What is it?
The 2004 action comedy movie Kung Fu Hustle.
What is it about?
This is how Rotten Tomatoes describes this movie:
The work of international superstar Stephen Chow, Kung Fu Hustle is a humorous, special-effects-filled, action-packed martial arts epic set in early ’40s China.
A bumbling thief named Sing (Stephen Chow) desires to be the toughest member of the dreaded gangster hit squad known as The Axe Gang, but to completely join the gang he has to commit murder.
When Sing attempts to rob a crowded run-down apartment complex known as Pig Sty Alley, the locals begin to defend themselves with some high-flying kung fu skills, and a tiny war erupts between the local masters and the axe-wielding gang.
After the gang busts the ancient kung fu king known as The Beast (Leung Siu Lung) out of jail, tensions reach a boiling point as Pig Sty Alley’s landlady (Yuen Qiu) leads an all-out attack against the gang and Sing discovers his true heroic fate.
Kung Fu Hustle, which set box-office records across Asia during its December 2004 release, also stars Yuen Wah and Xing Yu, and features fight choreography by legendary masters of martial arts cinema Yuen Woo Ping and Sammo Hung.
~ Jason Gibner, Rovi
My Thoughts
I think that I saw this movie once years ago at the house of my former male classmate DH, we both liked martial arts movies and I liked Shaolin Soccer, and so we expected to like this movie.
The tone of this movie surprises you from the very beginning, it can go from serious to wacky/cartoony in an instant, and it somehow works and is like a live action American cartoon combined with a Chinese martial arts/gang movie. 😀
I probably have not seen any movie quite like this since I saw this years ago, it made us laugh, and there were some interesting over-the-top fight scenes.
The people who made this movie should have been the people to make the live action Dragon Ball movie, and it would have been better if they had made it.
There is just something about the comedy style of this movie and Shaolin Soccer that works for me and that reminds me of the old style comedy that I grew up with as a kid, and it is not a style that you see that much of these days.
I think that this movie is worth watching at least once just for its interesting comedy and martial arts action combination alone.
The end,
-John Jr
John Jr's Blog 