other projects, so a lot of the film was already in the can without me seeing it. I had very high expectations of Lau Chia Liang, so later when I saw the footage I was disappointed and thought the film would not do too well at the box office and the audiences would be very disappointed. But I respect Lau Chia Liang so I did not say anything and we continued filming. We were making the film for the Hong Kong Stuntman's Association (HKSA), but when the members of the HKSA board of directors saw the film, they were shocked and said there is no way they could release the film as it was. I suggested that maybe if they let me redirect some scenes and film some new ones, then we could salvage the film. So the HKSA board sat down with Lau Chia Liang and told him that they were not satisfied with the film—but it's not like they were firing him..."
  • When asked about how the Hong Kong press and Western writers claimed that you personally fired Lau: "No, it was the decision of the HKSA, not me. They asked me to take over. And to speak the truth, when the movie comes out and it's not a success, who would people first say is the reason for its failure? First is me, then Golden Harvest who releases the film, thirdly the HKSA, and then, finally, Lau Chia Liang. So they spoke to Lau Chia Liang, and I set to work reshooting and reworking the film. Lau Chia Liang had shot over 9,000 feet of film by the time he finished. I cut 4,000 feet and reshot, redubbed, reworked, and reedited for the next few months. I know that Lau Chia Liang is not happy with the HKSA decision, but it's not my fault. Then he announced that he was going to make Drunken Master III, his way—"To show people the real Joy Kun/Drunken Boxing." That makes me feel strange. Drunken Master II still says Lau Chia Liang is the director, and when it's released it's a great success and everyone has a very high opinion of him. Then he goes and makes Drunken Master III, and what happened? It failed at the box office, the audience didn't like it, and everyone changed their opinion of Lau Chia Liang."

Post-production

• Lau's departure from the film left several problems for editor Peter Cheung, as Houghton and Lau's brother (who played one of Chan's friends) left with him
• The original Hong Kong cut's final scene was of Wong Fei-hung becoming intellectually disabled from drinking industrial-strength alcohol; this was removed from the American release

Music

• The music for the original Hong Kong release was composed by William Woo Wai-lap
• For the United States release by Miramax's subsidiary, Dimension Films, Michael Wandmacher composed the music
• Wandmacher had been working in Los Angeles composing the scores for Dimension's direct-to-video releases

Release

Context

• Marked Chan's return to his earlier role as Wong Fei-hung, as well as to a period martial arts film
• The film was released during the Hong Kong New Wave, where period films such as Tsui Hark's Once Upon a Time in China were becoming popular again

Box office

• In 1994, the mainland Chinese government began allowing ten "mega films" to be imported and shown in the country per year
• The film was Chan's first film to be widely released in mainland China; it became the biggest box office success there, out-earning The Fugitive (1993)
• The film had an extremely limited theatrical release in the United States beginning in the winter of 1994
• On October 28, 1995, a San Francisco Examiner article reported that Miramax would release the film in the second half of 1996
• Reports in February 1996 confirmed that Miramax bought the American distribution rights to the film along with Crime Story, and were tentatively releasing them in 1996
• It was eventually released in the United States on October 20, 2000 with a new English dub and soundtrack
• It was released under the new name of The Legend of the Drunken Master, due to concerns that American audiences would not remember the original film from 1978

Reception

Critical response

• Local critic Li Cheuk-to: While Drunken Master II won't disappoint the audience due to it utilizing Chan's trademark style, it also doesn't showcase anything new; Ti and Lau handle the heavy acting duties to let Chan be free, but the martial arts star's age is starting to catch up to him
• Local critic Lin Po: Remarked on how Lau Kar-leung's role in the film was to present a heroic, nationalist spirit that was inherited from his works at Shaw Brothers, but noted that it felt outdated in the 1990s
  • Notes that the film being shot on location in mainland China makes him wonder as to whether the setting was done to cater to the mainland
  • Found the age gap between Chan and the role he was playing sixteen years ago to be embarrassing
  • LIked the fight scenes, especially the one where Chan and Lau fight several members of the Axe Gang
• Roger Ebert, RogerEbert.com, 3-and-a-half stars: The film "is quite simply amazing. It involves some of the most intricate, difficult and joyfully executed action sequences I have ever seen. If you have any interest in seeing a Jackie Chan martial arts film, then this is the one to see."
  • "When I did a seminar at the Hawaii Film Festival several years ago, comparing the physical comedy of Chan and Buster Keaton, martial arts fans brought in their bootleg Hong Kong laser discs of this film and told me that I had to see the final 20-minute fight sequence. They were correct. 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."
  • Remarked that the plot only exists to connect action scenes; noted that the fighting was "curiously innocent, harmless violence"
  • "The sets are elaborate, the photography is elegant, and at the end, in the 20-minute sequence, Chan faces his own bodyguard [...] in one of the most remarkably sustained examples of martial arts choreography ever filmed."
• James Berardinelli, two-and-a-half stars out of four: "In terms of the weekly box office sweepstakes, it is unlikely to be much of a player, but Chan's loyal fans will turn out to support the movie, and, coupled with future video sales, The Legend of Drunken Master is virtually guaranteed to turn a tidy North American profit."
  • Unlike other reviewers who disliked the dubbing, he thought that Chan's films "are so campy to begin with that the mis-synching of lip movement with words adds to the fun"
  • Acknowledges that plot is secondary in a Chan film, and that "too much of these traditional storytelling elements generally hurt the movie's flow by impeding its momentum."
  • States the film is similar to other Hong Kong films by Chan: "five superior action sequences with a lot of failed comedy and mindless drivel padding out the running length."
    • Remarks that the tone of these sequences vary wildly, to the point where the ones dealing with parental discipline become "acutely uncomfortable" (though he notes that Americans might find the onscreen behaviour more incongruous than Chinese audiences)
  • Critical of the plot: states that the expository scenes are either "inane", "incomprehensible", or "dull"
  • Liked the action sequences, like the mob fight scene and the end fight: "The connecting material between the action scenes may not be compelling, but the same cannot be said of the film's true highlights, which are the reason people pay money to see movies like The Legend of Drunken Master in the first place."
  • Questions the R rating
  • States that the film isn't Chan's best, but not his worst; "Chan fans will probably want to pay to see this one on the big screen. Everyone else can bide their time for the video release."
• Joey O'Bryan, The Austin Chronicle, four stars: "Jackie Chan scores a ballistic home run with his latest effort, a sequel to his 1979 classic, which also serves as a triumphant return to his traditional chopsocky roots."
  • Loved the fight choreography and stunts, says it "delivers some of the most spectacular and intricately choreographed martial arts fighting ever seen on film"
  • Liked Lau's performance, says he "manages to deliver the chopsocky goods, despite the fact that he's over sixty years old."
  • Says that Chin Kar-lok and Lo Wai-kwong give notable impressions
  • Minor criticism over "a couple of uneven scene transitions"
• Scott Tobias, The A.V. Club: "With a new score, atrocious dubbing, and an inexplicable R-rating added, and the original title and ending scrapped—not a terrible hack job as Chan releases go—The Legend Of Drunken Master may be battered and demoralized, but it still blows away any action film this year."
  • Liked the film's tone: "[...] it eschews both the chop-socky conventions of the 1979 original and the strained silliness of his later efforts."
  • Loved Chan's performance: "[...] Chan makes a strong case as the world's finest action hero and a closed case as its most insanely devoted, literally crawling through a bed of hot coals for a few precious seconds of entertainment."
  • States that the drunken gimmick leads to "inspired silliness" thanks to Chan's capabilities
  • Notes that the most memorable action set pieces are "generally sober affairs" (the one-versus-many at a restaurant, and the final steel mill fight)
  • Notes that the film "may be your last chance to see a singular kung-fu legend at the top of his game."
• Matt Weitz, The Dallas Morning News: The film "is one of the most succinct arguments available that Mr. Chan's best work was done in the early '90s, when few Westerners had heard of him."
  • Stated the story was "basic"
  • Loved the fight scenes, called them "masterpieces of choreography, kineticism at its most sublime"; highlighted the spear fight under the train and the steel mill fight
  • Believed that the mix of comedy and drama was "near perfect"
  • "Drunken Master, although a re-release, is still fresh and new in terms of quality and entertainment. The film represents not only an artist's high point but that of a whole genre."
• Erik Lundegaard, The Seattle Times, three-and-a-half stars: "Drunken Master is, in fact, one of the best martial-arts movies ever made."
  • Says the cinematography has an "epic feel", highlighting "panoramic shots of a Chinese railroad station and port city"
  • Notes the "traditional Jackie Chan humour"
  • Notes that it has "a convoluted plot", akin to many Hong Kong films the reviewer has watched
  • States that when Chan drinks, "we witness some of the coolest, funniest, most beautifully choreographed fight sequences ever put on film"; states that Chan's underdog status, e.g. when he fights an opponent with just a Chinese fan, "inspires giddy smiles and applause"
  • Notes Chan's age, "it's odd seeing the nearly 40-year-old Chan playing an adolescent-like character"
  • Acknowledges that "there are melodramatic and silly moments"
  • Expresses relief that the dubbing was "fairly unobtrusive, and sometimes even better than the original subtitles" due to the dub making more sense
  • "Jackie Chan, along with the silent comedians and the MGM dancers, is one of the greatest physical film stars of all time, and "The Legend of Drunken Master" is one of his greatest films."
• Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: The film "showcases Chan in his impish glory, dazzling in his ability to make serious, complicated fighting look like devil may care fun."
  • Praised the actors; "Chan leaps nimbly from one breathtaking fight sequence to the next", and "Anita Mui adds comic pizzazz as Fei-hung's feisty, gambling stepmother."
• Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader: The film is "a fleet, enjoyable Jackie Chan romp"
  • Liked the end fight, called it "well worth waiting for"
  • Erroneously states that Lau directed the original Drunken Master (that was directed by Yuen Woo-ping)
• Joe Leydon, Variety: The film "is a lavishly produced period piece that emphasizes hand-to-hand combat more than death-defying stunt work."
  • "[...] Drunken Master is well positioned to slake the thirst of action fans for world-class, slam-bang rough stuff."
  • Liked Lau's performance, saying he "co-stars to good effect as Fu Min-chi", and liked the two fight scenes he and Chan were part of
  • Really liked the climactic fight scene in the steel factory, describing it as a "seriocomic clash between Buster Keaton and Gene Kelly"
  • Acknowledges that people might complain that Chan was too old for the role, but says that the star is "so exuberantly appealing—and, more important, so physically formidable—that he transcends any calendar-related quibbles."
  • Likes Chan's performance, calls him "especially amusing"
  • Liked the supporting cast in Ti and Mui, said that Mui "appears to be channeling the spirit of Lucille Ball"
  • Criticized the dubbing; called it "unabashedly crude", though acknowledged that it wasn't as intentionally funny as the soundtrack of Godzilla 2000
• Liam Lacey, The Globe and Mail: The film "is a spectacularly silly comic epic in which almost every known camera trick, stunt and fight choreography known to the genre is squished into one story."
  • Praised the choreography: "This movie probably also features some of the best drunken fighting ever caught on celluloid."
  • Praised Anita Mui's acting as "terrifically funny"
  • Noted that watching the film's practical stunts is rare in an age of computer-generated imagery; "they sure don't break them like they used to."
• Andy Klein, TNT's Rough Cut and Dallas Observer: The Miramax cut of Drunken Master II has "been about as respectful as we're ever likely to see for a broad American release of a Hong Kong film."
  • Touched on Chan's advancing age, and that the reason why the film was full of "incredible" fight scenes is because the star "may have realized that he was running out of time for certain kinds of action."
    • Noted in the Dallas Observer that the film "may well stand as his final word on true martial arts cinema."
  • Wrote off the plot as "mostly an excuse" for physical comedy and fight scenes
  • Praised the final fight scene, described it as "one of the most amazing such sequences ever made"
  • Laments the fact that the film is dubbed, though acknowledges that the film's own dub does not have any glaring issues
    • Notes that while the Hong Kong film industry did not shoot with sound in the first place, he still points out that "entertainment films" are treated as second-class citizens
    • Notes the soundtrack as "idiomatically appropriate" except for the song in the credits
  • In the Dallas Observer review, Klein expresses uncertainty over how much Miramax "damaged" the original by re-cutting it
    • Noted Miramax's cut was 15 minutes shorter than the original
    • Opines that despite his distaste for re-cutting, trimming some of the original's exposition would not be a bad thing
    • However, he found one scene that he wished were cut: the ending sequence of Chan's character suffering brain damage as a "grotesquely tasteless joke capped a wonderful movie like a turd atop an ice cream sundae."
    • In his review for TNT however, Klein was relieved that unlike other Miramax releases, the company only removed one significant shot, which was the ending scene that he felt was "truly dreadful" and an "extraordinary lapse in judgment"
• Shawn Levy, The Oregonian: Despite the bad English dub, it is a "transporting bit of fluff, full of zest, miraculous physicality and cheeky humor played broadly and with a knowing wink."
  • Noted Chan was cast "somewhat unconvincingly" given his age, but praised him as an "ingenious athlete"
  • Admitted the story was "silly"
  • Liked the fight choreography, stated that "Chan shoots fight sequences with great dynamism"
  • Praised Mui's performance as "a fraud, a tough cookie and a cute dish all at once"
• Peter Stack, SFGATE: The film "is one of the staples of 'chop socky' comedy action for its star (now superstar), Jackie Chan [...]"
  • Notes that the film's first half is "a bit of a chore to watch", citing out-of-sync dubbing as a partial reason
  • However, Chan delivers "some of the most complex and entertaining comic martial-arts choreography ever devised" in the second half, which quickens the film's pace to a point where he feels the film "becomes almost an entirely different movie"
• Stephen Hunter, The Washington Post: "It's really a Hong Kong kung fu opera, unrepentant, full out, sans apology or explanation, goofy as heck, broadly silly and... astonishing."
  • Thinks the dub and the story are bad
  • Loved two fight scenes in particular: the one where Chan fights someone under a railway car, and the one where Chan and Lau defend themselves from "a hundred ninja types"
  • But reserved his highest praise for the ending fight, states that he's "literally never seen anything like it."
• Elvis Mitchell, The New York Times: The film is "pluperfect vehicle for his tricky martial slapstick."
  • Enjoyed Chan's performance as he "gets to use all the elasticity of his rubber face and play to the camera while participating in some of the most amazing stunts ever filmed"
  • Enjoyed the "physical dynamism" of the final fight, called the sequence "breathtaking"
  • Somewhat critical of the story, joked that the four months it allegedly took to film the final sequence "wasn't expended in the writing"
  • Noted that Chan's character looked older than both his father and stepmother
  • Liked Mui's performance, stated that she "competes with [Chan] for camera time and outdoes him"
  • Liked some of the subtle touches in the cinematography, like a softball being thrown back and forth on a train
  • Noted some "accidental hilarity" in the final fight scene, where an opponent posing with a chain made them seem like BDSM was about to happen
• Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: "[...] this is one of the films that made Jackie Chan Jackie Chan."
  • Described the film as "serviceably dubbed in English"
  • Dismissed the plot as "not something a whole lot of attention need be paid to"
  • Likes that the film "showcases the two aspects of Chan's persona that combine to create his wide appeal", his athleticism and enthusiasm
  • Found the fight scenes, like a spear fight in an enclosed space, and a mob attack, "memorable"; especially liked the final fight
  • While Turan did not particularly enjoy certain scenes like "an unconvincing confrontation with that disapproving father" in Wong Kei-ying, he says that those scenes were "simply the price that must be paid to experience the kind of thrilling, non-computer-generated stunt work that is becoming increasingly rare anywhere in the world."
• M. Faust, TV Guide: "If you've never seen a martial arts movie, this is a great place to start."
  • Described the film as "a wholly entertaining mix of comedy and kung fu, all realistically staged with no wire or trampoline effects"
  • Acknowledged the sequel "has next to nothing in common" with the original film, but states that it does not matter due to Wong Fei-hung's ubiquity in Hong Kong cinema
  • Realized that Chan was too old for the role, as Ti and Chan were only a few years apart in age
  • However, he noted that Chan "has no trouble portraying an impetuous youth", and that he still seemed spry and energetic despite his age
  • Noted the great action sequences like fighting a hatchet mob and the final fight, where Chan is "almost outshone by the astonishing high-kicking of Ken Lo"
  • Stated the story was "better than average", liked the supporting performances of Mui and Ti
• Mark Caro, Chicago Tribune: The film "stands as the last Chan film in which the action isn't significantly compromised by the toll that age and bone-breaking stunts have taken on the star."
  • Said that the writing and comedy are "as wildly uneven as ever"; praised Mui for "turning in perhaps the funniest female performance in a Chan movie"
• Susan Wloszczyna, USA Today, 2-and-a-half stars out of four: Considering the impact that The Matrix has had on currently-airing cinema, "[...] it's refreshingly retro to enjoy Jackie Chan as he bobs and weaves, tumbles and stumbles, smashes and crashes through an army of attackers without an effects net."
  • Mentions the quick pacing as "a brawl-a-minute" and the film's tone "that wackily shifts from slapstick silly to gravely serious."
  • Mentions Chan's age: "[...] you just have to accept that he could look older than the couple who play his parents."
  • Also notes that there are some leaps in logic you have to make; namely, that Wong Kei-ying could be a doctor who uses his office as a martial-arts school, and that ginseng root could be confused with an ancient jade artifact
  • Compares Chan and Mui's scheming against Ti to an episode of I Love Lucy; likened the demonstrations of drunken boxing to "be a thing of woozy beauty, with Chan alternatively chugging liquor, bashing bad guys and striking poses as if he were in a Madonna video."
  • "But after so much frenetic kicking and grunting, you may feel like you're in a stupor, too."
• Lawrence Toppman, The Charlotte Observer, 2-and-a-half stars out of four: The film, "rather a stale box of corn, goes down easily enough."
  • Liked the fight sequences, which are "executed with brilliant flair"; highlights Ken Lo's kicking ability during the final fight
  • Feels like the "film falls flat" when you strip away the fight scenes
  • Laments that sometimes the production value dips in quality; sometimes you have to suspend disbelief over things
• Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan, The Baltimore Sun: "As most sequels are, Legend is sub-par compared with its predecessor, but it's a wonderful flick for kung fu and Chan fans nonetheless."
  • Describes it as "vintage Chan", and remarked that the fight scenes were well-choreographed and have some similarities to Buster Keaton
  • Liked the last fight scene, described it as "deftly done"
  • Disliked some aspects of the film: remarked that Mui "hams it up", complained that some of the jokes didn't work, and lamented that the film "never fully explains the basic tenents and steps of drunken fighting", which she theorizes would confuse viewers unfamiliar with the Eight Immortals
  • However, she said that those criticisms shouldn't stop anyone from watching the film, as long as they watched the original first
• Jessica Winter, The Village Voice: "But the most pertinent sounds in Chan's 140-plus movies usually fall within the range of bish-thwack-ow, and this sequel to 1978's Drunken Master is no exception [...]"
  • Described Chan's presence as "blithely brazen as ever"
  • Said the plot was "uncertain"; noted the film's "antipatriarchal twist"
• Paul Malcolm, LA Weekly: "As a recipe for juvenile reform, it ain’t half bad; as a premise for a Jackie Chan film, it’s a half-baked classic."
  • Noted that the film's humour seemed to be influenced by The Three Stooges than Buster Keaton, he notes that "there are flashes of hilarious, though odd, satire", such as a scene where the film smash cuts from Chan about to smash a guy's head open to the star cracking open a large walnut
  • Describes the action as "genre traditions"; notes that Chan "displays his customary charm, grace and lightning-quick moves."
• Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: "This is the weakest of the many Chan chop-shticks to make it to this country."
  • Was unamused by the "cartoonish story", surmising that "maybe the funny drunk still played in Hong Kong in 1994."
  • Liked the fight scenes, called them "spectacular"
  • Only liked Mui's performance out of the rest of the supporting cast, called her a "saucy, scheming hoot" and that she was the only supporting actor "to make much of an impact"
  • Did not like the movie because Chan's more recent films raised the bar
  • "Without endless action, we're forced to concentrate on the story and on how inappropriate he seems playing a character half his age, and that just makes this most ageless of stars seem old."

Awards and accolades

• At the 14th Hong Kong Film Awards in 1995, Lau and the Jackie Chan Stunt Team won an award for Best Action Choreography; the film was further nominated for Best Editing (Peter Cheung)
• For the 31st Golden Horse Awards in 1994, Lau and the Jackie Chan Stunt Team also won for Best Action Choreography
• In 1997, it was nominated at the 2nd Fant-Asia Film Festival for Best Asian Film

Post-release

Home media

• Tai Seng Entertainment released the film on VHS
• Warner Archive Collection released a Blu-ray disc in 2021

Theme notes

• Chan's role in both films puts him in a long lineage of actors that have portrayed folk hero Wong Fei-hung, physician and creator of Hung Ga kung fu

Winfried Corduan, "Bottled Water from the Fragrant Harbor: The Diluted Spiritual Elements of Hong Kong Films", Faith, Film and Philosophy: Big Ideas on the Big Screen

• An important cultural element in Hong Kong cinema is the depiction of filial piety
• In Drunken Master II, Wong's father forbids him to use drunken boxing as well as fight in general; he must balance obeying his father's wishes, while also defending himself
• After being subjected to corporal punishment, then being disowned and thrown out of the house, Wong is only allowed to return home when a greater breach of family honour—being captured and hung naked from the village gate—occurs
• Sometimes, Hong Kong cinema tackles balance (yin and yang) through the portrayal of Traditional Chinese medicine; in the film, Wong's father is a herbalist physician, and conflict occurs when a patient's prescription, a ginseng root, goes missing
• A common theme explored is the incompatibility of Western and Chinese ideals, usually manifested in martial arts films in stereotypical depictions of foreigners
  • In the film, the antagonists try to smuggle Chinese cultural artifacts out of the country
  • Notes that Chinese culture isn't necessarily less materialistic than in the West, but that Chinese materialism is considered more valuable
  • Posits that the film portrays the Westerners' behaviour as objectionable because it would "have a negative economic effect on China."

Kin-yan Szeto, "Jackie Chan and the Politics of Comic Displacement", The Martial Arts Cinema of the Chinese Diaspora: Ang Lee, John Woo, and Jackie Chan in Hollywood

• According to Szeto, "Chan's fighting style displaces [Bruce] Lee's idealized masculinity with a more complex and dynamic model that includes momentarily being and feminized/vulnerable situations in order to ultimately overcome, control, and strike back more powerfully."
• In both Drunken Master films, Wong makes efforts to pass as a woman and drunkard to not only trick his opponents, but also to distance himself from "the rigid norms of heroic masculinity governed by fatherhood and patriarchy" embodied by Kwan Tak-hing and Jet Li's earlier portrayals of Wong Fei-hung
• Instead of obeying his father or authority, he "subverts the father figure's role by becoming a drunkard", intentionally undermining the portrayal of a martial arts hero as a patriarchal and fatherly figure
• This mirrors Chan's real-life success with kung fu comedies like Snake in the Eagle's Shadow, in which his expressions of pain and suffering contrasted with Bruce Lee's image of being an indomitable martial artist
• Nearly sixteen years after Drunken Master's release, Chan would reprise the role in Drunken Master II at the height of popularity of Jet Li and Tsui Hark's Once Upon a Time in China series
• Unlike Li's portrayal of Wong Fei-hung, Chan both used drunken boxing to find holes in his opponents' defenses, and "undermined such inscription of patriarchal masculinity and the Jet Li character's strong association with Chinese nationalism."
• Unlike Jet Li's nationalist portrayal of Wong, "Chan's Wong navigates his role within the Chinese nationalist formations of masculinity circulating at a time when China had a semicolonial status with the advance of Western imperialist interests."

Steve Fore, "Life Imitates Entertainment: Home and Dislocation in the Films of Jackie Chan", At Full Speed: Hong Kong Cinema in a Borderless World

• Chan's depiction of Wong Fei-hung in the sequel balances rebelliousness and respectful of tradition
• The internal conflict centers around his relationship with his traditional father
• There is also an external conflict where Westerners have stolen Chinese national treasures, and have hired Chinese thugs willing to personally gain from exploiting their countrymen
• Fore notes that the film presents an "implicit support for the notion of a cultural China" that is at odds with Chan's depiction of Wong that questioned some aspects of tradition "in favor of a persona that was more attuned to the needs and desires of a younger, faster-moving, and more polyglot society"
• States that the film is "contradictory" in that it was Chan's "last unambiguously 'local' film" that incorporated Hong Kong cultural values, while also "implicitly a denial of the Hong Kong identity 'movement' of the past decade and a half"

Chris Berry and Mary Farquhar, "How Should Chinese Men Act?: Ordering the Nation", China on Screen: Cinema and Nation

• Chan's style of playing an adolescent role who becomes a "reluctant hero" that represents people that "may be careless of state authority and legal institutions", but "repeatedly [saves] them onscreen"
• This style is based on his early career, where he "negotiates between his adolescent search for a separate male identity while simultaneously constrained by a family that demands submission to the father"
• Berry and Farquhar describe the film's story as "adolescent fantasy" about personal, familial, and cultural vengeance
• They cite the fight scene where Chan's character is egged on by Mui's character to drink as part of a "carnivalesque" film intended to mock both "the world of adolescence as well as the official world of Confucian propriety"
• Berry and Farquhar: Chan's style "personifies Hong Kong's subversive and ongoing desire for at least partial autonomy and belonging while parodying the Chinese family-nation he seeks to join"; he also represents cultural China through the folk hero Wong Fei-hung

Legacy

• Collider highlighted the fight between Chan and Lo as one of the seven most intense martial arts fights in movies
• In 2005, Richard Corliss highlighted the film as one of Time's All-Time 100 Movies, stating that out of Chan's entire Hong Kong filmography, "this one can stand at the peak"
• The British Film Institute selected Drunken Master II as one of the ten best action movies of all time
• Vulture highlighted the film as one of the best film sequels of all time, listing it at #24
• Chan has stated that this is his favourite film of his overall