The Sick, The Strange and the Awful Reviews – Shaolin Drunkard

05/16/2012 by davindragul

I think there is one rule that can be agreed upon by everyone, at least when it comes to kung fu movies; the Yuen Clan are completely insane. That giant family of actors, stuntman, fight choreographers and producers have produced some of the more ridiculously over the top wire-fighting movies of the 80s, and Shaolin Drunkard is perhaps their most consistent effort.

The plot is far too intricate and nonsensical to explain here, all I can say is it involves something to do with a young male virgin who wants to get married by any means necessary, and a rat faced drunkard older man who has to recover an evil wizard that was released under his watch. Outside of that, anything goes, and that includes lots of fighting. There are fire breathing marionette cyclopeses, poisonous man-sized frog monsters, and combative three person New Years dragons, all which are fluidly introduced and integrated into the story and fights with a minimum of fuss.

After watching even a small amount of Shaolin Drunkard, nothing becomes surprising. One scene stands out near the start, as a con man subtly get his snake to spray it’s venom onto a man’s back. The man’s back grows grotesque instantly, and the con man attempts to sell a cure. The hero says he will solve it for free, and somehow lances the tumour into a bag, which he then sprays into the conman’s face, transferring the tumour. This exchange somehow disintegrates into a contest to see whose concocted drink is more dangerous and the conjuring of small paper archers and mini-cannons to shoot at each other. It just doesn’t make sense, but it happens way too fast to question it.

Killer flute-controlled frogs are still not normal.

That’s one thing that can be said about Shaolin Drunkard; it moves extremely quickly, and it’s a credit to the makers that everything runs so smoothly. The Yuen Clan have created a complete and very entertaining movie here, much better than some previous efforts from them, such as the mostly boring-except-for-the-wicked-ending Miracle Fighters and the still- good-but-lesser Wu-Tang Drunkard. The slapstick just does not let up, and that’s a good thing. This movie is like the culmination of 80 years of the Three Stooges, the Marx Brothers and Charlie Chaplin, except they all fly around fighting each other instead of taking pies to the face.

The movies builds and builds, until the incredible ending, a rapid paced mix of lunacy and genius, with the final showdown involving connecting metal rings that has to be seen to be believed. Shaolin Drunkard ticks all the right boxes for an enthralling viewing, and I can’t wait to discover whether any of their other movie efforts are as good.

Things I learnt: