Kung Fu Hustle is an action packed comedy film directed by and also starring Stephen Chow. The film is set in the 1940s in Shanghai in the midst of various gang wars trying to achieve power. Among them is the most powerful Axe Gang, those that do not abide by the law and move in large packs dominating neighborhoods to come. The story of the film is about Sing and Bone, troublemakers with no future, who attempts to take over Pig Sty Alley by disguising themselves as the Axe Gang. However, the events turn sour when the real Axe Gang appears and conflict occurs.
Kung Fu Hustle not only incorporates martial arts and comedy into its film, but Stephen Chow alludes to a wide range of films and media sources from American past-time cartoons to other Chinese Wuxia films. Although I have not watched the bulk of the films that Stephen Chow refers to, I was able to see where his humor was derived from. While watching the film I noticed that the film was a lot like the American film series Scary Movie and how they parodied films of its times. I feel that Stephen Chow took a similar approach to this film Kung Fu Hustle as well. I can also see how the film is said to be transnational because of its interest not only in Chinese films but also American media sources.
Stephen Chow slightly hints at the differences between the Axe Gang and the residents of Pig Sty Alley. The Axe Gang is portrayed to be this super power of the region trying to dominate over smaller and weaker areas of Shanghai – in this case the Pig Sty Alley. The Pig Sty Alley is shown to be old tradition, with old architecture and old façade. The residents in the Pig Sty Alley struggle to pay their rent and survive even though they live under a tyrant-like Landlady. The Landlady also represents the Axe Gang in a way because of her domineering power against her residents (she is the micro-representation of being a super power). The film continues to show the conflict between large-scaled authorities against weaker powers.
Personally, I found this film to be very humorous and admired the way Stephen Chow was able to tap into various different types of comedic techniques for the audience. It not only incorporated slapstick comedy, but also animated graphics to give the film viewers a mixture of both realistic and non-realistic eye-catching performance. Though I did not see much depth into the film itself, I can still see the extraordinary accomplishments Stephen Chow achieved. After all, it became one of the highest grossed films for the year 2005.
When you made that reference that it relates to scary movie, I think it was pretty correct. This might be the way that it's possibly such a huge hit in America because Stephen Chow knew we liked Scary Movie,so he made it this way.
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ReplyDeleteHey, you know, I think your general idea that there's a david-vs-goliath theme going on here is spot-on. A lot of Chow's movies like to pit seemingly weak characters against arrogant, seemingly strong ones -- Shaolin Soccer even ends up showing that so-called "weak" soft martial arts that uses an enemy's strength against them, will ultimately prevail. Similarly, a lot of Chow's earlier works that cater to the Hong Kong audience portrays Chow the actor as a second-class citizen who always manages to win respect with a sharp tongue. It's pretty interesting to see this kind of theme historically resonating with both HK and American audiences.
ReplyDeleteI also “did not see much depth into the film itself.” Even though I can still see the Stephen Chou’s accomplishments, I think that he probably did not want the audience members to see much depth into his film because he wanted the audiences to just laugh and forget about their hectic daily lives in today’s highly competitive societies when they watch the film. Although some Chinese films have strong messages, the film “Kung Fu Hustle” does not seem to have such messages or hidden meanings. Stephen Chow emphasizes some stereotypical images of Chinese people in the film just to make the film humorous and make a lot of money out of the film.
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