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Ahehe. Let me begin with a little apology. Last week, in a fit of inexplicable smartassery, I attempted to explain my smartassery by way of a series of fictitious misadventures which had allegedly befallen me. While many readers know me well enough to recognize my bullshit in text mode, some were under the impression that my life had really gone down the crapper. Allow me to clarify on several points: Your humble reviewer owns no truck, has never owned any motor vehicle, has never had a driver’s license, and has never been responsible for the destruction of any vehicle by means of driving it poorly. Your humble reviewer’s career is really doing okay; in comparison with the last five jobs your humble reviewer has held, he’s actually doing fantastic. Chicks your humble reviewer digs could not ignore your humble reviewer on a dare.

Now, let’s follow up that last mixed blessing with some truly great action cinema.

Jackie Chan smashed the competition with Snake in Eagle’s Shadow and Drunken Master. Attempts to imitate his style were unimpressive. Indeed, it seemed at times like Chan’s only real competition was himself. The glove is down, and Chan repeatedly takes it up, and attempts to show himself what he’s made of. If you examine Chan’s filmography, you will notice that he frequently returns to old themes to try them again, not just by way of sequels, but by extracting ideas or shot sequences from one film, and trying them again in new ways.

After Drunken Master showed the world an irreverent take on the legendary Wong Fei Hung, Tsui Hark enlisted Jet Li to play Wong Sifu in a more traditional series, the Once Upon a Time in China films.

Chan returned the tale to his own vision, enlisting a star-studded cast to show a higher budget version of Wong Sifu’s troubled adolescence.

Release
Dimension. Dubbed, but dubbed very well.

Starring
Jackie Chan, Ti Lung, Anita Mui, Lau Ka Leung, Felix Wong, Lau Ka Yung, Vincent Tuatanne, Ho Wing Fong, Low Houi Kang, Ho Sung Pak

This movie is so huge, it even warrants a walk-on by ANDY LAU!

In Brief
Riding a train back home, Fei Hung accidentally switches his ginseng box for a stolen imperial seal. A Manchurian officer, Fu, liberates the ginseng while meaning to recover the seal. The chance encounter leads to a rumble.

What’s better than Jackie Chan fighting Lau Ka Leung? Chan fighting Lau under a train.

The artifact thieves, recognizing Wong from the train, try to recover the seal from him. Fu tracks Wong down, and explains the whole situation, including the mix-up on the train, and the greater problem of foreign governments plundering China.

In a plot jump typical of a Chan film, the Axe Gang is hired to whack Wong and Fu. We bounce back and forth between the styles of the two choreographer/stars, mixing the worn Axe Gang trope with Chan’s fresh take on Wong Fei Hung. Best of all, there are ten billion stuntmen raining down, getting beat, and trashing the set. Fu is killed in the brawl, but Wong and his friend, Ching Sung, continue their mission to thwart the Ambassador.

The first foray into the embassy fails. Wong and Ching are captured, and Wong’s father is told he must sell Po Chi Lam to bail out Fei Hung.

When the steel mill workers discover that their product is being used as a cover to smuggle out antiques, things come to a head. Wong leads the assault on the smugglers.

Nice Shots
Chan has a gift for planning very small beats that add to both the action and the humor. Often it’s a light jump that looks just a little beyond what a normal human could perform in earth’s gravity. Here, Ching Sung is rushing to challenge Wong to a fight. He pushes a bystander aside next to a barrel. As Ching passes, water splashes across the frame. It reminds me of the old Pink Panther visual gags.

Some fast cuts in the tea house brawl create a very convincing effect as Wong slices up Axe Gang members with a shredded bamboo pole.

Best Stunts
The train fight is amazing. When I first saw DM2, I thought they had blown it, thrown out all their best action in the first reel. Of course, it continues to get better. Check out this fall approximately mid-film.

The final showdown in the steel mill is one of the finest escalations in the industry. Chan scrambles across red-hot coals. He didn’t like the timing on the first take, so he did it again.

Disappointments
Industry lore has it that Chan and Lau had a rift over how to handle the action sequences. Lau, a real life master of the style Wong Fei Hung practiced, thought the drunken boxing techniques used in the first film were unrealistic, and the fights should focus on Hung Fist techniques. Chan, a real life master of making anything he does look really cool on film, thought a movie called Drunken Master 2 would be a huge disappointment to the audience if it didn’t show off some drunken boxing. Rumor continues to state that there are fight scenes in a can somewhere that Lau choreographed, and Chan re-shot after Lau left the set. In a perfect world, I’d really like to have a look at the fights Lau put together.

Final Analysis
They don’t get much better than Drunken Master 2. Spear fighting under a train, Andy Lau braining people with a softball, and an Axe Gang attack. I’ll give up four and a half stars.

If You Like This
For a more Lau-centric look at drunken fighting, try Drunken Master 3 and Drunken Monkey.

For Chan’s best use of a fan, see Young Master.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 10th, 2007 at 12:54 am and is filed under Chop Socky, Movies, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.