Kung Fu Hustle (Stephen Chow)

[JigSta]

Just watched it. Nice movie. Great CG action. Great music. Had a great time spotting the homages to older films/series. The story was atrocious though Most of the characters were not developed, ie. Sing's sidekick, Ice cream girl, beast, even the axe gang leader. Unfortunately, the self indulgence in referencing older movies ruined the whole story. Don't get me wrong though, I enjoyed the references, but the cost to story was way too high. I still don't even know why he hit beast during his 'turning' point....there was no indication of him 'struggling' with what he was trying to do (become a 'bad guy')

The real stars of the movie, as everyone has mentioned, is the landlord and the landlady. I love em

Is he making a sequel? Hopefully Huang Sheng Yi gets an actual role this time...

[smrr00]

Huang Sheng Yi? Is that the name of the lollipop girl?

[Gunner]

Huang Sheng Yi? Is that the name of the lollipop girl?

yep, Eva Huang Sheng Yi

[moonlight-sonata]

do u guys actually like this movie? the ads for it looks really bad...
sorry for fans

[cmu_wasabi]

do u guys actually like this movie? the ads for it looks really bad...
sorry for fans

Have u seen the movie actually? you can't judge a movie by the trailers. But I must admit, I was a little turned off when I saw the first trailers that came out around last year. But I ended loving this movie to death.

[Eliar Swiftfire]

do u guys actually like this movie? the ads for it looks really bad...
sorry for fans

Fans should feel SORRY because the ADS for it look bad? Sheesh. Great logic, man.

[Smirkfix_23]

Stephen Chow and the original cast from Shaolin Soccer did a great job on the fight scenes, too bad the mute girl couldn't speak. Story line was good, very funny! The CGI was excellent, typical Centrio entertainment.

[kamii]

I loved the movie! It was great, so funny as usual. And i loved the characters that were borrowed from some old wuxia novels. Especially the martial arts manual bit at the end! Not interested in Buddhism Palm?

[moonlight-sonata]

Fans should feel SORRY because the ADS for it look bad? Sheesh. Great logic, man.

im saying sorry to the fans of KungFu Hustle if i insulted them....
geez.

[SkineePanda]

Who thought that the sissy tailor was the best character? ..............Red undies

[MYF]

Psuedo-review:


Aye yaye yaye, what the hell has happened with Chow lately?

I just managed to watch the DVD of this today and I must say in my most miserly tone that it is one of the worst Stephen Chow films I have seen (heck, I even sat through the tripe that was 'Lawyer Laywer')

It doesn't even compare with the accessibility of Shaolin Soccer - which is probably Chow's most restrained and matured comedic work - in that the plot is wafer thin with humour that is reduced to stock comedic sterotypes. Who, just manage to carry the plot forwards like some staggering hybrid action cartoon for adul-kids (although this might be a homage to his slave days on space shuttle 430 ) My main gripe with this is that it seems to be a regression back to some of his early early work like 'Fight back to school' where the structure of the film is based on episodic gags; and ignoring the progress he had made with Shaolin Soccer.

Another big gripe I hade when watching this was the fact that Chow seems to be getting lazy - I mean basically all his movies follow a simple pattern:

- There is an oddball who doesn't fit in
- This oddball (chow) has the raw potential to do whatever the main subject of the film is about (boxing, cooking, gambling) He is extremely gifted.
- Through a bad character trait (ambition, arrogance) he falls from grace and loses everything he has (or becomes even lower than before)
- Chow will eventually stumble across a girl or buddy who will help him out of this trouble. Here he will learn what it is that he has done wrong and change himself.
- Chow confronts bad guy. Wins. Hoorah!

There, thats the basic chow formula the good old riches-to-rags-to-riches again story. Me sniff the stale smell of fleshy rawness Its time for him to change somewhat I think (but what do I know, its made him lots of money so far and nobody else is complaining!)

Hmm... there are some people that would say I missed the point of this movie - that it is about Chow's homage to old Kung Fu movies, and characters don't matter because its about the fight scenes.

Well, to that I would say that it is a fair point, perhaps I didn't 'get the movie' but I did spot most of the homages, its just that all the homages really did hamper the film and gave it an aura of over self-indulgence. Sure Kill Bill had hundreds of references, but that film wasn't just about the references because the references accompanied the storyline. Whereas I came away from Kung Fu Hustle with the impression that the story was only there because Chow could tag a load of 'cool looking' fight scenes together with some people he had admired as a kid (and what's with the references to the Hulk and Gangs of New York? )

Speaking of which, the fight scenes were atrocious, the choreography though, was particularly nice.

So what the hell went wrong?

Well, the most tragic trend in Hong Kong cinema took hold, and vomited up its ugly cg bile all over the screen anytime something 'amazing' was supposed to happen. Witness the fight between the three merchants and the axe gang, this I thought was one of the best scenes in the entire film (albiet the set up was cheesy - but hey, we're in cheesy chop-socky territory here), but as things get more intense, theres a friggin CG dust cloud happening and bodies start floating around with glitchy computer game physics.

The result? one well choreographed fight scene thoroughly sodomized.

And throughout the film this is repeated, the filmmakers obviously deciding to take the easy route out by CG everything that would take some practice or skill to do - the finest example of which, and the most telling example of the poor quality CG that was to come, was when a group of kids playing football is interrupted by Chow who steals the ball, does some god-aweful CG kickups, stamps on it, and then yells 'Still playing football?!'

I could list some more examples too, such as the fight with 'chi' swords coming out of the lyre (bloody stupid) chow getting his face smashed in by beast, and the pointlessly pretentious cipher character of the lollipop girl. But I won't, I think I've complained enough about the movie. I might need to watch it again to start liking it once the my main gripes about it are gone, as I've grown up on Chow films and his brand of quick-fire comedy always holds some appeal despite my snobby opinions....

As for box-office records as indicator of a films quality - need I use Titanic as a reminder?

[atlantean0208]

are you high or something while watching this movie - we're certainly not watching the same movie - are we not?

[cmu_wasabi]

Hey for those of you guys in the US and would like to get a taste of KFH on the big screen, there are advanced screenings in several cities this month. New York is the 1st one on the 17th.

http://www.campuscircle.net/screening/kfh/

So mad that I can't go to the Boston one becuz I have an exam the next day

[Red Piggy]

i loved the martial arts scenes but the story was nothing to be bragged on.

[JamesG]

Just watched it last night. It's an over the top movie that's lots of fun. Kung Fu with a large grain of salt.

[Bubblegum]

I watched this lastnight too. I liked this movie, it was good and there wasn't a single moment in this movie that felt draggy. It was funny but I still think Shaolin Soccer was funnier. I love the fight scenes. Those two harpists were awesome even though they looked a bit scary hehe.

I thought the ending was so sweet when Stephen and his partner opened a candy shop, and the moment where the couple finally met...

[yuenwooping]

What do DVD manufacturers like to do?

Milk releases for what they can get - this one has apparently more special features plus a Stephen Chow figurine

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Kung Fu Hustle (Figure Edition)

Who's plumping for this? I have the big box with the watch which is now going for good value but not the 2 disc edition yet?

Anyone bought this so far?

[moonlight-sonata]

this film is coming out in Australia soon, and a movie critic has given it an A-. I can't believe that they gave it that, it certainly didn't deserve it. I think that the Austrlian public does not wish to offend China and so they gave it such good reviews. I mean, come on.

It was probably one of the worst movies I have ever seen in my life.

[JamesG]

this film is coming out in Australia soon, and a movie critic has given it an A-. I can't believe that they gave it that, it certainly didn't deserve it. I think that the Austrlian public does not wish to offend China and so they gave it such good reviews. I mean, come on.

It was probably one of the worst movies I have ever seen in my life.

Did you understand that the movie was a parody of the usual kung fu movies? Every thing and every character was over-done on purpose.

[arachidonic]

Kung Fu Hustle is a great movie for laughs.