TAOISM DRUNKARD (1984)
Directed by: Yuen Cheung-yan
Starring: The Yuen Clan
Set your freak machine to 1983 and let that baby spin, cause when you open your eyes you'll see Lord Ruthless with no palms throwing his multiplying cluster bomb in your face; the weird, spherical Watermelon Monster chasing you on its stumpy legs and trying to wrap its electronic tentacles around your boobs; old Granny smoking her bong and spinning on her throw cushion; flying sleeves, antenna hair, the Mannequin Man, catapulting bombs, traps, rats, drunkards...freak out!
Boiling up your brain like a western omelet, Taoism Drunkard is the freakiest movie you'll ever see. Characters scurry up walls and leap from ceiling to floor, supported on invisible wires courtesy of the filmmakers, the Yuen Clan. These five brothers moved to Hong Kong with their father, Simon Yuen, as kids. Dad was a homeschooling Chinese Opera teacher who taught his kids wild acrobatics and kung fu, while employing them as stunt men on the numerous films he fight directed, including the legendary, long-running Wong Fei-hung series.
The Yuen Clan has gone on to individual fame. Yuen Wo-ping is the number one name in action right now, thanks to his work on Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and The Matrix. He also directed Iron Monkey, now mopping up at the box office. Yeun Cheung-yan, who directed Taoism Drunkard, was the fight director on Charlie’s Angels. But their weirdest work was done when, like a giant Japanese robot, the five Yuen brothers would join together to form one lean, mean, freaky machine: the Yuen Clan. Taoism Drunkard is, dare we suggest it, their weirdest movie ever.
A weird, wiggy explosion of talent and surreal brio, Taoism Drunkard is unavailable on video and rarely screened. It's an absurdist ambush that springs itself at the audience, claws at their skulls, and pulls out their brains. It takes their brains out on the town and gets them soused at a cheap gin mill while watching three-armed strippers do a fan dance with seals. Then it buys the brains tickets to a Mexican wrestling match, feeds them a lot of sauerkraut, drives them out to Three Mile Island and finally, ninety minutes later, returns them — groggy, dyspeptic and burping — to their owners.