Plot Details: This opinion reveals minor details about the movie's plot.

What happens when you combine liquor and fighting? In America you get a bar brawl, in China you get a whole new style of fighting. This movie was a very large part of making Jackie Chan the superstar he is today. I see it as a marker in his career. Before this he did mostly serious movies like New Fist of Fury and To Kill With Intrigue – mostly flops that still get overlooked even by many JC fans. Drunken Master started his precedent of comedic movies and was such a success that he earned the opportunity to take more control of the movies he made. That’s when he started churning out hits.

D.Master is unorthodox especially considering its context. It takes a Chinese legend, Fei Hung, and turns him into a troublesome youth. To put Fei in a comedy was, from everything I’ve heard, unthinkable, but to turn him into a problem child on top of that was ludicrous. So ludicrous that it worked thanks largely to the genius of Chan.

Despite Fei being a trouble-maker he is good-hearted. It seems to me that he’s so far advanced in his Kung Fu skills that he’s bored. Even his teacher is no match for him. When he flirts with a girl that turns out to be his cousin his dad flips out and is ready to kill him especially when he learns that Fei also beat the living snot out of a powerful man’s son (despite the fact that the twerp had it coming). Instead, in a move something like sending a teen to military school only more exclusive, Fei’s dad sends him to be trained by the mysterious Sam Seed (Su Hua Chi is his Chinese name).

Fei is deathly afraid of Sam and runs away, but Sam is determined to discipline the boy whether he likes it or not. Sam has a highly unorthodox style of Kung Fu. He uses the appearance of drunkenness to confuse opponents and perform moves that would be clumsy from the rigidity of normal posture. Fei resists the discipline required at first, but gradually comes to respect and admire the old man. He comes to the point of wanting to do whatever it takes to become a true master… almost.

Meanwhile a fearful assassin named Thunderleg has been hired to kill Fei’s dad. Fei and Thunderleg meet early on and the master greatly humiliates Fei. After more training Fei is determined to win his dad’s respect again by stopping the hitherto undefeated killer.

There is a great theme of honor and respect woven throughout the story. Fei matures into a noble hero by the end. While his excommunication by his father is considerably different from American culture, many of us can relate to disappointing someone we love and wanting to prove ourselves to them. Fei disappoints his father and his master, but rather than give up or lash out, he admits his shortcomings and works hard to become a better person. That is something that many Americans could stand to learn (maybe some Europeans and others, too, but I can’t speak for them).

I love the character of Fei and the story that goes along with him. That in and of itself might have made a decent movie, but there are other elements here that make this a GREAT movie. The comedy is not of the kind that sit-com fans would like. This is more slapstick in the vein of old comedians like Buster Keaton (an influence for Chan) only with Kung Fu. It’s almost all physical like Sam maneuvering Fei into awkward positions while they fight, but there are some situational moments like Fei cheating during his training only to have it backfire.

Everything I’ve mentioned sets D.Master apart from other Kung Fu movies, but if you were to watch it strictly for the Martial Arts without much caring for any other element, you would not be disappointed. You might even be amazed! The fight choreography so exceeds every Jackie Chan movie before it that many others suddenly seem boring. The moves here are fast, fluid, and clever. The first time I watched it I was literally so amazed by the fighting that I had to see it a second time for the story to make any sense. Granted you may very well not have THAT strong a reaction, but if you like great Martial Arts you should be well pleased.

Content:
There is some foul language. It’s not too bad, but it’s worse than a TV show. This is a fighting movie so of course there’s violence and not the kind where nobody gets hurt like some JC movies. People die, but it’s not particularly gruesome. There’s nothing sexual in the movie.

DVD:
I held out for a long time to see if the rumored 2-disc version would come out. So far I have seen no signs of such a thing, at least not for American audiences. The Columbia Tristar release has its problems, but it’s overall the best version I’ve seen available. For starters it’s a 2.35 anamorphic widescreen transfer much cleaner than any I’ve ever seen (for this movie, I mean). I would be willing to bet that you will not find a better version picture-wise.

Unfortunately audio is not as impressive. There’s only so much you can do with a poor-quality mono audio track. I suppose they did a decent job cleaning it up except for one glaring problem, the audio had evidently deteriorated so much in places that it wouldn’t transfer. Therefore they replaced it with English dialogue. The language jumps which is disorienting. Of the many reviews I’ve read this is the biggest bone of contention even to the point of some people advising against buying the DVD for no other reason. I think they’re overreacting, but I do agree that it's a pain.

Yes, I prefer the original language track to English dubbing, and I think that they could have easily recreated the audio in the same language rather than English, but I don’t hate the whole movie because of it. Some have complained that it’s frustrating because the original language track does exist intact, but even if that’s true it may have its own problems that are worse than what we’re dealing with here or may be lost in legalities of some sort. The bottom line is this is what you get, and if the swapping between languages bugs you, watch the whole thing in English. That’s what I do. It’s not original, but neither does it change.

This is actually a fairly decent language dub compared to many others, but it often sounds too serious. On the VHS version I used to have (which offered ONLY English) the guy playing Sam Seed had a distinctive, drunk-old-man voice that was so comedic it was cartoonish. I was extremely disappointed to hear a different voice on the DVD. In fact, I loved that guy’s voice so much that if they ever release a DVD version with him on it I might buy another copy.

There is some debate over whether this is truly the uncut version it claims to be. It is possibly uncut from the Hong Kong print used in the transfer, but common consensus is that there are portions of fights and other scenes missing.

The cover art is a good picture of Jackie, the case is plastic, and the DVD menus standard. There are a couple of previews that are no big deal, but this DVD offers one thing that makes it worth the money, one of the best commentaries ever!

The commentary is great because it is so historically informative. One guy is a Jackie expert having helped in the writing of his autobiography, and the other is a renowned expert on Hong Kong cinema. They give a lot of excellent info on the making of the movie, the stars in it (particularly those not well-known in America), and the societal context of several plot points. If you have ANY real interest in Hong Kong cinema you don’t need to pass up this commentary!

Final Thoughts:
This is an outstanding movie especially compared to others of its time and genre. The DVD offers excellent picture quality but lacks when it comes to audio. The movie and commentary are good enough that it gets 4*. The audio problems and lack of other features keep it from getting a perfect 5. It is most definitely worth a rental for anyone that likes Jackie Chan and Martial Arts movies even a little (if you don’t like anything Jackie outside Rush Hour you may not care for it much). For Jackie collectors you may well want to research other versions since there may be imports that you would prefer (they won’t have the picture quality or the great commentary, but may possibly have additional footage and fewer audio problems), but whichever release you get, if you buy any of Jackie’s older movies I highly recommend this be near the top of your list.

Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Good for a Rainy Day
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older