Dance of the Drunk Mantis 1979

One year after teaching a young Freddy Wong in Drunken Master, Beggar So, Simon Yuen Siu-Tien / Sam Seed, returns to find that his wife has adopted a son named Foggy, Yuen Shun-Yi. Foggy’s presence unsettles Beggar So, and he subjects the boy to harsh mental and physical torment, a cruelty that devastates Foggy and drives him to run away.

Foggy slips away and finds work at an inn, where he crosses paths with Rubber Legs, Hwang Jang-Lee, and his student. He overhears their dark plan: they are hunting Beggar So and intend to kill him, hoping to cement Rubber Legs’ grip on a powerful Northern style that mixes with a drunken impulse. The intrigue surrounding their aim underscores a looming clash between old master and rival.

When Foggy returns home to warn Beggar So, the two head to the inn where Rubber Legs has arranged a drinking feast. The confrontation erupts as Rubber Legs unveils his combined drunk mantis fists and Northern style, a deadly hybrid that Beggar So cannot counter. Beggar So is driven to the edge and falls gravely ill, leaving Foggy to witness the collapse of his adoptive father’s strength.

Desperate for a cure, Beggar So sends Foggy to a sickness teacher for herbs. The doctor introduces a dreaded discipline known as Sickness Boxing, a brutal art that reshapes Foggy’s approach to combat. This new, fevered discipline becomes Foggy’s tool as he readies himself for the looming clash of his life: a future fight framed by the Drunk Mantis tradition.

Armed with the ominous power of Sickness Boxing, Foggy steps into his transformed battlefield mindset. He moves with a frenzied resolve, and the culmination arrives when Foggy murders Rubber Legs in a moment of uncontrollable rage. Yet the victory is haunted by trance-like echoes: whenever he gazes at Beggar So, the memory of Rubber Legs resurfaces, triggering a lethal impulse. The film closes on a freeze-frame as Foggy lunges after his adopted father, while the sickness doctor looks on, watching the tragedy unfold.