Regarding the 2nd installment, "Drunken Master"

This was the first Jackie Chan movie I ever saw.
I watched it when it was broadcast
on a TV program called Golden Western Movie Theater.
I remember being so excited because it was just so interesting.

When I went to school after "Drunken Master" aired,
there were many practitioners of Drunken Fist.
All of my classmates had become Jackie Chan.
"Drunken Master" was something every kid at the time was excited about.
I tried thinking about why it was such a hit.

First, I think the story structure
is very well-crafted.
The protagonist, who was strong, experiences a setback midway
(losing to Thunderleg), and starting from there,
he applies himself to the training he hadn't taken seriously until now,
and ultimately wins in the final battle against his rival,
which is the flow of the story.

While previous kung fu movies
were mainly about someone seeking revenge,
the theme of Drunken Master is the growth of a young man.
By depicting this comically rather than tragically,
it succeeded in utilizing Jackie's original
bright character,
and I think it was able to show
an interesting kung fu movie
that was different from Bruce Lee's.

Second, each character is unique and
is depicted in a truly lively way.
Not only Fei-Hung, played by Jackie,
but also Master Su, the assassin Thunderleg, the staff-wielder Wang,
the head-butting Tiger, the villain Lee,
and his sons and disciples.
These characters are truly charming.
They are so well-defined that you could even call them manga-like.

Above all, the final boss, the assassin Thunderleg.
I think the strength of this assassin, Thunderleg, is the centripetal force of the story.
Will the protagonist really be able to defeat this formidable enemy?
Can he get revenge on the opponent he lost to once?
Since the story is simple, the more charming the enemy
standing in the protagonist's way is, including their strength,
the more it leads to exciting the entire movie.
I think Thunderleg plays a wonderfully
excellent villain.

Third is the effect of the Japanese dubbing, the Japanese theme song, and the music.
As I mentioned earlier, since the story is simple, the kung fu battles are basically the main focus of the movie. I think the Japanese theme song plays a role in giving those battles a good sense of rhythm.

The dubbing is the same, with rhythmic conversational exchanges.
This also connects to the point about the charming characters mentioned earlier, but I think the dubbing increases the charm of those characters by several levels.

As an aside, in the Golden Western Movie Theater's
Japanese dub, Jackie was called
Fei-Hung, but in the
Jackie books and film comics sold at the time,
the character's name was Fei.
I remember wondering about it as a child, but
it seems that when you read Fei-Hung in Chinese,
it becomes Fei-Hong, and that was the difference.
In the later TV Tokyo dub,
it was changed to be called Fei-Hong.

Now, finally, I would like to talk about
the differences in the opening between the Hong Kong release and the Japanese release.

I have watched Drunken Master so many times since elementary school
that I don't know how many times it has been.
I knew there were cut scenes because what I recorded on video
was what was broadcast on TV. (Fasting, the initial training, the part where he tries to sneak out of the hut in the middle of the night and fails, etc.)
But I didn't know at all that the opening was different.

When I became an adult and rented a video to watch it,
I remember being quite surprised that the opening was different.

Regarding that difference in the opening,
the Japanese release features the Japanese theme song "Kung Fu Chaos" playing over Jackie's Drunken Fist performance.
This performance by Jackie is a training scene that appears in the
main part of the movie.

In contrast, the Hong Kong release
starts with the appearance of the assassin Thunderleg.
It starts with Thunderleg receiving a contract to kill,
and the title card appears when he defeats the target with his signature flying kick.

The opening of the Hong Kong release
is a scene where you can see the strength of Thunderleg, whom Jackie will eventually fight.
I think it has the effect of building up the viewer's expectations: How will the protagonist fight this strong opponent?
Will he be able to win?
Actually, in "Snake in the Eagle's Shadow," which is also said to be a sister film,
the first scene also starts with the final boss
killing members of an allied school.

This technique of showing the strength of the final boss first
is something Jackie himself adopted when he started directing.
(The Young Master, etc.)

This difference in the opening.
It's a matter of taste, but
I personally still prefer the Japanese release's
opening.
You might think they just added a theme song to the performance in the middle,
but because it was a time when Jackie was still
unknown in Japan,
it also served to convey that he is the protagonist,
and the catchy theme song
brilliantly captured the hearts of elementary school students at the time.

I feel like I'm getting a glimpse of the efforts of the Japanese staff
to convey the fun of Drunken Master when it was released in Japan.

Due to the nostalgia of my youth,
I'm sure I'm being very biased, but
among what are called the Fist series,
I think it is definitely the greatest masterpiece.