DRUNKEN MASTER II
A film review by Eric Brochu
Copyright 1996 Eric Brochu
DRUNKEN MASTER II (1994)
Starring: Jackie Chan, Anita Mui, Ti Lung, Felix Wong Directed by: Lau Ka-Leung
General Introduction: Well, Jackie Chan has just made his big North American debut (again), this time with the high-energy Asian hit Rumble in the Bronx. Not one to miss an opportunity to sing the praises of one of my favorite film stars, I am writing this series of reviews, each about one of Jackie Chan's Hong Kong movies, all highly recommended to both fans of Jackie Chan and those who are simply curious about the man currently being billed as "the world's most popular action star." The only real problem might be finding them. While they is not available at the local Blockbuster, pretty much any city of any size is likely to have at least one video store catering to an Asian audience. Find it and rent them. I promise you won't be disappointed.
I confess: I'm not much of a fan of martial arts films. Bruce Lee never impressed me with his macho down- with-one-punch fighting; I have trouble taking Jet Li's wire stunts with the seriousness I'm supposed to; and, like many people, I tend to think of the generally interchangeable chop sockey films on the shelves of my local video store as tripe-wannabe. But I love Jackie Chan, and Drunken Master II, one of Jackie's most martial arts-heavy films of the last few years, is a major cause of my admiration. In Drunken Master II (I haven't seen Drunken Master I, and I didn't get the impression I was missing anything in this film) a lavish (by Hong Kong standards) period piece, Jackie Chan plays Chinese folk hero Wong Fei-hong, whom he presents here as a kind of turn-of-the-century Chinese generation Xer, who spends his time hanging out in the market with his friends and goofing off with the family servant. Fei-hong is a good-but-not-great martial artist regularly, but he is a master of "drunken boxing," which means that when he's drunk, he becomes a staggering, unpredictable dynamo. Early in the film, Fei-hong fights with a mysterious stranger he finds acting suspiciously while on board a train waiting to cross the border. The fight is just one of the film's many stunning set pieces, starting under a train in quarters so cramped you're amazed the actors can move, let alone fight, and it continues under a boardwalk and into a barn. During the fight, Fei-hong's box of ginseng is mixed up with the stranger's box, which, to Fei-hong's surprise and distress, contains an Imperial Jade seal. Naturally both the good guys and the bad guys want it back, and Fei-hong finds himself in the midst of a plot of the British Consulate to steal Chinese artifacts and ship them off to England. It all comes to a head in the film's stunning climax in an iron foundry, which features some of Jackie Chan's very best stunt-work, including a scene where he crawls backwards over a bed of hot coals! Unlike most Jackie Chan films, the plot here holds together relatively well. Sure there are a few holes (and a couple of big ones), and no one will mistake it for The Godfather, but it serves its purpose: it connects the fights and jokes, and it manages to work in real character development, pathos and a sociopolitical subtext about the relationship between a colony and the mother-state. This film gives Jackie a chance to really show off what he can do physically. The fights are thrilling, breathtaking pieces of imaginative and complex choreography, easily the best I've ever seen. They do a great job of showing off Jackie Chan's incredible grace, skill and timing, and to top it off, he has a great screen presence and a real comic sensibility: Jackie Chan's fights come across looking like all the best parts of Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin movies. His trademark use of props is readily apparent, and he deftly swings and tosses around chairs, benches, tables, fans, flowerpots and wine bottles with remarkable regularity. At one point he tosses a purse into the air, ducks a blow, catches the purse and places it on top of his opponent's head, punches him several times, and catches the purse as his foe falls, all in one fluid motion over the space of a single shot mere seconds long. The scenes where Fei-hong fights while intoxicated in order to use his "drunken boxing" are particularly impressive; these scenes give Jackie an opportunity to make faces and stagger from punch to punch, dodge kicks while falling against walls or guzzling wine, toss bottles into the air to keep them from being knocked out of his hand, and generally clown around. Jackie Chan is as warm and charming as ever, and looks good enough at forty that he is not too unbelievable in the role of an aimless but well- intentioned twenty-something living with his parents. However charismatic and watchable Jackie is, though, he is not a good enough actor or strong enough personality to hold a film on his own. It's fortunate, then, that this film has such a great supporting cast, especially Fei-hong's parents. Ti Lung plays Fei-hong's strict father, Wong Kei-ying, as a man of wisdom and strong emotion. In the movie's most heart-wrenching scene, Kei- ying throws Fei-hong out of the house after he drinks so much he accidently strikes him. You can see on his face the conflict between his rage at what he sees as a lack of proper respect and his love for his son: surprisingly human emotions for a martial arts film. Anita Mui, who is woefully underused as the shop owner in Rumble in the Bronx, also shines here as Fei- hong's pregnant, adoring stepmother, who is a little too eager to use her own kung fu in her delicate condition. It's a great role, and she plays it for all it's worth, camping it up with an infectious enthusiasm. The direction and editing are superb. The pacing, in particular is very good. The fight scenes never get to be boring or exhausting. They always leave you wanting to see just a little more, to watch Jackie just a little longer, a technique which works well in this film, which can actually deliver on the promise of more and better things to come later while still impressing you at the time. And the rest of the film isn't just filler: it is very funny, sometimes moving, and always engaging. The opening scenes, where a train pulls into a station and is mobbed by vendors selling food to the passengers through the windows, while Fei-hong and the family's servant wander the train have such a great energy that the first fight feels like icing on the cake, rather than the start of the action. As a footnote, the man that Jackie fights under the train in that first fight scene is the film's director, Lau Ka-Leung, who is rumoured to have been replaced during the shooting, with the director's job given to Jackie Chan. Regardless of who did the job, though, it's excellent work. The film's weakest point is the villains, whom we never really get to know outside Jackie Chan's fights with them. The character who should be the main villain, the sadistic British politician in charge of the art treasure smuggling, is only on-screen to boss around his henchmen, and eventually just disappears, without facing any sort of punishment. The henchmen are appropriately despicable, especially after one strips Fei-hong and ties him up in the town square after he fails to provide a good fight, but they are not particularly memorable. This weakness is just a nitpicking point, however. On the whole, Drunken Master II is an excellent film, and first class entertainment. I personally feel that New Line made a big mistake in releasing the comparatively lackluster Rumble in the Bronx instead of Drunken Master II as North America's reintroduction to Jackie Chan. This film has far superior fights, stunts, acting, writing and direction, and showcases Jackie Chan's talents far better, and I LIKED Rumble. I give this movie my highest recommendation. Fortunately, it is slated to be released in North America late in 1997, provided Rumble in the Bronx is a hit, but there is no reason to wait that long: do yourself a favour, make the extra effort and rent this movie, even (or perhaps especially) if you didn't like Rumble in the Bronx or, like me, you don't like martial arts movies in general. Even if it doesn't make a hard core Chan fan out of you, it is still more exciting, entertaining and generally FUN than any of the sterile megabudget Hollywood action blockbusters of the last five years.
Eric Brochu brochue@meena.uregina.ca
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