The Legend of Drunken Master

The famous finale was shot without its director. Lau Kar-leung is credited, but he had left the production by the time the last fight was filmed; some say he was fired, others that he walked because of his own firm views on how martial arts should be shown on screen. Lau also appears in the film as the national hero Fu Wen-chi. That finale cost dearly. The seven-minute fight set in a steel mill took roughly four months to shoot. Its best-known moment has Jackie Chan falling into a bed of hot coals and scrambling across in slow motion. Without a stunt double, the pain on screen is real. The story has drunken-boxing exponent Wong Fei-hung fighting against his father's prohibition and pursuing antiquities being smuggled out of the country. Anita Mui, as his stepmother, carries most of the comedy. Who it is for: viewers who treat fight choreography as cinema in itself and want to see how far unassisted action can go. Who it is not for: anyone here for story. The stretches between fights are scattered, and the tone of the drunkenness comedy reads uncomfortably in places today.