You are currently displaying Big5
八代醉拳 (1981)
Revenge of Drunken Master


Reviewed by: Gaijin84
Date: 06/06/2017
Summary: Eagle Han barely saves this film from the trash bin...

The Blood Ninjas are looking to eliminate their rival, the Drunken Fist group. The leader of the Drunken Fists masquerades as an acupuncture specialist along with his assistant, the Drunken Kid (Johnny Chan). The Drunken Kid is also known to administer acupuncture treatments that leave the patient in fits of uncontrollable laughter for their rest of their lives. After he does this to a corrupt lord, Silver Cop (Eagle Han) is hired to track the Drunken Kid down and bring him to justice. In the meantime, the Blood Ninjas have learned that the Drunken Kid is also the last remaining member of the Drunken Fist group, so Sakara (Bruce Cheung), the leader of the ninjas ,kidnaps his sister to pure the Drunken Kid out into a final confrontation.

Revenge of the Drunken Master is clearly an attempt to cast Johnny Chan in a similar role as Jackie Chan and his pioneering film, Drunken Master. The results are not favorable to say the least. Johnny Chan has decent skills, but he has nowhere near the charisma or the ability of Jackie Chan. Although I have no doubt the Godfrey Ho version I saw was cut by about 10 minutes, there are so many plot holes and unexplainable scenes that I don’t think those cuts would save the movie. Some of the best parts of the original Drunken Master film were the training sequences, and they became a staple in future films. Revenge of the Drunken Master literally had one 10 second training sequence which consisted of a zoom out shot of Chan practicing perilously close to a cliff with a master he had met just the scene before and promptly disappears from the movie. The only saving grace in the film is the presence of Eagle Han, who displays kicking abilities on the level of Hwang Jang Lee as well as excellent hand skills, which put him near the top of the Korean martial arts films stars. Throw on top of that Han’s permed 80s Korean mullet that is out of place given the setting of the film and he is the only reason to sit through 80 minutes of dreck.

4/10

Reviewer Score: 4