Fight Clip Club: Drunken Master

Part of the origin story of a martial arts comedy legend.

I’m having so much fun with these funny fights, FCC members, that I am going back all the way to the late 1970s to show you some ridonkulous and brilliant kung fu nonsense, in the early career of none other than esteemed legend of cinematic martial arts, Jackie Chan.

If you’ve been following me for a while, you’ll remember my three-pronged (actually it got up to 5 essays, didn’t it?) analysis of various forms of clowning. The sacred and profound art, that takes physical storytelling to a highly skilled level, telling the oldest tales of our selves and follies using humor and physicality. Here’s a refresher:

Shaman

Fool

Mime

…and for more in this vein but a little more period-specific:

Burlesque

Commedia

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The theatrical martial arts of Jackie Chan can be absolutely categorized within this genre of clowning: it’s some of the most skilled and virtuosic physical comedy you’ll ever see, at the level or even beyond, of such clown legends as Buster Keaton, Marcel Marceau, or Bill Irwin. Jackie Chan is the man. Let’s look in depth at one of his earlier works: