Kung-Fu Hustle is being billed as a “comedy unlike any you’ve ever seen before.” Those who have seen the director’s previous film, Shaolin Soccer, most likely doubt that, since the advertisements showcase a film that harkens back to the cartoon chaos of that comedy. Still, this is definitely a familiar case of the limitations of a 30-second ad, because Kung-Fu Hustle makes Shaolin Soccer look like a dress rehearsal.
For those unfamiliar with Stephen Chow, the director and star of Kung-Fu Hustle, imagine the rubber-faced antics of Jim Carrey transplanted into a martial arts background, and you’ll begin to understand. Here, Chow plays a foolish drifter named Sing who wanders into an isolated town fascinated by the legends of the ruthless Ax Gang, a notorious group of pinstripe-suited gangsters. When Sing attempts to join the Ax Gang, he inadvertently sets off a turf war between them and the quiet residents of a neighborhood known as the “Pig Sty Alley.”
Pig Sty Alley is a broken down shantytown run by a cagey landlady (Yuen Qui), who gets irate enough to bellow her unstoppable “Lion’s Roar” when rent is due. While she seems to be the figurehead of the Pig Sty, it’s only war that reveals the inhabitants of the small sector of town being home to a number of older, superpowered martial artists. When Sing sees the Ax Gang is merely bullying these innocents, he is torn, and his allegiance is tested.
The action here is choreographed by the legendary Yuen Wo-Ping, the mastermind behind the now-legendary battles loved by Western audiences in The Matrix and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. But make no mistake — this is some outlandish stuff. One character is nigh-invincible, while another can morph into a toad and slam his body into combatants. The film’s highlight are the No. 1 Killers, two musicians who use their string instruments to unleash sound waves in the form of swords and fists. While there’s no shortage of conventional kung-fu here, there’s an embarrassment of riches when it comes to some of the more unconventional fighting styles you’ll ever see in a film.
For such a trifle of a comedy, Kung-Fu Hustle is a bold film. In a move sure to attract the expected Western audience that usually feels alienated by these types of films, Chow mercilessly mocks Spider-Man and The Lord of the Rings, jabs made in good fun that reflect, for once, Asian cinema stealing from American films — not the other way around. A few cheeky references to moments from Kill Bill and The Matrix also poke fun at films that originally co-opted popular Asian film concepts and placed an undue weight on the Asian cinema of today to climb nonexistent mountains — all to please fickle Western moviegoers. Kung-Fu Hustle is cheerily its own beast, but one self-aware enough to distance itself from boxed-in expectations.
