Master of the Drunken Fist: Beggar So (2016) User Reviews

A very unforgettable addition to the martial arts genre...

[paul_haakonsen · 3/10 · 3 December 2019]

When I stumbled upon the 2016 Chinese Kung Fu movie "Master of the Drunken Fist: Beggar So", of course I took the time to sit down to watch it, as I do enjoy martial arts movies and Asian movies quite a lot. And usually the movies that include the drunken style of Kung Fu tends to be rather enjoyable.

However, turns out that this 2016 movie from director Jian Yong Guo wasn't one such movie. Sure, it did include the drunken style Kung Fu, but this was hardly an enjoyable movie. Why, you may ask? Well, because of the storyline, the acting and the dialogue.

The storyline and script was just almost as far from being interesting as it could possibly be. And the flow of the movie wasn't really an overly appealing one, as it was slow and tedious, taking forever to make little progress. And it didn't really help that the characters were like cardboard cut outs with little or no distinctive personalities.

As for the acting in the movie, well it was stunted and mediocre for the most parts, which was a factor that the movie suffered terribly from. And with the atrocious dialogue that the writer had mustered, then the actors were fighting and losing an uphill battle.

It should be said that the props and costumes were actually good, and the martial arts scenes were also good enough. But these things were hardly enough to make up for all the shortcomings of the movie.

I am rating the movie a mere three out of ten stars. I managed to endure just a little more than one hour of this ordeal, and I have zero interest in returning to finish the rest of the movie, because it just failed to be entertaining. I only endured a whole hour because I wanted to give the movie a fair chance and hoped it would eventually pick up its pacing.

Good Viewing

[bjmcook · 3/10 · 25 April 2020]

I enjoyed film. Story line kept me interested & had some twists to it. Fight scenes were not too numerous, long or exhausting.Loved subtitles. I usually don't watch these type of movies for more than a few minutes. This film told a story, highlighted with martial arts.

Good Try, But Not Good Enough

[jah9000 · 2/10 · 8 August 2017]

There are a few things to like about this presentation. The fight choreography wasn't bad. There was an appropriate amount of humor, which is more or less inevitable in a Drunken Style story.

There are quite a few more negatives:

1. The score was kind of one-dimensional and overly moody. It seemed more like the soundtrack of a video game than a deliberate attempt to augment a story with music.

2. There was a disappointing amount of martial arts, and when it occurred, it was generally underwhelming. Drunken fighting was even less present - which is a significant problem, for obvious reasons. There was also no real narrative relationship between the hero and the form.

He trains a bit, but he sucks at it. And then his master disappears, never to return. He "learns the secret" of Drunken Fist after being weirdly electrocuted by chi lightning while in jail, and proceeds to more impressively beat up a water barrel than any enemy he later defeats.

It's nonsensical and disjointed, and doesn't take Drunken Fist seriously (within the idiom, at least).

3. The villain is a super cheesy stereotype, complete with absurdly fake white hair and giant crazy man eyebrows.

4. There are a slew of important characters who appear out of nowhere, or vanish into nowhere, or have secret motives revealed out of the blue.

5. There is an overabundance of moody interludes, in which the hero is staring into the middle ground, breathing heavily.

6. There are numerous pointless relationships, such as the annoying woman in the brothel who supposedly harshly abandoned Beggar So when his fortunes turned, AND stole a pile of his money. Yet, there's no lead-in to this betrayal, so nobody gives a flip. It's just an absurdity, and the audience dislikes the character because she's acted badly, not because anything she did in the narrative. The "master" - I just can't get over the fact he just wanders on. He writes some letter and bails. He never faces his old foe. He's never killed so as to motivate Beggar So. He just leaves mid-story and that's that. Prior to that, he doesn't make much of an impact. He doesn't train So in any meaningful fashion - even though the realization of Drunken Fist is supposed to be his life's great dream. And then... in spite of that same fact... he just shoves off before seeing whether or not So pulls it off... WHAT? Then, his daughter... There's no chemistry, and no attempt to simulate it. She's just kind of there, and she has female body parts, and so we're expected to agree that there's a deep and great love affair going on. That's helped along (not at all) by a weird, sudden, random sex fantasy in the mind of So. Otherwise, she's furniture, existing mainly to end up a distressed damsel at the climax, when Captain Eyebrows threatens her life in a bid to escape.

7. The movie is in Chinese, with subtitles. That's cool. But it also seems to be overdubbed in Chinese. I'm sure there's some reason for this - but it's annoying. Extremely annoying.

I gave it a 2. I say it's a good effort, with a good bit of attention to detail in certain important areas. That rating is largely based upon the first segment of the flick, which is watchable and even capable of instilling false hope - but after Su Can gets arrested, the fail parade begins.

Be advised: You can't UNwatch it.

Avoid at all costs.

[eldergreyscion · 1/10 · 2 March 2017]

I love terrible kung fu movies. That being said, this was so much worse than terrible that I couldn't even finish it. If a film could give a human being cancer, this would be the one. The fight choreography was decent. The direction, acting, dialogue and everything else about the movie made me want to strangle puppies. HBO did a very, very poor job of rendering this story watchable. 1/10 can not watch. Can also not watch the next movie because I've poured bleach in my eyes in order to not be haunted by this crap.

Horrible

[gtgod-1 · 1/10 · 21 May 2021]

This was a terrible film -- not well done at all. I wouldn't even bother watching it, given that there are so many better movies in this genre.

The good: Not much. Costuming was lovely. That was about it.

The bad: The story, the acting, the pacing of the film (ponderous).

The ugly: That I actually /purchased/ this DVD. Thankfully, it cost less than $1, but it wasn't worth that.

Bottom line: Avoid this. Most kung fu/wuxia films are at least entertaining for the action sequences, but this is just a couple of hours I'll never get back.

beautifully choreographed

[unclefrancis-81094 · 10/10 · 21 May 2023]

True to classic Chinese cinema, cheesy in all the right places. Great take on old fable. I know squat about Chinese cinema, any cinema for that matter. I know I like this movie though! I love it and I want everyone to know that it is worth watching. These other fools haven't got a clue either. I'm glad it's not dubbed in English. The fight scenes are full of great stunt work. They aren't running through the tree today or any crap like that, wushu and drunken style kung fu is just fun to watch. Many styles of kung Fu are represented in this film including chi gong, Shaolin and ti chi. I can't attest to the costume or historical accuracy.