02/12/10 - Kung fu (Kung Fu Hustle)

Kung fu (Kung Fu Hustle) (2004, 95 min)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0373074/

This (along with Black Dynamite) was what was originally planned for yesterday. But it ended up being bumped to today. For some reason, Kung fu retains the distinction of being the movie I saw since college that has not been placed in my movie log. For some reason I never put it down and I have no idea on what day it was seen. I remember not liking it that much, but as time as gone by, I've seen a ton of bad movies and recognized what it was actually doing and how good it was.

The film follows Sing (Stephen Chow) as he attempts to join the Axe Gang. His friend is Bone (Sing's Sidekick) played by Chi Chung Lam and the leader of the heralded Axe Gang is Brother Sum (Kwok-Kwan Chan). It turns out the area of the city he goes to has a ton of kung fu masters in the Landlady (Qiu Yuen) and the Landlord (Wah Yuen) and another trio. The Axe Gang, having been defeated by this group, hire The Beast (Siu-Lung Leung) to get their revenge.

Sadly, I can't recognize which of the acting is great and which is poor - at least as far as line delivery goes - because of the subtitles. As I can figure though, everything seems fine. The movie isn't really about the acting and, given the over-the-top nature it works well to actually have some bad acting thrown in there.

The movie is all about paying homage to kung fu movies while being absurd and over-the-top on its own. I feel it's a lot like Shoot 'Em Up (which came out later) in the respect that it doesn't take itself too seriously. It knows its not going to win prestigious awards so this works amazingly well for what it's trying to achieve. It uses a great blend of computer effects with real kung fu. The way the movie presents it, it doesn't matter that some of this kung fu is obviously fake. It's about the complete immersion in the joy of watching the zaniness of everything. Kung Fu Hustle gets this atmosphere exactly right. I don't consider myself a kung fu movie expert by a long shot, but I know the basic story of "reckless kid wants to prove himself and turns out to be a savior figure" which is what Kung Fu Hustle is. It's cliché but the movie knows this and presents it in a fun way.

The humor is worth mentioning as well. I get the impression a lot of the humor is really hit or miss but for me it's a resounding success. Kung Fu Hustle starts kind of slow as it sets up a weird plot and the humor here isn't as good to me. But once it gets going and everything starts to fall together it's great. There's quite a few hilarious moments scattered around in the middle to keep me laughing throughout and the conclusion is so over-the-top it's impossible not to like. By now, though, it really isn't all about humor but about the crazy kung fu.

There's also quite a few memorable characters in the movie. Most memorable is perhaps the assassins that play the instrument that shoots out the blades. It's a really cool concept and the movie uses it to great dramatic effect. The best shots (possibly of the movie as a whole for me) is how a side shot is used to set up the death of the first of the trio of kung fu masters. As he walks by he's on the right of the screen and in the left we see the blades of the music instrument hitting stuff as the assassin warms up. Some pots are shattered and a cat is killed before we see the master get suddenly decapitated. It's really well done.

One final note is the music. Kung Fu Hustle uses great music throughout. It's very western-esque to me for some reason perhaps because the movie is set up as "good versus evil." Or maybe because that's how older kung fu movies used a soundtrack. Whatever the reason, I really liked it.

Overall, I gave this film an 8/10. Kung Fu Hustle was easily 100 times better on a second watch when I knew what I was expecting. I blame my dislike on the first view mainly on not being used to the kung fu genre and the good "bad" movies - of which Kung Fu Hustle is one of the best. There's some slowness at the beginning as it sets up and sometimes stuff doesn't click all that well together, but on the whole, this is simply a great film.