A Brilliant Conflict

I saw this movie before reading any reviews, and I thought it was very funny. I was very surprised to see the overwhelmingly negative reviews this film received from critics.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

In 1978 Yuen Wo-Ping directed Jackie Chan in his breakout hit, "Drunken Master". In 1979 Yuen Wo-Ping assembled the same cast and substituted his brother Yuen Shun-Yi for Jackie Chan. The resulting movie originally titled "Dance of the Drunk Mantis" went on to be known as "Drunken Master Part 2" for good reasons.Yuen Wo-Ping took everything good about the original "Drunken Master" and made it better in every way. He started with Linda Lin Wing. Her performance in "Drunken Master" was presented as "surprise the old lady knows kung fu" and was simply amazing. Her performance in this movie was simply beyond amazing. I only spotted two sequences a body double was used for some extreme acrobatic moves and the rest was all her. Her martial arts skills certainly exceeded all the other more fair of face actresses such as Angela Mao. He substituted brother Shun-Yi for Jackie Chan. Shun-Yi could at best equal Jackie Chan but the fight choreography in this movie met or excelled everything in the first.Simon Yuen, the father of the clan, only had two more years to live. He was body doubled in all of the fight sequences. The double had to do some of the most complicated and creative moves ever put on film as of the date and he nailed it. Who was that person? It could have been more than one stunt double. If I ever meet Yuen Wo-Ping I intend to ask him that.I rank this movie as one of the top movies of 1979 and 1979 had many great martial arts movies. I give it a 9 out of 10 and recommend it for anyone, not just the typical fans.

Yuen Woo Ping's own first sequel to the legendary Jackie Chan film, Drunken Master, presents us with something of a puzzle.Yuen is the son of Simon Yuen, who here re-creates his Drunken Master role of Sam the Seed. Returning home after many years, Sam discovers that his wife has adopted a rather good-natured but dim-witted young man who, of course, wants to learn drunken boxing from his adoptive father. Unfortunately, he can't hold his liquor, so the old man tortures him to convince him to give up on drunken boxing. After the old man is injured in a fight, the young man learns a different fighting style from a former fellow-student of Sam's, and... well, the rest is kung-fu.What is problematic here is that in all the films Yuen worked with his father, the young man learning from the master is seriously tortured by the older man. In other words, Yuen uses these films to work out some real, deep-seated psychological angst about his father, who happens to be the very actor playing all these sadistic father-figures! There is a lesser known Yuen film hanging around somewhere called "Secret Master", which appears to be about the Yuen family itself, back at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. In that film we find once again this theme of the cruel father and the son (who would be the father of Simon Yuen, if this reading is correct) who overcomes parental disapproval to become the better fighter anyway.Yuen Woo Ping has continued to explore this theme, by the way, throughout his career. The Yuen family doesn't appear to have ever been a happy household.Nonetheless, they sure know how to make great kung-fu films. There are decided weaknesses in this film - it doesn't hold together well as a single, developing narrative. But the acting is generally solid, the humor is still pretty likable, and the fight sequences are generally superb, with very little special effects.Recommended.

The previous commenter was probably mistaking this for Drunken Master, which Jackie starred in along with Simon Yuen, who plays the same character here. Drunk Mantis was director/choreographer Yuen Wo-ping's attempt to make drunken lightning strike twice, replacing Jackie, who had gone on to more personal things, with charisma-challenged family member Yuen Shun-yee (a.k.a. Sunny Yuen), who, although talented, is no Jackie. The film is further hampered by a less inventive plot, which calls on the villains to simply disappear through most of the second half because they'd just get in the way of the training sequences. Finally, the revelation of the drunken master's family and surprisingly well- appointed home comes as something of a shock, considering the persona created in Snake in the Eagle's Shadow and Drunken Master.Even so, from a kung-fu standpoint, the film is wondrous. The villains are superkicker Hwang Jang-lee and future choreography king Corey Yuan Kwai. Linda Lin Ying plays Simon Yuen's wife, who is as adept a fighter as her husband, while Yam Sai-kun makes a memorable impression as the drunken master's brother, who specializes in sick-fu (making me wish the film was titled something like Diseased Snake in the Mantis' Claw)! Yam, by the way, would grow up to become the memorable villain of The Heroic Trio and Iron Monkey. Despite its drawbacks, this is still an exceptional old-school kung-fu movie.

Version: Cantonese, with English subtitlesSo Hai, the drunken master from 'Drunken Master', discovers he has a son, Foggy. More importantly, a stereotypical evil kung-fu master (long-white hair included) named - wait for it - Rubberlegs (Hwang Jang Lee), is seeking out So Hai in order to prove the superiority of his northern Drunken Mantis style. Foggy must learn the art of Sickness Boxing, and join forces with his father to defeat Rubberlegs and his pupil-in-evilness.'Dance of the Drunken Mantis' is the first sequel to Jackie Chan's 1978 classic 'Drunken Master'. However, it is not 'Drunken Master II', more of a spin-off. Jackie Chan doesn't appear in this movie, however, director Yuen Wo Ping returns to direct this spin-off. It is funny, and has some nice action scenes, but ultimately it has nothing on the original 'Drunken Master'. Yuen Wo Ping and Hwang Jang Lee are good, but nowhere near their best in this, but it is still entertaining.7/10 - Martial arts fans should enjoy it