This is an exciting and brilliant film that is full of the action and slapstick which has made Jackie Chan famous, and is just as fresh as his later films; it is great to see how his younger self developed his style of kung-fu and his comedy. He has a very expressive face that suits his physical comedy. The colour is brilliant and the photography, too.
Drunken Master
(1978) or Drunken Monkey in the Tiger's Eye(s)
, which is a more literal translation, is directed by Yuen Woo-Ping and stars Jackie Chan. Yuen Woo-Ping went on to work as a kung-fu, stunt and fight choreographer on The Matrix Trilogy
, and on the Kill Bill
film series to name only two. Jackie Chan went on to star in films like Rush Hour
and it's sequels and Shanghai Noon
(2000) and it's sequel Shanghai Knights
(2003).
The film is beautifully shot with lucid pictures: strong, brilliant colours, wider camera angles to catch all the action, and clear, crisp, easily recognisable figures.
The wider shots encompassed the actions of the characters comprehensively, and placed the characters in their environment very well. The close-up shots seemed to be well considered to compliment the wide shots—and vice versa.
Interestingly, upon the second viewing of the film (both times with English subtitles) it seemed like the words sifu and ganbei and also the name of Fei Hung were easier to pick out. It seems to me that when watching foreign language films with subtitles it is best to watch them twice (if they are good) as then more attention can be given to the pictures after the plot and dialogue has been picked up. It also gives the illusion that you might be learning something!
Quite apart from that, watching films in the original language with subtitles feels like a better way to watch them. It seems authentic and feels foreign as you hear the human sounds of the culture and the language along with the pictures; the voices of the actors, too, creates an authentic soundscape and often expresses something that dubbing cannot. The subtitles are often more accurate and the sound is generally more in sync, too.
This film is fun and well done. It is really great to see the film that launched Jackie Chan's style of kung-fu comedy
. It seems that this is the film that made Jackie Chan's name in Hong Kong. There is also a great cast of celebrated martial artists.1
references
1. According to a DVD commentary of the film by Ric Meyers et al
A cover for this film may be found on IMDB the DVD's tag-line reads "the original kung-fu comedy".