Drunken Master 2 by Jackie Chan, Lau Kar-Leung (Review)

Jackie Chan’s finest moment?! It could very well be. Drunken Master 2 follows the exploits of Wong Fei-Hung, a Chinese folk hero, as he fights to keep Chinese national treasures from falling into the hands of the British. The first half of the film is the silliest, as we follow Fei-Hung’s wacky exploits.

It’s amazing that Jackie, who is in his 40s in this film, has enough exuberance and charm to easily pull off playing the much younger Fei-Hung. The second half of the movie gets more serious, as Fei-Hung fights the British and his fellow countrymen to protect the treasures.

Throughout the movie, we’re treated to some incredible fight scenes. Where else can you watch someone fight off 100 axe-wielding assassins with a bamboo pole? The final fight scene in the steel mill gets a little drawn-out, but it still has some incredibly crazy scenes (Jackie falling into a bed of hot coals and scrambling across in agonizing slow motion comes to mind). It’s not without it’s silly parts (Anita Mui hams it up as Fei-Hung’s mother), but if you’re looking for the “ultimate” Jackie Chan film, this is probably a top contender. The fact that Fei-Hung fights better when he’s drunk is just icing on the cake.

A dubbed and slightly edited version was released in the theatres not too long ago, and it was actually well done considering the hatchet job that some of Chan’s movies have been put through in the past. Unfortunately, they decided not to include the original language track on the DVD release. If you want to see the original version in all of its glory, you’ll have to track down a VHS copy. And I ain’t selling mine.