YMMV / Drunken Master

• Awesome Moments:
  • The second movie. After Fei-Hong recovers the jewels from a bad guy and immediately gets into another fight, he tosses the bundle to Ling for safekeeping. She catches it one-handed. Overhead. The cheers of all the extras within frame looks pretty genuine.
  • To say nothing of Fei-Hong's Heroic Second Wind-fueled (okay, industrial ether-fueled) No-Holds-Barred Beatdown at the end.
• Awesome Music: The marketing for Drunken Master II includes an all-new theme song sung by Jackie himself. And it is epic.
  • The original had a rendition of the Chinese folk tune 'Under the General's Orders', earlier popularized by Once Upon a Time in China. It was so well-made, it became permanently associated with Wong Fei-Hong and Kung Fu training in general.
• Cliché Storm: The first film is full of this, but this only adds to the charm.
• Crosses the Line Twice: The second movie tries to depict excessive drinking in a negative light. When Fei-Hong accidentally attacks his own father, it's sad. When he's left vulnerable and strung up by the bad guys, it's heartbreaking. Then he starts chugging industrial alcohol and it gets ridiculous.
• Cult Classic: Especially the first film as Star-Making Role for Jackie Chan and an exemplary Hong Kong action movie.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: In the second movie, Fei-Hong's stepmom played by 80s pop diva Anita Mui (going through something of a Career Resurrection) steals every scene she's in, and Jackie would bring her back later for Rumble in the Bronx.
• Evil Is Cool: The main villains of both films are quite cool, stylish and showy fighters.
• Even Better Sequel: The second one.
• Funny Moments:
  • The Eight Drunken Gods scene. Wong gets a bit stuck when he comes to mastering the fighting style of the one female member of the Eight Gods - and then decides to get his camp on. He earns a Dope Slap for it.
  • Pretty much any scene with Fei-Hong's stepmother Ling in the second movie.
    • When the bad guys track down Fei-Hong and steal Ling's jewels, she's more concerned with her mahjong buddies' lack of reaction than the fact that they were robbed, before yelling "STOOOOOP THIIIIEEEEF" in the most hilariously hamtastic fashion imaginable.
  • There's an injoke of sorts when Fei-Hong and The Dragon are locked in a grapple, and the bad guy deliberately shoves his chin into Fei-Hong's eyes, nodding to how the actor is already known for his lantern jaw as well as his martial arts. Then Fei-Hong returns the favor by shoving his nose into the bugger's eyes, basically acknowledging how Jackie's Gag Nose is the most often mocked part of him (even in Japan where he's practically deified!)
• Memetic Mutation:
  • Thanks to this film, Drunken Boxing became a widely known meme of Chinese culture and a symbol of "strange Asian martial styles" in the west.
  • 30% of hands, 70% of legs!
  • The impressive fighting style of the villain from the second movie becomes this up to Watch It for the Meme for some new viewers.
• Narm Charm: The first film is due to an overabundance of cliches, an incredible Large Ham villain and a bit of strange humor. The second film averted it, since it was created already during the "serious" period in Hong Kong cinema.
• Sequelitis: Most viewers, including Jackie Chan fans, have not heard of Drunken Master III, and for good reason. It is considered a In Name Only sequel, made after Jackie Chan had a falling out with the director of Drunken Master II. And it barely features drunken boxing to boot.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: Only for Drunken Master III. While the first two Drunken Master films are classics on their own right and fondly remembered, the third movie quickly fades into obscurity because of its baffling change in genre and embracing a more comedic tone.
• Values Dissonance: At the end of Drunken Master II, Wong is shown blinded and mentally crippled from consuming industrial alcohol during the film's climactic fight scene. This scene, while played for laughs in the Cantonese cut, was removed for the American version as it was not considered funny over there. Oddly enough, a scene where Wong Kei-Ying canes his wife and son is left in.