For my mom's birthday today, we decided to catch a movie as a family. The choice? Stephen Chow's Kung Fu Hustle. You in the US might remember Chow from Shaolin Soccer. I've been watching this guy's movies on videos and our Chinese movie cable channel for a while now. He's a kung fu hero in the same vein as Jacky Chan, though more focused on the comedic aspects of kung fu movies. You could say, he's really a comedian first, an action star second.
Anyway, Kung Fu Hustle rocks. I guess the backing from Columbia Films gave them a good enough budget... and it shows. This was a fun, albeit simple, movie. The focus of the story first revolved around a small resident community which had escaped the attention of the notorious Axe Gang. That changed when a pair of swindlers (Chow and his friend) tried to pass themselves as members of the Axe Gang to extort money from the residents of that compound. The residents naturally fought back, displaying a remarkable acumen for martial arts. This brought the attention of the Axe Gang on the community and martial arts hijinks ensued.
The action was fast and furious. The storyline buildup was even akin to Dragonball, where tougher martial artists come out one after the other to fight. Even the humor came out punching (especially in one scene involving a botched assassination attempt with a knife, man, did that scene hurt my jaw from laughing out loud).
The special effects were on par with those of the Matrix and its sequels. They outdid themselves with this one. Simply said, the movie was like watching an action-comedy anime in live-action.
The movie even felt like an old-school martial arts movie. Small stuff such as the references to the animal styles ("He's using the Toad Style!"), using a lot of Shaolin names for the absurd moves (e.g. Buddha Palm), the old mentors, the powerful hidden martial artists... even martial artists who use musical instruments were in here. Plain fun.
Strange fact, the cutest female in the entire movie did not even have any lines. Well, she was a mute...
Overall, a well-spent hour-and-a-half. I'm still grinning from remembering the movie.