After watching the movie Kung Fu Hustle, the first thing that comes to mind is “What on the earth was Stephen Chow thinking?” The movie Kung Fu Hustle is a very good action movie yet at the same time is a very good comedy. It however begs that the question of what it really is be asked. The thesis therefore is whether or not Kung Fu Hustle is a generic comedy rip off of previous Hong Kong movies or a cartoon or a unique movie in its own right. It is important to first analyze the elements to answer this question.
Stephen Chow has always been regarded as a talented good looking actor but not many realize that he was a very creative film maker as well. Even in 2001 when “Shaolin Soccer” came out and became recognized throughout the world, many still did not know Stephen Chow was behind this movie. After knowing that “Kungfu Hustle” was written, directed, acted by Stephen Chow, I was very astonished by his sense of humor, creativity, enthusiasm, and ability to attract audience. His films are very similar to Jackie Chan’s work. However, with the same genre of acrobatic martial art comedy film, Stephen Chow’s works distinguish itself from Jackie Chan’s. Both directors have sense of humor and ability to make martial art film enjoyable without distinction of age or sex, however, their approach to make it enjoyable is a little bit different. Stephen Chow, at least in this movie “Kungfu Hustle”, focuses on the computer graphics, fantasy, and imagination. It even makes an atmosphere of the film like cartoon film.
The setting of the film Kung Fu Hustle, directed by Stephen Chow, is in the streets of early 1930s Shanghai which is ripe with corruption and greed. The Axe Gang has run a monopoly of all gang related affairs. The only places that have escaped the grip of their control are the slumps that house the lower-class citizens. Although they lived in awful conditions, they were happy. That all changed when the act of a single man starts a war between the simple people of Pig Sty Alley and the ruthless criminals of the Axe Gang.
With this simple story, Stephen Chow fully shows his talent in making movie magic. The unusual casting of characters helps even more in making the film very entertaining. A sense of comedy is created with the characterization of a big fat woman, a husband who always gets bitten by wife, and a homosexual man. However working with unique characters Stephen Chow rather chooses to make it unusual rather than ordinary. Involving many computer graphics throughout the film, this film becomes even more unusual. There are several particular scenes that make this movie a very unique, interesting, and cartoon-like film.
One of these scenes is when Stephen Chow with his unbelievable imagination, crafts a new weapon made of Chinese traditional instrument that is composed of several strings. A scene where two musicians fight against three martial arts masters is just too funny. Every time those musicians touch strings of the instrument, knifes and weapons are produced and fly towards the three masters, killing them. It is a very unrealistic and very cartoon-like scene. Who could ever think of using instruments as a weapons producer? It is possible because of Stephen’s uncontrollable and wild imagination.
Like a cartoon, where main character is tracked by someone or animal, the feet of the characters are shown like they are wheels to convey the feeling of the main character running really hard. “Kung Fu Hustle” also contains a scene just like this one. The fat, loud, evil landlord of the Pigsty town is resisting the Axe Gang and finally realizes that she cannot win against them and tries to run away from them. She is running too fast and finally her feet have become a wheel just like in cartoons. Moreover, the woman even flies and then nails her body to the signboard and her body becomes like a piece of paper. Like the theory of this movie, an airplane is not needed because you can fly and there will be no one who is suffering from dieting because you can be thinner by nailing your body into the signboard. However as everyone knows this is only imagination and this is what makes this movie like a cartoon.
Almost towards the end, is the high-light of the movie when Sing realizes that he is the only one who can keep the world in the order and that he is not a bad guy after all. He then helps Pigsty town people and defeats enemy by using his hidden power of Buddhist Palm Manual. As soon as he uses that power, the building behind him becomes imprinted with giant palm shape impression. Everything around him whirls with wind because of his power, which was actually the greatest computer graphic technique used through out the whole film.
This movie showcases the magic of Hong Kong cinema. From the fight scenes, to the lighting, to the props and even the stereotypical Hong Kong cinema characters all bring back the magic that the Hong Kong cinema was once known all over the world for. This film is clearly heavily influenced by classic Chinese martial arts literature and Shaw Brother films. By employing an arsenal of different fighting techniques in the film, when these techniques are deployed against each other, the audience is reintroduced to the mystical world where the Toad Fighting Style puts up a challenging fight against the Buddha Palm Fist technique and each fighter is given ample amount of screen time to flesh out their unique characters.
The main problem however is that the director, Stephen Chow, is unable to decide whether or not he wants the movie to highlight the action through kung fu or to make the audience laugh. The result is a half baked movie in which there is not enough comedy or action to satisfy the audience. One scene in particular, when Chow’s character and the landlady engage into a Looney Toon-ish chase sequence, shows the struggle that Chow had in deciding the flow of the movie. While the scene was good for a few laughs, it was clearly a knock off from old cartoons scenes and early Jackie Chan movies.
On a technical level, this movie is able to show just how much CGI can help a film. CGI particularly helped this movie because of the action-comedy genre that Stephen Chow chose and greatly highlighted the experience of the audience. The basic elements such as lighting and cinematography were also all very well done as Stephen Chow was properly able to create serious yet somehow non-vicious and hilarious fight scenes that would surely leave a real man dead and the audience rolling in the aisles in laughter.
While, as mentioned earlier, the director seems confused as to what type of movie he wants to create and focus on, what actually results is a unique blend of action-comedy that surpasses even the best of Jackie Chan movies and places Stephen Chow in a league of his own and no longer under the shadow of other successful Hong Kong directors. After a long day’s work, this is a great movie to watch that doesn’t require thinking and elicits a ton of laughs.
On a personal note, the first half of the film was very fresh for me. I have never experienced this kind of the film but then as time goes on, this film draws me in even more and more into Stephen Chow’s imagination. Throughout the whole movie I felt as if I was a young child and watching an animated cartoon. You do not just watch “Kungfu Hustle”, but you live it, laughing all the way. With many cartoon-like scenes and computer graphics, you might as well cry because it is too funny. “Kungfu Hustle” definitely shows Stephen Chow’s style of work and his creativity. Also his creativity is what makes him most different from other directors.
