Dance of the Drunk Mantis

Watch Dance of the Drunk Mantis (Nan bei zui quan, 1979) online on iFILM — a Hong Kong martial-arts comedy directed by Yuen Woo-ping, the action choreographer behind The Matrix and Kill Bill. Shot a year after Drunken Master, it revisits the Drunken Fist world with a new lead and the same elastic, self-aware wit.

Young Foggy discovers he has a father — Sam the Seed, a wandering Drunken Fist expert. Sam's training sessions go nowhere fast, so a perpetually ailing uncle who sleeps in a coffin steps in with his own "sick style" of kung fu. The outside threat arrives in the form of Rubber Legs, a rival master who fuses Drunken Fist with Mantis technique and travels the countryside looking for opponents to eliminate.

Simon Yuen and Hwang Jang Lee anchor the cast. Looser than its predecessor, the film still lands its fight sequences with real snap. Stream Dance of the Drunk Mantis online on iFILM.