I'm no Hong Kong action aficionado, but I've been making a point to see every Jackie Chan picture released in the States since Rumble in the Bronx back in 1995. "Drunken Master II", a.k.a. The Legend of Drunken Master, has been around since 1994, but I'm just seeing it now in this new dubbed release from Dimension Films.

That The Legend of Drunken Master is just getting released now when American distributors have been digging up mediocre efforts like Twin Dragons for years is a little surprising. I do believe that Legend is the most solid--funniest, most action-packed, and most free of that endless exposition and tedium these pictures sometimes throw at you--of any Chan picture I've seen.

In The Legend of Drunken Master, Chan plays Wong Fei-hong, dutiful son of his dad, Master Wong (played by an actor who looks about 3 years Chan's junior). Fei-hong is a master of drunken boxing, a style of martial arts with a set of really kooky moves. You don't need to be drunk to use drunken boxing, but adding a little alcohol makes the fighter more limber and less effected by pain.

The plot kicks into gear with a mix-up up on a train. Trying to find his ginseng, Fei-hong accidentally steals a small jade artifact from a British ambassador who has in turn stolen it from China. Thus Fei-hong becomes embroiled in a plot by the ambassador to plunder and export priceless Chinese artifacts. He must be stopped!

This British Ambassador is really the perfect baddie for a kung fu film. Everything annoys him. He's having trouble at his steel mill or the martial arts school next door is keeping him awake at night, and his attitude to his henchmen is like, "well blast it all, I don't care if it leads to more bloody kung fu battles, just deal with it!"

The Legend of Drunken Master has some amazing fight scenes that left the audience I saw it with gasping. Fei-hong and a friend are attacked by 50 axe-wielding assassins in an empty restaurant; a battle in a steel mill employs burning steel rods and flaming oil . . . quality stuff.

But for my money, the best part of the picture was Fei-hong's step-mother, played by Anita Mui. Madame Wong dotes on Fei-hong and is a master at using her feminine wiles to defy her conservative and domineering husband. She is also a master martial artist--think a kung fu Lucy Ricardo. She's totally awesome.

The Legend of Drunken Master is a must for anyone who's ever dug Jackie Chan before . . . and if you're planning on introducing someone who's not so sure about the genre, definitely start here before you pull out Twin Dragons or Who Am I?

It's kung fugu-tastic.