The Unseen Movie Review

Kung Fu Hustle

It’s the 1940s, some gangsters are fighting a turf war and a (relatively) innocent petty thief who wants to hit the big time gets caught up in the middle. So far, so like countless movies, from Scarface to Once Upon A Time In America. But this is no ordinary gangster movie. First of all, it’s set in China. Second, the gangsters use martial arts rather than guns (the name’s a bit of a giveaway there). Third, the gangsters are introduced with a lavish, Broadway-style musical number.

This is not your average gangster movie, nor is it your standard martial arts flick. Stephen Chow, the man who brought us the superb Shaolin Soccer, is back with his follow-up just months after his much-delayed masterpiece finally made it to western cinemas, and once again he doesn’t disappoint. If he carries on like this he’s easily going to claim Jackie Chan’s crown as the heir not only of kung fu master Bruce Lee but also that of slapstick king Buster Keaton.

This has got to rank as one of the best comedies so far this year, and is thankfully getting a much wider release than its massively mistreated predecessor, which was held back for two years and then mutilated by the American studio which bought up the rights. This time the studio has changed and Chow’s genius can be witnessed by western audiences without the indignity of cuts or mindless dubbing

It’s a film so jam-packed with inventiveness it’s almost impossible to know what to single out for particular praise. There’s the movie references – from West Side Story and The Untouchables to The Matrix and Batman to innumerable Hong Kong action flicks. There’s the unbelievably complex and frequently beautiful fight choreography. There’s the rip-roaring humour and silly sound effects. But above all else is the seemingly effortless ability to splice all the various parts into one immensely entertaining whole.

For a cinema-going public now more used to the world of flying kicks and karate chops after the likes of Hero and Kill Bill, this could open up a whole new world of oriental cinema, one which has been unjustly ignored for decades by most western audiences. Many younger movie-goers missed Bruce Lee first time around, and Jackie Chan is now past his prime. Stephen Chow is right at his peak and, what’s more, has a back catalogue of fifteen years’ worth of starring roles – over thirty films in all – which, now that he has found an understanding western distributor, will surely soon be more readily available to his growing army of fans.

This is parody of the highest order, a brilliantly witty mocking of the source yet done so well as to equal the movies it has been inspired by – and in places even surpass them. The plot, as with so many spoof films, is almost entirely incidental, merely providing a framework for a series of comic sketches and breathtaking stunt work. This is Airplane! with fighting, Naked Gun with Bruce Lee in the lead, one of those films which will keep you laughing until your throat’s sore right up to the closing credits, and then have you coming back for more.

posted by Nosemonkey @ 12:00 AM