A showcase for a young Donnie Yen, Drunken Tai Chi is a top notch kung fu comedy from the Yuen Clan. Donnie plays Ching Do, a young, brash oldest son of a small family. His brother, Yu Ping (Yuen Yat-Choh) takes the majority of the abuse from his father and does all the work for their business while Ching Do generally plays about town and messes with bullies from rival families. A prank turns a powerful town leader’s son into a drooling mess and leads the father (Don Wong Tao) to hire an assassin to eliminate Do’s family. Although Ching Do escapes, both his father and brother are killed. He hides out with a local puppeteer (Yuen Cheung-Yan) who teaches him tai chi in exchange for working around the house. When he’s skilled enough, he takes on the assassin (Yuen Shun-Yi).
Drunken Tai Chi is very much in the vein of Miracle Fighters and Shaolin Drunkard in that it combines quality and inventive kung fu choreography with slapstick comedy. There isn’t much “drunken” style of tai chi, it is more of a reference to Cheung-Yan’s character constantly drinking. However, the fights are absolutely great and Donnie Yen is superb in all scenes. Even the opening credits form is worth watching multiple times. This must have been a revelation for Yuen Wo-Ping to witness what he could do and the level he had achieved at the age of 21. It is no wonder they collaborated on another 7 films over the next decade. You also get to see Donnie popping and locking during a funny skit in which he plays a puppet. His final fight with the assassin “KIller Bird” (Yuen Shun-Yi), who is basically the killer from Dreadnought, is fantastic as well. Don’t miss this one, especially if you can find the original Cantonese with English subs. Well worth the search.

8.5/10