I thought that was excellent for the Shaw films I have seen so far.
This film is excellent because it looks great. The cinematography was really nice for one of these films, framed with thought. The zooming in this film was not bad and there weren't any reaction capturing close up zooms that these films are littered with.
One specific moment that I found questionable was using light for a useless little scare on the audience. Making a character lit bright green. It worked in that characters opening shot, but some later shots specifically looked not real and extra light hit the clothing they were wearing rather than just the face, which works something special.
There was a nice story here. A conman's travels and eventual settling in a certain village he has fooled for a long time. He was a good hearted defend the poor and treat the bourgeoisie like arse, but he puts his own self before the poor.
The main actor Yue Wong is great. A real special character and performance. His kung fu was excellent, I love that animal style stuff specifically when Jackie Chan in 'Around the World in 80 Days,' one of my childhood films, does the demonstration of the different styles, so I was very impressed and surprised when this was a part of the plot. The kung fu all round, in fact, is incredible, it was probably the better of the chopsocky Shaw films I have seen so far. 'The Brave Archer' had some excellent kung fu but it was not raw, it was supernatural stuff which has a different spellbounding affect on the audience.
The action comedy preceding 'Drunken Master' demonstrates action scenes with comedic moments and then brutality which is exactly what Jackie Chan did with his movies, and it is done competitively so here.
The opening scene has the opening titles freeze framing a demonstration to the audience of some true spiritual boxing which is just so magnificent. It sets a wonderful scene for a great kung fu movie and a well done story, foreshadowing and pay off. Well done.
