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Another wacky martial arts comedy/fantasy from the Yuen Clan. The drunken brother (Yuen Cheung-Yan) of a Taoist monastery leader must find a 'cherry' male born on 15 August for a taoist purification ritual to make amends for his drinking while a vengeful madman, Old Devil (Yuen Shun-Yi) tries to steal a macguffin (It was never clear what the macguffin was good for) from Granny (Yuen Cheung-Yan) and her grandson, Wu Shun-Chiu (Yuen Yat-Choh).
I've only seen one other of the four martial arts comedies/fantasies they produced during the early-ish eighties, MIRACLE FIGHTERS (1982), which was the first. TAOISM DRUNKARD is number three and while the hi-jinks are still enjoyable, it felt less inspired than MIRACLE FIGHTERS, like the formula was wearing thin. There is some good fighting mixed in with the high wire action and silly romantic sub-plot.
This was the new Joy Sales disc. It was alright, but the subs were lacking. Not so much the mispellings/grammar as that the Banana Monster (amusing, if a retread) wasn't subtitled as well as other chunks of dialog, here and there. Enough to miss the subtleties, if this movie actually had any.
I need to see the other movies they made, SHAOLIN DRUNKARD (1983) and YOUNG TAOISM FIGHTER (1986) (not sure if DRUNKEN TAI CHI (1984) really qualifies) to gain a better perspective.
