Drunken Tai Chi
12/22/00
Review
Format: Dubbed VHS
Stars: Donnie Yen, Yuen Yat Chor, Yuen Shun I, Yuen Cheung Yan

A scholarly Donnie Yen must avenge his family's death but must first learn how to defeat a hard style of martial arts used by The Killer (Yuen Shun I).

When I rented this a long time ago, I wasn't impressed in the bit. When I had watched it for an hour with little that impressed me, I shut it off and swore that it was one of Donnie's worst movies ever. However, Drunken Tai Chi (which has no drunken style at all, but Yuen Cheung Yan is drunk all the time like in Drunken Wu Tang and plays the same character) is like a diamond at the bottom of a dumpster. I MISSED THE ENDING! So, I rented it again, waded through all the garbage waiting for something to happen, and...

First let me clear up what goes on all the way through the movie. Almost everything is a joke, except for in the beginning where Donnie does real Tai Chi (pronounced Tai Ji, not Tai Chi) with a red background, and holds a really high forward kick, something that I find impossible. This is the highpoint for the first, oh, half hour of the movie. You can tell he knows what he's doing here. Hell, both of his parents were skilled Tai Chi masters (I heard..).



Like I said, there's a ton of bad jokes, like stepping on skirts and fat people ripping their clothes. Some ok stuntwork like some guy falling off a bike in the beginning, whom Donnie beats up pretty well and does nice kicks. What I found attractive about this movie, though, was that Yuen Wo Ping (the choreographer in case you couldn't guess by the cast) put all the cool looking stuff in slow motion, which makes Donnie's kicks only look better. But anyways, all this stuff is a big joke with all the HK sillies you'll ever want (or not want). And to top it off... bad dubbing. There is one scene where Donnie fights a fat lady who uses Tai Chi on him, and he does his own stunts like high falls and those ones where you fly backwards, plus the fat lady seems to know what she's doing and even does the splits.



A small bit of fun. Yuen Shun I invades a house and kills a guard, stands behind him, and uses him as a puppet to fake out the other guards. To add spice, he makes the guy do drunken boxing. It's small though. Of course you can't see Shun I though, that's what makes it so funny.



Donnie puts on a demonstration of his rope dart capabilities, only with a paint brush connected to a rope. He just throws it at this big guy, but looks really cool. Something to note is that you can't see much of this in the cropped, dubbed version. He's amazing with this thing, just like in Shanghai Affairs with the axe on the chain, though he does it here for a whole minute, with an airtrack mixed in at one point too.



Yuen Cheung Yan takes Donnie into his house because he wants Donnie to work off what he did (Donnie stepped on his foot, burnt his beard, and ran off), and teaches him Tai Chi. Meanwhile he fights some goons in the street, fights with The Killer, who is dressed in his normal 8 layer clothing meant for arctic temperatures, which is a cool fight and shows that this guy is WAY too strong for Donnie, plus Donnie does some good stuntwork like an HK spin on a hill, and then does some popping later on (I guess that's what you do before breakdancing).



The training is interesting, with Yuen Cheung Yan showing Donnie the ropes. Donnie thinks he's smart and does some generic Tai Chi in the beginning, but is obviously wrong, so Cheung Yan does a bunch of stuff with him to show the philosophy of Tai Chi. Donnie starts by hitting a bamboo stick but beats up his arms in the process, so Cheung Yan says, "If you're so tough, try to split this piece of cotton." Of course Donnie can't, and realizes the softness of Tai Chi. Then there's the Taoist Top, or something like that, which spins, and Donnie tries to kick it but can't even get close because it's spinning too fast. And the two of them spar, where Donnie gets beaten badly by Cheung Yan, and finally they use the Zen ball, which is the practice of push hands, to try and get the ball to stop on one of them.



Donnie goes and fights the man who sent The Killer, and does impressive Tai Chi. You can actually see what Donnie has learned, like how he grabs his hand, spins him and trips him at the same time, which Cheung Yan did to him, does push hands, and then gets a rope dart (chain dart I guess you'd call this one) and does more of his stuff, loses it, and does more tai chi. A very well done 2 minute long fight, with good camerawork and slomo usage.



The last fight is the most amazing part of the whole movie, and perhaps worth all the junk in the beginning. Yuen Shun I, The Killer that is, goes to Cheung Yan's house and finds Donnie there, and tries to kill him. Since he's so strong, Donnie has to use Tai Chi to counter his movements. Shun I doesn't use any specific martial arts style it seems, so I think that the Yuen brothers were trying to just show that a soft style can counter the most aggressive hard style. The two of them go from the yard into the house, where Donnie throws an ash container at Shun I, who hits it, and they're both blinded by the ash in the air, so Donnie has to go off pure touch by feeling the air around his hands. Great choreography in my opinion. Not TOO much of anything, plus lots of stuntwork, most of which is in slomo thanks to Mr. Wo Ping, so it's not exhausting like the end fights in Lo Wei movies, but I clocked it at 4:35 in length which is impressive in my eyes. Excellent.



So, I learned a few things. 1. The Yuen clan can always be trusted. Yat Chor, Shun I, Cheung Yan, Wo Ping, and the others are all excellent in making martial arts movies and I've never been let down by them. 2. Donnie, in his prime, was excellent, and still is, but here he seems to have a little more kick than he does now because he did his own stunts back then and he was more springy. 3. Drunken Tai Chi is a masterpiece. You have to sit through all the junk, and then it becomes a great, fun movie. If you want, fast forward, but I think it's worth it if you just sit through, then it builds up pretty well, and if you don't mind the humor, it's somewhat entertaining. Possibly Donnie's best pure martial arts performance as far as I've seen. Donnie's overall performance was spectacular anyways, despite the other silliness in the beginning. He's charismatic, athletic, and good looking on-screen. I can see why people call this the best movie he's been in ever, and though I don't agree, I think it's up there equalling his best.

5/5 - That's how good the second half of this movie is.

Return to the reviews page