Producer Ng See-yuen, director Yuen Wo-ping, and then-rookie actor Jackie Chan’s Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow (1978) received commercial and critical success, so the trio quickly joined forces to make Drunken Master. The two works share many similarities: their titles both refer to special martial arts styles; they both inject comedy into acrobatic and combat techniques; and two arduous training sequences form integral parts of both films. In Drunken Master, Chan plays the young Wong Fei-hung, under the tutelage of Beggar So (Simon Yuen Siu-tin). In a particularly memorable training scene, Chan hangs himself upside down, performing sit-ups in order to fill an empty bucket with water using two tiny cups. Chan’s strong foundation in northern style acrobatics, explosive energy, and agile physique are on full display.

Yuen and his father Simon Yuen Siu-tin worked together both in front of and behind the camera for this film. Its story concerns not only the inheritance of martial arts skills, but is also a youthful take on the experiences of growing pains, setbacks, and perseverance. In creating his own version of the eighth style of drunken fist, Wong embodies the film’s message that the new generation cannot simply follow the old ways, but must incorporate new elements into their inherited legacies. Drunken Master made Chan one of the biggest action stars of his generation, and also started the trend of new onscreen interpretations of traditional heroes like Wong Fei-hung.

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