Drunken Master (1978)

Drunken Master (1978)

Directed by: Woo-ping Yuen

Starring: Jackie Chan, Siu Tien Yuen, Jang Lee Hwang

This is a great old fashioned 70’s kung fu flick. You’ve got Jackie Chan doing his Jackie Chan thing, the old drunken master So Hai (Yuen), and Woo-ping Yuen, who’s choreographed the martial arts in just about every movie with great action for years. Oh, and drunken kung fu is just great.

Jackie Chan plays a rebellious youngster who is punished by his father who runs a kung fu training center by making him train with the harsh So Hai. When the villainous killer-for-hire Thunderleg is hired to kill Chan’s dad, Jackie has to save him and defeat the undefeated Thunderleg.

There are a lot of great action sequences in this movie, and really that’s all there is to it. There’s some comic relief and some serious stuff, and a lot of really poorly worded swearing (in the English version, at least), but that’s all just extra on top of the cool action. If you’ve seen the more easily found Legend of the Drunken Master (the sequel) and enjoyed it, you certainly need to check this one out.