The most important and entertaining star of east Asian cinema, Jackie Chan survived a boyhood in a punishing Peking Opera school, and his early screen days as “the next Bruce Lee” to create his own genre of martial-arts comedies. In each, he blended his engaging personality with beautifully choreographed, literally death-defying stunts —which, famously, Jackie performed himself. In his 1978 breakthrough, Yuen Wo-ping’s Drunken Master, Chan played the real-life kung-fu hero Wong Fei-hung as an impish young man in need of a sifu (teacher) who could purify his technique and his spirit. In the sequel, 16 years later, Jackie is still a young Fei-hung (Anita Mui, eight years his junior, played his mother!), now up against malicious generals, spies and a hundred bad guys with superhuman fighting skills. The greatest of these is Ken Lo (Chan’s offscreen bodyguard), whose battle over hot coals is an exhibition of flying arms and feet that leaves the two actors exhausted and the viewer’s jaw on the floor. Jackie starred in, and directed, many wonderful action films in his pre-Hollywood days. This one can stand at the peak.
