SHAOLIN DRUNKEN MONK opens with Gordon Liu practicing Shaolin Five Animals Fists and Drunken Fists techniques while a waterfall rages behind him, accompanied by the English translated credits. The focus immediately shifts to a man and his wife in their home. There is a knock at the door, and when the husband answers, a swift martial arts blow ends his life, much to the dismay of his horrified wife. At the Big Mantis school, clan leader Wong Kin Cheong (Han Ying) and his disciples meet and discuss the killing of their comrade (the guy who was just murdered). It turns out that a few years earlier, the Big Mantis Clan members pressured a fighter named Kam to join their dishonorable clan. When Kam refused to join them, the disciples used a sword and hacked off his arm! Kam is now back holding a grudge against the Big Mantis clan members and has started killing them off. Next, Wong Kin Cheong’s daughter Ying Ying is kidnapped by an unidentified assailant (who turns out to be Gordon Liu). The stranger takes her back to his hideout and ties her up. He explains that he was wronged by her corrupt father a long time ago, and he is here to get take revenge. Wong Kin Cheong gathers his disciples to ponder the kidnapping, and they come to the conclusion that Lao Chung is responsible for the abduction. The disciples are in shock at the mention of this name, because they drowned him many years ago!

A flashback takes us back in time when Lao Chung was a child. His father was a master of the Big Mantis clan, and when he died, Lao Chung’s mother took over the school. This is when ambitious student Wong Kin Cheong convinced his fellow classmates to help get him to lead the clan. He promised them money and power when he got control of the school. Wong Kin Cheong pressures Lao Chung’s mother to relinquish control of the school, and she refuses. Eventually the treacherous Wong physically confronts her, and claims that if she won’t hand over the seal to the school, he will harm her son Lao Chung. She agrees, and Wong allows Lao Chung to escape. Rather than allow Wong mastery of the Big Mantis clan, she hangs herself. When Wong discovers her corpse, he orders his men to find Lao Chung and recover the seal. The disciples drown the boy, and make off with the seal his mother had given him. The Big Mantis school prospers under Wong’s villainous leadership. But Lao Chung did not drown. He was rescued by a villager, and eventually came to the attention of a master of the Eight Drunken Gods technique. This drunken master took this angry kid and began teaching him Shaolin Five Animals Fist techniques. From here we witness several odd training scenes until little Lao Chung grows into a talented fighter. The final form that the drunken master teaches him are the Eight Drunk Gods techniques.

When Lao Chung tells his story to Ying Ying she takes pity on him; then she remembers they used to be childhood friends. Lao Chung decides to head to the Big Mantis school and challenge Wong Kin Cheong. When he enters the school grounds, he walks right into a trap. All the disciples start fighting him, and he is hurt in the skirmish. The wounded Lao Chung decides that discretion is the better part of valor, and returns to his hideout. Once there, Ying Ying declares her love for him, but she is torn between her father and her lover. She doesn’t have long to ponder the situation, though as the disciples have followed Lao Chung. As he fights his way to freedom, Lao Chung stumbles into anther one of Wong’s traps and is captured. The gloating villain informs Ying Ying that the next day he will hunt down the one-arm fighter, Kam and execute them both at dawn. They don’t have to look hard for Kam, though, because he shows up looking for them. Wong Kin Cheong and his top fighters face off against the one-armed fighter on the banks of a river. Wong Kin Cheong uses his Manchurian Mantis Fist to overpower the one-armed fighter. Meanwhile, Ying Ying poisons the guard that is watching Lao Chung. Then she releases him and begs him to run away. But he cannot—despite his feeling for her he must end the evil reign of her father. Lao Chung joins the battle just in time to save Kam. Ying Ying follows him to the riverbank and the poor girl must watch as her lover and her father fight to the death!

SHAOLIN DRUNKEN MONK is different from most Kung Fu films in that the narrative is driven by tragedy. Lao Chung’s mother commits suicide to avoid disgrace in the Big Mantis clan. This motivates Lao Chung to seek revenge. Though on the surface this sounds typical of the genre, Au Yueng Chun differentiates SHAOLIN DRUNKEN MONK from the cliches by injecting a fair amount of dramatic moments (complete with emotional music). And unlike 95 percent of old school films, SHAOLIN DRUNKEN MONK does not have a happy ending--it is a very depressing ending for the main characters. In addition to the dramatic elements, there is also a high violence quotient. Characters commit suicide, people are poisoned, fighters are impaled with weapons. There is a hanging, a drowning, and an amputation. Though none of these violent scenes are excessively bloody, there is a fair amount of crimson in the film.

If anything, SHAOLIN DRUNKEN MONK suffers from a low budget. There is no grand production design like you might see in a Shaw Brothers flick. There are several blooper moments that should have been cut out, like strings supporting the bodies of actors or props. SHAOLIN DRUNKEN MONK also has its share of choppy editing and inconsistencies. In numerous times during the film you’ll notice Gordon Liu is bald as a cueball, and in others he has a full head of hair (and we are not talking about flash-backs here). His hairline fluctuates throughout the film. There are scenes where characters mysteriously go through a costume change, only to revert back to their former wardrobe in the next shot. In another bit of careless editing, one of Lao Chung’s opponents disappears into thin air while doing a back flip. The narrative structure of SHAOLIN DRUNKEN MONK is impacted by the clumsily presented flashback sequences, which take up a good portion of the movie.

Despite the obvious budget limitations and plot weaknesses, there are a few things worth mentioning in SHAOLIN DRUNKEN MONK. Gordon Liu is one of the few old school martial artists who can also act. Director Au Yueng Chun shows us sides of Gordon that we don’t usually see. In the classic MASTER KILLER, Liu’s driven character is pretty much one-dimensional; Gordon’s a pretty serious guy in that role. In SHAOLIN DRUNKEN MONK, Gordon gets to show his full range of acting talents. He’s deadly serious in this film too, but he also gets to do humor and tender love scenes. On a purely emotional level, SHAOLIN DRUNKEN MONK is superior to MASTER KILLER (but it can’t match the story, fight scenes, or scope of that Shaw Brothers classic). Though the fight choreography in this picture is not the best or most plentiful, there are enough of them to interest fans of Gordon Liu. The climax features Gordon Liu employing a combination of Shaolin Five Animal Fist and Eight Drunk Gods technique against "Eagle" Han Ying’s Manchurian Mantis Fist. Gordon Liu’s martial arts are very admirable, and Han Ying makes for a truly vile bad guy that is nearly as good as Gordon. Liu also shares a whimsical student/mentor relationship with his drunken monk master. The unidentified martial artist who plays the one-handed fighter, Kam shows some amazing one-armed techniques. The actor’s arm is carefully hidden under his clothes, though he looks awfully like a real amputee.

SIGHT
SHAOLIN DRUNKEN MONK was originally released in widescreen 1.85.1. Tai Seng’s DVD transfer is cropped to full frame. The fight choreography is presented well within the frame. The source material is in unusually good shape. There are moments of scratches and dirt, but they are few. Mostly, the image is sharp and very pleasing. The colors are vibrant as well, with the period costuming exhibiting strong colors. The blues, greens, and red hues are perfectly rendered in the transfer. There are a few training sequences filmed under a gray sky, and these scenes take on a washed out appearance. The black level is deep and flesh tones appear natural. The only major problem is the grain, which there is plenty of since SHAOLIN DRUNKEN MONK was filmed on low-grade film stock. The cinematography includes some nice shots shots of the Chinese countryside, and reveals the details of the colorful costume design. The opening features a video-inserted title card with white letters on a blue background. The Ocean Shores copyright information shows up after the title sequence, followed by their logo in the lower left-hand corner. Thankfully, this logo goes away in several seconds and is only glimpsed one other time at the half-way point. A better than expected transfer from Tai Seng.

SOUND
The audio is Dolby Digital Mono 2.0. The sound elicits a broad range of highs and lows, and is free from hiss, background noise, or other audio anomalies. SHAOLIN DRUNKEN MONK is mainly dialog driven with the sound effects, the score, and the English dubbed voices coming from the center channel. The mediocre dubbing is painfully obvious, but no worse than Kung Fu fans have come to expect. These sound effects are clear and natural, though a little flat. The clanging of weapons and impacts of the blows are amusingly exaggerated as usual. Chen Shien Chi composes some nice period music. When the film calls for some dramatic moments, the score changes to an appropriate emotional accompaniment. The score uses modern instrumentation but still manages to evoke a historical tone. All the sound elements (dubbing, sound effects, and score) are perfectly synchronized in the soundtrack, without one overshadowing the other. Unlike Crash Cinema, whose DVDs are plagued by incomprehensible audio, Tai Seng usually delivers in this area.

FEATURES
There is an audio commentary track by Ric Meyers, a Hong Kong film writer who has published several books on martial arts films and Hong Kong cinema. Meyers has a great film background, but he doesn’t seem to be too familiar with SHAOLIN DRUNKEN MONK. I was hoping he would provide some rare inside information about the making of this film (and he does, a little), but he doesn’t even know the actor’s name who plays the lead villain (its "Eagle" Han Ying)!!! He doesn’t know the names of the other actors who play Kam and Ying Ying. He does, however, know a lot about Gordon Liu and his family members. As we did in our review, Meyers compares SHAOLIN DRUNKEN MONK to his breakthrough film, MASTER KILLER. Occasionally, he slips into MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000 mode and pokes fun at the film or laughs at it, but you can’t really blame him because the film deserves it. He goes on to talk about the lack of film preservation in Hong Kong and discusses how Ocean Shores acquired and dubbed these films for English speaking markets. He talks about how the Shaw Brothers refuse to release their films anywhere, and mentions Gordon Liu’s history with the studio. Overall, an enjoyable audio commentary, despite Meyer’s general lack of old-school knowledge. He has a smooth voice that is well suited to a commentary track. There are also English language trailers for upcoming Tai Seng special edition DVDs (all trailers are widescreen with Dolby Digital Mono sound):