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The Legend of Drunken Master [Blu-ray]

	Our Price: $15.49 List Price: $39.99 Your Save: $ 24.50 ( 61% ) Sales Rank: #10510 (lower is better) Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Manufacturer: Miramax Films Starring: Jackie Chan, Ho-Sung Pak, Lung Ti, Anita Mui, Felix Wong Directed By: Jackie Chan;Chia-Liang Liu Avg. Customer Rating:
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 Audience Rating: R (Restricted) Brand: Buena Vista Home Video EAN: 0786936790023 Format: Color Manufacturer: Miramax Films Release Date: 2009-09-15
The Legend of Drunken Master [Blu-ray] Features LEGEND OF DRUNKEN MASTER, THE: BLU-RAY (BLU-RAY DISC)
The Legend of Drunken Master [Blu-ray] Description Studio: Buena Vista Home Video Release Date: 09/15/2009 Run time: 102 minutes Rating: R
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The Legend of Drunken Master [Blu-ray] customer reviews: Jackie Chan and the brilliantly exhaustive action sequences make THE LEGEND OF DRUNKEN MASTER a classic For those unfamiliar with Jackie Chan outside of his work in American films such as the RUSH HOUR franchise or SHANGHAI NOON and its subsequent sequel, THE LEGEND OF DRUNKEN MASTER will prove to be the perfect gateway into the brilliance of Chan's Hong Kong based films, and will absolutely astound audiences with the fight choreography. In THE LEGEND OF DRUNKEN MASTER Chan plays Wong Fei Hung, a simple man who when traveling with his father, tries to avoid paying taxes by hiding the ginseng root they had purchased on their expedition in the luggage of an embassy worker. When a mysterious stranger tries to steal the package out of the luggage hold of the train, Chan battles him, only to later find out that his ginseng package was inadvertently switched with an identically wrapped box containing a stolen precious Chinese artifact of a jade seal. Chan soon finds himself in the middle of a plot to loot historical Chinese artifacts to display in British museums, and it is up to him to fight to preserve his cultural heritage. The fight sequences in THE LEGEND OF DRUNKEN MASTER are second to none, and choreographed by Chan and his stunt team, they beautifully depict a stylized kung fu at a frenetic pace that is simply spectacular. What is amazing is that the fight sequences are not just relegated to a few places within the movie, but rather comprise almost the film in its entirety, with scenes of dialogue interspersed in between. The fact is though, the fights never become tiresome or repetitive, but rather create an almost balletic means to convey the essence of the story, and allow each individual's nuances of character to be displayed by their distinctive fighting style. Chan's character practices Drunken Boxing, a style based on a staggering center of balance and a loose and flexible body, and Chan's choreography for this style further develops his character's own internal battles and the relationships he has with his own father, thus allowing the fight choreography to become paralleled with that of the screenplay in its ability to define character and drive the story forward. What is astounding with the action sequences in THE LEGEND OF DRUNKEN MASTER is their sheer length, with fights lasting for many minutes within the larger context of an action segment, allowing one to build upon the other. American audiences are normally geared to seeing intense action sequences like these presented with a breakneck succession of editing cuts, all spliced together to heighten the sense of peril and to engage the audience until the final payoff. The editing though in THE LEGEND OF DRUNKEN MASTER does not follow this pattern, but rather is set up for long takes to allow the movement and the action taking place within each frame to build the film's action tempo and to expedite the pacing. This then means that all of the stunt people involved have a staggering number of choreographed moves to remember along with specific marks to hit while maintaining an unparalleled level of technical proficiency within the sequence. This is best evidenced in the scene where Chan is confronted by an endless stream of bad guys from an axe-wielding gang as he is trapped on the second floor of a building. With adversaries coming at him from the staircase leading below and pouring in from ladders leading to the windows along every wall, Chan's choreography in this fight scene marks a monumental achievement in action films, and further shows how brilliant Chan is at incorporating every day items such as tables or benches into his choreography. Many viewers though may be waiting for the "big stunt" that normally is the cornerstone of a Jackie Chan picture, such as when he slid down the side of a twenty-one story building in WHO AM I?, but in THE LEGEND OF DRUNKEN MASTER Chan actually focuses more on the subtlety of character, working hard to instill within Wong Fei Hung a uniquely signature style when he is performing his Drunken Boxing. Even moving at lightning speed in the fight scenes, Chan still maintains his facial expressions that are congruent with his character, and thus the Drunken Boxing does become the central highlight in regard to the stunts of the film and are simply a delight to watch. To satisfy those wishing to see outrageous stunts though, there is a fire sequence during the epic final battle that modern audiences may most likely dismiss as CGI, but if one watches the outtakes during the closing credits, it will be seen that Chan is of course crawling across actual fire. While THE LEGEND OF DRUNKEN MASTER does deal effectively with some poignant themes at its heart, such as the effects of imperialism and the overwhelming desire and necessity to hold on to one's cultural identity, Chan always works hard to imbue his characters with an underlying humor, and here there is no exception. Chan's Wong Fei Hung has some very funny moments, especially as he begins learning the balance necessary between consuming large quantities of alcohol and still being able to perform his drunken style effectively. Chan also plays beautifully off of the hilarious Anita Mui who portrays his step-mother, Mrs. Wong. The relationship between the two helps provide some great moments of comedic relief and serves to punctuate the action sequences throughout the film. With trademark Chan humor and with its absolutely stunning fight sequences, THE LEGEND OF DRUNKEN MASTER shows Jackie Chan at his best and will appeal to even those who are generally not interested in standard martial arts movie fare. For the Blu-ray release of the film, there is unfortunately not much at all in the way of bonus features. The only extra included is a six minute documentary entitled "Behind the Master: An Interview with Jackie Chan." The interview in itself is decent, but it just recycles the behind the scenes footage that was already shown during the film's closing credits. With such amazing action sequences, it would have been great to see some more featurettes specifically focused on what goes into the choreography and filming of them. Instead, Chan simply states that in one action sequence that lasts for only six minutes on screen, the filming took close to four months. Despite its lack of bonus features though, THE LEGEND OF DRUNKEN MASTER is still an iconic movie that should be included in everyone's Blu-ray collection. Where is the original language? This is completely ridiculous... I have been waiting TEN YEARS for a domestic release with the original cantonese and when they rerelease this CLASSIC they release the same horrid DUB. Why even bother to release this? CGI is for cowards, in China they fight in actual pits of burning coals Jackie Chan made a lot of really fun kung fu films. However, Mr. Chan also made a lot of mediocre films in the process. The Legend of Drunken Master has a few standout moments of kung fu action, but overall it's not amongst his best. However, for Jackie Chan created comedy alone, it's easily one of his funniest. The final decision of purchasing The Legend of Drunken Master isn't going to come down to the quality of the picture or sound, because they received no bump at all in the transfer. No, instead you'll have to decide whether or not you value the comedy of the Chan man enough to make up for his lesser action scenes. One of the basic conventions of kung fu (and especially film kung fu) is the numerous different forms. Crane. Tiger. Praying Mantis. The titles are endless and their styles distinctly unique. So what happens when you take a ridiculous notion like the wild aimless swings of a drunken brawler and dare to call them "technique"? Hilarity ensues. Sometimes. Wong Fei-hung (Chan) shoulders a large responsibility despite being an irresponsible hooligan who frequently indulges in prideful fights and any opportunity to make a buck. Wong's father (Lung Ti) does his best to keep the academy of drunken boxing afloat, but the competition is fierce and their funding very poor. Eventually Wong's actions bring so much trouble for his father that their establishment shuts down - but just in time for Wong to go off on a mission to prevent an international hoarder of Chinese history from shipping out highly valuable ancient artifacts to museums around the world. It's an incredibly loose plot, moreso than normal, and obviously has little purpose other than showcasing Chan's incredible talent and sense of humor. Watching him sway unevenly and lean awkwardly against other things for support during a fight provides enough laughs, but Chan's performance gets an extra little nudge from the many different things he drinks to maintain his buzz. The strength of liquor gradually increases until Wong is drinking gasoline and offering hiccups between each bout. Okay, it may not be much in terms of a great kung fu film, but one scene reminds us of what makes Chinese cinema so awesome. At one point, Wong falls into a pit of burning coals and then quickly gets up and fights his way out. Now, in a Hollywood film he would have fallen onto a green mat and coals and flames would have been added later. Not in China. In China Jackie Chan falls into a pit of flaming coals. It's that simple. It's that awesome. Hollywood has lost its way. Blu-ray is supposed to mean a new level of resolution and audio clarity. Typically, that definition stands, but The Legend of Drunken Master was given a simple port-job and taken directly from its DVD copy with little upscaling treatment to speak of. The picture flickers and even warps at some moments. This isn't the next generation of movie watching, this is an instance where if you've bought the DVD you needn't bother with a Blu-ray copy until they've gone back to the negatives. If you don't own the movie yet and want to complete your Jackie Chan collection, buy it on DVD for $5 from a bargain bin. It's almost criminal to release a film like this in the condition that it's in. The Blu-ray technology boasts a reputation that Disney knows for a fact isn't fulfilled on this disc. They want you to buy and placate your hi-def cravings with a placebo effect. If the movie's case is blue then it must just be you. Blu-ray Extra Features: There's a single extra feature and it's an interview with Jackie Chan. Interviews with Jackie Chan are always fun to watch. The man has a great sense of humor and loves talking about his experiences in film. So try it out. Drunken Master This movie is one of Jackie Chan's finest. The action was great, and so was the story. Why o Why do we suffer so I love Jackie Chan and own most of his original HK movies. I have so much wanted them to migrate to blu-ray in their original form and from HK Flix we are starting to now get that. But why o why is it always a compromise with us fans? If we buy US versions we get bad dubbing and unoriginal soundtracks and horrible criminal MiramAXE edit cuts to Jackie's films. If we buy HK versions we get no choice of English dubbing and varied quality of transfer from good to down right horrible on some disks. The Weinstien Bros (Dragon Dynasty) had it right with their remastered DVDs of PS1 and 2, but what about the rest of the catalogue? Is there no sense in the film industry that these films need to be preserved in the best possible way as originally presented? Unedited, remastered, and transferred in the highest quality to take full advantage of what our blessed blu-ray has to offer? Is there not demand enough from us fans for that? We all agree these are FANTASTIC FILMS we want to watch again and again and again. Why are we fans complaining here and on many other film review comment pages the video quality of this film is no better than the DVD version? Why is there no choice for English dubbing on the uncut HK version? Are video editors uncaring, plain stupid, or just out for a quick buck? Hell even Jackie complains! For goodness sake we finally have the technology and capability to truly show these films at home as they were seen in the theatre and instead we get half of what we want, and 1/2 of what is capable. SIGH SIGH SIGH!!! I remember when George Lucas remastered Star Wars and talked of the state of the quality of the film they found to work with. How it was falling apart and fading despite its relatively young age. He and Steven Spielberg said it was lucky they caught it in time and rescued master copies of the original film. Luckily they had the money to remaster them and clean them up for us. Will we ever be so lucky with Jackie's films? I hang my head in dismay. Dear Dragon Dynasty, Dear Kam & Ronson, Dear MiramAXE! please please please listen to your customers; listen to us fans; Give Us JACKIE AS HE WAS MEANT TO BE! Take extra care when you transfer to Blu-ray, clean the film at least, and work to preserve the detail...use the more than adequate space on a blu-ray disk to include multiple SPOKEN languages; STOP STOP STOP CENSORING and give us the UNCUT VERSIONS WITH ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACKS! For Gods sake people this is the 21st century and we can do it. When you buy a Blu-ray it should much much crisper than the DVD version, it should be uncut, it should have loads of features and choices, it should be the ultimate home theater experience not some half baked expensive edited, unadorned transfer of some off the shelf copy. I WISH JACKIE WOULD TAKE CONTROL AND USE HIS POWER TO PRESERVE IN PRISTINE FORM HIS FILMS AS THEY WERE MEANT TO BE instead of this hit and miss that has always plagued his wonderful films!
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