masterofoneinchpunch

41) Drunken Master 2 (1994, Hong Kong, Liu Chia-liang & Jackie Chan):  aka: The Legend of Drunken Master.  Liu was fired early on because of a conflict of ideas leading JC to explain in his autobiography I Am Jackie Chan: “His ideas are very traditional, almost like classical music; mine are more like jazz.” One might expect this to interfere with the cohesion of the film, but it does not though there is a difference between the earlier fight scenes and the later ones done by Jackie.  Anita Mui steals quite a bit of the film with her comedic performance as Wong Fei-hung’s step-mother and Ti Lung as his dad, barely older than Jackie in real life, is always fun to watch.  But the end action sequence with his former real-life bodyguard Ken Lo in the steel mill, where Jackie does get burnt, is mind-blowing and is one of my top ten unarmed fight scenes.  There is an alternate ending that can be found, though in my opinion the movie is better off without it though the audio/soundtrack in the R1 Miramax/Dimension edition is not as good as the original release.  In 2005, Time choose this as one of their 100 Best Movies of ALL TIME.

For Further Study:

Drunken Master III (1994: Liu Chia-liang): This is strictly for extra credit. This was the Wong Fei-hong film Liu Chia-liang made after leaving Drunken Master II.

Martial Club (1981: Liu Chia-liang): The second Wong Fei-hung Shaw Brothers film (Challenge of the Masters was the first) that Liu did with Gordon Lau Kar-fei.  Both are worth watching, but I slightly prefer this one.