Drunken Master II (Jackie Chan's Breakout Hits) - 4K Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Drunken Master II (Jackie Chan's Breakout Hits)



Movie:
4K Video:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:



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Movie
Having grown up with Jackie Chan being a staple of my formative years, I’m always amazed at how many of his films that I saw on VHS and DVD (and to a certain extent Blu-ray) were cut-up and edited versions. Back when I was in my teens, I never once thought about that type of thing, and it wasn’t till nearly a decade later when I started taking film seriously that I realized just how different the cuts could be. In cases like Mr. Nice Guy, the differences are subtle. A few scene changes for pacing, some cuts here and there to make them funnier. But in the case of Drunken Master II (a spiritual follow-up to his 1970s film), the American edit drastically altered the tone and feel of the movie. When Dimension films and Buena Vista got hold of the Hong Kong cut, they altered the events going on, as well as cut several key moments and changed up both dialogue and score to make it more “hip” to Americans who really wanted Jackie Chan's slapstick humor, later relabeling it for release as Legend of Drunken Master. It wasn’t till years and years later that I got hold of a bootleg DVD and realized just how different the film is in its original Hong Kong cut. A cut that turns " The Legend of Drunken Master from a fun movie to a REALLY good one.

Jackie Chan reprises his role as Wong Fei-hung, one of China’s greatest folk heroes. Except here he’s less of a hero and more of a spoiled vagabond, trying to stay away from his father’s ire and in his stepmother’s good graces. He and his pacifist father, Wong Kei-ying (famous actor, Ti Lung), are returning home from Canton, where they had acquired herbs for his family’s medical practice. To bypass some of the British taxes on incoming goods, Fei-hung slips some ginseng root into one of the upper-class members' suitcases in hopes of it slipping through customs without the coin needed. But as fate would have it, a mysterious man sneaks onto the train and steals from the same suitcase. Not realizing that he has the ginseng root instead of the artifact he was after, Fei-hung takes what he thinks is the root and gets back in line.

But the problem is, this isn’t just some sleight of hand oopsie. Inside the box that was mistaken on the train is a priceless imperial seal from centuries ago. And that’s not the only one getting shipped out. A group of Chinese traitors is working with the British consul to ship out hundreds of priceless artifacts right under the Chinese noses, and out into a British museum. Now it’s up to Fei-hung and his friends to put an end to it, before their entire historical legacy is in a foreign museum with the rest of their wealth under British occupation.

Like pretty much 95% of Jackie Chan movies, the plot itself is secondary to the fight scenes, and woohoo are fight scenes in this one. While the end fight sequence with Ken Lo and Ho-sung Pak is the one we all came for, there are some awesome fisticuffs throughout the movie. The battle between Henry and his goons vs. Fei-Hung is an amazing sequence, and the battle in the foundry between Jackie and the chain-wielding goon is nothing to sneeze at. But it’s that final 10-minute fight between Jackie, Ken Lo, and Pak that set the world on fire. And I’m not trying to oversell it either. If the entire movie before this fight was nothing but Jackie Chan eating noodles and reciting Chinese poetry, I would STILL give the movie a pass because that end fight is just THAT good.

Said fight is actually one of the more inventive ones in Chan’s archives, involving a diverse cast of martial artists. The foundry foreman, Henry, played by Ho-Sung Pak, is a Taiwanese actor who studied Wushu and Kunfu in China, and has the distinction of being the live action capture model for Shang Tsung and Liu Kang in the OG Mortal Kombat games. And the main villain, John, is played by Ken Lo, who just so happens to be half Chinese, half Cambodian, a Taekwondo and Kickboxing world champion, and also Jackie Chan’s bodyguard in real life (which is why he usually plays bit characters in most of Chan’s older movies). It is a stunning work of complex choreography, insane stunts (that stunt with the coals makes me cringe just looking at how they shot it), and a diverse show of different styles with Lo’s insanely fast feet, complementing Pak’s sharp and precise Wushu. Plus, you have Jackie Chan doing an amazing job learning drunken boxing again for the film. All in all, that 10-minute fight scene is the highlight of the film and one of the best fights in Jackie Chan’s history of fights, alongside the rooftop scene in Who Am I.

Now, outside of the fights, the differences between Drunken Master II (the Hong Kong cut) and the International/American cut are pretty substantial. There’s not a lot of different scenes kept in the HK cut, but rather the order is slightly different, and the score is changed, along with a lot of the dialogue. In the U.S., cut Dimension recut the film to make it faster paced, cut out a lot of the dramatic dialogue, and changed the score to a hip hop score in order to appeal to Westerners. And while that doesn’t sound THAT bad, when you watch the Hong Kong cut, you can see why I consider these two different films. The Hong Kong cut is much more gritty, with an emphasis on the socio-political issues of the times and dealing with culture thieves during British occupation. The score is less silly, and the dialogue with Anita Mui (RIP) changes the entire tone and feel of the movie. To put it best, Legend of Drunken Master is a fun movie, but Drunken Master II (the name of the Hong Kong Cut) is an amazing one.

And this last paragraph is going to contain spoilers, so if you haven’t seen the Hong Kong cut, I would suggest skipping this paragraph and moving on to the video score, as it will spoil the original ending. Now, the big controversy that revolves around the U.S. cut is how it cut out the original ending of the film. In the U.S., the film ends at the final fight in the foundry, but in the original cut, there is an extra scene that turns the film into a tragedy rather than a light-hearted comedy like American studios wanted. In the final fight, Fei-hung drinks industrial grain alcohol to get into his “drunken boxing” mode, and the results end with him being blind and neurologically damaged as a result of his sacrifice. BUT, here’s the thing. It’s not something I TOTALLY disagree with the American studios for wanting changed. The way it plays out in the film is Jackie drooling and walking around like we did as teens in the 90s, acting like we were mentally retarded. Meaning it looks sort of goofy and silly, and could be seen as tasteless. I get the intent behind why they wanted to show Fei-hung as being permanently damaged, but they chose to lighten things up a bit TOO far, and American studios saw it as making fun of mentally handicapped people, rather than the tragic ending for his character. So while I really prefer where they were taking his character arc, the implementation can be seen as off-putting if you’re not familiar with Chinese culture and their comedy.




Not Rated by the MPAA




Video: Video:

Like all of the films in this set, Drunken Master II is presented with the Hong Kong Cut, International Cut, and the U.S. cut, all in their original 2.39:1 aspect ratio, and remastered from the Original Camera Negative for a native 4K transfer.

The original Buena Vista release back in 2009 of the U.S. cut was an abysmal wreck that was slathered in DNR and smeared out of existence. Sure, it wasn’t Face-Off levels of waxy, but it was still a really terrible transfer and one that I hate watching to this day due to how smoothed it looks. I never saw the Warner Archive release of the original HK cut, but I heard decent things about it. But this 4K UHD disc (a singular disc with all 3 cuts on the same disc, achieved through seamless branching) takes the cake for looking great. It looks incredibly detailed, without the DNR and smoothing of the original 2009 disc, and all 3 versions look equally good. There’s a little more parchment pale to skin tones and the dusty world of the film, but it’s all equally revealing. You can see everything from the stitching on Wong Fei-hung’s rough-hewn clothing to the stubble on Ken Lo’s face as he kicks the snot out of Jackie. Black levels are equally good, showcasing great details in even the darkest scenes, with no signs of major crush or banding. There are some mildly soft scenes that have been soft in EVERY iteration of the film I’ve ever seen, but I assume that was mostly due to the optical shots used at the time period rather than any encoding issues.







Audio:

The audio is going to be a treat for fans here, as there is a plethora to choose from, depending on which cut you’re choosing from the menu. The U.S. cut has the English 5.1 DTS-HD MA track from the American release (DVD, Blu-ray), while the International cut sports a 1.0 Mono English track. But the Hong Kong Cut (the one we’re all here for) gets that same 1.0 Mono English track, a 1.0 Mono Cantonese mix, a 1.0 Mandarin Track, and a 1.0 Mono Cantonese (alternate) track. Just to point out, the 1.0 Mono English track is NOTHING like the 5.1 DTS-HD MA mix on the U.S. cut. The 5.1 track was completely redone with a new score, and Jackie Chan dubbing in his own lines, while the 1.0 Mono track was done without Chan’s voice whatsoever, but preserves most of the original score.

I naturally chose the 1.0 Original Cantonese track, and it’s a solid mix. It’s a vibrant and pleasing track, with strong vocals and good sound effects. There is some sharpness on the top end here and there, and the score sounds a bit sharp as well, but overall, this is a good mix. Don’t go expecting miracles for a 1.0 Mono mix from the 90s, but it does everything quite well. The 5.1 DTS-HD MA mix from the English cut is a bit brighter and opens things up more, but it’s the one cut of the film I really don’t enjoy watching as much due to how sanitized it was.









Extras:

• Hong Kong Version
• International Version
• U.S. Version
• Commentary by Frank Djeng & FJ DeSanto
• Before the Breakout
• Breakout! Part 1: Drunken Master II
• Deadly When Drunken
• Tipsy Tribulations
• Period Postures
• Drunken Defiance
• Behind the Master
• Mandarin Version Excerpts
-- Mandarin Opening Credits
-- Alternate Mandarin Drinking Scene
• Textless Outtakes
• Chinese New Year Messages
• Theatrical Trailers
• Image Gallery

Final Score: ​

Drunken Master II, in any of the versions available, is a fun movie. I love the Hong Kong cut by far, but the U.S. version has its own charms as well, and is distinctly more slapstick. Jackie Chan’s acting and comedic stylings are on full display here, with some great fights, and an end battle that has been clipped and reclipped in “best fights of all time” videos since the internet was in full swing. And like usual, Arrow’s release is top-notch, with great video, good audio, and stellar extras. Highly recommended.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Jackie Chan, Ho-Sung Pak, Lung Ti, Felix Wong, Anita Mui, Ken Lo
Directed by: Chia-Liang Liu, Jackie Chan
Written by: Edward Tang, Man-Ming Tong, Kai-Chi Yuen
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 HEVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1 (U.S. Cut), English DTS-HD MA 1.0 Mono (International Cut), English, Cantonese Theatrical, Cantonese Alternate, Mandarin DTS-HD MA 1.0 Mono
Subtitles: English SDH, English
Studio: Arrow
Rated: NR
Runtime: 102 minutes (all 3 cuts)
Blu-ray Release Date: June 30th, 2026

Recommendation: Great Watch