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Warning: Convoluted plot may cause dizziness
Gordon Liu stars in The Drunken Monk (the more common title), which is a misleading title. He's not a monk and rarely practices the drunken fist. If that's confusing, it's okay, because much about this movie is confusing. Perhaps it should have been called Drunken Writer for the dizzying way the story is told.The story is not told in chronological order so here is the gist of it. Lau Chung was saved from drowning when a gang that had killed his parents threw him into a lake. During his beggar times he discovers a drunk hermit who practices drunken fist kung fu. The hermit teaches Lau the Five Shaolin Animal Styles and Drunken Fist. No one trains like Gordon Liu and Lau uses everything he does to enhance his kung fu. When he's trained and ready for revenge, he kidnaps Ying Ying, the Big Bad's daughter, to draw out his enemy. Things do not go according to plan with Ying Ying or her father. As these things happen, Ying Ying and Lau fall in love with each other and leave her torn between her lover and her duty to her father. A one-handed fighter is also wanting vengeance on Eagle Han's Big Bad Wong Kin Chung in retribution for the loss of his right hand but as much as they might focus on this guy, this is Lau's revenge story.
The story goes back and forth, motivations change, terrible editing makes it hard to follow at times, basically, the story may make you feel like you've been on a bender if you try to make too much sense out of it. The ending may have you going, "what?!" At least it did for me. Usually I'm a fan of Gordon Liu's fighting and he's as fast as ever with this one demonstrating a number of kung fu styles. One scene done in slow-mo was fascinating not in the way they might have intended, as Gordon goes to kick the extra, the extra can be seen jumping backwards before the kick is supposed to land. While his drunken master was more convincing doing drunken kung fu, maybe because he was supposed to always be drunk, Gordon's drunken style wasn't as…drunken. There were moments in his fight with Eagle Han where it almost seemed as if they were kung fu dance posing. I kept waiting for them to cue some disco music. Gordon had some good fights and there's no denying he's fast, these fights just didn't seem to measure up to his usual standard.
The film was shot in Korea with a number of Korean actors and extras. It was interesting seeing the different faces rather than the usual Hong Kong and Taiwanese crews. And the scenery in South Korea was also beautiful. It's a film worth seeking out if you are a Gordon Liu fan, enjoy his training montages, or simply like old martial arts movies, but be forewarned it should come with a label that watching it could make you feel tipsy.
3/4/23
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