Les Déchaînés du karaté

DRUNKEN FIST BOXING is an odd and unsatisfying little kung fu movie that's obviously been made as a knock-off of Jackie's DRUNKEN MASTER. At one point the director even has the bare-faced cheek to include a scene stolen from DRUNKEN MASTER, showing Jackie showing off his fancy moves. It's a jaw-dropping steal and sadly remains the highlight of an otherwise undistinguished movie.

The best thing about the film is the presence of Siu Tin Yuen, once again playing his delightful Beggar So character. Sadly, all he's given here to do is to go through the motions, but it's better than nothing I suppose. I was surprised to see a couple of relatively big names in the cast list, including Casanova Wong, and Pan Pan Yeung is quite delightful as the fighting sister. But the action choreography is weak and the dubbing job is even worse than usual, with the English dubbers speaking in heavy accents that renders half of the dialogue unintelligible. Not that you're missing much anyway in a film of this quality.

So the movie gives Jackie Chan top billing all over the poster, but he's barely in the movie. He's literally just a cameo that they have cut in from footage from Drunken Master so as both movies can be connected. The movie actually stars Casanova Wong. He maybe better looking that Jackie, but he can't fight like him. They should have highlighted the cute Chinese girl in the cute king Fu gear, I'm sure she could have gotten dudes to come see it.

What's weird is that the movie is called drunken fist boxing yet there is no drinking or any boxing. I'm guessing this discrepancy has everything to do with the racist and god awful English dub.

The final battle at the end of the movie stands out to me more than other movies of this genre. Would have been even better if Jackie Chan was a part of it.

Just watch Drunken Master again and forget this one.