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Underground > Film, TV & Theatre >

Kung fu hustle

11:39 / 06.07.05

saw this film last night and despite an unpro,ising title you know, i think it had some great moments and really interesting to see a mainstream chinese kung fu movie, with no pandering to the western markets, in cineplexes and doing well apparently

some bits jarred, particularly the camp characters who were a bit john inman for my liking (not even managing charles hawtrey levels of pathos) but the total joycore notion of a load of kung fu pensioners taking on the gangsters and their powered up henchmen was a real treat. and who can fail but to love the leading lady, with her curlers and fags and kung fu powers, the fight with the beast at the end was great

another bit i didn't like was the useless guy just becoming a martial arts superstar / buddhagod to wrap things up, but i wonder if that has genre precedents?

also chock full of movie references, only a few of which i am sure i got, and would quite like to see an annotated version sometime.

at the scarwash

15:25 / 06.07.05

yeah, it's a brilliant film. no, not at all surprised. Stephen Chiao is a genius.

as for the "useless guy just becoming a martial arts superstar / buddhagod just to wrap things up" having precedents, have you perhaps seen The Matrix?

15:36 / 06.07.05

Kung Fu Hustle is the best thing ever, and I'll deliver the flying Buddha palm to anyone who says otherwise.

Much of it was a very well observed parody of insane 70s kung fu movies and the silly things that tend to happen in them, such as the guy becoming a martial arts god in the last ten minutes and the fact that the village had a seemingly inexhaustable supply of kung fu masters in hiding.

"Who knew that the beast would be able to unblock his chi flow?"

15:41 / 06.07.05

Spoilers....

I mean, the bit where he gets shunted up into the sky by the beast's flying toad style, uses an passing eagle as a foothold and ascends further to meet a giant Buddha in the clouds who infuses him with kung fu power... How could you not love that?

15:57 / 06.07.05

Kung Fu Hustle is colossally entertaining. One of the most gloriously insanely inventive films in ages.

That battle with the two hitmen and the magic harp....WOW

lonely as a cloud...

08:28 / 07.07.05

Fantastic joycore entertainment, IMHO. I especially liked the dancing near the start, where it was first the axe gang boss, then cut back to the boss and a few henchmen, then more henchmen appear, etc. That was class.

15:00 / 08.07.05

Best "Knives Followed By Cobras" Sequence in all of Film History. EVAR!

D Terminator XXXIII

09:53 / 09.07.05

This movie deserves your undying love.

As evidenced here and here.

12:59 / 11.07.05

>as for the "useless guy just becoming a martial arts >superstar / buddhagod just to wrap things up" having >precedents, have you perhaps seen The Matrix?

ah yes, you know that one slipped by me, did anyone else notice the line where someone says 'with great power comes great responsibility' ? i wonder how that one went down in cantonese, and if the local audience would have recognised the line from cantonese dubbed versions of spiderman.

looking forward to a decent dvd release of this soon

22:23 / 15.07.05

Just saw this one.

I can't remember the last time I enjoyed myself so thoroughly in a movie theatre.

Lovely!

03:25 / 18.07.05

That battle with the two hitmen and the magic harp....WOW

My favorite part of the movie, without a doubt. That was NICE.

06:13 / 27.10.05

I'd just like to mention that this little gem is out on dvd since the 24th this month.

I've ordered it but haven't received it yet.

XXII:X:II = XXX

05:37 / 31.10.05

KUNG FU HUSTLE is the proverbial shit. It kicks ass, but it's so good-natured I'd probably have little hesitation in showing it to my five year old nephew (but I'm the "cool," slightly irresponsible uncle that way). You knew it was going to be great right from the start when Brother Sum tells that gangster moll (in that great, laconic delivery of his) he doesn't kill women, shotguns her down when she turns to leave, and then casually dances away.

BTW, the bum who keeps telling kids they have the bone structure of a kung fu genius, is he famous in Hong Kong action movies? I thought he was one guy, but he wasn't. His cameo seems like it would be something at which people who know those kinds of movies would say, "Hey, it's HIM!"

10:49 / 31.10.05

Got the DVD of this last week. It is great. It is fucking fantastic. Watched it on saturday and want to see it again straight away. I dunno about the old guy with the kung fu manual, but the extra features say that the landlady, landlord and the Beast are all old kung fu stars from the Shaw Brothers era. The actor that played the Beast was a hero of Stephen Chow's from the 70s and apparently hadnt acted in 10 years. So I daresay the old guy with the manual might also be a 70s martial arts actor. I think you can probably be forgiven for not recognising a lot of those guys though, as I'm not sure whether the bulk of the Shaw Brothers back catalogue has really had much of a release in the West.

12:52 / 31.10.05

I loved it. I made me think of Chuck Jones cartoons more than anything else. Especially the landlady. She was the best part.

23:44 / 02.01.06

Did anyone notice the line that one of the dying kung fu masters delivered was the same line that Sean Connery's character said in the Untouchables as he died? And then, "We can't understand what you're saying!"

I'm late to the party.

Henningjohnathan

18:01 / 03.01.06

A generally terrific film that actually turns in one of the best Kung Fu sequences at the end that you'll see.

I, too, am a big fan of the knife throwing plus cobras sequence. That is as good as anything Chaplin, Keaton or Lloyd ever came up with.

22:58 / 09.01.06

I especially liked the dancing near the start

My only complaint was that there wasn't more dancing...

00:52 / 10.01.06

Yeah, I really wanted more dancing. In a Kung Fu movie. Wait. No, I stand by that thought.

11:49 / 10.01.06

Dude, have you seen Takeshi's Zatoichi? Monster swordplay throughout, wrapped up by a massive Seven Brides for Seven Brothers-style barn-raising-cum-dancefest. Just wonderful. All these characters of whom you've grown fond get a chance to take their curtain call and go out toes a-tapping.

That's what Kung Fu Hustle needed for its ending. Come on... can't you see it? Zoom back from the candy shop... the music swells... and then the street is flooded with dancing kung-fu fighters, all doing their spotlight routines as the Axe Gang theme modulates to a major key... beautiful.

Of course, just about any film could be improved with a closing dance number. You know how moving the ending of Schindler's List was, with all the old people and their actor counterparts putting stones on Oskar Schindler's grave? Imagine that with dancing. Add some Swing Kids-style gypsy jazz and a little soft-shoe—it's gold, I tell you. I mean, admit it: you've always wanted to see Ben Kingsley tap-dance, haven't you?

lonely as a cloud...

12:51 / 10.01.06

Zatoichi was excellent - I especially liked the choreography all the way through where, e.g. guys were chopping logs and whatnot in time to the background music. And the big dance scene at the end was great, too.

17:53 / 10.01.06

you've always wanted to see Ben Kingsley tap-dance, haven't you?

You get to hear him sing in Twelfth Night...sadly, the best part of the whole film.

Our Lady Has Left the Building

12:24 / 15.01.06

This was the insane fun. I presume the film references were deliberate, what about when he goes down to the Beast's prison cell and it goes all Shining with the rivers of blood? It all seemed so much "you can take stuff from our films and we can take stuff from yours too!"

12:47 / 15.01.06

sidetrack...

Zatoichi was excellent - I especially liked the choreography all the way through where, e.g. guys were chopping logs and whatnot in time to the background music.

But they weren't! If you look closely you'll see they were hopelessly out of time.

This is my favourite thing about Takeshi Kitano, by the way. When he directs he doesn’t have a clue what he’s doing. I’m utterly convinced by this theory.

This is a guy who just happened to pick up a camera one day when a director left the project he was starring in. When I think about a lot of his stylistic techniques they remind me of the way RZA used to make music, the fuck it, let’s just try this approach, the stuff that any trained mind wouldn’t even think of doing, the attempts to pull off stuff that’s totally beyond him. That’s Kitano’s charm right there, and sometimes (Hana Bi, Sonatine) it works much better than at others (Brother).

... end sidetrack.