Dance of the Drunk Mantis


Year: 1979
AKA: Drunken Master 2
Cast: Yuen Hsin Yi, Yuen Siu Tin, Hwang Jang Lee, Lin Ying, Yam Sai-Kun, Yuen Kwai, Dean Shek
Director: Yuen Woo Ping
Running time: 96 minutes



The North Drunken Master, Rubber Legs(Hwang Jang Lee), has mixed mantis style into his drunken boxing. Along with his student(Yuen Kwai) he is looking for the South Drunken Master, Sam the Seed(Yuen Siu Tin), to prove that his North style is superior. Sam the Seed returns home to find his wife(Lin Ying) has adopted a son named Foggy(Yuen Hsin Yi). His wife forces Sam to teach Foggy drunken boxing. Sam doesn't really teach him anything, he just tortures and makes fun of Foggy. Foggy takes off and gets work at a inn. Rubber Legs and his student arrive and the student and Foggy get into a fight. Rubber Legs spares Foggy who drags himself home. Later Sam goes to the inn to meet Rubber Legs. The two get into it and Sam appears to be winning until Rubber Legs uses his drunk mantis. Foggy arrives and sees Sam getting beaten, so he rushes in and the two retreat. While fetching some medicine for his father, Foggy meets this sick guy. I'm not sure what his name is, but everyone seemed to call him Sick Bastard(Yam Sai-Kun), plus it appeared that he was Sam the Seed's brother. Anyway, Sick Bastard starts teaching Foggy his style of kung fu (I'm not sure what style is it though). Sam wonders where Foggy has been going lately, so he follows him and finds Sick Bastard's place when Rubber Legs shows up. Back at home Rubber Leg's student takes on Sam's wife who is beating him when Foggy shows up. Foggy takes over and the students says something about Rubber Legs and Sam. Back at Sick Bastard's Sam is losing to Rubber Legs, luckily Foggy shows up to save the day.

I'm not sure if this is an official sequel to Drunken Master or not. I've read it was promoted as one by Seasonal Films, but I'd pick Drunken Master over this one. I thought the fights were lacking a bit. They didn't seem like two people fighting. Most of the time it was like someone was fighting and the other person was messing around doing tricks and stuff. It was to seem more comedic. I was hoping for some more drunken style. Foggy doesn't even really learn any drunken style and the drunken styles weren't shown as good as they were in Drunken Master. The training scenes were short and still weren't as cool as in Drunken Master. Yeah, it's no Drunken Master, but it's still a decent kung fu movie.

"Review" by Keith