DRUNKEN MASTER II, starring Jackie Chan, Anita Mui Yim-fong and Ti Lung. Directed by Lau Kar-leung. Category II. Coming to the Golden Harvest circuit.
WHAT is Jackie Chan doing as Wong Fei-hung, when no less than six actors have played the role in the last couple of years? Given Chan's inimitable star quality, it is a mystery why he would want to don the worn-out mantle of the legendary Cantonese hero for his newest release - Drunken Master II, a movie with an equally worn-out plot, punctuated by dizzying bouts of martial arts.
Ti Lung plays his stern father and Anita Mui plays his stepmother? Mui hams it up as the free-spirited mum, helping Wong plot against his father, high-kicking attackers and generally being a smart-mouth - quite reminiscent of Siao Fong-fong's character in Fong Sai Yuk.
Script weaknesses are glaring, a pastiche of tried and trusted - and tired - story lines: the turn-of-the-century time frame is reminiscent of the best-known Wong Fei-hung series of our era, Once Upon a Time in China with Jet Li; the mother-son pairing in Fong Sai Yuk of Siao and Li; and xenophobia from a long list of recent period dramas.
Here, some British cads, living a life of privilege in Guangzhou exploiting Chinese steel mill workers, steal a Manchurian jade seal. This stirs up nationalistic sentiments and a call to protect one's cultural treasures. As one patriot intones: 'It starts with a jade seal - pretty soon, it's the Great Wall. Then our children will have to go abroad to see Chinese treasures!' Hmm . . . did anyone really care in those days if Chinese antiquities left the country? Or, for that matter, does anyone really care now? The nasty British imperialists are aided by enthusiastic Chinese henchmen who are dressed, symbolically, in crisp Western suits and ties - as opposed to the 'good' Chinese who wear the traditional long gown and cloth shoes.
Stirred by this new-found nationalism, Wong tries to retrieve the seal but is captured, beaten up and publicly humiliated. He gets even later when he and his friends help striking steel workers.