Review of Kung Fu Hustle (2004) by Viet Phuong N — 14 Jul 2013

Some said this film is somehow weaker than Shaolin Soccer in term of originality. I agree. But every single time watching this film, even only a portion of it, still brings me joy, pleasure, and emotions.

That is how Kung Fu Hustle works, on three layers to be exact. The first layer of joy is for the ordinary viewer who has no idea about what is a Stephen Chow's film or what it is all about the Hong Kong cinema, since the film itself is a magnificent piece of over-the-top CGI that could jolt anyone, even my father who did not know this is a Chinese or HK film.

Thanks to this layer (which the previous films of Chow often ignored) that Kung Fu Hustle was a huge success to the common audience, even the Americans who would be absolutely unable to understand the essence of the Chow's style of storytelling.

The second layer of pleasure is dedicated to the avid fans of Hong Kong cinema and Chinese wuxia genre (literature and cinema in a whole) who will hundred percent go crazy about the tons of homage to the wuxia world, from the idiosyncratic characters of Jin Yong, to the crazy martial styles in the old Shaw Brothers films or the outdated TVB wuxia series, and of course the appearance of the kungfu legends of Hong Kong cinema who reinvented their roles in the most hilarious yet fully righteous way.

The final layer, the emotional one, is reserved for the lifetime crazy fans of Stephen Chow, including myself, who can simply recall the Chow's identity from every single details of the film, who would cry their eyes out thinking about why Chow does not want to bring us HIS films any more, who still find joy in the new Journey to the West but somehow feel a deepen hole in their love to cinema thinking back about how excellent Chow was in the 1995 version.

Suddenly I think about how similar Chow and Quentin Tarantino are, in term of originality, in term of their love to cinema, and in the amount of joy that they have brought to cinephiles around the world.

Too bad that Quentin still makes films, good films that is, while Chow is simply nowhere to find...