Kung Fu Hustle

Cast: Stephen Chow, Yuen Wah, Leung Siu Lung, Dong Zhi Hua, Chiu Chi Ling, Xing Yu, Chan Kwok Kwan, Yuen Qui, Lam Suet
Director: Stephen Chow
Screenplay: Stephen Chow, et al
Genre: Action/Adventure/Comedy
Rated: MA 15+ medium level violence
Running Time: 99 Minutes

So Many Gangsters...So Little Time.

Synopsis:
Stephen Chow's follow-up to 'Shaolin Soccer'(2001) ups the over-the-top action quotient by about three zillion percent. The story is set in 1930s Hong Kong, with Chow as a shaggy-haired, would-be bad guy named Sing, who gets caught up in the middle of a war between the top-hat-wearing Axe gang and the hard scrabble inhabitants of Pig Sty Alley. Chow--who wrote, produced, and directed--doesn't step in as the star here for quite a while, letting the comic duties fly in a myriad of directions: a landlady in curlers (Yuen Qiu) has a yell that can flatten buildings; people get kicked across courtyards and through walls; musician assassins whip ghost sabres from lyre strings, and a mental patient in pink flip-flops named "the Beast" (Leung Siu Lung) catches bullets in his fingers.

My Verdict:
Trying to explain 'Kung Fu Hustle' is like trying to answer the question to the meaning of life…umm, where do I start? Director and writer Stephen Chow, uses himself in the lead role of Sing, a reluctant hero who hustles his way through life in the 1930's in China, poking fun at plenty of movies along the way, including his own 'Shaolin Soccer' with the quote, "No more soccer!"

Sing appears in the overcrowded Pig Sty Alley, which has a few of its own eccentric characters, including Landlady and a rather effeminate tailor, who are in the midst of a gang war with the Axe Gang. Sing inadvertently becomes involved in the ongoing feud, which is the signal for Chow to show off his skills. A very thin storyline is then held together with some over-the-top displays of martial art skills and some very entertaining and hilarious action sequences. Added to this is a love story sub-plot involving Sing and a childhood ally.

'Kung Fu Hustle' starts with action and continues relentlessly, with eye-popping visuals and stunning computer generated images that defy description. This is quite unlike any mainstream kung fu movie, if there can indeed be one, for it intentionally oversteps the boundaries time and time again, yet it doesn't make a mockery of itself.

Very much a mixed bag of genres, 'Kung Fu Hustle' is Stephen Chow's biggest foray into the foreign market and may take him on the road to Hollywood. Whether he wants to go or not, is another question but whatever happens, don't miss this big chance to get on board one of Chow's movies and really see what he's made of.

Rating : ***½

Christina Bruce