Movie	Extras
Audio	Video

This is obviously the Miramax release.  The real title to this movie is ‘Drunken Master 2’.  Here is the Thrakal DVD review.

Movie
A lot of people consider this movie his best.  I consider it one of his best.  The movie really is very good.  The fights are incredible, the comedy is kind of funny and there’s also a dramatic story as well.  The paper-thin plot only starts about an hour into the movie, and concerns Britain smuggling Chinese artifacts out of China into.. well, England.  The paper-thing plot finishes at about an hour fifteen into the movie, when the last bit of fighting take over.  It has nothing to do with the first movie, other than the fact that it has Jackie Chan and that it has drunken boxing in it.

The comedy is kind of funny, mostly because you expect this kind of corny humour from Jackie Chan’s movies.  It mostly slapstick and is enjoyable.  Anita Mui (who was in ‘A Better Tomorrow 3’, here)) as Mr. Chan’s mother (maybe stepmother, it’s not too clear) provides for most of the fooling around.  She has a lot of fun in her role, and does comedy very well.  The timing aspect is a bit thrown off by the dubbing of the movie, but I’m sure it’s better in its original language.

The drama comes from the father-son relationship between Mr. Chan and Ti Lung (who was in the first two ‘A Better Tomorrow’ movies).  It’s good but somehow kind of out of place in between all the light comedy and action going around.  It works well, though, and, like in ‘The Accidental Spy’ (click here for it), it’s nice that Mr. Chan tries to do drama instead of only fight.  I will say it’s not the best drama in the world, but it works, and does what it’s supposed to do.

Well, of course people are going to watch Mr. Chan’s movies for the fight scenes.  He won one of many Best Action Choreography awards from the Hong Kong film awards for this movie and I would not be disappointed by that fact except that this movie won over ‘Fist of Legend’, which in my mind had better fights.  Regardless, it did win, and you can see why while watching this movie.  There’s no real props to play with like in other of his movies (this one takes place in the past, so no step-ladders or cars or pistols or anything like that).  It’s him and maybe a bench and maybe a bamboo stick, but mostly it’s just him.  His imaginative stunt crew certainly worked hard for the numerous fights in here, my favorite being the one in the restaurant.  They are fast, furious and spectacular to watch.  The intensity never lets up through them and they get better as the movie progresses.  With this movie, Jackie Chan shows he can really fight, and his agility and energy are impressive.  He’s a big star and you know why when watching this movie.

Even though I don’t consider it his best, it really is a vast improvement over ‘Drunken Master’.  The humour is funnier, the fights are better and it’s generally more enjoyable.  It should be watched by any fan of martial arts movies, if only to show what Jackie Chan is capable of.  Director Lau Kar-Leung/Liu Chia-Liang is known for his incredible martial arts movies (‘The 36th Chamber of Shaolin’ (here), ‘8 Diagram Pole Fighter’, ‘Tiger on Beat’ (here), among others) and this movie is no exception.  It stands as one of his best efforts.  You can also see this to see what this guy is capable of directing.

For those who are interested, the differences between this version and ‘Drunken Master 2’ are very small.  That really surprised me considering Miramax sliced off 8 minutes in the American release to ‘Iron Monkey’ (full version here). The biggest difference is the end.  ‘Legend of Drunken Master’ ends after right after the dedication ceremony, while ‘Drunken Master 2’ has an extra scene at the of Jackie Chan practicing a new kung fu technique that makes him look like a mentally challenged person.  Other than that, the changes are only in the dialogue.  For instance, after Wong Fei-Hung hits his father before being kicked out of his home, Anita Mui says something like ‘He didn’t mean it, say you’re sorry, Wong’ to her husband in the American version while in the Hong Kong version she says ‘Are you out of your mind?  He’s your father!’ to Mr. Chan.  The song Jackie sings in the next scene is also different.  Those are the two biggest dialogue changes.  I wish they would have kept the same dialogue in, but it’s Miramax so I can’t ask for a miracle, right?

Behind the Master – an Interview with Jackie Chan
Hey, an actual extra on a Dimension release!  I’m very surprised.  It’s a bit less than 7 minutes long and is Jackie Chan talking about the movie.  He talks about his feelings towards the movie, the style and the intention of the film.  I always like listening to him; he’s lively and looks like a lot of fun to know.  I’m just surprised that Dimension actually put an extra on one of it’s releases that I’m kind of speechless (writeless maybe?).

Sneak Peeks
Okay, these guys put a whole flock of trailers on here.  You get the DVD trailer to ‘Shanghai Noon’, as well as the Dimension trailers to (deep breath) Jackie Chan’s ‘Project A’ (here), ‘Supercop’ (here), ‘Supercop 2’, ‘Twin Dragons’ (directed by Tsui Hark, here’s a random link to one of his movies I’ve reviewed), ‘Operation Condor’ (one of Jackie’s best), ‘Crime Story’, Jet Li’s ‘The Legend’ (here), ‘Twin Dragons’, Jet Li’s ‘The Enforcer’ (Jet Li’s best, but look for the original release, ‘My Father is a Hero’, instead of this Dimension crap), ‘Fist of Legend’ (Mr. Li’s second best, here) and ‘Operation Condor 2: Armour of the Gods’ (another one of Jackie’s best, here). Whew...  The only one I haven’t see is ‘Crime Story’, but I don’t think I can find it.

Audio
The audio is great.  Apart from the fact that Dimension once again dubbed the movie, and didn’t leave us an original language track (which I won’t complain about this time), the audio is very good.  The dialogue is fine, always clear and audible.  The music (which is another thing I won’t get into), is always nicely balanced with the rest of the sound.  The punch and kicks are always clear and clean.  Dimension did a better job on the audio than video.

Video
2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen.  The picture is okay.  Dimension usually does a better job than this.  There is a lot of grain here, and specks and small scratches throughout the movie.  On the plus side, the colours are great, and the black level is also great.  The movie is remastered, but I’ve seen better from these guys before.

put up sometime in December 2002