The Legend of Drunken Master [Blu-ray]

MOVIE DESCRIPTION:

Jackie Chan returns in one of his greatest roles in this action-comedy sequel to his 1978 Hong Kong blockbuster Drunken Master. Wong Fei Hong (Chan) is a young master of the martial art of "drunken boxing," in which fighters use alcohol to blind themselves to pain and release the angry brawler within; with the right amount of drinks under his belt, Hong can become a furious one-man army. Hong accompanies his father (Ti Lung) on a voyage to China, where they purchase a precious supply of ginseng. When Hong discovers thugs stealing from their luggage, he leaps into action to get their belongings back. Instead, he winds up with a box of valuable Chinese artifacts, which criminals are hoping to smuggle to England at a tremendous profit. Hong sets out to fight the gangsters and give the artifacts back to their rightful owners, but while his stepmother (Anita Mui) encourages him to use his drunken boxing skills, his father feels his boozy antics bring shame to the family. Jackie Chan brought some of his most elaborate stunt work to Drunken Master 2, including a remarkable fight on a bed of hot coals; Chan also directed part of the film, after Lau Kar Leung was fired after a number of disagreements with his star. Six years after it became a box office hit in Asia, Drunken Master 2 earned a theatrical release in the United States; the film was re-titled Legend Of The Drunken Master (in part because the original Drunken Master never had a proper theatrical release in America), re-edited, and dubbed into English, with a new score by Michael Wandmacher. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

DVD FEATURES:

• Region: ABC
• Number of Discs: 1
• Audio: Dolby Digital Stereo
• Screen: Color
• Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 (Cinemascope)
• Features:
  • Behind the Master: An interview with Jackie Chan

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

• Cast:

  
       Jackie Chan - Wong Fei-hong
       Ti Lung - Wong Kei-ying
       Anita Mui - Madam Wong
       Felix Wong - Master Tsan
       Lau Kar - Leung - Master Fu Min-chi
       Chin Ka - lok - Fo Sang
       Andy Lau - Counter Intelligence Officer
       Bill Tung

• Director:

  Lau Kar-Leung

• Producer:

  Barbie Tung, Edward Tang, Eric Tsang, Leonard Ho, Tseng King-Sang

• Screenwriter:

  Edward Tang, Tong Man Ming, Tseng King-Sang, Yuen Chieh Chi, Yun Kai-Chi

• Cinematographer:

  Cheung Tung-Leung, Cheung Yiu-Tsou, Jingle Ma, Wong Man-Wan

• Composer (Music Score):

  Michael Wandmacher, Wu Wai-Lap

• Editor:

  Peter Cheung, Rod Dean

• Production Designer:

  Eddie Ma, Ho Chong-Sing

• Art Director:

  Eddie Ma, Ho Chong-Sing

• Associate Producer:

  Barbie Tung, Hon Yee Sang

• Executive Producer:

  Leonard Ho

• Costume Designer:

  Ching Tin-Kiu

• First Assistant Director:

  Kwan Yiu-Wing, Lam Hak-Ming, Wan Fat

• Line Producer:

  Chan Jeung Wa, Frankie Chan

• Martial Arts Instructor/Coordina:

  Jackie Chan, Lau Kar-Leung

REVIEW:

• This 16-years later sequel -- which arrived in the U.S. six years after that -- suffers from the lengthy time lapse: Jackie Chan plays the same childlike vagabond from the previous edition, but it's tough to be amused when a grown man is disciplined with whipping by his father (Ti Lung), who looks younger than the son, while the helpless mother (Anita Mui) watches -- and it's done for laughs. But Hong Kong action film story lines typically call for a certain amount of suspension of disbelief, so in that regard, scenes such as that -- and the one in which Mui is punched in the jaw and then talks out of the side of her mouth for comic effect -- are to be expected. The highlights of The Legend of Drunken Master, as with most of Chan's films, are the action set pieces, and the several that punctuate this work are spectacular. Particularly effective is the "drunken" boxing that gets Chan out of several jams; he drinks to excess just before a fight and then, the alcohol working miraculously quickly, he staggers to victory by leaning into kicks and punches and springing up from the ground like a clownish, tireless, inflatable punching bag. It's amazingly creative stuff. The sequence in which Chan and a cohort take on an entire army of martial artists and destroy a two-story tavern in the process is only upped by the finale versus the villain, which takes place on a smoldering bed of red-hot coals. The outtakes at the end of the film suggest the coals were real -- as was Chan's understandable terror. ~ Buzz McClain, Rovi