Wong Fei Hung is the son of local doctor and martial arts master Wong Kei Ying (Ti Lung) and the movie opens with the pair along with their servant, Tsang (Felix Wong), (who does a fair job of playing comedic relief when Chan's character is serious), traveling back to their home province on a train and trying to sneak some ginseng root home without paying taxes on it. Because of this attempt, the Wongs' box of herbs get mixed up with one the British Consulate was carrying, and Wong Fei Hung ends up having to stop a smuggling ring designed to steal China's culture and put it in museums around the world.
Life for Wong Fei Hung is pretty basic. He lives and works at his father's school with his father, step-mother (played by Antia Mui) and Tsang. Whenever he goes out into the market, he flirts with one of the local girls and has a rivalry with a person from another school. But when the Consulate learns that the Wong family might have the missing treasure, they go after Wong Fei Hung and his step-mother in the middle of the street. Thankfully, Wong Fei-Hung's exceptional skill at Drunken Bboxing does a good job of holding off the villains, that is, until their leader steps into the ring. Then Wong Fei Hung has to down quite a bit of alcohol to really show his stuff.
While he beats up the crowd, it seems he has had a bit too much to drink and his father ends up throwing the man out stating that Drunken Boxing requires a delicate balance and while alcohol increases flexibility, unpredictability, power and pain threshold, you can have too much and drown in it, making yourself vulnerable. And it is this reason Wong Kei Ying disapproves of ever using it.
The film has quite a few solid fight sequences, but only a couple really show off Drunken Boxing, one being the fight with the thugs in the street, the other being the major fight at the end. But for the most part, they all have Jackie Chan's unique comedy and prop-infused style. And of course, since Chan does all of his stunts, scenes like him falling into pile of flaming coals or slinging alcohol around the same fires are that much more impressive. The story itself is a little cliche and doesn't provide any real twists, but the characters are amusingly over-the-top (especially Mrs. Wong) and the overall movie is the right balance of action and comedy that Jackie Chan films are known for.
As for special features, The Legend of Drunken Master only offers an interview with Chan as he talks about making the film and adapting the style to something more suitable for a movie audience, as well as scripting the choreography. But what it does offer is a nice Blu-ray high definition transfer. The movie is from 1994, and some graininess is present, but overall, the picture is nice and the dubbing is... well, what you would expect. While there aren't any surround-sound effects that will leave you pleased to have the extra speakers, everything still comes through loud and clear. Unfortunately, what the Blu-ray is missing, and something that I'm sure many hardcore martial arts movie fans would want, is the original Chinese soundtrack.
Overall, The Legend of Drunken Master is a classic Jackie Chan film that any martial arts movie buff should have in their collection. As for the need to have it in high definition, I can't really recommend spending the extra bucks unless you are simply trying to fill up your Blu-ray library.
