A kung fu film that’s nothing like you’ve seen

Kung Fu Hustle; 1:39; R, for strong action and violence; Grade: B

After snagging the prize for Best Picture from the Hong Kong Film Awards, and setting box office records in Hong Kong (beating out director/screenwriter/star Stephen Chow’s own Shaolin Soccer), Kung Fu Hustle now aims to capture the hearts of an American audience. While it probably won’t make a tremendous amount of money stateside, it’s sure to win over just about anybody curious enough to see it. Whether you end up loving it, or at least liking it, one thing is for sure—it’s like nothing you’ve ever seen before.

It’s also likely that we’ll be seeing more of Stephen Chow. In Hong Kong, the only actor with greater box office draw is Jackie Chan, and like Chan, Chow’s knack for comedic timing easily matches his skills as a martial artist.

And it is Chow’s flare for comedy that makes Kung Fu Hustle such an enjoyable experience. A giddy, kinetic, relentlessly slapstick kung fu farce, Kung Fu Hustle is the first R-rated movie I’ve ever seen that feels more like a Saturday morning cartoon than anything else.

In a sense, Kung Fu Hustle reminds me of Scream, Galaxy Quest, and Dodgeball. Just as Scream is a great horror movie while spoofing horror movies; just as Galaxy Quest is a send-up of sci-fi, yet still a good sci-fi; just as Dodgeball embraces sports movies while making fun of them; so too is Kung Fu Hustle a loving poke at martial arts films of the past (and a few Hollywood films too), yet it never forgets what it is—a kung fu movie.

Standing on the merits of the kung fu action alone, Kung Fu Hustle is pretty cool, but not particularly great. Chow leans very heavily on CGI animation for his action sequences, and that is the biggest weakness of this movie. I don’t have a problem with CGI animation; if it’s done right, it can be mind blowing; i.e., The Matrix. Chow, however, did not have the bottomless budget for Kung Fu Hustle like the Wachowski brothers had for The Matrix and it shows in the special effects department. Personally, I would’ve appreciated seeing something a little more low-tech for this movie.

But martial arts action is not the reason to see Kung Fu Hustle. Sometimes uproariously funny, Kung Fu Hustle maintains a playfully silly tone throughout its entire running time. It even manages to throw in a full-blown musical production at the onset, setting the tone for a movie that is not meant to be taken seriously (speaking of music, by the way, the original score by Hong Kong composer Raymond Wong is very good).

The plot is pretty bare bones. Chow plays a street-thug who wishes to join the ranks of the infamous Axe Gang. When he and his lethargic buddy venture to the impoverished Pigsty Alley, they pretend to be members of the gang to finagle free services. Not only are they unable to intimidate the neighborhood, they end up inadvertently causing and getting caught between a war between the Axe Gang and Pigsty Alley.

Mostly, the plot exists only to dish up another kung fu sequence and more laughs. That’s not intended as a criticism. Over the top kung fu and comedy are exactly what Chow was going for in Kung Fu Hustle, and he succeeds, with a level of competence and inventiveness exhibited by few others. I can’t guarantee that you’ll enjoy Kung Fu Hustle. I can, however, guarantee that you’ll never see anything like it again. At least not until the next Stephen Chow movie.