A taste of genuine kung-fu, but too old-fashioned looking
Released in the 1980 instead of now, Drunken Monkey would have been one of the hits of the year, probably. However, in 2003, it looks too much like an old Shaw Brothers production, and what we forgive to those 30 years old movies cannot really be forgiven to a recent movie. The problem is not really in the fight scenes, or in the story. The problem is probably rather consisting in poor production values. The movie looks more like an expensive TV serie rather than like a cinema production. With the recent improvement of the technical values of Hong Kong movies and more generally of Chinese products for TV and Cinema, the score and cinematography of Drunken Monkey are clearly not up the expectations of the viewers.
Also, even if people clearly don't expect too much from the storyline in a kung-fu movie, it's obvious that an interesting story is more than welcome, in order to avoid to press the "next chapter" button on our remote. There aren't so many fights in Drunken Monkey, and even if the comedy part is quite typical and not so bad, the plot is quite poor and uninteresting. Some fresh ideas would have been more than welcome also. We all know that Liu Chia-Liang loves martial arts and to talk about kung-fu, but that's not enough to make a masterpiece of martial art, especially when the movie is lacking rythm.
Hopefully, it's still easy to watch the difference between an average fight director and a master. For those who likes genuine kung-fu, Drunken Monkey features some very good fights or kung-fu scenes. And it's obvious watching this movie that the actors KNOWS kung-fu, and that Liu Chia-Liang knows how to show kung-fu. Simply, I think that a good young director and crew would have done a much better work, leaving to Liu Chia-Liang the responsability for all the choregraphies. Then the movie would have looked like a 2003 production, maybe with a poor story, but at least good looking. Still, the movie is very watchable, and it's impressive to see how Liu Chia-Liang can still fight at his age, even if he has a stunt double for all the jumps and falls. Wu Jing displays also some very nice skills, even with a few fight scenes. The other actors also know what they are doing, and the monkey style is quite refreshing.
Overall, fans of Shaw Brothers kung-fu movies, and more generally of genuine kung-fu movies should been interested in this movie. The average production values and story are of course disappointing for a new Shaw Brothers movie, but Liu Chia-Liang still knows what he is talking about.
