Kung Fu Hustle

Stephen Chow was born in Hong Kong on June 22, 1962 and grew up an avid fan of Bruce Lee and his work, thus filling him with a thirst for movies and martial arts prowess. As a director, Chow achieved international recognition with his decision to combine martial arts with sporting events to create a wholly physical form of comedy like Shaolin Soccer, which is a film with multiple action sequences. After the success of Shaolin Soccer, Stephen Chow led to an even more popular film in a similar style called, Kung-Fu Hustle in 2004.

The film is set in 1940s, Shanghai, at the opening scene, Chow depicts the survival circumstance of that period---various gangs vie for power and low-class people can live peacefully only in poor areas such as Pig Sty Alley.Sing (Starring Stephen Chow) is unemployed and often portends a gangster to ask for money from private businessmen with his friend, Bone. However, they are always kicked out. In order to make money, he joints in the Axe Gang.

The film contains many scenes of fighting, such as Harpists with Donut, the couple with Beast, and Sing fighting with Beast. However, I believe the director wants to express his pursuit of justice. Sing is a positive character, even though he robs money from a mute girl. Finally, Sing saves the landlord and landlady because he has sense of justice in heart. Moreover, one fighting scene depicts that three hidden Kung Fu masters fight against the Axe Gang in order to protect a couple of mother and daughter who are poured gasoline by the gangsters. Interesting, all the positive Kung Fu masters, including the landlords, Donut and tailor, are enforced to fight back. They never show a hint of knowing Kung Fu before. “Ordinary’s a blessing (平安是福).” It’s not hard to understand they are living with contradictions. They can’t lose senses of justice; on the other hand, they are also afraid of getting involved in the Axe Gang dispute in that specific period, when entire society was injustice.

At the opening of the film, a gang leader yells in a plicestation that "commissioner is only your boss because he paid his dues to the Crocodile Gang." Stephen Chow highlights the theme of a lawless society which reminds me of the CCP government. Currently, a commissioner of a plicestation in SiChuan was arrested due to he gets bribe from gangsters. He cooperates with gangs and protects their businesses such as smuggle, drug trafficking and illegal real estate from getting troubles by other law-executors. In China, we called those police “protection umbrella.” With the help of police, the gangsters fear of nothing. This is not the only one case happened in China under the control of CCP while money becomes the only thing that most communists care about.