A somewhat strange movie

[Craig Walters]

i hadnt rented any movies in a while, so i thought i'd take a wander down to the local vid shop. i had vaguely heard of the name of this movie and even seen one brief review that said go ahead and rent it. so, ok, i rented it. the movie was "Kung Fu Hustle". now, that name in itself shld warn you that this may not be your normal martial arts movie... and it wasnt.

i'm not even going to try and explain this thing or 'review' it. it was a martial arts movie. think 'crouching tiger, hidden dragon' meets 'bugs bunny and the looney tunes' meets 'the matrix', with a bit of a musical thrown in for good measure. yeah, not your typical martial arts movie

now, saying all that, i did enjoy it. ok, i'm a bit weird anyways, but, if you liked any of those above named movies/tunes, then you might surprise yourself in liking this thing. it's a romp. it doesnt try to be anything but a romp, so it's not pretentious. but, it certainly doesnt fit any known category other than the underlying kung fu bits. and on that, it goes pretty wild, a' la matrix and crouching tiger. but it's a fun romp and even humorous at times. like i say, i enjoyed it.

Craig

[Stroker]

Ah, Stephen Chow. I love Shaolin Soccer - the only kung fu flick that makes me cry tears of joy. (See the sub-titled as the dubbed was butchered a little bit.) Skills and sense of humour.

I enjoyed Kung Fu Hustle. Nice change of pace from the usual kung fu flicks. Over the top action with some Looney Tunes. I just about jumped out of seat when the snakes bit him because I was totally not expecting it. And I loved the fight scene between The Beast and The Fated Lovers.

There is a name for extreme, over-the-top action style, but I can't remember it right now (extreme kung fu?). But this new style of extreme with Looney Tunes probably doesn't have a name yet.

I hope to see many more romps from Stephen in the coming years.

If you haven't seen it, I recommend Jet Li's Fong Sai Yuk/The Legend. Ever so slightly over-the-top with some classic English mis-direction(?). Another good break from the usual.

[Drix]

Yeah, I've seen it and it certainly is a fairly good movie in it's own way. Some great actionscenes the way only a Chow can do it. I had a bit high hopes for it though and was a bit dissapointed storywise, but i really liked it nonetheless.

I have bought Shaolin Soccer as well but haven't gotten around to see it yet, but now that you reminded me i will.

[Verywierd]

Kung Fu Hustle is actually full of references to and parodies of 1950's and 1960's Hong Kong maritial art movies. The main villain in the movie was a famous leading man in many of those old (mostly B&W) movies. The plot and martial art styles kind of made sense if you were familiar with those oldies.