Drunken Master (1978).
Of course, I'd known of this movie for years, especially since it's referenced in half the kung fu films and TV shows ever. It's also directed by Woo-ping Yuen, who was the fighting choreographer/director for such films as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. For those of you who don't know what it's about, it's about Wong Fei-Hung (Jackie Chan), a cocky adolescent with some good kung fu skills who keeps getting in trouble. But after he beats up some members a high-brow family while protecting a street vendor, Fei-Hung's father brings the boy's uncle, Su Hua Chi (Siu Tien Yuen) to teach the boy some respect. So the old man ends up teaching him a new, masterful style that requires you to be drunk. After a year of training, Fei-Hung must use his new skills in order to protect his family.
This is probably, so far, hands down, the most entertaining movie I've watched for a 60/60 Review, despite it only being an Extra. Don't get me wrong... it's not a masterpiece of filmmaking like Seven Samurai, but it's a hell of a fun movie. First off, it's totally bizarre seeing Jackie Chan so young, but you can still see Chan's whimsical style, even this early in his career.
So let's start with the action. There's a ton of it in this movie, and all of it is unique and entertaining. It's not the high-flying kung fu like in Crouching Tiger, but more in a style of most Chan films. You see all the hits, all hits are quick and chaotic (yet somehow perfectly placed), and all whimsical and humorous. Truly some entertaining action.
Being a comedy, the film is pretty dang funny, too. I actually laughed out loud frequently. If you know Chan, you know it'll be a lot of physical humor, a lot of slapstick. But what else helps the comedy is the incredibly bad dubbing. It reminded me, somewhat, of the dubbing in Bio-Zombie. It's strange to the point you're sure they did it on purpose (but I'll get into some REALLY bad dubbing in a minute).
Overall, a fantastically entertaining movie. If you like Jackie Chan at all or his style of kung fu, I highly recommend this one. It really was a blast, and I can't really say all that much else about it.
Royale With Cheese
Of course, I'd known of this movie for years, especially since it's referenced in half the kung fu films and TV shows ever. It's also directed by Woo-ping Yuen, who was the fighting choreographer/director for such films as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. For those of you who don't know what it's about, it's about Wong Fei-Hung (Jackie Chan), a cocky adolescent with some good kung fu skills who keeps getting in trouble. But after he beats up some members a high-brow family while protecting a street vendor, Fei-Hung's father brings the boy's uncle, Su Hua Chi (Siu Tien Yuen) to teach the boy some respect. So the old man ends up teaching him a new, masterful style that requires you to be drunk. After a year of training, Fei-Hung must use his new skills in order to protect his family.This is probably, so far, hands down, the most entertaining movie I've watched for a 60/60 Review, despite it only being an Extra. Don't get me wrong... it's not a masterpiece of filmmaking like Seven Samurai, but it's a hell of a fun movie. First off, it's totally bizarre seeing Jackie Chan so young, but you can still see Chan's whimsical style, even this early in his career.
So let's start with the action. There's a ton of it in this movie, and all of it is unique and entertaining. It's not the high-flying kung fu like in Crouching Tiger, but more in a style of most Chan films. You see all the hits, all hits are quick and chaotic (yet somehow perfectly placed), and all whimsical and humorous. Truly some entertaining action.
Being a comedy, the film is pretty dang funny, too. I actually laughed out loud frequently. If you know Chan, you know it'll be a lot of physical humor, a lot of slapstick. But what else helps the comedy is the incredibly bad dubbing. It reminded me, somewhat, of the dubbing in Bio-Zombie. It's strange to the point you're sure they did it on purpose (but I'll get into some REALLY bad dubbing in a minute).
Overall, a fantastically entertaining movie. If you like Jackie Chan at all or his style of kung fu, I highly recommend this one. It really was a blast, and I can't really say all that much else about it.
Royale With Cheese
Rumble in the Bronx.
Now, this one you might be able to argue isn't really a foreign film... I didn't really do the research, so I can't tell you. But since about 2/3s of the film is dubbed over, I'm going to count it just for the heck of it. Keung (Jackie Chan) has come to America--specifically the Bronx--to his uncle's (Bill Tung) place and supermarket to be at his wedding. But when his uncle goes on his honeymoon, a local gang starts causing trouble, and Keung finds himself trying to keep the peace, getting himself involved with one of the girls in the gang, Nancy (Francoise Yip) and her wheelchair-bound little brother, Danny (Morgan Lam). He also tries to deal with his uncle's store parter, Elaine (Anita Mui), who is struggling running the place on her own.
Dear holy God, Jesus, Mary, Joseph, and all the Saints... this movie is awful. But it is so awful that it is amazing. Let me put it this way. I'm sure Tommy Wiseau looked at this movie and thought "Wow. What amazing acting, writing, and voice-over dubbing. Now if I could make a movie of this caliber, but just remove that silly action stuff."
The acting and dubbing are both beyond awful. They're truly stuff of legend. I can't even begin to describe it, really. You can't really separate them from each other. First you have Jackie Chan, who actually dubs over his own voice. That's right. He speaks Chinese in the movie, but then dubs over it in English afterwards. Boy, was that confusing. Then there's Danny, lovingly called "wheelchair kid" by fans. The strange thing with him is that his lip movements are very close to what's being said most of the time, so it looks like he's saying something, but it's just off. Oh, and it's god-awful with some horrendous dialogue. The dialogue doesn't help matters much. It's painful, but the bizarre, over-the-top delivery by either the English-speaking actors or the dub-artists makes it hilariously bearable.
The action, on the other hand, is what makes this movie worth watching (outside of the so-bad-it's-good quality of the rest of the film). I don't find it to be your typical Chan flick, though. It's much more hard-hitting and faster-paced. It's almost as if Jackie Chan was attempting to be more like Jet Li, but he still threw in some of his characteristic whimsy. The strange part is, though... while Chan would use his surroundings to help him in his fights, the music used during the fight scenes made them way too serious, making you take them too seriously. Usually, watching Chan is like watching one of the three stooges do kung fu or something. That's not typically the case here.
Regardless, this film is something to be seen. If you've not seen it, you definitely need to check it out. Watch it with friends if you have to. You'll probably die laughing from how absurd practically everything is in the film. The action is a lot of fun, everything else is awful, but so great because of that.
A Hot Mess
Now, this one you might be able to argue isn't really a foreign film... I didn't really do the research, so I can't tell you. But since about 2/3s of the film is dubbed over, I'm going to count it just for the heck of it. Keung (Jackie Chan) has come to America--specifically the Bronx--to his uncle's (Bill Tung) place and supermarket to be at his wedding. But when his uncle goes on his honeymoon, a local gang starts causing trouble, and Keung finds himself trying to keep the peace, getting himself involved with one of the girls in the gang, Nancy (Francoise Yip) and her wheelchair-bound little brother, Danny (Morgan Lam). He also tries to deal with his uncle's store parter, Elaine (Anita Mui), who is struggling running the place on her own.Dear holy God, Jesus, Mary, Joseph, and all the Saints... this movie is awful. But it is so awful that it is amazing. Let me put it this way. I'm sure Tommy Wiseau looked at this movie and thought "Wow. What amazing acting, writing, and voice-over dubbing. Now if I could make a movie of this caliber, but just remove that silly action stuff."
The acting and dubbing are both beyond awful. They're truly stuff of legend. I can't even begin to describe it, really. You can't really separate them from each other. First you have Jackie Chan, who actually dubs over his own voice. That's right. He speaks Chinese in the movie, but then dubs over it in English afterwards. Boy, was that confusing. Then there's Danny, lovingly called "wheelchair kid" by fans. The strange thing with him is that his lip movements are very close to what's being said most of the time, so it looks like he's saying something, but it's just off. Oh, and it's god-awful with some horrendous dialogue. The dialogue doesn't help matters much. It's painful, but the bizarre, over-the-top delivery by either the English-speaking actors or the dub-artists makes it hilariously bearable.
The action, on the other hand, is what makes this movie worth watching (outside of the so-bad-it's-good quality of the rest of the film). I don't find it to be your typical Chan flick, though. It's much more hard-hitting and faster-paced. It's almost as if Jackie Chan was attempting to be more like Jet Li, but he still threw in some of his characteristic whimsy. The strange part is, though... while Chan would use his surroundings to help him in his fights, the music used during the fight scenes made them way too serious, making you take them too seriously. Usually, watching Chan is like watching one of the three stooges do kung fu or something. That's not typically the case here.
Regardless, this film is something to be seen. If you've not seen it, you definitely need to check it out. Watch it with friends if you have to. You'll probably die laughing from how absurd practically everything is in the film. The action is a lot of fun, everything else is awful, but so great because of that.
A Hot Mess
Dubbing is the devil. You have me slightly interested to revisit Rumble, but I've got so many more movies beckoning that I really don't know if or when I'll get around to it. I take it it's on streaming?
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ReplyDeleteDylan: Understandable. And yeah, it's instant streaming.
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