A waiter tries to remove an old drunk customer from his restaurant, and the boozy geezer beats the snot out of him. He then begs the old man to teach him Drunken Kung Fu. When a villain spots the waiter using the Drunken style, he correctly assumes the Kung Fu master (his mortal enemy) is still alive and plans to set a trap for his young pupil.
Directed by Wu Ma (who also co-directed The Water Margin and All Men are Brothers), Kung-Fu of Eight Drunkards is an agreeable if inessential Kung Fu comedy. If you have a predilection for Drunken Master-style chopsocky, you might grade this one on a higher curve as there are plenty of booze-related training sequences and inebriated fight scenes on display. While the action is fine for the most part, it’s just lacking a real all-out show-stopping Kung Fu set piece to put it over the top. (The finale is pretty good, but it’s marred by too much slow motion.) Despite a generally uneven tone, it’s still a hair or two better than most Drunken Master rip-offs (there’s a decent plot twist in the last ten minutes).
The problem is that the comedy schtick weighs the whole thing down as a lot of the drunken shenanigans aren’t very funny. The comic relief sidekick is even worse as his main humorous trait is having a shitty combover. The movie gets more mileage from unintentionally funny moments like the crappy dubbing and the odd soundtrack choices. I’m specifically thinking of the random needle drop on a banjo instrumental of “I Wish I Was in Dixie” in some scenes.
My real issue with Kung-Fu of Eight Drunkards though was, was there even eight of them? I mean I can’t even remember there being eight characters let alone all of them knowing Kung Fu and/or being fall down drunks. Were they counting the villains too? If so, I don’t think I ever saw them take a sip of hooch the entire running time. Argh.
AKA: Kung Fu of 8 Drunkards.
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