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That is unless you live in Pig Sty Alley, where it seems kung fu geniuses come from where you least expect them. But even the resident kung fu geniuses can't stop the fury of the Axe Gang! Kung Fu Hustle follows the attempts of the humble residents to do so. Meanwhile, wannabe bad guy Sing (Stephen Chow) and his dumb friend Bone (Lam Chi-chung) try to find their true self in order to help the village.
Kung Fu Hustle is a bit of a bizarre mish-mash of genres that go from action and comedy to surreal and outlandish. It is in trying to acclimate myself to that absurdity that I found the film to be more fun. I really didn't know much about it, so it took me a while to adjust my bearings to the tone of it, but I laughed all the way through that while.
Within all the absurdity, the film still manages to present some cool direction, pretty kick-ass coreographies (fight and dance!), and some neat special effects. The characters from both sides are colorful and fun, which makes it easier to warm up to their antics, and the performances from most are quite solid, especially Yuen Qiu as the Landlady, Danny Chan Kwok-kwan and Leung Siu-lung as the main bad guys.
Chow is competent as the lead, and has some good comedic timing with Lam. However, my main issue with the film is that for most of the first two acts, the character of Sing sits pretty much on the sidelines and doesn't really do much. This makes for his rapid transformation into "natural-born kung fu genius" to not feel fully organic. Like the Landlady said above, it takes time.
Grade:
KUNG FU HUSTLE
(2004, Chow)
Freebie
(2004, Chow)
Freebie
"Becoming a top fighter takes time, unless you're a natural-born kung-fu genius, and they're 1 in a million."
That is unless you live in Pig Sty Alley, where it seems kung fu geniuses come from where you least expect them. But even the resident kung fu geniuses can't stop the fury of the Axe Gang! Kung Fu Hustle follows the attempts of the humble residents to do so. Meanwhile, wannabe bad guy Sing (Stephen Chow) and his dumb friend Bone (Lam Chi-chung) try to find their true self in order to help the village.
Kung Fu Hustle is a bit of a bizarre mish-mash of genres that go from action and comedy to surreal and outlandish. It is in trying to acclimate myself to that absurdity that I found the film to be more fun. I really didn't know much about it, so it took me a while to adjust my bearings to the tone of it, but I laughed all the way through that while.
Within all the absurdity, the film still manages to present some cool direction, pretty kick-ass coreographies (fight and dance!), and some neat special effects. The characters from both sides are colorful and fun, which makes it easier to warm up to their antics, and the performances from most are quite solid, especially Yuen Qiu as the Landlady, Danny Chan Kwok-kwan and Leung Siu-lung as the main bad guys.
Chow is competent as the lead, and has some good comedic timing with Lam. However, my main issue with the film is that for most of the first two acts, the character of Sing sits pretty much on the sidelines and doesn't really do much. This makes for his rapid transformation into "natural-born kung fu genius" to not feel fully organic. Like the Landlady said above, it takes time.
Grade: