The Movie

Drink Drank Drunk is a romantic comedy directed by Derek Yee (One Nite in Mongkok, Lost in Time) about a Budweiser beer promotion girl who falls in love with a French-born Chinese guy named Michel. The movie is a decent attempt at a love-stricken comedy, complete with slapstick performances and an all-around goofy cast.

Headlining the cast are Miriam Yeung (Love Undercover) as Siu Min and Daniel Wu (New Police Story) as Michel. Siu Min works nights at a local hotpot run by her gay boss and friend Bo Bo (Vincent Kok) as a beer promotion girl for Budweiser with her friends Rene (Renee Dai) and Toby (Toby Leung). As a beer promotion girl, she tries to get the patrons to buy Budweiser branded beer. She has a nickname "Ms. Never Drunk", because she is immune to the effects of alcohol. There are some ridiculous scenes with her drinking guys under the table because of her inability to get drunk. At the age of twenty-nine, she has no significant other and she is still looking for mister right.

Michel is Chinese, but he grew up in France. When he was younger, he tried to get into a university, but he grades weren't good enough. He was able to get into culinary school, which he found he loved. Michel came to China to open a Chinese/French fusion-style restaurant. He believes fusion-style cooking, the blending/mixing of different cultural cuisines, is the wave of the future. He hopes to take his cooking back to France and win an honorary award for his cooking.

On a chance evening, Siu Min and Michel's paths and their lives are changed forever. Michel's French/Chinese restaurant has been less than success. No one in the neighborhood is interested in trying his fancy, sophisticated food and he is forced to close the restaurant. Bankrupt, he drinks himself into a stupor. And it happened to be where Siu Min was working. One thing leads to another and she decides to take care of him for the evening, as he is drunk and without a place to stay.

After learning more about Michel, his dreams and aspirations, Siu Min decides she wants to help him. She proposes they go into business together. Siu Min will rent the restaurant space in the daytime and run a coffee shop and Michel can continue to run his French/Chinese restaurant. She also agrees to let him stay in her apartment. And so their relationship begins as business partners and quickly becomes something more.

Unfortunately, there are things standing in their way. First of all, the very goofy character Brother Kau (Alex Fong) is in love with Siu Min. He makes repeated attempts to get her to fall in love with him. Michel also has a friend from his traveling days visit and Siu Min fears he will inspire Michel to leave Hong Kong. Then there is the owner of a multi-restaurant, international catering group Jie Zhao (Wu Jing). Jie offers Michel something too good to pass up and she really complicates things between Michel and Siu Min.

What works for the movie is the sheer goofiness. None of the characters are very serious and they tend to make use of slapstick comedy and general silliness well. For instance, Brother Kau is pure slapstick and he makes use of physical comedy quite well with his goofy antics. There are also some fun situations like when Bo Bo tries to set Siu Min up with a fifty-one year old university professor or when Siu Min outlines the household rules to Michel.

What does not work for the movie is the pace and story. The movie is slow going, lasting an arduous hour and forty minutes. After a while, I felt like I was forcing myself to pay attention. Sure there are some funny, goofy characters, but nothing so inspiring comes from the film that I felt like I gained anything from watching it. The story is pretty light without much to pull you in. As mentioned, there are a few fun scenes, but beyond, there is little to keep your interest.

In the end, Drink Drank Drunk is a decent romantic comedy that has some goofy fun characters, but lacks a strong plot and good pacing. For those who enjoy the goofy, non-serious romantic comedies, then Drank Drank Drunk should be on your list to watch. It is a mindless film you do not need to think about to enjoy. However, it is one of those movies if you never see, you won't be missing out on much.

The DVD

Video:
The movie is presented in anamorphic 1.78:1 widescreen color. The picture is relatively good looking with minimal color flaws, but there are distinct compression distortions noticeable throughout the feature and some minor aliasing.

Audio:
The audio is given in Cantonese and Mandarin 5.1 channel Dolby surround sound. The 5.1 track seems overkill as it is dialogue driven. Despite, the dialogue is audible throughout the presentation.

There are subtitles in Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, and English. The English subtitles are readable with a few grammatical errors here and there.

Extras:
The first extra is Making Of Featurette (14:17). It stars producer Henry Fong and he talks about the movie, why did they pick beer as the subject matter, the characters, the story, the cast's chemistry, and so on. The featurette also includes interviews with Miriam Yeung, Daniel Wu, Alex Fong, Wu Jing, and Vincent Kok. The featurette has English subtitles and burnt-in Chinese subtitles. Next is Outtakes (2:00), which features several goofs during filming. There are no subtitles supplied, so I have no idea what they said or why it was funny. Deleted Scenes (6:04) is a clip with four deleted and alternative scenes. It comes with English subtitles.

There is also a clip of trailers for House of Fury, Initial D, Chiseen, Wind and Cloud: Storm Riders, and One Nite in Mongkok when you first start up the DVD, and trailers selectable from the special features menu for Drink Drank Drunk, Chok Dee the Kickboxer, 2 Young, Throwdow, and The Monster.

Final Thoughts:
Drink Drank Drunk is a romantic comedy that tries to be a goofy ball of fun. And while the movie offers some fun and goofy characters like Brother Kau and Bo Bo, the movie fails on a couple levels. I found the story to be very limited and the pacing to be far too slow. There were too many times I had to force myself to finish watching the movie. In the end, Drink Drank Drunk is a decent attempt at a romantic comedy that is great for those who enjoy mindless goofy films, but don't expect too much from it.