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KUNG FU HUSTLE AXE-KICKN’ EDITION
Directed and Produced by: Stephen Chow.
Produced by: Yang Bu Ting, Wang Zhong Jun, Chui Po Chu, Jeff Lau, Han San Ping & Wang Zhong Lei.
Written by: Chow, Xin Huo, Tsang Kan-Cheung, Lola Huo & Chan Man Keung.
Director of Photography: Poon Hang Sang.
Edited by: Angie Lam.
Music by: Raymond Wong.
Fight Choreography by: Yuen Wo Ping Released by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.
Language: Cantonese & Mandarin with English subtitles.
Country of Origin: Hong Kong. 100 min. Rated R.
Starring: Stephen Chow, Yuen Wah, Qiu Yuen, Leung Siu Lung, Leung Siu Lung, Dong Zhi Hua, Chan Kwok Kuen, Chiu Chi Ling & Lam Tze Chung.
DVD Features: Comedy Central interview & outtakes with Stephen Chow. Featurettes. Ric Myers interview with Stephen Chow. “Clean Out Pig Sty Alley,” DVD-ROM video game.

Stephen Chow has definitely seen his share of kung fu movies, be they of the romantic and melodramatic nature or the totally absurd variety, and he knows what does and doesn’t work in combining traditional martial arts with the latest visual effects tricks. Kung Fu Hustle is, aside from the Kill Bill movies, the most recent example of how to go all the way into not just the classic style and formula of this genre, but how to borrow from the Matrix films. It all turns into an enthralling homage of the ‘40s and ‘50s Kung Fu films, with a style that comes closest to Looney Tunes. Moving at the pace of a light musical and with the ferocity of the finest action film, Kung Fu Hustle is tongue-in-cheek at its most delectable.

The story is as pulpy as an orange blown to shreds by the power of the scream of the film’s Landlady. In 1940’s Shanghai, the Axe Gang, the most feared in the region, looks to dominate every neighborhood. The only sanctuary from being harassed – and very likely killed – by the gang is in Pig Sty Alley, where its peasants are all crammed together in cage-like dwellings and surrounded by squalor. The Landlady (the uproarious Qiu Yuen, almost always with her hair in curlers and a cigarette between her lips) runs the place with an iron fist. But two wanna-be gangster posing as gang members, Sing (Stephen Chow) and his faithful and dim buddy Bone (Lam Tze Chung, a classic tubby-foil), try to extortion protection money from a barber, leading the actual Axe Gang to confront the would-be thugs. As director and co-writer, Chow never relents, and as an actor, he transforms from a runt with big aspirations to being one bad mother of a kung fu master.

Chow’s attitude as writer/director/actor/musician could potentially frustrate the most ardent fans of serious Hong Kong kung fu. The film opens with a dance number from the Axe Gang, and certain shots are self-consciously computer generated (seeing Yuen scream as her key weapon of attack looks almost like out of a video game). And of course, the climactic brawl where Sing takes on about a thousand thugs nears being too high flying and hyperactive, with landmark choreographer Yuen Wo Ping sending these characters into terrain he’s been into many times before, but never quite with this level of absurdity.

DVD Extras: There are two interviews with Chow, one very brief (shown on Comedy Central) and another longer, and dryer, interview with Ric Meyers, with specific questions relating Kung Fu Hustle to martial arts film history. (Trivia revealed: Yuen was a schoolgirl in the Bond flick The Man With the Golden Gun.) A set of outtakes from Comedy Central promoting the film maybe the funniest of the otherwise straightforward extras. Featurettes on Yuen Wo Ping, the costumes, and production design are all quite informative. The one notable omission from the 2005 DVD edition is the lack of a commentary. Jack Gattanella
August 10, 2007