Drunken Master (1978)

Directed by Yuen Woo-Ping. Starring Jackie Chan, Yuen Siu-Tin, Hwang Jang Lee, Dean Shek, Fung King-Man, Lam Kau, Linda Lin, Hsu Hsia.

One of the earliest comedic kung-fu movies, this chop-socky tomfoolery (along with Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow from the same year) firmly put Chan on the martial arts map. He plays a swaggering troublemaker who is sent off to train with the harsh master Beggar So (Yuen Siu-Tin) and learns a secret style of Zui Quan (drunken boxing). Little more than a series of fight scenes using the thinnest of plot strands to connect them, enriched by creative choreography and a broad sense of humor (though most of the funniest parts are still probably unintentional). Might have profited from one or two less fights and a little more coherency, but restraint and logic are not what audiences expect out of these sorts of pictures. Followed by the even better quasi-sequel, Drunken Master II (Chan plays the same character, but little else is related).

70/100