'Kung Fu Hustle' presents shotgun marriage of slapstick cartoon comedy, brutal violence
Set in a 1930s Shanghai slum called Pig Sty Alley, Kung Fu Hustle takes place in a realm where both the laws of gravity and the laws of cartoons apply. Under the former, a body in space plummets to earth; under the latter, a body in space remains suspended until made aware of his situation; under both, a body in space receives a buss from Buddha. The film is set in a movie-referential world where a comedy clown not unlike Buster Keaton is landlord to tenants not unlike Jackie Chan, Daffy Duck and The Bride (Uma Thurman's character in Kill Bill). Those splatter marks on the wall might be the product of stuntman ketchup squibs or actual blood.
Set in a 1930s Shanghai slum called Pig Sty Alley, Kung Fu Hustle takes place in a realm where both the laws of gravity and the laws of cartoons apply. Under the former, a body in space plummets to earth; under the latter, a body in space remains suspended until made aware of his situation; under both, a body in space receives a buss from Buddha.
The film is set in a movie-referential world where a comedy clown not unlike Buster Keaton is landlord to tenants not unlike Jackie Chan, Daffy Duck and The Bride (Uma Thurman's character in Kill Bill). Those splatter marks on the wall might be the product of stuntman ketchup squibs or actual blood.
Drunk on its own violence, Kung Fu Hustle is a giddily grisly martial-arts comedy perpetrated by two filmmakers of exceptional talent and sometimes questionable taste.
One is Stephen Chow, co-writer/director/star, an elastic fellow who resembles a playing-card Joker. The other is Yuen Wo Ping, the dynamic choreographer whose contributions to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and the Matrix franchise have elevated gong fu into airborne ballet. This said, although some moviegoers are genuinely amused by the sight of severed limbs and the sound of bone-crunching vengeance in the context of live-action comedies, I am not among them.
Though I applaud kung-foolery and find Chow nimbly hilarious, Kung Fu Hustle's shotgun marriage of slapstick and brutality is unnerving in the make-'em-laugh, make-'em-gag manner of Quentin Tarantino. By simultaneously serving up joy and terror, Kung Fu Hustle provides two distinctly different movie experiences.
I thrilled to the movie-geekness of insider references to D.W. Griffith (Musketeers of Pig Alley), Martin Scorsese (Gangs of New York), Bruce Lee (Fist of Fury) and Looney Tunes.
I cowered at the Axe gang, a top-hatted, weapon-flashing chorus line of toughs (equal parts Michael Jackson in "Thriller" mode and Gangs' Bill the Butcher) who whack the poor to make themselves richer and then perform a line dance.
Purists may complain that Chow relies more on computer-generated effects than on actual martial artistry, but this didn't bother me as much as the violence. As Andy Warhol aspired to be a machine, Stephen Chow aspires to human cartoondom, accelerating the action so his movie beep-beeps into Road Runner territory. The upside: Chow has energy and invention to burn. The downside: He doesn't know when he blisters his audience.
Contact movie critic Carrie Rickey
at 215-854-5402 or crickey@phillynews.com.
Kung Fu Hustle
** 1/2 (out of four stars)
Produced by Stephen Chow, Chui Po Chu and Jeff Lau, directed by Chow, written by Chow, Tsang Kan Cheong, Lola Huo and Chan Man Keung, photography by Poon Hang Sang, music by Raymond Wong, action choreography by Yuen Wo Ping and Sammo Hung, distributed by Sony Pictures Classics. (In Mandarin and Cantonese with English subtitles)
Running time: 1 hour, 35 mins.
Sing. . . Stephen Chow
Landlord. . . Yuen Wah
Tailor. . . Chiu Chi Ling
Landlady. . . Yuen Qiu
Sidekick. . . Lam Tze Chung
Parent's guide: R (profanity, extreme stylized violence)
Playing at: area theaters