Kung Fu Hustle...not what you expected?

As the movie opens with gangsters dressed in suits and top hats shooting people and dancing to music in a city setting, you wonder if you are watching the right movie. You think to yourself, “Wait, what’s going on? I thought I was watching Kung Fu Hustle…not a musical about Chinese gangsters.” The movie progresses and the fight scene between the gangsters and country people begins, where there are three men that start to do “kung fu” styled combat. Things are starting to make more sense now and your mind is a little more at ease; until you realize the kung fu fighting does not look as gallant and elegant as you are used to in movies like Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon or Hero. You continue to watch and catch yourself laughing almost throughout the entire movie. This is not what you had expected at all.

Kung Fu Hustle is not your typical Wuxai-type movie that most people, or Westerners, are used to. It completely refutes the concept of Chinese culture that most non-Chinese people readily believed through the box-office selling, Hollywood blockbusters they had just seen. There is more to Chinese people and culture than just kung fu, people flying through the air, and long flowing traditional gowns; rather, they also dance, play sports, and make comedies. According to the director, Stephen Chow, he believes that films in Hollywood do a poor job portraying Chinese culture and he wanted to expand “the preconceived notion.”

To do so, Chow incorporated many references and parodies from American films that he grew up watching—Top Hat, The Shining, The Matrix, Spiderman—alongside several references from Chinese culture—Infernal Affairs, aspects of Wuxai novels, Lu-Hao Tung. This was not an attempt to negate that Chinese culture is made up of the generic characteristics that immediately come to mind, but that it does not stop at that. The idea of “Orientalism” presented Chinese culture as exotic and foreign, “in a vacuum devoid of space and time,” to quote Professor Johnson. With his conscious juxtaposition, or blending, of the two cultures (American and Chinese), Chow wanted to show that Chinese people have been existing concurrently with the rest of the world and that they do not live in some alien country sealed off from the rest of the world. In an interview, Chow explained, “And I think that my willingness to incorporate so many western elements in my films will, in a way, humanize these films for American audiences. To say, in a subtle way, that this isn't that foreign a film or foreign a filmmaker after all because we all grew up loving the same movies.”

Similar to many other Chinese movies, this film presents a theme of new (modern) versus old (traditional). During this transitional period of China entering the global market and towards a more capitalist-friendly stance, Chinese movies seemed to reflect the transition. In Kung Fu Hustle there is an apparent clash between the modern, city gangsters and the traditional, country kung fu masters. The city is portrayed as corrupt with beggars lining the streets, gambling, gangsters, and random shootings; whereas the country is portrayed as honest with good people who just want to live a simple, peaceful life. Chow, himself, claimed that he made the underdogs of society (the country people) heroes of the movie because “they’re the ones who are the real foundations of our culture.”

The film itself embodies the essence of new versus old, modern versus traditional. By combining modern film gimmicks with traditional elements of Chinese culture, Chow created a film that held true to his vision and nature but that was relatable to audiences everywhere.