creative writing
Drunken Master
A Study of Genre
Synopsis:
Wong Fei-hung is a mischievous boy who consistently gets into trouble around town, after assaulting the son of a powerful family, hoping to instil some discipline into his son Wong is forced by his martial arts teaching father to train extra hard. Failing to learn discipline Wong’s father threatens he will instead have to learn from his sadistic uncle So Hi instead, afeared Wong begs for a second chance. However, Wong soon goes on to cause trouble at a local restaurant by trying to skip the bill and fighting the staff. With help from a drunken beggar Wong escapes to the woods, but soon finds the drunken beggar is none other than his uncle So Hi.
So Hi forces Wong to undergo a brutal training regime, Wong disapproves of the gruelling training and runs away from So Hi. On the run, Wong has an unfortunate meeting with notorious contract killer Thunderleg, feeling disrespected Thunderleg beats down Wong and leaves him humiliated.
Wong makes his way back to So Hi to resume his training with new determination. Meanwhile Thunderleg has been contracted to kill Wongs father by a business partner, Thunderleg is proving victorious against the father in the ensuing fight, when Wong and So Hi show up just in time to stop the assassination.
Wong and Thunderleg fight and both parties provide an even match up, that is until Thunderleg resorts to using his secret fighting style. Wong is on the back foot and confesses that he was only able to learn 6 of the 7 drunken master fighting styles, So Hi tells Wong to take everything he knows and create his own seventh style. Doing as directed Wong defeats Thunderleg with the new fighting style.
Main Characters:
Wong Fei-Hung – a cocky, rebellious youngster who keeps making bad decisions
So Hi – based on the Beggar So chinese myth, a constantly drunk martial artist
What I like about it:
The action is filmed and choreographed well, The comedy still mostly holds up.
Jackie Chans Beijing opera style of acting works perfectly in this comedic action movie
The focus on different style of Chinese martial arts is interesting to watch.
Blake Snyders Genre:
The Fool Triumphant
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Wong Fei-Hung
A Character Study
Name:
Wong Fei-Hung (Freddy Wong in some versions)
Age:
24
General physical description:
Young, Chinese, Athletic, medium/long black hair
Hometown:
Generic Unnamed Hong Kong Town
Type of home/ neighbourhood:
Small Village
Relationship status:
Single
Current family:
Mother, Father, Uncle (fathers Side) and aunt and cousin (mothers’ side)
Family background (parents, previous marriages, etc.):
Father owns a martial arts school; uncle is a renowned martial artist.
Friends:
3 unnamed men
Other close relationships:
house servant Ko Choi (plays an antagonistic role alongside father)
Relationship with men:
friendly to good people and combative to ill natured
Relationship with women:
womanising to potential mates and rude to others, mommy’s boy to mother
Job:
no job – martial arts student. Likely being trained to take over as teacher.
Dress style:
traditional basic early 20th century Chinese Martial arts clothing
Religion:
no religion – martial arts takes precedence over any other doctrine
Attitude to religion:
no feelings towards it
Favourite pastimes:
Fighting, hanging out with friends, lazing around
Hobbies:
Eating, fighting, entertaining other students during martial arts lessons
Favourite sports:
Fighting
Favourite foods:
Soy Pork, Roast Goose, Steamed Grouper, Shrimp Noodles, Wine.
Strongest positive personality trait:
Righteous
Strongest negative personality trait:
Foolhardy
Sense of humour:
constantly making jokes, makes fun of martial arts instructors, physically and verbally. Makes light of dire situations often.
Temper:
quick to fight at any indignation. Is scornful to anything he doesn’t like.
Consideration for others:
takes advantage of good-natured people, little regard for il mannered people, combative and rude to bad mannered people. Will also help anyone being victimised without hesitation.
How other people see him/her:
A good friend, a competent combatant, a class clown, foolish
Opinion of him/herself:
thinks they are untouchable due to martial prowess.
Other traits, especially those to be brought out in story:
constantly underestimates opponents and overestimates himself.
Ambitions:
Learn the 7 Xian of Drunken Boxing to never face humiliation in a fight again.
Philosophy of life:
If you are strong and charismatic enough you can do whatever you want
Most important thing to know about this character:
He is hypocritical, though he is quick to admonish those who do wrong, he is also likely to do wrong.
Will readers like or dislike this character, and why?
He fights for good most of the time but is shown to be a womaniser in front of his friends, he is too self-assured and makes bad decisions consistently. However, he is proven to be an underdog throughout the story, and we feel for his misfortune. People like this character due to the fact he turns any situation into a comedic moment or a impressive feat of skill.
Insomnia
A 200 Word Short Story Excerpt
Moonlight spills into a dark hallway and the sound of faint muffled sobbing can be heard. leaning against a cold wall; Anna hangs her head low, her dishevelled hair drapes over her gaunt face. She is holding her mobile phone to her ear and begins to regain her composure.
ANNA
Please... I just need them to stop.
Unhappy with the reply, her battered hands turn to fists and she begins shouting in anger.
ANNA
You think I don't know they're not real!? I can't stop them anymore.
A moment passes... she bangs her hand hard against the wall haphazardly and begins to move away. Turning, she catches a glimpse of something in her periphery. On the wall Beside her head, barely perceptible, a writhing black mass of legs in the darkness. Shocked her legs give way and she falls, looking up at the wall she sees only darkness, her eyes dart around the room as she raises the phone back to her ear.
ANNA
Yeah, I saw anoth...
she throws her phone down the hallway, the back panel falls away and reveals an empty shell without a battery. Anna curls into a ball on the floor, the muffled sobbing returns.
Isolation
An 800 Word Short Story
a young urban explorer named Pyotr searches through a small, abandoned town in rural Russia, miles from civilization he crawls through the broken windows, clambers haphazardly over caved in flooring and crawls below the crumbling infrastructure. armed only with a flashlight, he braves desolate locations looking for any treasures long forgotten and left behind.
after an hour of searching through the various empty houses and factories he stumbles across a small building, a large metal structure that once stood tall to the left has crumbled into the building causing a lot of destruction.
he walks inside to find an unassuming office mostly smashed by the metal structure.
PYOTR
a radio station?
the young man speaks to himself, squints his eyes and tilts his head before looking closer. he sees a metal plate that reads "authorized personnel only", the radio tower seems to have smashed open some heavy metal doors. Pyotr walks through the opening into a communications room, a lot of old military grade equipment is affixed to the walls. everything in the room looks broken and unused.
PYOTR
Huh?
a single dim red light is illuminated on one of the consoles,he walks over to the console and sees a transceiver and some very old pencils rotting on a metal console. he clicks the button next to the red light, static fizzles through the rusted old speaker for a few seconds before a faint voice starts to pierce through.
VYACHESLAV
I have not received word from anyone in 30 years, I only hope the information I gathered was worthwhile, it has cost us my life.
Pyotr picks up the transceiver and looks pensively at the console. what sounds like a deep sigh is emitted from the speakers
VYACHESLAV
I hear the static, you are pressing the button. if you can hear me...
static fizzes from the speaker, the red-light flicks back on. he clicks the button again and the voice starts up again.
VYACHESLAV
If I kept track correctly, it was my 68th birthday yesterday. making today April 4th, 2001.
Pyotr quickly sets a Nokia 5110 onto the desk and click open the voice recorder, raising the transceiver to his mouth and starts to speak
PYOTR
Who are you?
VYACHESLAV
more static, if there is someone there, send help. Coordinates 54.5N, 60.1E... if there is no-one there then...
the transceiver clicks and the speakers fade away, the transceiver powers down. Pyotr picks up his phone, turns off the recorder, labels the file "co-ordinates" and wanders around the room. looking inside some filling cabinets he finds a box of tapes with dates on the labels going back to the late 60's. he tries a few of the tape players in the room before finding one that works. most of the tapes have been wiped of any content, probably due to the magnetic interference of the radio tower.
he inserts a tape titled Soyuz 71 and starts up the voice recorder on his phone again.
VYACHESLAV
in 1969 the Americans successfully achieved moon landing and they even got their astronauts back alive. we cosmonauts were not always so lucky. it was 2 years later the Soyuz 11 shuttle was to dock with Salyut 1 space station, 3 good men were aboard the shuttle, it successfully docked with the Salyut and after 23 days of scientific experiments it made iridescent to earth. there were no survivors.
Pyotr takes out a black and white image of a young man and woman. he presses his fingers to the man in the picture and looks on fondly.
VYACHESLAV
I was aboard the Soyuz 11 Shuttle too, undocumented of course. the real mission was to get me up to the Salyut. I also had a few secret missions of my own that the other guys did not know about. First thing I had to do was make it look like an accident.
Pyotr clenched his fists and starts to tear up.
VYACHESLAV
I tampered with the bolts holding the descent and orbital modules together. it is a simple thing, they are meant to fire of sequentially,but I made them fire simultaneously. does not sound like much of an issue of course until you realize the force of the combined blast is strong enough too pen the breathing valve. it caused explosive decompression and they all asphyxiated in seconds. I will have to apologize to commander Leonov when I see him in the afterlife, it was his concerns of this happening during the simulations that made me think of it.
tears stream down Pyotr’s face as he stops the voice recorder on his phone, he starts to write a text on his phone, attaches the voice recording and writes the tagline "proof" before hitting send. signed Pyotr Leonov.
VYACHESLAV
my second mission is to stay aboard the station,use the equipment up here to monitor the Americans and report back periodically when the space station is above Russian airspace. so far, I have learned a few things we can use against President Ford...
Pyotr deletes the voice recording titled "Co-ordinates" befored punching at the buttons on the tape player to open it up, he rips out the tape leaving a long line of brown film still connected to the machine, he drops it on the floor and stomps on it. the tape lies shattered into a thousand pieces as Pyotr angrily marches out of the station.