Review of Kung Fu Hustle (2004) by Steve C — 01 Jan 2011

[size=3]The first surprise about Kung Fu Hustle: It's been in release in Chicago for a little over a month, and is playing at ONE stinkin' theater! What the hell?? What about all the great reviews? All the TV ads? It must have something to do with the movie being subtitled.

There's no way I'm going to be able to paint you a picture of this one with simple words. Kung Fu Hustle is an incredible blend of martial arts/comic book action, colorful and likeable characters, choreography, and a little dash of heart whereupon a young Sing (played as an adult by director Stephen Chow) faces a gang picking on a mute girl and gets humiliated in the process. The soundtrack is brilliant as it captures and enhances the comic tone that runs throughout the movie.

Upon trying to describe Kung Fu Hustle, the phrase "pop art in a blender" comes to mind. There are visual references to The Shining, Looney Tunes' Coyote and Roadrunner, Michael Madsen's dancing madman sequence in Reservoir Dogs, and spoken references to Marvel Comics' Spiderman and The Matrix. However, using the blender metaphor implies that the end result of the ingredients is a green, foamy mix. Such is not the case here. The direction and editing is executed to near perfection. The fight choreography is by Yuen Wo-Ping (Kill Bill Volumes I and II, The Matrix trilogy, and the upcoming Unleashed). It's all really clean... there's plenty of fighting with an extreme minimum of sadism and gore.

To cut it short, because I'm giving this movie an obvious recommendation, Kung Fu Hustle may very well be just a kung fu flick with a simple kung fu story dressed up by high production values. But man, does it work! Very much in the same manner that Die Hard caught me by surprise... walking in going "ah yeah right, a Bruce Willis action flick", and walking out in an action movie daze feeling stunned and happy. I've walked out of crappy movies like the 21st century version of The Mummy with friends dogging me with comments like "Well what'dya expect? It's an ACTION movie!" Right. An action movie with a shell of CGI techno-wow that has nothing in the middle. But THIS one had me aglow and marvelling at the effects and action, while chuckling in whimsy all the way through in its characterizations: the chain-smoking slumlord landlady whose martial specialty is a scream; two knuckleheads who unsuccessfully attempt to gain membership in the feared Axe Gang, who are well-dressed, dance in sync, and sport top hats on occasion; the Beast, the "greatest kung fu master in the world", who is rescued from a mental asylum. The only characterization that didn't sit well with me (at first) was that of a slumlord tailor who scampered about in a playing out of a homosexual stereotype. Hmm. I checked with my friend Anthony on this character, and having seen the movie, he replied smilingly, with mock scorn. "Oh, yes, I was [i]terribly [/i]offended, and I took this stereotype personally on behalf of myself and the rest of the gay community...", then told me he really liked the movie. Well fuck it, if he's not bothered by it, why should I be?

As in Shaolin Soccer, Stephen Chow's release prior to this one, the action is farcical. Combatants are knocked through many layers of walls and rise to fight some more. The main character is propelled high into the clouds, and upon reaching his ascent he finds footing on the back of a hawk and propels himself higher. The laws of physics are rudely shoved aside, yet the action remains compelling.[/size].