Dance of the Drunk Mantis (1979)

Fresh and Exciting

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

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

In DANCE OF THE DRUNK MANTIS (1979), Simon Yuen returns in the role of Sam Seed, specialist in Drunken Kung Fu and the title character in the Jackie Chan hit, DRUNKEN MASTER (1978), directed by Simon's son, Yuen Wo Ping, who also directed this film. Here Sam has a wife (Lynda Lin), who has adopted a grown son, Foggy (Yuen Shun Yi, aka Sonny Yuen, another son of Simon), during Sam's absence. When Foggy first meets Sam in the street, he gets into a hassle with him only to learn at home that the old man is his adoptive father. High-kicking Hwang Jang Lee plays Rubberlegs, who arrives from the north to fight Sam and prove the superiority of his own Drunken Mantis style. Rubberlegs and Sam have a lengthy fighting/drinking contest.After a lot of tiresome scenes in town, including an overlong encounter with banker Moneybags, played by comic actor Dean Shek, the action shifts to the countryside where Foggy trains under Sick Doctor (who sleeps in a coffin and is made up like a corpse) and learns Sickness Boxing. The training scenes are quite exciting and lead up to Foggy's fight with Rubberlegs' chief student (played by Yuen Kwei, aka Corey Yuen, an action director in his own right). Foggy then joins Sam for a lengthy battle with Rubberlegs.The film's onscreen subtitle (in the English dubbed print) is DRUNKEN MASTER, PART 2. This is not to be confused with Jackie Chan's l994 sequel, DRUNKEN MASTER II (released in the U.S. in 2000 as LEGEND OF DRUNKEN MASTER). This isn't one of Yuen Wo Ping's best films, but it does provide a good showcase for Simon Yuen and Hwang Jang Lee and offers some gimmicky kung fu with humor, a specialty of director Yuen during this period (1978-83) of his career.