DRUNKEN TAI-CHI
Cantonese: Siu taai gik
Mandarin: Xiao tai ji
English: Laughing Tai Chi

DYNAMO

Donnie Yen Chi-tan made his film debut in Yuen Woo-ping's DRUNKEN TAI-CHI, a rollicking period kung fu farce featuring some incredible acts of agility. Fun loving Chin Dao (Yen) is always getting into trouble. One day, he humiliates the son of a local boss and, when the boy tries to get revenge using firecrackers, Chin fights back and accidentally drives his opponent mad. The stricken boy's father (Don Wang Tao) hires a mute assassin called The Killer Bird (Yuen Shun-yee, billed in the English credits here as Armstrong Yuen) to wipe out Chin's family. Dao is not at home when The Bird attacks and loses his father and brother (Yuen Yat-chor, credited as Simon Yuen Jr.) as a result. Unsure of what to do with his life, Dao meets up with an eccentric puppeteer (Yuen Cheung-yan, playing another of his rat-faced old weirdos) and his extra-large wife (Lydia Shum Tin-ha) who try to teach him a trade. Dao's incompetence soon finds him back on the street, where he inadvertently saves The Bird's son from some kidnappers. In spite of this act of charity, the mute still tries to eliminate Dao and the latter barely escapes alive. The Puppeteer then agrees to instruct Dao in the "Soft Style" of tai chi boxing, the only successful defense against Bird's great strength.

Some of the low brow humor grates (a problem exacerbated by the dubbing) but this remains a highly enjoyable outing, reminiscent of Yuen's DRUNKEN MASTER in its approach. The training sequences are wonderfully inventive, making great use of such unlikely teaching aids as birds and cotton, and Yen is incredibly graceful and agile. There are a number of anachronistic gags; the best one finds the young star engaging in a little makeshift breakdancing! Only the routine storyline and weak ending keep the film from attaining the same heights as its model. The soundtrack includes music lifted from BATTLESTAR GALACTICA.

Also included on the DVD is Hwa Yi-hung's DYNAMO, a Bruce Li vehicle that the Yuens choreographed. Li (real name: Ho Chung-tao) plays HK cabbie Lee Tien-yee, whose martial talents and pronounced resemblance to the late Bruce Lee make him a natural for the movie and advertising biz. His bosses hires a lazy, alcoholic kung fu instructor (a charismatic turn by the dependable Ku Feng) to train Lee, and the two get off to the sort of rocky start that masters and students always do in these films. Lee's abilities increase substantially, of course, and his popularity becomes a threat to rival ad agencies. One decides to try and have the star bumped off, first during a practice bout and, later, at various stops during a whirlwind promotional tour. He brushes these opponents back without much difficulty but, when his girlfriend is kidnapped, Lee is ordered to take a dive during a prestigious martial arts tournament in Chicago.

While it ranks among the better Bruce Li/Le/Dragon Lee features, DYNAMO still has little besides solid fights and that reflexive premise (a Bruce Lee imitator starring in a story about the travails of a Bruce Lee imitator!) to recommend it. Also, someone decided after the fact that the movie was either too short or needed more action, so two fights from BRUCE LEE: HIS LAST DAYS, HIS LAST NIGHTS have been cut in. Trouble is, that film stars Danny Lee, who only bears a slight resemblance to Bruce Lee and Bruce Li! Yuen Woo-ping, Yuen Yat-chor, and Yuen Shun-yee all appear briefly, as do Peter Chan Lung, Lee Hoi-sang, and Donald Kong To.

Part of Ground Zero's Yuen Family Collection, the DVD presents each feature on a different layer. DRUNKEN TAI-CHI is apparently derived from the British Eastern Heroes release. The source print contains some wear, particularly at the reel change points, and the sound is very flat and hissy. However, the color and resolution are not bad and the widescreen framing is most welcome. Even taking the 25 frames-per-second of PAL into account, this version runs almost a minute and a half shorter than the cropped and dubbed tape released domestically by SYS/Youngtze. About half of this can be attributed to the fact that the DVD is missing all of the production company logos and, instead, begins right with the title and Donnie Yen training under the opening crawl. The remainder should occur beginning at the 44:40 mark. Gone is Yen falling from the cotton flattening table and Yuen Cheung-yan subsequently being shot with a makeshift arrow by Lydia Shum. Why this bit of footage has been excised is anyone's guess but the scene is a jumbled mess without it.

DYNAMO was released on domestic tape in the 80s by Embassy Home Entertainment and that is where Ground Zero's master has come from. The image is severely cropped on all four sides, seriously marring the action and making close-ups uncomfortably enormous. It also looks soft, dupey and grainy, with weak, inaccurate colors, and the source material features all of the usual wear. The sound is crisper than that heard on DRUNKEN TAI-CHI but still only average. Worst of all, this is World Northal's heavily censored TV version, which is missing several minutes, including all of the nudity*. In an effort to hide this, a blue box has been superimposed over the "Edited for Television by Larry Bensky" card but all is for naught when a shot of a showering woman's legs is repeated three times (and in slow motion!) to replace her subsequent nude views. A letterboxed (and presumably uncut) DVD is reportedly forthcoming from Crash Cinema and would almost certainly make for a better choice than this crummy dupe.

The sole extra on the disc is a Previews section that provides clips from SHAOLIN DRUNK MONKEY, THE SNAKE STRIKES BACK, TIGER OVER WALL (sic), STRIKE OF THE MANTIS FIST, ONE FOOT CRANE, THE EAGLE FIST, SHAOLIN VS NINJA, SHAOLIN VS LAMA, THE 18 BRONZEGIRLS OF SHAOLIN, BEST OF SHAOLIN KUNG FU, 5 VENOMS VS WU TANG (aka KUNG FU VAMPIRE BUSTERS, though not to be confused with NEW MR. VAMPIRE, which is aka KUNG FU VAMPIRE BUSTER), THE 9 VENOMS (aka NINE DEMONS), FIGHT AMONG THE SUPERS, GOOSE BOXER, MYSTERIOUS FOOTWORK (aka THE MYSTERIOUS FOOTWORKS OF KUNG FU), BUDDHIST FIST & CHESS BOXING (aka THE ROVING HEROES), SHAOLIN CHASTITY KUNG FU, ENTER THE INVINCIBLE HERO, FIST OF LEGENDS 2: IRON BODYGUARDS (sic), SLEEPING FIST (actually just a repeat of the ENTER THE INVINCIBLE HERO clip), SHAOLIN AND TAI CHI, and FIVE ELEMENTS OF KUNG FU. Thanks to Linn Haynes (visit his Cave of Kung fu at http://www.tombofdvd.com/linnscave1.htm) for identifying some of the retitlings here and additional info.

*I've only seen the TV version of DYNAMO and am wondering if the aforementioned Danny Lee scenes were featured solely in this edition to help replace some of the footage that was excised. Can anyone who has seen the theatrical or overseas edition confirm this?

DRUNKEN TAI-CHI/DYNAMO is available at Poker Industries.