Action-packed semi-sequel to smash hit kung fu comedy DRUNKEN MASTER has Yuen Clan member Yuen Shun-yee replacing Jackie Chan for another round of drunken kung fu excellence featuring even more action and screwball comedy from returning stars Simon Yuen, Hwang Jang-lee, Dean Shek, and Linda Lin.
Rubber Legs (Hwang), a kung fu master from northern China has combined Drunken Fist boxing with Mantis Fist to create a deadly new fighting style and now he’s out to destroy Southern China’s top Drunken Fist expert, Beggar Su, AKA Sam the Seed (Simon Yuen). Rubber Legs’ Drunken Mantis style proves too much for Su and the elder master must rely on his latest protégé, an adopted son named Foggy (Yuen Shun-yee) whom he has only recently met. Despite being a mediocre student, Foggy puts all his effort into mastering Drunken Fist in addition to studying Sick Fist kung fu under the tutelage of Su’s colleague, the Sickness Master (Yen Shi-kwan). Armed with his newly developed Drunken Sick Fist kung fu, Foggy comes to his parents’ defense by taking on Rubber Legs and his spear-wielding lead student, played by future action directing master Corey Yuen.
DANCE OF THE DRUNK MANTIS is light on story and production muscle while Chan’s presence is sorely missed but the film makes up for this with pure old school bliss in the form of excellent fighting from available cast members and wall-to-wall kung fu mania from genre master Yuen Woo-ping.
DANCE OF THE DRUNK MANTIS is technically a sequel to DRUNKEN MASTER with most of the previous film’s crew and lead cast returning to essentially play the same roles in a familiar, yet unrelated story. Noticeably missing is Jackie Chan, who had been on loan to Seasonal Film Corporation for SNAKE IN THE EAGLE’S SHADOW and DRUNKEN MASTER, but was contractually obligated to return to work for his nemesis, producer Lo Wei. So while Chan grudgingly made his directing debut on the lower-budgeted kung fu comedy, THE FEARLESS HYENA, Yuen Woo-ping and company set to work on this sequel. (Chan eventually got around to making his own sequel, DRUNKEN MASTER II, in 1994.)
DRUNK MANTIS closely follows the same formula Seasonal Film set with SNAKE IN THE EAGLE’S SHADOW, which in turn was perfected in DRUNKEN MASTER. Simon Yuen, aged 67, a veteran Chinese opera-trained stunt actor and patriarch of the Yuen Clan was enjoying the greatest fame of his career by portraying a mop-haired beggar and martial arts master with a mischievous streak first introduced in EAGLE’S SHADOW. Initially, he played a Snake Fist expert but by DRUNKEN MASTER Yuen had become Beggar Su Qi-er, a southern Chinese martial arts folk hero who according to legend created Drunken Fist kung fu. (Yuen Woo-ping revisited the character in 2010 in the film TRUE LEGEND, starring Vincent Zhao as Su Qi-er.) For DRUNKEN MASTER and DRUNK MANTIS, Beggar Su was frequently referred to in English translations as Sam Seed or Sam the Seed.
Simon Yuen made numerous, lesser film appearances in 1979 in his “drunken beggar” guise before passing away that same year. The best of these post-DRUNKEN MASTER roles is his performance in DRUNK MANTIS. As with all of his other fighting beggar roles, Yuen is heavily doubled during fight sequences. Transitions between doubled shots, typically involving acrobatics or elaborate sparring with Su’s back to the camera, are smoothly edited together. It’s possible Yuen Woo-ping may have been making a conscious joke of the doubling by having Yuen Clan member Brandy Yuen portray a fake Sam Seed at the beginning of the film. I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that Brandy actually did double Simon through the rest of the movie. What really sells the character isn’t the stunt work but Simon Yuen’s wonderfully unique comic performance, particularly when his humorous endearing failings are emphasized such as the love-hate relationships with his family, his disheveled appearance and his crass behavior.
Linda Lin Jing, who plays Su’s stern, fighting wife previously appeared as a relative of Wong Fei-hung (Jackie Chan) in DRUNKEN MASTER. In that film, she schools an impetuous Fei-hung at the beginning of the film but has few scenes thereafter. In DRUNK MANTIS she is given much more screen time to show off her fighting skills, first against Yuen Clan member Chien Yueh-sheng who plays a debt collector, and later against Simon Yuen and Corey Yuen. She appears to have a background in northern wushu, as many female screen fighters of the era did. Her best fight is against Corey Yuen where she engages in a classic match pitting her broadsword against Corey Yuen’s spear. Lin was only in a handful of kung fu movies and this is definitely one of her best appearances.
DRUNK MANTIS contains so many wonderful fights, too many for an ordinary action film really but it’s perfect for kung fu movie lovers because there is never a dull moment and the combat is all expertly arranged and executed, even when doubles are used. Audiences today know Yuen Woo-ping for his distinctive wirework action but he had yet to adopt its use at this time so all of his extensive creativity was directed at making the grounded movements of the cast and stuntmen as interesting as possible which means we get more opera-style acrobatics.
Most of the combat in the first act is played for laughs with one highlight being Dean Shek’s screwball tussle with Yuen Shun-yee and Simon Yuen in a bank. The film’s action turns intense midway through as Shun-yee gets his face literally rubbed into the dirt by Corey Yuen. The film’s highpoint arrives shortly after when drunken masters, played by Hwang Jang-lee and Simon Yuen, have their first meeting. A seemingly jovial encounter turns violent as the two engage in an epic 10-minute duel of Drunken Fist vs. Drunken Mantis Fist.
Yen Shi-kwan’s turn as the Sickness Master is a lead in to the kind of eccentric supporting characters that dominated Yuen Woo-ping’s early 1980s films. While his appearance as a pasty, coughing figure who hangs out in a coffin is there for laughs his Sick Fist kung fu is an appropriate addition to the film. It’s a play on Mantis Fist by sharing emphasis on strength, speed and suppleness of the hands and fingers to inflict damaging locks and controlling strikes. As such Yen Shi-kwan adapts Sick Fist to Drunken Fist and ends up fighting Hwang Jang-lee’s Drunken Mantis Fist with rewarding results for anyone who has been paying attention to the explanation of the film’s fighting styles and the related training sequences, of which there are many.
It’s worth pointing out that Yuen Woo-ping makes a statement in the film about the drawbacks of drunkenness by Su’s defeat at the hands of Rubber Legs and Sickness Master’s warning to Foggy about the long-term effects of drunkenness. In his frustration to train Foggy, Su tries to get him drunk while berating his lack of skill. The message here is that while Su may be a pretty good fighter, his drunkenness also makes him a jackass who cannot recognize potential in his student. As such, Sickness Master is the superior instructor who helps Foggy not only to broaden his fighting style but also to reach his full potential without being inebriated as his adoptive father generally was. It should also be noted that Rubber Legs doesn’t drink either.
Something to watch for is Hwang Jang-lee’s kicking which is actually more subtle in this film than most of his other films. A powerful taekwondo artist, Hwang is normally unleashed a storm of high-flying kicks but here relies more on his equally skilled fist work to perform sets from both Drunken Fist and Mantis Fist. Yet what leg work he does engage in is lightning fast, actually much faster than most of the choreographed movements performed by everyone in the film. The way he keeps his legs in tempo with the rest of the choreography is by noticeably delaying his strikes. This could almost be counted as a fault as Hwang seems to be holding back when he’s evenly matched or losing but how can you fault someone for being too fast? While he’s dishing out the hurt, particularly once he unleashes the full fury of his Mantis Fist and kicks near the end, Hwang owns the screen. This makes the fight all the better by forcing Yuen Shun-yee to fight back not out of superior skill but from sheer determination not to lose. It’s similar to what Jackie Chan did in many of his kung fu roles, especially THE YOUNG MASTER.
Production design for DRUNK MANTIS matches DRUNKEN MASTER which means it lacks the elaborate sets and cast numbers of Shaw Brothers productions but is superior to many of the C-grade independent kung fu movies pouring out of Taiwan. The plot is somewhat weak and derivative of past Seasonal Film productions including THE SECRET RIVALS and DRUNKEN MASTER but the fighting is just as good and that’s what counts. Seasonal Film was right behind Golden Harvest on the list of top film studios in Hong Kong for cranking out martial arts movies. Ng See-yuen’s company produced far fewer films than either Golden Harvest or Shaw Brothers but he had a far higher percentage of hits, many of which could be contenders for the greatest kung fu movies of all time. At least when it comes to fighting action, DANCE OF THE DRUNK MANTIS is a top-10 contender and a must-see for old school fans.
A remastered, widescreen edition of DANCE OF THE DRUNK MANTIS has been previously released on DVD by Hong Kong’s Mei Ah and the U.K.’s Soulblade. Panmedia’s (Red Sun) multiple DVD versions of the film are all pirated bootlegs. Any other U.S. versions (including DVDs from Ground Zero, World Video and Video Asia) are most likely public domain releases sourced from long out-of-print, full screen VHS tapes.
by Mark PollardRelated Topics:
Brandy Yuen • Corey Yuen • Dance of the Drunk Mantis • Deak Shek • Drunken Fist • Genre: Kung Fu • Genre: Shapes • Linda Lin • Mantis Fist • Seasonal Films • Sick Fist • Simon Yuen • Yen Shi-kwan • Yuen Clan • Yuen Shun-yee • Yuen Woo-ping
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