Fight Work: The Legend of Drunken Master's Final Fight

If you're a regular reader, you'll have no trouble guessing that action movies are my favorite genre, especially movies with amazing action choreography. Whether it's more recent fare like the gun-grappling of the John Wick series, the furious fists of martial arts cinema, or superheroes facing off against their biggest villains, a great fight gets my blood pumping better than a three mile run. But what makes a great action scene? Why do some final showdowns feel epic and meaningful while others are boring? Our new segment, Fight Work, sets to find out by highlighting some of the best action/fight scenes ever put on screen starting with the final showdown from the Jackie Chan classic: Legend of Drunken Master.

The Legend of Drunken Master is widely considered to be Chan's best kung-fu flick for the perfect mixture of melodramatic story, physical comedy, and complex fight choreography that defines Chan's work and remains influential to this day. Whether it's the presence of the axe gang in Kung Fu Hustle or Drunken Boxing in the martial arts lexicon, this movie is a big reason why. And in a movie full of fight scenes that combine insane athleticism and skill with physical comedy the film's final fight remains my favorite.

The Setup

At this point in the film, Jackie Chan's Wong Fei-hung has discovered that some Chinese nationals, led by our main villain John, are helping the British government smuggle precious artifacts out of the country using a metal rod factory as a front. After aiding the factory workers and handily beating most of the villain's henchmen, Fei-hung begins to battle the best the baddies have to offer: Henry and John.

Why The Scene Works

Not every action scene works for the same reasons. Sometimes it's a unique take on a familiar trope, sometimes it's funny, and sometimes its simply the skill of the actors involved. So without further ado here's why this scene is considered a masterwork in the genre.

Wide Shots to Show Off The Skill and Choreography

It's no secret that Jackie Chan was and is an exceptional martial artist. The same goes for the members of his extensive stunt team. But having an actor with impressive physical skills does not guarantee an engaging action scene. If you need a comparison put this scene next to some of Chan's fights in his American studio movies, minus Shanghai Noon/Knights, and you'll notice two huge differences.

The first is fight choreography. Modern martial arts cinema is famous for having very quick and very intricate fight work completed by the actors themselves (in sharp contrast to the Shaw brothers slower fights) and Drunken Master is no exception. John is amazingly adept at delivering quick kicks that appear like punches (in fact he can stand while doing the splits) while Fe-Hung shows plenty of quick fists, and the speed and agility to dodge, parry, and land blows of his own. The combatants are consistently in motion either moving around the space or changing their stance to counter their opponent. I love fights like this because you can see the small alterations to each fighter's style as the fight progresses, and can cheer when Fei-Hung reverses a move that landed minutes earlier.

The choreography also does an excellent job at demonstrating who's in control of the fight. We'll talk about this more and how the shifts work with the movie's emotional core, but when Fei-Hung is winning and losing the choreography lets us know. He spends no time on the offensive when he's losing and when he's winning he's either pummeling his opponent or blows bounce off of him.

The second is the camera work. My biggest pet peeve with American action cinema is the emphasis on quick cuts and close-ups in the middle of pitched battles. This fight is basically the opposite. There's a lot of extended takes where you can see the actor's full range of movement. The close-ups still show us all of the footwork or grappling between our two fighters. Even slow motion is used minimally for a handful of dramatic moments, including an exceptionally dangerous stunt.

The fact that the fight ends up being hilarious for the final furious minutes? Even better.

The Turn

When it comes to fights there's about three directions you can go. It can be a one-sided smash fest with the hero wrecking all of the nearby faces, an evenly matched battle with our hero frequently overcoming a cheap shot or unexpected skill, or in this fight's case a seemingly lost cause with a reversal halfway through.

The "all is lost" approach works exceptionally well because of what we know about Fei-Hung. Up until this point we know that Fei-Hung is probably the best fighter around. We've seen him make minced meat of out everyone else to this point (when sober or the right kind of drunk), and take out the goons no one else could handle even seconds before he faces John. As such, seeing the seemingly posh John unleash a flurry of kicks that literally backs Fei-Hung against a wall, and pushes him to the verge of defeat is deflating to the audience. Fei-Hung is the last credible line of defense and whether his opponents fight fair or not it doesn't look like he's capable of doing the job.

The despair we feel watching our hero seemingly defeated makes his triumphant reversal and eventual victory all the sweeter. But the shift in the fight works on multiple levels...

Emotional Investment: Resolution of Fei-Hung's Inner Conflict

The fight's turning point comes when John begins to mock Fei-Hung and stumbles across his fan with the saying "a boat can float in water, but can also sink in it," a phrase his father used when talking about the dangers of drunken boxing. Until this point, Fei-Hung has spent the film being ashamed or hiding his drunken boxing from his disapproving father. In fact, he has intentionally avoided using this style for the entire factory fight to avoid bringing his family shame.

However, in this moment something in Fei-Hung clicks and he realizes that his signature fighting style can be a powerful weapon if the right amount of alcohol is used. Thus in one fell swoop Fei-Hung embraces his secret fighting method and his identity as a martial artist, resolves his inner conflict with his father, and unlocks the key to his victory. The fight continues on for minutes after Fei-Hung finds the right balance of booze, but the musical cue after he says "Just perfect!" tells us all we need to know. He's ready, he's a complete person, and he is going to beat John's ass.

Bonuses: Laughs, Drunken Boxing, and Callbacks

While the majority of Jackie Chan's fight work features comedic use of props, the phrase "I don't want trouble", or misunderstandings, the final charge of this fight features a barrage of physical comedy. Fei-Hung dodges John's kicks by drunkenly falling against the wall, uses cartoonish moves like "wheelbarrow," or flutter kicks while doing a handstand, and frustrates John with Bugs Bunny like antics in the middle of a feverish fight. It's not a crucial element for the fight, but it's what makes this a more memorable scene.

Another distinctive element is the drunken boxing style. Chan had used this style in  his comedic 1978 breakout Drunken Master (hence the Legend of Drunken Master being dubbed Drunken Master II), but not quite like this. While traditional kung fu films tend to feature distinctive poses and individual techniques, drunken boxing lacks grace and rigidity. Even Fei-Hung's opening poses with his fists up flies in the face of traditional kung-fu. He's wobbling back and forth and his wrists are forward (in fact his fists seem to be facing him).

Once he begins fighting we also see how fluid the style is. It features a ton of momentum reversal, or put another way using natural forces like falling to deliver an elbow, spinning to add force to backhanded punch, or adding a spin to a flying headbutt because...ok that's just awesome. The point is you don't see moves or movement like this even if you are a martial arts movie fan.

Finally, the fight has plenty of callbacks to Fei-Hung's demonstration of drunken boxing in the middle of the film. It's not quite at Daniel-san pulling out the crane kick level, but it's fun to see our previously cocky villain turned into a flailing victim of a drunken bashing like the henchmen earlier in the film.