Jackie Chan's "Drunken Master" (1978): The Birth of a New Asian Action Star

The Rise of the Drunken Master

Jackie Chan almost quit making films and left movie making. Indeed, he was a failure, for he could not duplicate Bruce Lee's success. Directed by Yuen Woo-ping, this comedy kung fu classic "Drunken Master" (Jui kune) established Jackie Chan as a mega star in Asia. Yuen Woo-ping became famous in the West for his work on "Matrix" and "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. "

Jackie Chan knew that this film had to be drunken-master_l.jpgoriginal to be successful. He knew that Hong Kong audiences needed something different than what Bruce Lee provided. Yuen Woo-ping and Jackie reinvented the legendary real life kung fu hero Wong Fei-Hung.

Most Wong Fei-Hung films show the hero as wise and unbeatable. Here Jackie plays a young and unwise Wong Fei-hong, based on a real figure in history, who can be tricked and beaten.

This film could have been a disaster since Wong Fei-Hung, being the archetypal martial arts master, is shown to have such weaknesses. However, that seemed to be what the Hong Kong audience wanted! Something different.

Thus, following on the success of "Snake in Eagle's Shadow" (Se ying diu sau 1978), another film directed by Yuen Woo-ping, he continued to combine humor and to parody the very genre of kung fu films to make this film a hit. In some ways, "Drunken Master" is just a remake of "Snake," but Chan has found his own unique style

Thus, humor becomes Jackie's trademark and is one of the main reasons for the success of the film. With this film and his follow up films, he became bigger than Bruce Lee, at least in Asia.

"Drunken Master II "(1994): Vengeance of the Directors

What Jackie Chan learned is that success depended on "critical creativity." Bredan Mccormack and Angie Titchen explain that this form of creativity stands as a mixture of "creative thinking, ‘thinking about thinking’ (metacognition) and critique blended with creative imagination and expression" (241).

Some 16 years later after the original "Drunken Master II" (Jui kuen II 1978), Jackie Chan returns as a young Wong Fei-Hung. Directed by Lau Kar Leung (Chia Liang Lui), a Shaw Brother star, the film was a huge success to the surprise of many. Some critics now call it a classic with the two talents together, which in itself in Hong Kong became cinematic history.

Jackie Chan was a success because he knew what his audience liked. Since he was the big superstar, he was always willing to fire a director that did not respect his vision. On the other hand, Lau Kar Leung was himself a master director and master martial artist who felt that he knew what was right for the film.

The two fought artistically, but Jackie won and fired Lau Kar even though most of the film was complete. Thus, Jackie finished the film directing himself, however, not giving himself credit. Note, that the last fight scenes (Jackie's) differ from the opening ones (Leung's). Which do you prefer?

However, the film becomes a fitting tribute to Lau Kar Leung because many had forgotten who he was. More importantly, the film was huge success helping to revive the kung fu genre along with Jet Li's "Once Upon a Time in China" series, also about Wong Fei-Hung.

Perhaps angry about being fired from the film, Lau Kar Leung directed "Drunken Master III" (Jui kuen III 1994) to prove Jackie was wrong. Instead, he ended up proving that Jackie Chan was right because this would be the last film he directed until 2002, for "Drunken Master III" was not successful.

Jackie Chan remembered how such directors like Lo Wei and Robert Clouse had misunderstood what Jackie Chan stood for; he was not going to let another director mess up his career. Jackie learned that creativity over authenticity is key as he learned to follow his heart.

Work Cited

Mccormack, Brendan and Angie Titchen. "Critical Creativity: Melding, Exploding, Blending." Educational Action Research, 14(2), 2006 (239-266).