Kung Fu Review #2

Tonight's Kung Fu Review is of Dance of the Drunk Mantis aka Drunken Master pt. 2.
Now let me begin by saying that I am biased from the get-go. I don't like the idea of casting an actor to star in a martial arts film, only to use a stunt double for damn near ALL of the martial arts he's supposed to perform. Such is the case with Simon Yuen who is playing Sam the Seed, a character seen in about 5-6 martial arts films. Sam Seed is used for comic relief, and he is Known for crazy over the top slapstick humor. The IDEA of an old drunk Kung-Fu master is cool, but Simon Yuen is simply too old for the role and the fact that he has a double is WAAAAAYYY too obvious.
That having been said, let's get to the review.
The film opens with Rubberlegs(!?!), a Pai Mei like northern drunken boxing master (played by the excellent Hwang Jang Lee) and his student (Corey Yuen) seeking Sam Seed. Rubberlegs' intent is to determine whose skill is best-Seed's southern drunk style or his own. They soon meet and dispatch a Seed imposter who is milking the benefits of a kung-fu expert. This only fuels Rubberlegs' fire making him more intent to find and destroy Seed.
We then see the real Seed returning home years later after having taught Jackie Chan drunken boxing in the first Drunken Master film. When he returns, he finds that his wife has adopted a son named Foggy, played by the superb Yuen Shun Yee (Simon Yuen's real son). After being met with a series of protests, Foggy finally seems to convince his "dad" to teach him the drunk fist style. Foggy is made to carry out all sorts of gruelling tasks in his training, only to find out that Seed had no intention of training him. Humiliated, Foggy leaves to resume working, and meets with Rubberlegs' student. The student then realizes that foggy could lead his master to Seed. Foggy ends up doing just that, and the inevitable fight between the two styles begins. Seed ends up getting a serious beatdown, because Legs has combined mantis fist style with drunken style. Seed escapes, and sends Foggy to his brother who is a master of the Sickness style of boxing.
Yeah.
Sickness.
The Master has a pale and sullen look about him, he can't seem to kick his dry hacks, his voice is low and raspy, and he hangs out in a casket!
What???
What should be LAME by description is anything but.
The sickness style looks pretty sweet-especially during the training scenes.
When Seed recovers from his ass whippin', he goes to visit his brother to see how Foggy is, but he's out and about.
While Foggy is out, he meets with Legs' student again, and has a rematch, keeping him occupied while Rubberlegs makes his way to Sick Master's place to finish the job on Seed.
Foggy, armed with the sick style combined with the drunk style easily handles the student, and swiftly makes his way back to Sick Masters place just in time to save Seed.
I liked everything about this film- crazy fighting styles, revenge plot, weird characters, and punishing training sessions, but I have to give this film a paltry 2 Kung-Fu kicks out of 5.
The stunt double had more screen time than the guy he was playing, and even though Simon Yuen's other son played the part, it was just too obvious. That constantly annoyed and ruined the film for me. What was cool though, was the action. Each fight was HEAVILY choreographed, and each move was an almost perfect representation of the strange and incredibly interesting art of drunken fist boxing. Rightly so, considering Yuen Woo Ping directed the film. He would go on to direct the martial arts action in the Kill Bill films, the Matrix films, and Crouching Tiger hidden dragon.

Till next time,
PEACE.