Drunken Master

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Drunken Master

English Dubbed Version

Released: 1978

Version: Video

Length: Approx. 107 minutes

Rated: PG-13

Main Cast: Jackie Chan, Siu Tien Yuen, Jang Lee Hwang, Hsia Hsu, Dean Shek, Casanova Wong

So, you watched Drunken Master II and you think the first one would be great one too! Well, you better read this before you spend the rental fee:

I went into this movie thinking it would rock. A friend of mine acted like this was one of the best Jackie Chan movies ever. I've heard similar sentiments from other sources. So, I was quite surprised at how poorly executed this movie was.

Jackie is a jerk named Freddy. His father is the master of a dojo. Freddy is disrespectful of his teachers and his father. He is always taking the easy way out of work and he usually cheats in his own punishments. Of course, the punishments are quite unique. He must stand in a squatting position with three bowls, one on his head and one on each shoulder for something like 4-8 hours.

Eventually, his father hire a Sam Sheng (or something like that...the dubbing is atrocious! More on that later) to turn his errant son around. Sam is drunk, but he's an excellent old sensei. I enjoyed most of the scenes with him.

Freddy works under him a little while and then runs away. He gets his butt kicked by an assassin that we met at the beginning of the show. The assassin just wanted Freddy to move along and when Freddy wouldn't, he kicked Fred's booty!

Then Freddy returned to Sam and really got into the training. We see how Sam and Freddy gamble and then have to fight a guy with a head like a sledge hammer. Then we watch as they both get beaten by the "king-of-sticks." Why? Because Freddy hadn't learned enough and Sam wasn't drunk. He has to be drunk to fight.

Freddy finally gets taught drunken dog (AKA drunken boxing) and goes around beating up all the jerks that beat him up earlier in the movie.

The Good Stuff:

	There's a lot of neat fight sequences in here.
	Choreography was excellent, as usual.
	It was neat to see a lady do some kung fu.

The Bad Stuff:

	Bad language
	Really bad dubbing...so bad that you couldn't understand a lot of what was being said.
	The absolute worst foley (AKA sound effects) work I've ever heard. The arms made swishing sounds when they shouldn't and the impact sounds were terrible. half the time they were the same as the swish sounds.
	Getting drunk makes you kick butt!!!
	The music will probably grate your ears too.
	Dumb story.

Beware! This movie has a lot of bad points. It's not a good Jackie, at least in this form. If it was dubbed better with better sound effects it would have been a lot better. As it is, it's barely tolerable. If you can find the sub-titled version (if there is one) or just the original Chinese version, get it instead!

STORY:

VIOLENCE:

SEXUAL CONTENT: N/A

SFX: (I hate the sound in this movie!)

LANGUAGE:

ACTION:

OVERALL SCORE: