Drunken Master II

Drunken Master II (Chinese 醉拳二, Cantonese Jui Kuen II) is a 1994 Hong Kong action comedy directed by Lau Kar-leung. Jackie Chan plays Wong Fei-hung, a historical Chinese martial arts master and Cantonese folk hero, in a story set in the early 20th century. The film is a sequel to Drunken Master (1978) by director Yuen Woo-ping. On the journey Wong mistakenly swaps boxes with Fu Wen-chi and ends up with an imperial seal that the British consul wants to smuggle out of China. After his return to Canton he is pursued by British mercenaries, and when he gets drunk and openly brawls, he enrages his father. Drunken boxing zuiquan appears in the film in several forms: first as the basic style in the fight on the main square, at the climax as the style of the Eight Drunken Immortals. In the final duel Wong faces John, the consul's chief fighter, played by Ken Lo, a taekwondo black belt and winner of many tournaments; the duel pits the drunken style against typical taekwondo kicks. The action choreography by Lau Kar-leung and the Jackie Chan Stunt Team won an award at the 31st Golden Horse Awards (1994) and at the 14th Hong Kong Film Awards (1995). Time magazine placed the film among the 100 best films of all time in 2005, and the BFI ranked it among the ten best action films in 2015. The American version The Legend of Drunken Master (2000) replaced the mentions of the Eight Drunken Immortals with generic animal styles of kung-fu.

Martial arts in this work

Origin

Filming began in March 1993 with Lau Kar-leung as director; Lau also plays the character Fu Wen-chi in the film. According to the English Wikipedia article on Lau, he clashed with Jackie Chan over the approach to the fights, and Lau left the production before the final fight was shot, which Chan finished himself. The blog Perisphere, by contrast, states that Chan fired Lau, roughly two thirds of the way through filming. The sources thus disagree on who ended the collaboration and at what stage of filming it happened. Only Lau Kar-leung is credited as the film's director.

Fight choreography

From the age of nine Lau Kar-leung trained Hung Gar with his father Lau Cham, whose lineage leads to Wong Fei-hung. According to the English Wikipedia he was regarded as a purist who strove for an authentic depiction of martial arts, limited wires and trampolines and stressed techniques with and without weapons; he himself declared that the only aim of his films is to highlight martial arts. The author of the Perisphere blog notes that in the part shot under Lau's direction the fights are filmed in long chains of techniques from wide shots, whereas after Chan took over, the number of cuts, camera setups and angles rose markedly. According to Perisphere, Chan described the final sequence in the steel mill with flamethrowers, steel rods and industrial alcohol as four months of shooting.

People and martial arts

• Lau Kar-leungDirector· Hung Gar (real practitioner)
• Jackie Chan Stunt TeamAction director
• Lau Kar-leungFight choreographer
• Jackie ChanActor — as Wong Fei-hung· Zui Quan (Drunken Boxing) (portrays the art on screen)
• Ken LoActor — as John· Taekwondo (real practitioner)

Awards

• Won · Golden Horse Awards (31.), Best Action Choreography (1994)
• Won · Hong Kong Film Awards (14.), Best Action Choreography (1995)

Series