Drunken Master is one of the movies that helped set-up Jackie Chan’s career as a martial artist, along with Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow and The Young Master. It has almost all the elements that became synonymous with Chan’s later movies: Great fighting mixed with comedy and his high energy charisma. The only thing that’s missing is the crazy stunts, but the movie has enough kung-fu to make up for it. In fact, this is one of the main differences when you compare this film with other of Chan’s works: Here, everybody fights. And they don’t just throw some punches around; this is a martial arts movie, after all.

In a Jackie Chan movie, what usually happens in fight scenes is: Jackie starts unarmed against a pack of grunts, and slowly takes them out, maybe breaking some bones in the process. It’s not like the grunts don’t know how to fight, but all they do are simple moves. A punch here, a kick there; maybe do some jumps. The only one doing the complex stuff is Chan. And when there is a one-on-one fight, Jackie usually has a disadvantage: This makes for scenes where no matter the number of enemies or their strength, Chan has to climb from the bottom-up to win, leading to amazing stunts and moves in order to achieve the feat.

In this film, all the fights (with only one exception, I think) are one-on-one. They have a much more explicit rhythm and the actors do their moves in sync, connecting one strike to the next. It’s more akin to watching a (very cool) ballet session, in a way that got me thinking about that Evangelion episode. Both fighters are working together to make the action flow, which is a different experience when compared to “traditional” Jackie Chan fighting scenes.

Since everybody is doing complex moves (instead of just Jackie doing them), the pace is more steady (but not calm), as opposed to the more erratic flow commonly seen in modern action movies: Punch, wait. Kick, wait. Pull, wait. Of course, this has its reason to be: the moves are hard to do, plus you don’t want to hurt anyone involved. But it ends up pulling the fighting closer to the aforementioned ballet session, and away from the more desirable crazy stunt scene.

A pair of mechas fighting side by side, against a pair of aliens.

Since we’re talking about dancing so much, how can we not speak of the music in this film? The main theme is awesome. It feels very powerful, starting with a low, long sequence that then spikes into a very (and I mean very) loud section that goes speeding up until it ends. It’s based on a Chinese folk song, the same one that inspired the main theme of Once Upon A Time In China 13 years later, which features the same main character, Wong Fei Hung. The structure really fits with the whole “drunken fists” fighting style: The slow, deep start tricks the enemy into thinking you can’t react fast enough because of the alcohol, but then– BAM! You hit them in the face.

The rest of the music is fine, with an honorable mention to the track that plays in the comedy scene where Jackie is punished, which sounds fun and lighthearted. And speaking of comedy, this movie has plenty of it, and it’s very good. The movie’s tagline on TMDB is “The Original Kung Fu Comedy!”, and it certainly feels like it. You can’t stop smiling when Chan plays with his instructor’s hat, or when he stops fighting just to eat. When he cheats in his training with Beggar So, or even when his own dad punishes him for his recklessness, you can’t help but to feel like a child laughing at such simple jokes; and when they’re perfectly paired with the action, it’s some of the best fun you can have while watching a movie. So much so that I think the comedy here is better than in Jackie Chan’s later works. But there are some moments where that bar goes low. The scene where Chan farts in someone’s face hits hard: You “wake up” from all the fun you were having and ask yourself, “who thought this was funny?”. Luckily, it only happens once or twice.

Overall, this is a quirky and fun movie. If you don’t mind subpar acting or goofiness, and want to have some good laughs, I would recommend this movie. If you like other Chan’s works (or just fighting movies in general), this is a must-watch, and a masterclass in action-comedy.