KUNG FU HUSTLE

Hong Kong, 2004, 98 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Stephen Chow.

This is the kind of entertainment that does not need much review. Hong Kong actor-director, Stephen Chow, made a soccer comedy in 2001 which tickled the funny bones of audiences around the world with its madcap group of would be soccer-players who are trained in meditative ways to become champions, Shaolin Soccer.

Now his avowed intention is to become a martial arts screen hero before he is too old. And what a result. Never mind the story – about gangsters and oppression of the poor in 1934 and the need for a hero. It is the action, stunt work and effects that are everything. Paying homage to everything from Bruce Lee to Jackie Chan, from Crouching Tiger to everything else (or borrowing from them), he has concocted a comedy action show which is often very funny, very slapstick – and it won the Hong Kong awards for 2004.

1. Stephen Chow’s reputation in Hong Kong and China, martial arts, comedy, children’s television presenter? His other films?

2. Shanghai setting, the 1940s? The tenements, the buildings, the streets? Authentic atmosphere – colourful, like film sets? The musical score and songs?

3. The title – the focus on martial arts, the con-men, the indication of comedy?

4. A funny film, exciting? The action, the combination of all the elements into a satisfying entertainment?

5. The gangsters, the Axe Gang? Their ruthlessness? Gangsters? The irony of their song-and-dance routines? The use of weapons – and the black costumes (echoes of The Matrix)? The attack on the people in the tenement, Pigsty Alley? The heroes attacking them – the labourer, the chef, the tailor? The reaction of the Axe Gang, the magically powered musicians, the destruction of the warriors? The attack of the landlady and her husband – martial arts champions? The Axe Gang and the encounters with Singh and his offsider, his breaking into the asylum, getting out the Beast? The confrontation with the landlord and the landlady? The effect on Singh, his being beaten? His powers being unleashed, the confrontation finally with the Axe Gang and the victory?

6. Singh, the thief, his sidekick, his being fat? Their wanting to be champions? Their being mean? The attack on the tenement? (And the flashbacks and the children urinating on Singh, the humiliation, the explanation of why he was so aggressive.) Singh and his escapade with the Beast, the fight, his hitting the Beast, his being bashed? The irony of his powers, the transformation? His relationship with the blind girl, knowing her from the past, love, his being unworthy, the transformation making him an appropriate romantic hero? His ascending to the Buddha, the extraordinary epiphany, transformation? His return, the Palm Move? His defeat of the Axe Gang, his being acclaimed by the people in Pigsty Alley? The girl, the reconciliation, the sweet shop? The happy ending? The picture of his sidekick, the comedy about his being fat yet the warrior?

7. The landlord and the landlady, the landlady as a harridan, the husband henpecked? The comedy of their lives in Pigsty Alley? The defeat of the warriors, their having to come out of hiding and retirement? The landlady and her comedy, her skills, the husband? Their success?

8. The three warriors, their work, seeing them as labourer, chef, tailor? The fights, the pathos of their defeats?

9. The blind girl, the memories of childhood, her not responding to Singh, learning more about him, his transformation and the happy ending?

10. The special effects, the stunt work? Bigger, better, more exciting than before? The contrast between the gangster styles of films of the 30s with the styles of the musicals of the period? Continuing the variations on the traditions of the Hong Kong martial arts film?