Protraph
Lack of good storyline.
MoPoshy
Absolutely brilliant
Invaderbank
The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.
Leofwine_draca
This completely outrageous martial arts comedy is unlike anything ever before filmed, a non-stop and pacy outing combining tons of comedy, men in drag, loads of special effects, and more crazy nonsense than you can shake a stick at. It's certainly a memorable viewing experience and one of those films you can enjoy over and over again. The movie picks up the reins of the '80s Hong Kong craze for wizardry, monsters, and bodily deformity, wrapping it up in an age-old tale of two innocents fighting against the forces of darkness.The result is an almost constant stream of martial arts action - superbly choreographed by one of the masters, Yuen Woo Ping, whose choreography is up there with John Woo and Enzo G. Castellari (the final fight with the steel rings of death is excellent stuff) - and lots of comedy, ranging from cultural jokes to silly humour to slapstick, often varying in between, and outrageous over-the-top acting and dubbing. Where else do characters gloatingly shout "I'm evil!"? The acting is tongue-in-cheek, therefore fitting the style and atmosphere of the film well, with kudos especially going to the guy playing Rat-Face, complete with buck teeth and a goofy face. The good guys are clumsy yet funny, the women are beautiful and the bad guys dastardly. Where this film scores and becomes a classic is in the fantastic elements of the plot.Monsters, magic, and bizarre antics combine in an unholy union to provide some completely outrageous material. Amongst other things, the film offers people wall-climbing, disappearing into each other, hiding in tiny boxes, shrinking, and fighting each other using the burning palm technique. Then there's a memorable toad monster, a blood-thirsty vampire, a fire-breathing puppet, and some grossness involving a face scraping and a walk-on-nails that goes gruesomely wrong. These factors combine to make this a breathless, hilarious, and utterly engaging action comedy, with everything gelling together superbly.
tstanitis
Shaolin Drunkard is a great 80's Kung Fu movie. From the sound effects to the special effects, this one entertains the entire time. I only have one complaint; I can't find the original Chinese version. The voice-over isn't terrible (probably makes it funnier), but it would be interesting to see with sub titles. Probably not a Spoiler, but some of my favorite scenes include: The opening scene where the drunkard walks up a wall and sticks a straw into it and makes wine flow out. The toy monkey on a string that pees poison into the guards pipe resulting in a cool looking red smoke. The magic battle with the street performer. One guy uses "the devils mirror" and a needle to extract poison out of a bystander's back tumor.The Poison Toad The fire-breathing Kung Fu puppet The pyramid wine drinking contestThe whole movie is just craziness. It will blow your mind. If you can find this film, buy it and enjoy over and over again.
winner55
there's two things one has to get past to like this film - first, there's no 'drunken boxing' style here; second, the first half-hour of the film is so loopy, you may want to know what planet you just stepped onto.this film is actually part of a tradition that has no comparison outside china - part magic show, part low-brow comedy, part juggling and acrobatics, part martial arts, part folk-lore - basically a kind of circus-entertainment that was lost to the west long ago.part of what makes this hard to follow is that the traditions of magic in china, besides being simply different than those in the west, are also far more complex, since china has been civilized longer, and to a greater extent, than the west has yet achieved. all magic derives from formula; but china's traditional formulas are a little difficult to grasp - there are four magicians in this film, but it is unclear to this westerner why they can each perform certain magic and not others, and why they need to perform straight-out martial arts on occasion, despite their magic.in any event, after a while, the characters grew on me and i came to like the show - and as the film progresses, there's more and more action, more rapidly paced; so after a while, the cultural differences ceased to matter.one historic note; beginning with snake in eagle's shadow, yuen woo ping made a number of classic, realistically staged kung-fu comedies and tragedies, culminating in the thinly veiled family memoir, 'secret master' - less than a year after that film was made, this one appeared, and began a set of films spinning 180 degrees in another direction entirely, before yuen regrouped with the classic 'hero among heroes', or 'legend of the red dragon' as it has been retitled for recent u.s. re-release. most of the films of this mid-period are, to put it mildly, a bit off-the-wall, at least according to western standards, and it's not sure why yuen went down this route. most of them - including this one - are not to everyone's taste, even among martial-arts fans; but they're all worth seeing, at least once. they certainly show a different and remarkable - if sometimes bewildering - side to a many-faceted talent of martial arts film-making.
Dan
I have just seen Drunken Shaolin, and I must admit that it's a very entertaining film.The story is about the drunken guy and a young man (chuen yan yuen). The young man joins a contest whose winner will marry a beautiful girl, however , he finds out that the girl has an ugly spot on the right side of her face. Therefore, he escapes, and the girl doesn't give up so easily, she chases after him in order to get married with him. The girl's father meets an evil man and then all the fun begins.The jokes are great, the cheese factor is maxed, the fights are well fought and there are also some funky monsters. Oh, I have almost forgotten, the old drunken man is silly and funny as hell, so far he is the funniest drunken man on this drunken trilogy staring Chuen Yan Yuen. I would like to recommend it every fan of cheesy kung fu movies who isn't afraid of watching movies that the average person won't usually watch. Highly Recommended!
