Shaolin Soccer’s Stephen Chow is back and this time he’s doin’ the Hustle…
Stephen Chow’s triumphant return to the cinema some three years after Shaolin Soccer was originally released not only broke the record that film set of highest grossing Hong Kong made film at the HK box office, but also the Chinese box office record set by Hero for best opening weekend.
Chow plays Sing, a two-bit hustler who along with his side kick Bone (Lamb Tse Chung) pretends to be a member of the notorious Axe Gang in order to lord power over an apartment block appropriately know as Pig Sty Alley. His feeble attempts only succeed in bringing the block to the attention of the real Axe Gang, and their leader Brother Sum (Chan Kwok Kwan).
However, if Sum thinks the tenants of Pig Sty Alley look like a pushover, he and his hundred strong army of tuxedoed gangsters are in for a surprise, as the noodle maker, tailor and coolie are all in fact kung fu masters. Unable to accept his ungraceful humiliation at their hands, Sum employs every method available to him to get his revenge - even the second best killers in the business - only to find that the constantly bickering landlord and landlady of the tenement (Yuen Wah and Yuen Qiu) are also masters of kung fu.
Perhaps it’s time to get the best killer out of the asylum - only he’s not known as The Beast for nothing…
In many respects, Kung Fu Hustle employs the same premise as Shaolin Soccer, that the most unlikely looking people can be martial art masters. As silly as Chow’s previous films - it even turns into a live action version of a Road Runner cartoon at one point - the action itself is taken pretty seriously, and like some of his earlier work (such as King of Comedy) he diverts into real drama at some points, making you care about the characters involved.
It’s undoubtedly his most accomplished work to date, with cinematographer Poon Hang Sang (The Iceman Cometh, The 51st State) helping to add a slick but stylised veneer to the piece. Even the narrative flow seems to have improved, where previously his films often felt like they jumped between one sketch and another.
Fans of Stephen Chow will spot that his obligatory Bruce Lee reference is the WHOLE movie this time. It’s also part homage to the Shaw Brothers studio classics of the 1960s and 1970s, reproducing the lush costume design and production values of those films. The Pig Sty Alley itself is a direct reference to House of 72 Tenants. The lyre assassins directly reference a sequence in Buddha’s Palm (which is also the style Chow’s character learns), and the film that stretched and expanded that lyre gimmick across a whole movie, Deadful Melody.
And Chow proves as playful as ever with his references - from his first appearance toying with a football before crushing it underfoot proclaiming ‘There will be no more soccer!’ He manages to get characters to quote the Spider-man motif ‘With great power comes great responsibility.’ Even the final showdown, with hundreds of suited gangsters facing just one combatant, is extremely reminiscent of Uma’s showdown with the Yakusa in the first Kill Bill film. (Both movies were choreographed by Yuen Woo-ping, who also worked on The Matrix and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.)
Chow is joined by several of his cohorts from Shaolin Soccer, including Lamb Tse Chung, who played Little Brother #6, and Chan Kwok Kwan, who played Little Brother #4 - the Bruce Lee look-alike goalie. Yet the real stars of the movie are Yuen Wah and Yuen Qiu. Wah, who spent most of the 1980s playing sideman to his fellow Yuen Chinese Opera school graduates Yuen Biao, Sammo Hung and Jackie Chan, and Qiu, another graduate of that school who appeared uncredited in the Bond film The Man With The Golden Gun. Two underrated and all but forgotten stars who do such a great job that we’re destined to see much more of the in the future. In fact Chow’s generosity as star and director knows no bounds, as he rewards his cast with as much screen time, if not more, than himself.
Once again, Chow has turned the martial arts genre on its head and inverted every preconception you had - and he’s made you laugh doing it. Kung Fu Hustle is a worthy successor to Shaolin Soccer that should see Stephen Chow build on his international prominence. An unmissible and very silly comedy!
DVD details
Distributor: Columbia (Hong Kong)
A great transfer in picture and sound, let down by a real lack of extras.
There are several versions of the DVD available including a very limited edition gift set which includes a host of printed material, a Hand paperweight, and even a watch!
