Kung Fu Hustle
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| Kung Fu Hustle | |
|---|---|
 Kung Fu Hustle poster |
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| Directed by | Stephen Chow |
| Produced by | Columbia Pictures |
| Written by | Stephen Chow Tsang Kan Cheong Xin Huo Chan Man Keung |
| Starring | Stephen Chow Yuen Wah Yuen Qiu and Kwok Kuen Chan |
| Distributed by | Sony Pictures, Columbia Tristar |
| Release date(s) |  December 23, 2004 January 1, 2005 |
| Running time | 95 minutes |
| Language | Cantonese, Mandarin |
| Budget | $20 million |
| Followed by | Kung Fu Hustle 2 |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Kung Fu Hustle (Chinese: 功夫; pinyin: Gōngfu) is a martial arts film first released in Hong Kong in December 2004. It was released for general debut in the United States on April 22, 2005 after showing in Los Angeles and New York for two weeks. The North American version of its DVD was released on August 8, 2005.
Kung Fu Hustle is a humorous parody and a special tribute to the wuxia genre, played and directed by Stephen Chow. It contains most of the characteristics of a typical wuxia movie, with a lot of exaggerations, serious situations and comic plots.
The use of visual effects have been widely acclaimed and the almost comic book style of the movie are its most striking features. It is in stark contrast to recent Kung Fu movies that have made an impact in the West, such as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Hero. Despite the computer-generated imagery and cartoonish scenes in the second half of the movie, the movie pays tribute to many famous Kung Fu film veterans from the 1970s who were all real martial artists in their own right. Many early fight scenes were packed with real Chinese martial arts.
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[edit] Plot
The movie is set in a fictitious Chinese city around the 1940s. In many ways, the city resembles Shanghai in its architectural design and culture. During this time, China has fallen victim to many gangs, but the most highly feared is the Axe Gang, the ax being their primary weapon. Even the police respect them, paying them to get rid of rival clans. The city that takes the main stage in the film is one controlled by the Axe Gang. Only the poor neighborhood of Pig Sty Alley is immune to them. Then on one calm day two homeless young men, Sing (Chow) and Bone, wander into the slum posed as members of the Axe Gang. Their goal of the day is to cheat money off of the barber, but the vicious Landlady scares Sing away, while the obese Bone carelessly falls asleep. Sing's feeble actions attracts the Axe Gang over to the turf. When the mob's vice general is critically injured by one of the residents, the head of the Axe Gang, Brother Sum, heads over with his surprisingly large back-up. Finally, three of the villagers, kung fu masters in reality, fight them off, leaving Sing and Bone to be dealt with by the unhappy Brother Sum. However, the notorious gang start paying hired assassins to get rid of the Pig Sty residents, resulting in explosive kung fu battles. Sing, along with his sidekick, is trying everything to be a member of the gang. However, should he get the opportunity to become an Axe man, will he see the good side of life and become the true man he really is, which is a one-in-a-million natural-born kung fu genius?
[edit] Martial artists
[edit] Sing
The protagonist of the movie, who initially seems to be a normal man with no martial arts training, ultimately uses an immensely powerful technique called Buddhist Palm, which can project attacks into buildings, the ground, and other solid objects in the shape of a massive palm. He also has the personal ability to completely regenerate any injuries, recovering in one instance from multiple stab wounds. Sing starts out as a wannabe criminal, but as the film progresses, the goodness within starts to surface in often unexpected or humorous ways.
However, until the film's conclusion, Sing cannot use the Buddhist Palm technique, and while he is eventually found to be one of the extremely rare folks with large reserves of qi, his energy points are blocked, and thus he cannot make use of it.
Sing attempted to, when he was younger, protect a girl from a band of boys, which attempted to steal her lollipop. They struck him down, and the girl, who was mute, offered him her lollipop, but he ran off. Up till present day, when Sing robs an ice cream stall, the girl behind it recognizes him, but he doesn't recognize her until she shows him the lollipop she's been keeping for all these years. She now offers it to him once again, only to have it smashed by him.
What happens to Sing follows a very typical wuxia film plot. When he was a child, a crazy man sold him a secret manual (mìjí 秘笈) on the Buddhist Palm kung fu technique for an outrageous ten dollars, while it actually costs 20 cents. Sing was unaware of that. Using the manual, he studied Buddhist Palm with no success. After his metamorphosis in the film (this theme was played out during the movie; a butterfly was hatching from its cocoon while he was emerging from his own cocoon-like full-body bandage cast during his healing process), his knowledge of Buddhist Palm has finally matured.
Before the final battle with the Beast, Sing was asked by the Landlord and Landlady if he had any final wishes. He then drew the lollipop on the ground, with his own blood.
After the fight, he and his faithful sidekick Bone established a lollipop shop, with a sign inspired by the lollipop the girl offered him. She walks by this shop, and Sing looks out and sees her. The camera pans around, rendering both Sing and the girl as children. Sing offers her his hand and she takes it, and they both enter the shop, while several loving couples walk by just before the credits roll, including the Landlord and Landlady. That's where the story ends.
[edit] Landlord
The Landlord, a man dominated by his wife, is a master of Taijiquan, trained to the point where he is able to deflect blows aimed directly at him away from his body, move with the lightness and grace of a falling feather, and evade most attacks anyone can bring to bear against him.
During the encounter with the Harpists, the Landlord has them mostly hitting each other instead of him, despite being directly in the middle between them.
Despite that skill, he and his wife's techniques combined were no match for the Beast.
[edit] Landlady
The short-tempered, chain-smoking wife of the Landlord, the Landlady practices a secret technique called the Lion's Roar (狮吼功), a roar-like yell powerful enough to shatter wood and glass, tear the plaster off walls, and lift men off the ground like ragdolls. An innocuous side-effect of her training is her ability to raise her voice loud enough to overpower a group of a hundred or so people speaking loudly in unison.
Her powers can be compared to that of Mortal Kombat's Sindel, or the Shi Shi Houkoudan performed by Ryoga Hibiki of Ranma ½. The Lion's Roar is also described in the Jackie Chan movie, Shaolin Wooden Men, though never demonstrated.
The origin of the name "Lion's Roar" comes from ho'dong si (he dong shi), a Chinese idiom which translates in the English language to "the lion east of the river", which is slang for a dominating wife.
In one of the film's more inventive fight scenes, the Landlady directs the Lion's Roar through the body of a modified large brass bell, which acts as a wave guide. The resulting shockwave generates so much force that it manages to injure and temporarily stun the Beast.
[edit] Donut (油炸鬼 in Traditional Chinese, Youtiao")
Donut is the person who mans the local noodle and congee shop in Pig Sty Alley. He is trained in the Eight Trigram Staff (八卦槍) martial art, including both fighting and throwing techniques. Early in the film, he threw a long baking rod (五郎八卦棍) with enough force to create an air vortex that sucked the tommy guns right out of enemy hands, even shattering them upon impact with the wall. He is quite capable of taking on groups of adversaries by himself in melee combat with any pole weapon, and his later fight-scene with the Harpists is a homage to wushu comics.
He dies from trying to forcefully recover after telling Landlady and Landlord that they cannot escape their fate and from severe concussive damage sustained during the fight with the Harpists. His last words, "What are you prepared to do?!", is a reference to the way Sean Connery's character died in The Untouchables.
[edit] Tailor
The Tailor is an effeminate man who seems cowardly and timid at first glance, but the Tailor is quite capable of handling himself in a fight. Although he appears to be an old, and fragile man, he is actually very powerful and fast for his age. He practices Hung family Iron Wire kung fu (洪家鐵線拳), and wears a long row of iron rings on his forearms when fighting that he can use to raise his power and defense. He merges them into a roughly-cylindrical form that protects his forearms and as the form obviously loses its shape as combat progresses, he has to "re-merge" them every once in a while. He is adept at punching people or hitting them with the merged rings, and has exceptional upper-body strength, able to hammer throw a heavy stone wheel thirty or more feet.
He dies from injuries sustained during the fight with the Harpists.
[edit] Coolie (苦力 in Traditional Chinese)
Coolie is a hard-working man whose job at Pig Sty Alley is to carry heavy equipment to its destination. Coolie is the opposite of Tailor, using no weapons to fight, and has exceptional lower-body strength as he specializes in kicking. He practices 12 Kicks of the Tam School (十二路潭腿) and it shows. He is able to kick a heavy sack of rice from the ground and have it land across his shoulders, and during the fight later, jump high enough to kick people directly in the face. When not hitting people in the head, he prefers to kick them in the torso or legs, always with enough force to knock them down.
He is killed by a decapitation attack from the Harpists.
[edit] Villains
[edit] The Harpists
The Harpists are a pair of hitmen hired by the Axe Gang to rid of Coolie, Donut, and Tailor. Their weapon of choice is the Guqin. Although capable of melee combat, they much prefer to use their special fighting style, Deadly Melody. They can use their qi to focus and mold the sound waves produced by the instrument into deadly forms, ranging from scimitars, to fists and even a small legion of sword-wielding undead in ancient Chinese armor. The ability is not purely offensive; it can be used to form a protective "wall" that actively blocks and forcibly repels incoming weapons. Practically with every string they play from their musical instrument, killer objects, usually invisible, would fly from it, aiming for the unfortunate target.
The first harpist appears to be the older of the two. He fights Tailor in his shop, and primarily uses his long claws as fighting means, and is better suited to unarmed close quarters combat, but also uses the Guqin as a back up.
The second harpist appears younger and appears to be blind, due to an earlier scene in the movie when the first harpist had to assist him to his drink. But even blind, he seems to have excellent accuracy and skill with the Guqin at long range. His main offense is the Guqin which he plays a deadly melody; his secondary defense is punching.
They are defeated by Landlord, who was between them; their attacks merely were deflected by him and onto each other. Then they are decimated by the Landlady with her Lion's Roar.
[edit] The Beast (火雲邪神 in Traditional Chinese; "The Evil God of Fiery Storm")
Incarcerated in a mental institution for alleged insanity, the Beast is the most powerful known martial artist alive. His appearance is no indication of his power; a disheveled old man with seemingly no physical fitness whatsoever, wearing a wifebeater, boxer shorts and flip-flops and suffering from a receding hairline. However, the man is deserving of his title; he catches bullets with ease, leaps with enough force to crack the floor upon landing, drives kicks to the ground with enough power to create shockwaves that demolish walls, and can survive damage that would kill anyone else.
His body, or at least his head, is immensely tough. He responds to direct strikes and kicks to his head from the Landlady and Landlord with a mere chuckle and implores them to use more force. His personal belief is that whoever is the fastest opponent will dominate, and he lives by that doctrine. His powerful counterattacks take only milliseconds to execute (they occur rapidly even when the film is playing in slow motion), and in the span of time it would take for a typical man to drive a single punch, he could perform a dozen or more.
His special attack is Kunlun toad kung fu, a skill that allows him to emulate a toad (the Hamo style 蛤蟆功 is a well known fictional kung fu style mentioned in Jinyong's wuxia novels, this movie simply uses special effects to provide the visuals for it). Assuming the four-legged stance of a toad, his thighs increase noticeably in size which tears his trousers, and he can simulate the inflatable throat of the said animal with sufficient force to cause gusts in the local area. He is then able to leap and smash through concrete walls with ease, and headbutt people a mile or so into the sky.
He is not one to play fair, carrying spikes and lotus-shaped stabbing weapons bearing needles, as last-resort weapons. His qi reserves seem to rival Sing's as his manifested energy is strong enough to warp the clouds above the mental institution into sinister spiral shapes. The only reason he hasn't broken out of the institution himself, he claims, is that he would do so only if he knew of someone outside that had a chance of winning in a fight against him.
However, he is not totally "evil" or beyond redemption. At the end, when Sing aims his attack and demolishes a large section of Pig Sty Alley and not the Beast, the Beast finally calms down and asks Sing what skill he had just used. When Sing offers to be his teacher, he breaks down into tears (reacting to the mercy and forgiveness Sing had shown even after all the prior heavy fighting), kneels before Sing and acknowledges him as the greater of the two.
[edit] Score and soundtrack
The majority of the film's original score was composed by Raymond Wong and was performed by The Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra. Early on, Stephen Chow experimented with using hip hop and more modern sounds for the soundtrack, but eventually came to the decision of using authentic Chinese music, making it distinctly different from more Western-influenced scores.
Along with Raymond Wong's compositions and various traditional Chinese songs, classical compositions were also featured in the film, including excerpts of Zigeunerweisen by Sarasate and the popular Sabre Dance by Aram Khachaturian.
Asian and American versions of the soundtrack have been released, the Asian version featuring 33 tracks and the American version featuring 19.
[edit] Parodies and references
The movie contains a large number of parodies and references to other Hollywood and wuxia movies, and popular culture, including:
- The escape scene of Sing from Landlady is a homage to Looney Tunes cartoons featuring Road Runner, down to the disastrous result of Landlady (as usual of Wile E. Coyote).
- Buddhist Palm and the Beast's Chinese name are borrowed from Ru Lai Shen Zhang 《如來神掌》(1964). For example, the scene where Landlady repeatedly strikes a bell in order to remove the top and use it as a megaphone is a reference to wuxia film Ru Lai Shen Zhang, where a mortally wounded master strikes the patterns of his art's final techniques into a bell so that his pupil can learn from it. Also, the final battle between Sing and Beast is a tribute towards Hong Kong black and white fantasy Wuxia movies that appeared in 1960 such as "Buddha God Palm fist" — these movies used to aim for children, as there was no cartoon or anime back then. The background music during the fight is a typical black and white fantasy wuxia movie.
- Deadly Melody is borrowed from Liu zhi qin mo 《六指琴魔》(1960's).
- The Chinese names of some characters are identical and taken straight from Jinyong's wuxia novels. For example, the landlord and landlady are named after Yang Guo and Xiao Long Nü from Jinyong's The Return of the Condor Heroes.
- The "Axe Gang" may be a reference to a group with a similar name in Jackie Chan's Project A Part II and/or in Drunken Master II, but the original gang were only used as mercenaries, they weren't the main enemies. However, that film took place in the same time period as this one.
- The boss of the Axe Gang, brother Sam (琛哥), is named after the triad boss in Infernal Affairs
- The housing arrangement of the Pig Sty is borrowed from The House of 72 Tenants《七十二家房客》 (1973).
- The Landlady uses the hand gestures from Bruce Lee's Return of the Dragon film.
- The evil musicians are reminiscent of The Blues Brothers. In one scene, they respond to a question "Strictly speaking we're just musicians", exactly as the Blues Brothers did in their 1980 movie.
- When Donut dies, he says "with great power comes great responsibility", a clear reference to the Spider-Man, when Uncle Ben dies. Afterwards, with his dying breath, he leans up, grabs the Landlord by the shirt and utters in English, "What are you prepared to do?!", a nod to Sean Connery's character Malone in Brian De Palma's 1987 film The Untouchables.
- Donut gasps from his deathbed, "This could be the end of a beautiful friendship," a line borrowed from Casablanca.
- ...to which Landlord replies, "Tomorrow is another day!" which is lifted from Gone With the Wind. But this was spoken in the English-dubbed version.
- A scene is reminiscent of Stanley Kubrick's The Shining with blood gushing down a corridor in the mental asylum.
- The clothes Sing wore in the last fight scene is a tribute to what Bruce Lee wore in Enter The Dragon.
- Early in the movie, Sing does a brief trick with a soccer ball. When a child asks Sing if he will teach them, he stomps on the ball, deflating it and declares: "No more soccer." This scene is an in-joke referring to Stephen Chow's previous film Shaolin Soccer.
- Feng Xiaogang, the Crocodile Gang boss who says "I would do anything except producing films; nobody comes to the cinema at Sunday!", is a famous Chinese film director.
- Coolie is actually based on another kung fu movie called The Barefoot Kid starring popstar Aaron Kwok. Their clothing and attacks are exact similar from that movie (notably kick attacks).
- The Beast declares he will make an "offer they can't refuse," a nod to The Godfather.
[edit] Romance
In a flashback sequence, after reading the Buddhist Palm manual, young Sing tries the techniques out by calling on a group of bullies to stop stealing a lollipop from a mute girl. He is beaten up and urinated on, but the mute girl sees him as a hero and offers him her lollipop. Angry at failing to stop the bullies, Sing simply runs off.
Many years later, Sing and his sidekick try to be evil to join the Axe Gang. They decide to rob an ice cream cart. The ice cream girl is none other than the mute girl, who instantly recognizes Sing. While Sing threatens her with a knife, mimicking a similar pose of a romance film (Top Hat) poster behind them, Sing's partner finds the money tin in the cart. In another tin is something the girl cradles very dearly, which the girl shows by signing to Sing. Opening the tin, she reveals the lollipop she had offered Sing so many years before. She holds it out to him again, but he slaps it way, and it shatters against the ground. Sing flees, but is overcome with guilt and emotion from the crime. He gives his friend all the money from the robbery, and tells him to leave him and go back home to raise pigs.
After Sing is beaten up until every bone in his body is broken by the Beast, the landlady and landlord ask him if he has any last words. Sing draws a picture of the lollipop on the ground with his blood, revealing that he still regrets the decision.
At the end of the movie, after the Beast has been defeated, Sing and the mute girl meet once again on the street. As the camera pans around them, they change into their respective childhood forms, then run into Sing's candy store holding hands as children.
This continues a trademark of Stephen Chow's movies, in many of which the hero falls in love with an imperfect girl. In this movie, the lollipop girl is mute. In Shaolin Soccer (2001), the girl had a bad complexion (which cleared up by the end of the movie, but is bald during the tournament, then she appears beautiful in a TIME Magazine cover) and was awkwardly shy. In God of Cookery (1996), the girl had severe malocclusion.
[edit] Trivia
- Yuen Wah was one of the Seven Little Fortunes. Others include Jackie Chan and Samo Hung.
- In February 2005, it surpassed Shaolin Soccer (another Stephen Chow movie), as the highest grossing Hong-Kong movie ever made.
- As of 2005, this film had the widest cinematic release in the USA of a foreign language film.
- In 2008, DreamWorks will release an animated film called, Kung Fu Panda in which Jack Black will star. Several reports have suggested that Kung Fu Panda will be heavily influenced by Kung Fu Hustle.
- Yuen Qiu, who plays the Landlady role, actually went into the same theater group like Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao (as a matter of fact she is an "older sister" to Yuen Biao). In martial arts terms, she is a "sister" for them.
- Yuen Wah, who plays the role as Landlord, is a qualified martial art stuntman who works in Hong Kong TVB.
- The Portuguese title of the movie is Kungfusão, which sounds like kung fu and Confusão (confusion). In the same way Italian and Spanish titles were Kung-fusion and Kung-fusión, another pun on confusion.
- During the second battle in which Sing and the axe gang fight, the camera goes to a birds-eye view showing enemies being defeated one by one in a circle similar to the "Burly Brawl" in The Matrix Reloaded.
- Sony Pictures Classics released a Flash-based fighting game called Kung Fu Fighter in order to promote the film.
- There is a sequel planned: Kung Fu Hustle 2.
- The Axe Gang in Kung Fu Hustle is nearly identical to the Axe Gang in Drunken Master
- The little boy at the end of the movie is a parody of William Hung.
[edit] Box Office
Kung Fu Hustle opened in Hong Kong on December 23, 2004, and earned a massive HK$4,990,000 on its opening day. It stayed at the top of the box office for the rest of 2004 and for much of early 2005, eventually grossing HK$60 million. Its box office tally made it the highest grossing film in Hong Kong history, surpassing the previous record holder, Chow's Shaolin Soccer.
The film began a limited two-week theatrical run in New York City and Los Angeles on April 8, 2005 before opening wide across North America on April 22. In its first week of limited release, it grossed $269,225 (a stellar $38,460 per screen). When it opened wide in 2,503 theaters, the largest opening theater count ever for a foreign language film, it made a modest $6,749,572 ($2,696 per screen), on its way to a total of $17,108,591. While not a blockbuster, Kung Fu Hustle managed to be the highest-grossing foreign language film in North America in 2005, and it went on to find a cult following on DVD.
[edit] Awards
- Hong Kong Film Awards:Best Movie Award
- Hong Kong Film Awards:Best Supporting Actor
- Golden Horse Awards: Best Movie Award
- Golden Horse Awards: Best Supporting Actress
- BFCA Critics' Choice Awards 2005: Best Foreign Language Film
[edit] Cast
- Stephen Chow .... Sing
- Yuen Wah .... Landlord
- Yuen Qiu .... Landlady
- Chan Kwok Kuen .... Brother Sum, Axe Gang leader
- Leung Siu Lung (梁小龍) .... The Beast
- Dong Zhi Hua (董志華) .... Donut
- Chiu Chi Ling .... Tailor (See Hung Gar)
- Xing Yu .... Coolie
- Lam Chi Chung (林子聰) .... Bone, Sing's Sidekick
- Tin Kai Man (田啟文) .... Axe Gang Advisor
- Gar Hong Hay (贾康熙) ... Harpist No. 1
- Fung Hak On (冯克安) .... Harpist No. 2
- Feng Xiaogang .... Crocodile Gang Boss
- Huang Shengyi (黃聖依) .... Fong (lollipop girl)
- Lam Suet (林雪) .... Axe Gang thug
- Liang Hsiao .... Axe Gang thug
[edit] External links
