This is my I'm in the middle of school and watching Herzog films and could really care less about orient action films verdict.
(In all honesty I just didn't feel like saying much more, so short verdict.
)
Flirting Scholar vs. Legend of the Drunken MasterThe ideological overlap of these two films greatly pleases me. Both have heavy comedic overtones and provide ridiculously silly over-the-top action pieces. However, where the two diverge is when it comes to providing drama. One goes all out with the ridiculousness while the other adds drama into the mix.
Usually I don’t mention the viewing experience itself but it is worth making this disclaimer.
Flirting Scholar had horrible subtitles that sometimes faded into the lighter backgrounds and generally was hard to read while
Legend of the Drunken Master was horribly dubbed in English.
Flirting ScholarWithin the first few minutes of the film we witness what has to be one of the craziest things I’ve ever seen with any film. Desperate for money our incidental character goes to his brother, the famous artist Tong Pak Foo (Stephen Chow), and asks for 20 paintings within the hour. The resulting sequence sets up the movie fairly well (It's at 4:47 if the clip doesn't start there):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAU4F-CVI18#t=4m47sFrom there on out the film can pretty much be as ridiculous as possible and fit into the world. And it absolutely works. The acting, dialogue and action are so over the top. And the film knows it, making a joke out of itself. And it never feels like it’s winking at the audience but rather just presenting an intensified world where the simplest setups result in hilarity.
However, the film feels like a hodgepodge of ideas. Part of it is a romantic comedy as Tong Pak Foo poses as a workman in order to properly court lady in waiting Li Gong (played by the fantastic Li Gong who was also in my previous matchup winner,
To Live). Another part of the film are these hilariously witty musical numbers that tend to break the fourth wall. And yet another piece is an over the top orient fighting film. Compound on top of this the comedy and the film is gigantic melting pot of genres.
Legend of the Drunken MasterHaving read the above you’d be right to guess this is the film that tries to be more dramatic. Wong Fei-hung (Jackie Chan) is desperately trying to keep his father’s failing business afloat by engaging in some questionable practices on the side. He also is a strong practice of drunken boxing which his peers think is a joke style just used for show. His father strongly disapproves and then some action stuff happens.
Problem is that while the film wants to set up this serious drama it subverts it by creating this goofy world. Often scenes meant to be emotionally intense are bookended with jokes and destroy the intensity. Other times the film is too serious and comes off as a bad joke.
Jackie Chan is not a dramatic actor but a great physical actor. His character’s plight is that in order to effectively do drunken boxing he must actually be drunk. The film sets this up as a thinly veiled allegory of the follies of getting drunk on power. Problem is that the film quickly subverts this notion in the last big action sequence and destroys the entire dramatic plot.
Yes, this film has much better action sequences than
Flirting Scholar. They are technically astounding and look very realistic. My jaw dropped several times as I wondered how the pulled off some of these stuns without killing anyone. Problem is the stuff in-between is dull.
Verdict:
Flirting Scholar is a hodgepodge of stuff but ultimately it all unifies in this exaggerated comedic universe.
Legend of the Drunken Master takes comedic action and tries to marry it with serious drama and it simply doesn’t work.
Flirting Scholar is a film I enjoyed ever moment of no matter how stupid and ridiculous it got, which is something I can’t say for
Legend of the Drunken Master.