Arguably the greatest one-on-one fight in Jackie Chan’s filmography, the final 10-minute battle against the villain (played by former bodyguard and kickboxer Ken Lo) is a masterclass. To access his full power, Fei-hung must drink industrial-grade alcohol. As he becomes more intoxicated, his style becomes more fluid, more unpredictable, and more dangerous. The fight moves from a forge (where Lo’s character dips his hands in molten sand) to a burning room of industrial alcohol.
Essential. Watch the original Hong Kong cut. Turn off the dubbing. Brace yourself. And never, ever try this at home. drunken master 2 jackie chan
Their on-set battles were infamous. Lau would choreograph a complex, 100-move traditional sequence; Chan would then fall down a flight of stairs, set his jacket on fire, and ask, “Why can’t he just do that?” The result of this creative tension is a film of impossible duality. You get the breathtaking, classical “Drunken Eight Immortals” form—where each posture mimics a different Taoist deity, from the ethereal “Iron Crutch Li” to the androgynous “Lan Caihe”—intercut with Chan getting his groin smashed against a red-hot coal grate or sliding down a smoldering pile of charcoal. Arguably the greatest one-on-one fight in Jackie Chan’s
For Western audiences who discovered it as The Legend of Drunken Master , the film was a revelation. It is Jackie Chan at his most Jackie Chan: funny, serious, indestructible, and deeply, achingly human. He doesn’t play a superhero. He plays a man who drinks industrial solvent and then fights a guy with burning hands. That is the magic. That is Drunken Master II . The fight moves from a forge (where Lo’s
The plot is classic Chan: a MacGuffin hunt. Wong Fei-hung and his father are traveling by train when they inadvertently get caught up in a scheme to smuggle Chinese national treasures (bronze seals and jade carvings) out of the country. The villains are a ruthless British consul and his Chinese henchman, the terrifyingly powerful Ken Lo. When the consul’s men assault Wong’s father, Fei-hung unleashes his drunken style to defend his family. The film then spirals into a breathless chain of fights, chases, and comedic set-pieces as Fei-hung tries to recover the stolen artifacts while hiding his drunken antics from his disapproving father. The secret ingredient—and the source of the film’s legendary production stories—is the co-directorial clash between Jackie Chan and the godfather of Shaolin cinema, Lau Kar-leung. Lau was a traditionalist, a master of rigid, intricate shapes and classical kung fu forms. Chan was a modernist, obsessed with environmental improvisation, slapstick comedy, and the “realistic” portrayal of pain.