Kung Fu Hustle (2004)

Cartoons have always been brainless fun, and Kung Fu Hustle is no exception. Imagine an Asian take on Looney Tunes, packed with real actors performing martial arts action, over the top laughs, and nary a real plot to be found. But like any cartoon, nobody goes in expecting a feasible screenplay, character development, or intellectual engagement. The audience demands fun and fun is exactly what they will get with Kung Fu Hustle.

Though the plot is besides the point, I am obligated as a writer to at least mention it. The story involves a prominent gang in Hong Kong during the 1930s, imaginatively known as the axe gang (I am guessing it's because they like to carry axes, though I could be wrong). Sing (Stephen Chow) and his friend wish to join but they have to kill someone as part of initiation. Of course they can't even do that right, and somehow a rivalry between the gang and the landlords of Pig Sty Ally ensues.

 

Smarts

66%

Not every movie should bother going through the motions of three acts, developing characters, or even a great deal of thinking. I know this is a dangerous suggestion to make, especially since now would not be the time to encourage Hollywood to get any lazier, but consider the plots behind "adult films" (a.k.a. your garden variety pornography), or should I say the lack of a plot? They are virtually non-existent.  I still remember an advertisement for Women in Black, where the government sends female "agents" to satisify the sexual desires of deadly aliens in order to secure the world's safety. The Academy must've missed this one. I'm not even sure why they even bother putting a plot in at all.  Anyone watching pornography is not watching it for the writing. Cartoons are made with the same idea, of course the content is drastically different (excusing freaky anime stuff).

Kung Fu Hustle is a screwball comedy, right down to the special effects, which include people dashing so fast that their legs suddenly spin in a circular motion like a wheel. The characters are bizarre, ranging from a landlady in pajamas with her hair in curlers, to Sing's long lost love who is mute, and even a tenant who slyly moons the camera ever so often. Did I forget to mention the axe gang likes to randomly break out into dancing?

But not everything Chow does is completely random. His latest movie is a comedic tribute to great moments in kung fu based films. Chow's film is reminiscent of The Matrix with a complete nobody transforming into a long awaited saivor. Our hero then takes on a familiar path of single-handedly defeating a swarm of the axe-gang, reassembling the showdown at the House of Blue Leaves in Kill Bill.  But in the mix, he even throws in an image of blood pouring out of the door, courtesy of The Shining. Chow's homages are as fast as his fists.

 

Popcorn

82%

I was not exactly excited about Kung Fu Hustle. Though impressed by the action sequences in Chow's Shaolin Soccer, I was underwhelmed by his attempts at humor. They came off as weak efforts for laughs, constantly in search of a good joke but never able to find one. In Kung Fu Hustle, the puns are even more slapsticky and juvenile. And yet, it works this time perhaps because the laughs are more shocking than Chow's earlier work, one can sense a joke coming, but never where it will lead this time.  Take a moment when Sing's partner is getting ready to throw some large knives at the mean landlady.  We know he'll miss, but we'd never guess what he'll hit instead.

The fight scenes are equally playful. One very amusing scene features a pair of musicians who can turn their notes into deadly skeleton warriors. After slicing through several opponents, the landlady has heard enough of their music and reveals her secret abilities, a powerful scream many believed to be a myth, called the lion's roar.  She huffs, she puffs, and screams with a force knocking them to the wall and tearing off most of their clothes. And she did it all with the lit cigarette still in her mouth, I might add.  The scenes are so entertaining because they combine the intensity of martial arts with the imagination of cartoons.

 

Final

When it's all said and done, Kung Fu Hustle gives the audience exactly what it wants without ever committing the deadly sin of being too desperate for audience approval. It may be the cinematic equivalent of junk food, aiming to please an audience that would cry over the idea of being intellectually engaged, but wins over the audience to consider notions like the law of physics arbitrary for the viewing. Stephen Chow, a name I originally did not give much attention to, is a name I now expect to hear more about.