Dance of the Drunken Mantis
May 10, 2001
Review
Format: Subtitled VCD
Stars: Yuen Shun I, Yuen Siu Tien, Corey Yuen Kwai, Hwang Jang Lee, Yuen Chun Wei

The real sequel to Drunken Master 1, choreographed by none other than Yuen Wo Ping, starring the great Yuen Shun I and Hwang Jang Lee. The same story applies this time, except there are two distinct drunken styles, both the northern and the southern. Yuen Shun I is taken by, you guessed it, Yuen Siu Tien, who is his father, as his student and he learns how to fight. Simple.

What am I supposed to say? Since I have the vhs dubbed cropped EP all-out-terrible version of Drunken Master 1, I couldn't help but feel that this was as much an improvement on DM1 as DM2 was on DM1, only the choreography is the same insane, acrobatic, full-fledged madness with about 18 creative styles typical of Yuen Wo Ping films out of the late 70's and early 80's. Yuen Shun I, while not holding 3% of the fame of Jackie, is BETTER. He's so much better than Jackie Chan in DM1 (sorry Chan fans, but you have to see this to believe it I guess). His drunken style is better, his acrobatics are better, he's funnier, faster, better looking (even though he's known as the "Ugly Yuen", I personally think the man is quite handsome), and overall more charismatic. In addition, his fighting comes off as more professional, with less tolerance for silliness and more emphasis on doing things correctly. Whether or not this is Yuen Wo Ping's doing, Shun I got the good stuff. So I imagine I've offended half of my readers, so I think I'm off to a good start.

Fights: These are better. The only thing missing, and I'll mention this off the bat, is that Hwang Jang Lee doesn't do nearly as much kicking as he did in DM1. I missed that sorely. However, he instead shows what he's able to do with his hands, which is very impressive and is a nice change, though it may be disappointing to fans of one of the best kickers ever to be on screen.

The first scene is GREAT! What a way to start the movie. For those of you who want some small trivia, Yuen Chun Wei was THE MAN who doubled for his father, Yuen Siu Tien (father of Woo Ping, Shun I, Yat Chor, and Cheung Yan, among others who didn't go into films), for practically everything when the man became too old to do good stuff. In this scene, you get to see him. And he's wearing the same wig and clothing that he would wear doubling for his father, except he turns around and is impersonating Sam the Seed (Siu Tien). Hwang Jang Lee tells him that he'll kill Sam the Seed, but also any of his impersonators. Yuen Kwai, for the first time through my eyes, does an excellent old style fight and I was so impressed that the man who now creates rubbish was once able to do cool stuff like this. Woo Ping choreography everywhere, lots of close shots of little things like Chun Wei pulling Kwai's hands off his pants in a few moves, etc. Chun Wei is interesting because he was the only Yuen who never really received any screen time outside of Sam the Seed's costume. Anyone who sees him, of course, is impressed and immediately knows that Siu Tien could never perform that kind of stuff. He pulls off his wig here too and you can finally see what he looks like. Ah, how nice. I would have liked to see him in a real role some time, but the guy has a unique story I guess. But the fight itself is excellent, and the credits are going at the same time. Chun Wei is also incredibly acrobatic, as can be seen in any Sam the Seed movie.



2 minutes later Yuen Shun I makes his appearance. Right here I knew he was appropriate for this role. First of all he's a waiter and is just fun, spirited. He fights against 2 guys, one uses a chicken style and the other a duck. Very goofy, but Shun I does some acrobatics and the others capture the essence of the animals, I guess you'd say.



Then there's this small fight between an old woman and a debt collector. The woman uses mostly kicks, which are all precise and her flexibility is on par with, well, any screen kicker, but her attacks aren't too powerful. However, she must be 50 years old here and puts on a nice display, with fairly complex choreography (there's no simple choreography in this movie). The man does tiger or eagle movements but it's intended to show that the woman, Shun I's character's mother, can fight and comes from a fighting family. Siu Tien, her husband, comes home after she kicks the other man out, and of course has to fight her concerning returning after being gone so long. Chun Wei does some more great acrobatics, this time with a little wash basin, then a broom, always good stuff.



This stuff, so far (except the first fight) is all buildup really, character introductions. We then get into actual tension where Shun I and Siu Tien visit the man who's been stealing money from them, and it's quite a funny scene, reminds me of The Miracle Fighters, with the man making weird sounds, screaching when he's surprised. He uses "Push" kung fu, whatever that is, and obviously his character has no idea how to fight. It's almost rediculous but so funny at the same time. Shun I has even less of a clue, trying to do Tiger but failing miserably. Great choreography again, lots of 2 handed stuff, Chun Wei and Shun I team up for a second and, of course, perform miracles. Chun Wei puts a little toilet can (old style) on the guy's head and it's so funny. Good stuff.



Training scenes galore in this movie too, first one is where Shun I thinks he's learning drunken boxing but really is just fanning and cracking walnuts for Siu Tien. Funny stuff, you can't help but feel bad for Shun I.



Shun I gets to fight against Corey Yuen Kwai. Both of them do the same kind of drunken boxing, really nicely done. Long cuts with choreography involving their entire bodies. Great acrobatics from both of them too, not a ton of drunken boxing but I guess that's the point here. They're kind of amateurish.



Hwang Jang Lee goes on to fight Siu Tien, and they have a LONG fight at an inn. We're talking over 10 minutes. They start by doing footwork and handwork at the table where they're drinking wine. The handwork that Chun Wei and Hwang do is amazing. They both have a wine cup in one hand and do wing chun type stuff, switching cups, dropping the cups into the other hand, just amazing. Betcha didn't think HJL could do that stuff eh? They move away from the table and HJL does a bit of fast kicking, Chun Wei does all his great acrobatics, and the choreographed actobatics are amazing, again. One part has HJL holding a wine gourd, Shun Wei is on his back ready for a kipup, kicks up at the gourd, it flies, he kipups and does a side diveroll before the thing hits the ground. Whether HJL did his own acrobatics is unclear to me. But any kicking he does, which is sparse but fitting since he's a northern drunken mantis practicioner, is super fast and I can't capture it, sorry. That's just the way it is, maybe I got something, but it's because he held his leg there. Siu Tien, when not doubled, does some wing chun which is good for a 70 year old man, but he's slow. HJL finally gets into his mantis and beats Siu Tien madly until Shun I rescues him. 12 minutes? Around there, with some dialogue.



The second CD of this VCD set is practically all action... wait that's how the rest of the movie is. Well, some of the fights earlier didn't relate to the story, but now Yuen Shun I meets the Sickness Master, who is, yea, sick. He caughs, he's pale, and makes it into a fighting style. When Shun I finds him, they get into a small fight where the sickness master, who has talent, shows Shun I what's up. Shun I is pathetic, using some generic tiger techniques, and it's so funny, the sounds he makes, his facial expressions, again I wonder why the man wasn't made a big star. Short fight, and the master doesn't show his real stuff until...



Shun I returns to fight him again and now Sick man is great, and the whole thing is hilarious. The sick man does his real style, falling onto his coffin, and his whole movement arsenal just screams sickness. He goes through routine checkups on Shun I like taking his pulse, tempurature, and even prepares medicine while fighting him. Shun I, again, is awesome, totally funny, acrobatic, seems like he can do anything. Such great stuff, can't complain one bit.



After the sickness master teaches Shun I about the 4 techniques, fortune telling, drunk, book (??) and sickness. Fortune Telling, for those of you who keep with YWP movies, was used in The Buddhist Fist to its full extent and was awesome. Book, who knows, but Shun I makes use of it later. What follows are some very unique training exercises. One has Shun I catching bean cakes, another where he has a rope around his arms and jerks it all over the place (beyond painful), and one where he does some wing chun-esque movements against small nails sticking out of posts. It's art, I swear. Watching this guy weave his arms in and out of these little nails is amazing, I'm still astounded by what he could do. When he's using the rope, sickness master does some good ol YWP rope choreography (see Miracle Fighters) where he practically ties up Shun I. And of course he practices sickness boxing in general, where he shows the breathing techniques (again looking sick of course) and some great acrobatics. At one point I thought he was doubled, but I wondered who would double for him. His brother Yat Chor could, but he looks just like him in the movie and so I seriously doubt he was doubled for anything, it's just that I couldn't see him clearly at one point. And get this, he does a cartwheel followed by a forward hand spring WITH HIS ELBOWS. Look at the pic. So amazing, nobody has ever done stuff like this. Honestly this competes with Knockabout as being the best acrobatic movie ever, it's that good trust me. Wow.



Yuen Kwai enters Shun I's mother's house and she fights him for a while. Kwai has a spear and seems to know how to use it, the woman gets a chinese sword and does some good looking techniques, not the standard wushu you see in every modern hk film. Shun I intervenes and uses Book on Kwai, and I can't think of a style to compare it to besides maybe Chinese sword, only without the sword, with all the power concentrated on the fingertips. Shun I grabs ahold of the spear and he too tosses it all over the place and Kwai doesn't stand a chance.



The finale is typical YWP. Everything you learned throughout the movie is used. Hwang and Shun I start off with some wing chun stuff, executed especially quickly. Hwang, not surprisingly, is just as good with his hands as he is with his feet, and does his own falls but I think he was doubled for some of the more complex stuff (his character does an airtrack into a rollout over Shun I's sweep). Shun I goes through the styles. Fortune Teller (I believe), where he has some great groundwork and joint locking techniques, then sickness. Hwang has a few kicking moments but overall his character is a mantis/drunkard specialist, as YWP already used him for kicking in DM1. But any kicking that he does, which happens frequently in this fight actually, is perfect of course, no stumbling, his legs are both straight, typical of him. Half way through the fight you can see Shun I's shirt getting pretty dirty, obviously from doing some of the acrobatics OVER AND OVER in the wet dirt, something that really adds to the effect of the movie I think. Hwang ends up getting into the full-blown drunken mantis stance and has some very mantis-ish movements that resemble wing chun, something that Hwang does very well I guess. Oddly, though, he doesn't move in any drunken fashion. Didn't bother me though, not at all, mantis seemed to be the focus here. Shun I ends up going berserk because he can't manage to win, doing some nutsy acrobatics where he just flings his body at Hwang and eventually his training really pays off and he completely slaughters Hwang. An awesome and powerful 7 or so minute finale.



All in all this is one of the greatest. A fan of Knockabout, Buddhist Fist, The Victim, or any martial arts movie from YWP or any movie out of the early 80's, or any martial arts movie altogether will extract a ton of enjoyment out of this one. I've gone through all the fights (except some small token ones) to show you just how excited I was to review this and tell everyone about it. It's a must-have. Better to get it at any time possible because some day this and all the other classics are gonna be damned hard to find, and they won't make them like this any time soon. Basically, it's about as good as an old school half serious half laughs martial arts movie gets.

5/5

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