Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #109967 in DVD
• Released on: 2002-04-02
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Colour, Dubbed, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: Cantonese Chinese
• Subtitled in: English, French, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish
• Dubbed in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 111 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Drunken Master is a film that, following Snake in the Eagle's Shadow (1978) (made with the same ensemble cast and director Yuen Woo Ping), consolidated Jackie Chan's position as the new Hong Kong kung fu action star of the late 1970s. Set in the late 19th century, Chan plays the great Chinese hero Wong Fei Hung as a loveable young rogue who is always getting into fights or embarrassing his family. Eventually his father decides the only way to make a man of Chan is to send him for training with an old drunken drifter played by Yuen Siu Tien. Just as they did in Snake in the Eagle's Shadow, the pair make a fine double-act, though this time there is much surreal entertainment to be had from the older man teaching the younger the fine art of drunken kung fu. Learning to fight like the Eight Drunken Gods before the final confrontation with Hwang Jang Lee causes Chan considerable problems, though Yuen Siu Tien simply fights better the more he drinks. Yuen Siu Tien would reprise the role in his final film, Magnificent Butcher (1979) yet with Chan he finds a perfect blend of slapstick comedy and creatively staged action which makes Drunken Master a genuine kung fu classic.

On the DVD: The picture is generally strong though inevitably there is a fair amount of grain. Unfortunately the original 2.35-1 film has been reformatted to 1.77-1 widescreen TV ratio. This has been done more skilfully than usual but is still a misrepresentation of the original cinema release and does mar both the landscape photography and the fast moving action scenes. The sound is perfectly acceptable mono. Soundtrack options are the original Mandarin with English subtitles, or an English dub. Extras include the original English language theatrical trailer, Hong Kong Legends' own trailer, plus promos for further releases and a photo gallery. There is a detailed text biography and filmography of Jackie Chan, a biography of Yuen Woo Ping and a text interview with producer Ng See Yuen. Also included is a text biography of Hwang Jang Lee linked to a kicking showcase which is another short fight scene. Most of these features are identical to those on the Snake in the Eagle's Shadow DVD. --Gary S Dalkin

Customer Reviews

I am now a fan!
Before wathcing Drunken Master, I was not a great fan of martial art films nor Jackie Chan. It is safe to say that after watching it and then again the next morning I am now a fan! This film is great. I was really not expecting such a degree of prefection in what I thought was going to be a boring picture. The story, the dialogue, the fight sequences were all just perfect. I will now be looking into similar films, Drunken Master has opened up a whole new field of viewing for me and I recommend it to all.

The greatest Kung Fu Movie ever has some major flaws!!
I have seen this film (which is probably the Greatest martial arts film ever) a billion times.
I recently decided to buy it on DVD as i have only ever owned it on VHS.
I found 3 very major flaws with this release.

a. The original english dubbing has been re-dubbed and some of the characters renamed. Where has Sam Seed gone?

b. To try and make the voices look more like the movement of the mouth (something that should never be done to a Kung Fu Film) they have changed parts of the script and tried to be too clever with extended phrases and speeches, losing a lot of the humour this movie is renound for.

c. Jackie Chan now has an English Accent (Honestly).

I have decided to replace my worn out VHS version with another VHS version, and am praying that thay have not done to the VHS, what they have done to the DVD.
I can see the reason for them doing this, but for the nearly £20 I payed for it, surley they should have the original english dubbing on the disc as an option, along with the new dubbing and of course the original version in Mandarin.

Only one gripe!
In the main, this DVD is great and deserves its 4 stars. The audio and video quality and story (a Jackie Chan classic!) are all superb. Love all the extra bonus material provided as well. However, only one gripe and this made me delete a star. The audio English dubbed version is awful. The person dubbing Jackie is particularly bad and hard to understand in some instances and some of the other characters are dubbed with bad English trying to be Chinese accents. The Mandarin version with English subtitles is preferable on the disk, even though it is not Jackie. The Snake in Eagles Shadow DVD by the same company with its English dubbed version was much better.