The Bottom Line: Watch it for the laugh-out-loud hilarious scenes, the eye-popping CGI effects, the amazing fight scene choreography and the martial art masters doing it like it's meant to be done
Stephen Chow is a household name in South-East Asia. For the past 15 years or so, he has been associated with big-screen screwball comedies. Chow cut his teeth and paid his dues on children’s TV, and if he had the occasional laugh at the little tykes’ expense, who could blame him? Six years toiling on children’s TV, and one could be forgiven for a whole lot worse. He graduated to TV series where he showed off his comedic talent until he got his big break in cinema. For a long time, capitalizing on his unique brand of humour (deadpan zany), he starred in half a dozen forgettable movies a year. But all changed with Shaolin Soccer where he got his taste for directing; no doubt it also whetted his appetite for CGI.
Whereas the North American release of Shaolin Soccer was mangled by Miramax (who bought it, shelved it for a couple of years, then proceeded to edit the life out of it before subjecting it to the indignity of a half-hearted release), Sony Pictures Classics actually worked with Chow from the beginning to the end of the production of Kung Fu Hustle. Chow claims he got them to work with him by insisting on (and adhering to) a very low budget.
This exuberant, no-holds-barred, cross-genre martial arts action comedy took 3 years in the making, an unprecedented span in Hong Kong film-making where movies are churned out a dime a dozen. Chow assumed the mantle of actor-director-script-writer-casting-director, and his dedication to his baby shows.
Kung Fu Hustle is set in pre-WWII Shanghai, in the golden hey-day of gangsters, drug-trafficking and arms-dealing. The Axe Gang holds sway, its boss a cold-blooded killer who shoots a gangster’s moll in the back when he has promised her she could escape with her life. While he dances (in sync with his henchmen) in celebration, our hero (Chow as Sing) realises a hard truth—only the bad guys seem to have any real power while the good guys get beaten up pretty bad and fairly regularly.
With his portly inept sidekick, Sing impersonates an Axe Gang member to try his hand at extortion. They hit upon Pig-Sty Alley, a poverty-stricken tenement lorded over by the nightdress-wearing, curlers-in-hair, ciggie-dangling-from-lip Landlady. Incidentally, Pig-Sty Alley is a play on Kowloon City (the Chinese characters are almost homonyms) where Chow might have grown up in real life.
I will not go into the plot as it’s already been reviewed at length by reviewers before me. In some movies, plot leads and characters follow. In Kung Fu Hustle, the characters are the stars and the director a master of style. But the question is this: Does his style translate well to a western audience? I would like to say that talent and comedy transcend all barriers, and to an extent, that is true. But I daresay Kung Fu Hustle will not be to everyone’s taste. Personally, I’m getting a tad tired of seeing people flattened against billboards Wile. E. Coyote-style, which, trust me, is not the first or last time in a Stephen Chow movie. To add the Road Runner wheels-for-legs in a chase scene verged, IMHO, on the juvenile. But that’s about all that I have against this movie, and it’s the western Looney Tunes aspect that annoys me. In point of fact, there’s really that very little to dislike. Chow turns in a solid, self-deprecating, performance. It’s obvious that a lot went into the execution of the movie, from the sumptuous sets, the stunning CGI effects, and the all-out fight scenes.
Chow is a pro and a talented pro at that. Apart from being a fine actor with an instinctive sense of comedic timing, he’s proven himself to be one heck of a director. He has a great feel for which people to use, although having Yuen Wo Ping (The Matrix, Kill Bill, and a hundred odd HK-based martial arts movies) as the fight-coordinator/action choreographer must have been a no-brainer. Chow’s casting, of real talent, as opposed to just big names, was spot-on, from the Landlady (Yuen Qiu) and her lecherous husband (Yuen Wah) to the martial arts experts (Hua Dong Zhi as Donut, Ling Chiu Chi as Tailor, Yu Xing as Coolie) to tubby sidekick (Lam Chi Chung) and the demure deaf-mute love interest (Huang Shengyi).
Incidentally, I found the romantic interest very well-executed for all that it was (or perhaps because it was) so understated, from the unplanned reunion that went very wrong indeed, to the childhood flashback that explained it all. There is something very poignant about vainly piecing together a smashed giant lollipop, after all. And the camera shot that swerves through 360 degrees from the grown-up Sing and Fong to them as children was one of my favourite. (Hey, call me a sap.)
True, there will be people who’ll say Chow’s not in the same league as Zhang Yi Mou (Hero; House of Flying Daggers) or Ang Lee (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon), or, and I take strong exception to this one, Wong Kar Wai (2046; In The Mood For Love) as there isn’t even the commonality of martial arts in Wong’s art-house movies.
[A sidebar here: I don’t care how many local and/or international awards Wong Kar Wai wins, 2046 was a piece of pretentious crap (even though Tony Leung and Zhang Ziyi gave solid performances), and that’s money and a couple of hours of my life I ain’t ever getting back. End of raving.]
As I was saying, Chow is talented and he’s ambitious and he’s a very young 42. His philosophy is to entertain, a most laudable aim in the field of, let’s face it, entertainment. While there’s a need for people like Zhang Yi Mou and Ang Lee, there’s certainly room for people like Chow. He understands that the script is the soul of the film and he’s all for combining the roles of director and script-writer so that the execution will stay true to the dream.
I see better things yet to come from him. Way to go, Chow. His all-time hero, Bruce Lee (to whom he gave homage in the final fight scene where Sing appears naked from the waist up), would be proud.
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