I found it on an IRC channel — #kungfu-underground. The file name: drunken_master_ts.avi . 700 MB. Estimated time: 14 hours.

Today, you can stream Drunken Master in HD on five different platforms. You can download it legally in two clicks. But you’ll never know the drunken, stumbling joy of chasing it for a week, failing, and finally landing the punch.

This was the era of 56K modems and Napster’s infancy. You didn’t download movies. You prayed.

My parents needed the phone line at 6 PM. So at 2 AM, I started the download. LimeWire, BearShare, eMule — all failed. But mIRC with a resume-capable DCC? That worked.

I watched it three times that night. I didn’t sleep.