Kung Fu Hustle is a hilarious martial arts movie. It accomplishes this unusually comedic feat in a number of ways – through the continual slapstick humor throughout the film as well the humorous exaggeration of the martial arts aspect. This film goes in quite an interesting direction in regards to Chinese pop culture, being unusual in a number of ways.
One of the more obvious ways is its clear-cut moral lesson. The film overturns the “nice guys finish last” attitude. Sing, the main character, starts out as a boy trying to be the good guy but gets beat up for doing so. Seeing as this didn’t work out for him, he tries the bad guy role, but he fails miserably at this and maintains an obvious amount of moral integrity throughout the film.
This can be seen anywhere – either through his inability to physically hurt others or his childlike behavior. In the end, he decides to abandon the bad guy role, which consequently ends with his face being beat into a pancake. Luckily, since he’s such a good guy, the beating he gets allows his godly chi to flow and allows him to become the hero of the film.
The film also seeks to entertain a large audience – a goal similar to a Hollywood blockbuster hit. The humor, colorful settings, western-clothed gang members, spectacular martial arts, romance, and simple plot all tie in together to establish a film that can be loved and appreciated by a large number of viewers.
Perhaps the most important of these is the martial arts, which maintains an awesome balance of impressiveness and humor. It tries to defeat the martial arts of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon or The Matrix, yet it also has a Jackie Chan martial arts aspect that grounds the extraordinary fighting and makes it more acceptable or even believable.
I really enjoyed this movie and I would agree that it takes quite a step in the Chinese film world.
I personally couldn't find a moral message in this parody of a film. But the one you pointed out is pretty valid.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if Chow set out trying to send a moral message, but I feel like he definitely had one along the lines of good triumphing over evil. Sing starts out as the "bad guy", but you see that he is never really that bad and is only resorting to crime as a way to advance his stock in life. In the end, it is when he becomes the greatest "good guy" that he has truly accomplished something.
ReplyDeleteI don't think that I can say that the martial arts in this film attepmted to outshine that of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. It was definitely entertaining to watch especially with the comic twists with it, but if I wanted to watch a film that appreciates martial arts, I would not watch this film.
ReplyDeleteI did not see the "nice guys finish last" message get overturned in the movie. Maybe it is because I am not sure what the goal is, so I am not sure if Sing does, in fact, achieve it.
ReplyDeleteMy guess on a moral message, if there was one, is that everyone is much happier when not they are not concerned with obtaining power and money and all the associated benefits. I think the message can be found when you compare the city setting versus the Pig Sty Alley. Also, maybe the fact that Sing ends up working for a candy store may speak to wanting the simple things in life. That is as deep as I can see into the film.