Wednesday, January 25, 2023

Delayed Reaction: Drunken Master

Premise: A troublesome young man gets sent away to learn Kung-Fu from a famous master.

 


I think I've proven that I'm an easy sell when it comes to these Jackie Chan Chinese movies. I've been watching and loving many of them for a couple years now. Give me some intricate staging and some stupid slapstick, and I'm happy. Drunken Master didn't do it for me. It leans much more on the comedy than the martial arts and isn't as clever in how it combines the two elements. It seems like Chan doesn't really hit his top form until the 1980s when he more regularly directs and/or controls his productions. This movie reminds me much more of his Hollywood roles that see him more as a tool than an asset.

 

My biggest issue with this though wasn't really the movie's fault. I don't think, at least. I watched this dubbed, which I'm normally fine with. That's not something I'm precious about. But Chan didn't dub himself, which is a first of the movies I've seen. And the translations just didn't work. A lot of moments came off harsher than they should've, like Chan calling a woman a bitch. Repeatedly the dialogue didn't quite match the tone of the scene. Given how much I've enjoyed some of the other dubs of his I've seen, I'll assume this was an issue of the dub and not the original dialogue. That's always the risk of Amazon Prime's massive film catalog.

 

Verdict: Weakly Don't Recommend

No comments:

Post a Comment