KUNG FU HUSTLE (GONG FU) by Stephen Chow
After an embarassing childhood experience Sing (Stephen Chow – excellent) doesn’t believe in the good anymore and wants to join the brutal ‘Axe Gang’ which terrorizes the city. When the Axe Gang shows up in a small peaceful apartment complex – the ‘Pig Sty Alley’, some Kung Fu masters hidden amongst the locals stand up and fight.
Leader of the Axe Gang Brother Sum (Kwok Kuen Chan – great) sends out his goons, some professional killers, and Sing to kill the unruly people. When everything else fails, Sing (whose talent for picklocking has won him a place as an Axe Gang-henchman) has to extricate top killer The Beast from the loony bin. In the resulting battle Sing (who is still good at heart – his worst crime is to steal some icecream from beautiful deaf-mute Fong (Huang Sheng Yi)) has to decide for one side …
**** SPOILER WARNING ****
An excellent mix of action and comedy, KUNG FU HUSTLE has hilariously funny moments (Sing stabbing himself when halfheartedly trying to commit his first murder, getting trashed by a bespectacled banker, trying to find an opponent amongst the folks at Pig Sty Alley, ….) , great action sequences (some reminiscent of Neo vs. countless Agent Smith’s or The Bride vs. The Crazy 88’s, others of roadrunner cartoons), a score perfectly enhancing the mood of the film, a really funny sidekick character (Lam Tze Chung), homages to lots of iconic movie scenes (from The Shining, Silence Of The Lambs, The Matrix, Kill Bill, Forrest Gump ….), and if you truly think Neo from MATRIX is The Chosen One, wait until you see Sing discover his destiny! Neo? Ha! Neo is a pussy compared to Sing when he discovers the power of the Buddhist Palm!
On top of all that, you have the most endearing – yet unobtrusive – love story in KUNG FU HUSTLE. (George Lucas – watch this movie you should, and learn from it!)
The usual thin plot – outsider discovers his powers and fights for the good – but told in an extraordinarily entertaining way! Highly recommended.
