World of the Drunken Master
(aka The World of Drunken Master, Drunken Dragon)
1979; directed by Joseph Kuo

Upon its' release in 1978, Drunken Master became a big hit, going a long way into establishing Jackie Chan as his own star outside of the shadow of Bruce Lee. So perhaps it was inevitable that wily Hong Kong producers, always known for taking no shame in attempting to make a quick buck by piggybacking on successful pictures, began cranking out Drunken Master clones by the bucketload. Not surprisingly, most of these films turned out to not be very good. But 1979's World of the Drunken Master, while still more than a bit derivative and unoriginal, still offers up enough action to keep old-school fans entertained for ninety minutes.

World of the Drunken Master can be viewed as both a sequel and prequel (at least in an unofficial capacity) to Yuen Woo-Ping's original effort, with the film portraying events occurring both before and after Drunken Master. The movie centers on Beggar So (played by Simon Yuen in Drunken Master, who makes a cameo as the character in a pre-credits sequence) and his relationship with fellow drunken boxing master Fan Ta Pei. As young men with a passion for the drink and wanting to make the best wine, they both seek the special grapes grown by Chang Chi. Chi catches the pair stealing his product, and puts them to work in his field. After So and Fan try and fight off some thugs threatening the local merchants, Chi sees that they have some potential and begins teaching them drunken boxing, which they eventually put to use as the same thugs try to take over Chi's plantation.

There's a bit more to the movie than that, such as an awkward subplot where So and Fan try and romance Chi's niece, who fulfills the cute as a button yet extremely annoying damsel in distress role which seems to be all too commonplace in these sorts of films. But, for the most part, World of the Drunken Master's plot is as thin as the paper it was written on. The exposition scenes are shallow to say the least. By the end of the movie, you're not going to learn anything new about the character of Beggar So. However, taken for what they are -- bridges between fight scenes -- the exposition works well enough, at least to the point that you're not going to be itching to hit the fast-forward button anytime someone isn't receiving a blow to the head.

And when the action does kick in, it's pretty good stuff. It's not up to the level of Drunken Master or the other pillars of the old-school kung fu genre, but action director Yuen Cheung-Yan put in some solid work here. Excepting some poor-looking camera tricks like stop-motion and reverse photography that lamely try to exaggerate the fighters' moves, the fights come at the viewer quick and dirty. There's not too much in the way of polish or panache present here, yet the fight scenes still supply enough excitement to raise, at least somewhat, World of the Drunken Master above the shallow level of your average chop socky movie.

RATING: 6