
Mandarin
- Hanyu Pinyin	Zuì Quán
Cantonese
- Jyutping	Zeoi3 Kyun4

Drunken Master
Original Hong Kong movie poster
Directed by	Yuen Woo-ping
Produced by	Ng See-yuen
Written by	Lung Hsiao Ng See-yuen Yuen Woo-ping
Starring	Jackie Chan Yuen Siu Tien Hwang Jang Lee
Music by	Chow Fu-Liang
Cinematography	Chang Hui
Editing by	Pan Hsiung
Distributed by	Seasonal Film Corporation
Release date(s)	Hong Kong: 5 October 1978 (1978-10-05)
Running time	110 mins
Country	Hong Kong
Language	Cantonese
Followed by	Drunken Master II

Drunken Master (aka Drunk Monkey In The Tiger's Eye) is a 1978 Hong Kong martial arts action comedy film directed by Yuen Woo-ping , and starring Jackie Chan , Yuen Siu Tien , and Hwang Jang Lee . The film was a success at the Hong Kong box office, earning two and a half times the amount of Chan's previous film, Snake in the Eagle's Shadow, which was also considered a successful film.^[1]^[2] It is an early example of the comedic kung fu style for which Jackie Chan became famous.

Background

The film's protagonist Wong Fei Hung (黃飛鴻) was a Chinese martial artist , a traditional Chinese medicine practitioner and a revolutionary who lived towards the end of the Qing Dynasty . He became a Chinese folk hero and the subject of several Hong Kong TV programmes and films . "Beggar So" So Chan ("蘇乞兒" 蘇燦), who plays a supporting role in the film, is also another character from Chinese folklore and one of the Ten Tigers of Canton . The Beggar So character is often cast as an associate of Wong Fei Hung or Wong's uncle (師叔 .

Plot

The plot centers on a young and mischievous Wong Fei Hung (sometimes dubbed as "Freddie Wong"). Wong runs into a series of troubles. Firstly, he teaches an overbearing assistant martial arts teacher a lesson. Next, he makes advances on a woman to impress his friends, and is soundly thrashed by her older female guardian as a result; his shame is compounded when these two are later revealed to be his visiting aunt and cousin, whom he had not met before. Lastly, he beats up a hooligan who is the son of an influential man in town. His father decides to punish him for his behavior by making him train harder in martial arts.
Wong's father arranges for "Beggar So" So Chan to train his son in martial arts. Beggar So has a reputation for crippling his students during training so Wong flees from home in an attempt to escape his punishment. Penniless, he stops at a restaurant and tries to con a fellow patron into offering him a free meal. As he was about to leave after his meal, he discovers that the man is actually the owner of the restaurant. He fights with the owner's lackeys in an attempt to escape. An old drunkard nearby is drawn into the fight and helps him escape. The drunkard turns out to be Beggar So, the Drunken Master. (Beggar So is known in some versions of the film as Sam Seed, So Hi or Su Hua-chi)
Beggar So forces Wong into his brutal and rigorous training programme. Wong flees again to avoid the torturous training and runs into the notorious killer Yan Ti San by accident. (known in some versions as Thunderfoot or Thunderleg). Yan is known for his "Devil's Kick", a swift and deadly kicking style which has "never been defeated". Wong provokes and challenges him to a fight and is soundly defeated and humiliated. He makes his way back to Beggar So and decides to commit himself to the Drunken Master's training program.
The training resumes and soon Wong learns Beggar So's secret style of martial arts, a form of Drunken Boxing called "The Eight Drunken Immortals ", named after the eight mythological figures that the fighting style emulates. Wong masters seven of the eight styles with the exception of Drunken Miss Ho 's as he feels that her style of fighting is too feminine.
Meanwhile, Yan Ti San is contracted by a business rival to kill Wong's father. Wong's father fights with Yan and is defeated and injured by him. Wong and Beggar So arrive on the scene on time and Wong continues the fight with Yan. Beggar So promises not to interfere in the fight. Wong employs the new skill he learnt and outmatches Yan's kicking style. Yan then resorts to his secret technique, the Devil's Shadowless Hand, which Wong is unable to defeat. Wong confesses that he did not master the last style so Beggar So tells him to combine the seven styles and create his own version of the last style. Wong follows the instruction and discovers his own unique style of Drunken Boxing, which he eventually uses to defeat Yan and become the new Drunken Master.

Fight scenes and martial arts

A number of notable fights are featured in the film, almost all of them with strong elements of comedy - from the game of keep away with Wong Kei-Ying 's cocky, but incompetent, assistant kung fu instructor, to the novel "head-fu" fighting style used by one of his opponents. The film features the Hung Ga system of fighting, which was historically practiced by Wong Fei Hung and his father Wong Kei Ying, both of whom are major characters in the film. The animal styles of Snake, Crane, and Tiger performed in the film are derived wholly from the Hung Ga system and bear only a tangential relationship to the Fujian White Crane , Lama Pai (aka Tibetan White Crane), Black Tiger , and Snake systems of kung fu. Monkey style kung fu, popular in Southern Chinese martial arts performances, is also shown briefly.
Numerous systems of kung fu include "Drunken Boxing " forms (e.g. Choi Lei Fut and Drunken Monkey ), and the Taoist Eight Immortals are popular staples of Chinese culture and art. However, the "Eight Drunken Immortals" forms depicted in this film are likely the creation of director and choreographer Yuen Woo-ping and based on routines found in other systems.
The primary villain in Drunken Master is played by Hwang Jang Lee, a Korean martial artist specialising in Taekwondo and known for his high-flying kicks, which are prominently displayed in the film. The systems of "Devil's Kick" and "Devil's Shadowless Hands" employed by Thunderleg are entirely fictitious.

Box office

Drunken Master earned an impressive HK $6,763,793 at the Hong Kong box office.^[1]

Sequels and spinoffs

Drunken Master was a semi-sequel to the 1978 film Snake in the Eagle's Shadow, which featured the same cast and director.
Drunken Master II (1994) did star Jackie Chan, and is often considered a sequel. The US release of the film in 2000 was entitled The Legend Of Drunken Master.
In 1979 Yuen Siu Tien reprised the role of Beggar So in the film Dance of the Drunk Mantis, which is entitled Drunken Master Part 2 (not to be confused with Drunken Master II noted above) in some releases. The film, which was again directed by his son, Yuen Woo-ping , does not feature Jackie Chan, focusing instead on the drunken beggar character rather than on Wong Fei Hung . It is therefore generally considered to be a spinoff rather than a true sequel.
Yuen played this same role again in the films Story of Drunken Master and World of the Drunken Master.
In 2010 Yuen Woo-ping returned to directing with True Legend which could be called prequel to Drunken Master as it explains why Beggar Su (Played by Vincent Zhao ) turns to drinking.

As with many successful Hong Kong action films , several films were released in the wake of Drunken Master (and its sequel) that could be considered to trade on the fame of the original films. These had less in common with the original films than the spinoffs starring Yuen Siu Tien. They include: