Kung Pow! Enter the Fist

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Kung Pow! Enter the Fist
Kung Pow! Enter the Fist poster.
Directed by	Steve Oedekerk
Produced by	Steve Oedekerk Tom Koranda Paul Marshall
Written by	Steve Oedekerk
Starring	Steve Oedekerk Lung Fei Leo Lee
Music by	Robert Folk
Cinematography	John Connor
Editing by	Paul Marshal
Release date(s)	January 25, 2002
Running time	81 minutes
Country	USA
Language	English
Budget	$10,000,000 USD
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

Kung Pow! Enter the Fist is a comedy film that parodies Hong Kong action cinema. Written, directed and starring Steve Oedekerk, it uses and manipulates footage from the 1977 Hong Kong martial arts movie Tiger and Crane Fist (a.k.a. Savage Killers), along with new footage shot by Oedekerk, to create an original, unrelated plot much like Woody Allen's movie What's Up, Tiger Lily?, which employs a similar technique of overdubbing an obscure Asian movie to comedic effect.

In many scenes Jimmy Wang Yu, the lead actor in Tiger and Crane Fist, was replaced by Oedekerk via post-production chroma key techniques. Oedekerk also redubbed all of the original cast's voices himself, inventing a different silly voice for every character. The new footage shot for Kung Pow! was also overdubbed by Oedekerk.

1 Plot
2 Highlights and trivia
3 Cast
4 Sequels
5 External links

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Steve Oedekerk stars as "The Chosen One." He is marked by the sign of the Chosen One; he has a small face on his tongue, with eyes, a mouth and its own small tongue, which utters high-pitched yips from time to time. The Chosen One calls his tongue "Tonguey."

When he is just a baby, the mysterious Evil Council sends Master Pain, a martial arts master who fights with two iron claws, to kill the Chosen One and his family. The family quickly succumbs to one of Master Pain's deadly claws; however, he is unable kill the infant Chosen One, who defends himself with powerful martial arts abilities.

Master Pain burns the house down, but Chosen One escapes out the window. He rolls into a canyon nearby, where he is raised by "various rodents". As he grows, living under constant attack, so do his skills, and the Chosen One devotes his life to finding Master Pain and avenging his family.

He finally reaches the dojo of Master Tang, who has heard prophecies about a Chosen One (and is the narrator of our story) who will come to free them from the Evil Council. He offers Chosen One refuge, much to the chagrin of the squeaky-shoed Wimp Lo, who says I don't like him very much; let's kill him! Nobody listens to him, however, because he is an idiot; Master Tang confides that they purposely trained him wrong, as a joke. Meanwhile, another student, a pretty girl named Ling who has one long curlicue on each cheek, steals a shy glance at Chosen One, then flashes him.

Chosen One begins his training. One day, Wimp Lo, who resents Ling's interest in the newcomer, challenges him to a fight. Wimp Lo fares poorly, but, being an idiot, he thinks his "My face to your foot" and "my nuts to your fist" are deadly weapons, to which Chosen One mocks him saying I'm sure on some planet your style is impressive but you weak point is this is earth. Ling begs the two to stop fighting, and Wimp Lo says I'm bleeding - making me the victor! A man then runs up and tells Chosen One (in a hillbilly drawl) that Master Pain's in town, searching for him.

Pain beats up a few helpless citizens, then stops at a cafe to show off his mastery of the Iron Armour technique; he stands unflinching while several men batter him with staffs. Later, he mentions that he is changing his name to Betty. Chosen One points out that Betty is a girl's name, angering Betty, who, however, fails to recognize him. At this time, Chosen One notices two mysterious pyramid-shaped caps attached to Betty's chest, protecting his vulnerable points. The mayor smooths the situation over and leads Betty away, saying it's time for his nap.

Chosen One tries to duplicate Evil Betty's ability to take a beating, but is quickly knocked out. He wakes hours later and is visited by Whoa, a mysterious woman with impressive fighting skills and one large central breast. She says he cannot yet defeat Master Pain, but after testing him in combat and finding herself evenly matched with him, tells him to trust in the power of the Tongue and warns him to stay away from the meadow. She then flies away, hitting a branch with a shriek as she goes. As he goes to sleep, Chosen One remembers the symbol Whoa was wearing was the same as his mother wore when Betty killed her.

The next day, ignoring Whoa's advice, Chosen One goes looking for Betty and crosses the meadow, where Betty's protector, a Holstein cow named Moo Niu, charges him. They fight and Chosen One defeats it by milking it into submission. He then finds Betty, who finally recognizes him, sneering I thought you looked familiar; I didn't recognise you without crap in your pants! Ling's father arrives and tries to help Chosen One, but to no avail. Betty easily defeats them both, and, although they escape by tumbling over a waterfall, he thinks he has finally accomplished his mission and killed the Chosen One.

Ling's father later dies from his wounds and from Master Tang's unhelpful ministrations, and Chosen One comforts the bereaved Ling. He then prays for help. A large spirit Lion wearing martial arts gear, Mu-shu-fasa, appears in the sky in response to his plea, then gets his name wrong. He tells Chosen One he must not give up, offers a cryptic clue about "the stars above", then leaves.

Betty finds out that Chosen One survived the fight and goes on a rampage, killing Wimp Lo and a couple of ventriloquists, temporarily trapping Chosen One in a tiny net, and wounding Master Tang, Ling, and Chosen One's dog. They each seem to die, but then revive and chide the Chosen One for not properly checking that they were dead. The Chosen One then realises that Wimp Lo must still be alive as well... but then discovers in gruesome fashion that, in Wimp's case, he was right the first time.

Chosen One realizes that Betty might be defeated if his protective pyramid caps are removed. He trains by tearing caps from wooden dummies, and, with some rather bizarre assistance from Ling, perfects his cap-snatching technique. Meanwhile Betty believe he's killed the Chosen One only to be told otherwise by the Evil Council. The Council believes Betty can't defeat the Chosen One and offer their help, Betty tells them he can do it but will gladly take their help.

Chosen One then confronts Betty for the final time. As they fight and Chosen One has Betty on the ropes, the Evil Council arrive in huge spaceships and are revealed to be French extraterrestrials. They use a beam to energize Betty, who launches a devastating attack. Things look hopeless for Chosen One until he remembers the advice he's received from Whoa and Mu Shu (which were really new scenes), and in a moment of revelation, opens his mouth. His tongue shoots forth at astonishing speed, wraps around the largest of the ships, and sends it spinning out of control. The other ships flee ignominiously, leaving Betty alone and vulnerable.

Chosen One then makes a leap for Betty's protective caps and seizes both, whereupon Betty attempts to kill him by palm striking him in the heart. The Chosen One is knocked backwards by the force, but he rips the caps off in the process. Blood squirts out in two thin streams and the stricken Betty collapses, whimpering I fell and hurt my tummy! as he dies.

The Chosen One reaches into his jacket and removes a live squirrel with a deep handprint on its back. Chosen, anticipating Betty's palm strike, reveals that he positioned the squirrel's "soft, cushy body" over his heart to absorb the blow. The Chosen One pours the squirrel's reward - peanuts - into Betty's handprint, and it "runs" away. Ling then rushes up, swiping at her nose with her sleeve, and embraces her hero. At the end of the credits, Master Tang is shown still lying beaten and bloody where Betty left him, complaining that an eagle is eating his leg and wondering if anyone plans to rescue him.

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Highlights and trivia

One of the oft-cited moments of the film is when the protagonist fights Master Pain's cow, Moo Niu, which is computer rendered for the movie. This is the only bullet-time effect in the film and a parody of The Matrix. The 3D animation quality is, perhaps intentionally, quite poor and unrealistic in contrast to the rest of the film; however, the budget of this film was very low in comparison with blockbuster films.
Like many comedic movies, the credits are accompanied with bloopers (some original, some faked), along with demonstrations of how Steve Oedekerk was digitally inserted into the original movie.
Many obvious name brands are distributed throughout the film, both in usual product placement form or clearly shown (especially Taco Bell). For example, during a sequence when Master Pain is showing his strength, a Hooters sign is hanging above one of the doorways; later, Master Tang sings "Taco Bell, Taco Bell, product placement with Taco Bell!" as he walks past a tableful of men eating from Taco Bell bags.
The film breaks down the fourth wall (involves the audience) in the middle of the movie by showing the main characters inviting the viewers to get some snacks, in a somewhat obscure reference to 1950s theatrical intermission shorts like Let's All Go to the Lobby. They talk about their favorite movie snacks for a moment, and then return to the film.
In the newly-created footage (and whenever the Chosen One speaks), Oedekerk and the other actors followed (or improvised) a separate script consisting of nonsense, non sequiturs and pure gibberish. Oedekerk then redubbed the scenes himself, as with the rest of the film. For example: when the Chosen One tells Evil Betty "You killed my family, and I don't like that kind of thing" Oedekerk is really saying "You broke my canopy, and I use it as a form of shade." This was to help create the illusion of bad dubbing - another joke at the expense of Hong Kong action cinema.
Along with many references to other movies there are many anachronisms. The film likely takes place in 17th century China, but one of Betty's minions calls him on a cell phone.
Ling's dubbed dialog consists largely of a whiny Miss Piggy-Like sound, "Wee-ooo-wee-ooo-wee!" Oedekerk says he did this at first because he couldn't think of enough things for her to say, then kept it up because the crew found it hilarious.
Mu-shu-fasa's appearance is a clear parody of Mufasa from The Lion King; he refers to the Chosen One as "Cho-Simba" and talks about the "Great Circle of..... Stuff". There is also a joke based on the fact that James Earl Jones voiced Mufasa; in this case, Mu-shu-fasa fades away repeating "This is CNN". The same joke also appears in an episode of The Simpsons, "'Round Springfield". The name is also very likely a portmanteau of Mufasa with Mushu the dragon from Mulan, another Disney animated movie.
A number of continuity errors occur, due to the way footage from Tiger and Crane Fist was edited together. Many of them have suitably ludicrous explanations - for instance, one of Betty's henchmen undergoes several costume changes within the same scene; this is explained away by establishing that Betty is a "great magician" with the power to alter people's clothing.
Jimmy Wang Yu is briefly but clearly visible in the scene where Chosen and Ling's father join forces to fight Betty.
5 practical jokes are secretly placed in the movie, 1 there is a monster-like creature in a transition between scenes. 2, there is a spaceship in the background when the chosen one is walking away to fight the cow. 3, when the waterfall where betty and the chosen fight is first shown there is a boat with the label "Titanic" underneath the water in the upper right hand screen. 4, when the chosen one is shown falling from the waterfall preceding him is shamoo. 5, when the chosen one is in the shop to buy peanuts there is a stack of pringles to the right of him which doesn't match any of the 17th century items in the shop.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Original actors

Jimmy Wang Yu - "The Chosen One" (mostly replaced by Oedekerk)
Hui Lou Chen - "Master Tang"
Tad Horino - "Chew Fat Lip"
Chia Yung Liu - "Wimp Lo"
Fei Lung - "Master Pain (Betty)"
Ling Ling Tse - "Ling"
Jennifer Tung - "Whoa"
Gretchen Ling Hill - "Ting Chow"

[edit] Voiced-over characters

All character voices by Steve Oedekerk with the exception of "Whoa" who was voiced by her portrayer, Jennifer Tung.

[edit] DVD special features

Deleted scenes
Directors commentary
Alternate audio tracks, including the "What they are really saying" track, which includes the original Chinese and the speech Oedekerk uses to parody the bad dubbing in old kung-fu movies
3 Fox 11 commercial promos
Making of featurette
Theatrical trailer
Tonguey featurette
A Panicked Thumb (a small scene (approx. 4 seconds) taken from Thumb Wars in which a 'thumb' runs out and yells "We've been hit!"

[edit] Sequels

At the end of the movie, a mock trailer was put in to tease viewers. However, the "trailer" is mostly made up of parts from deleted scenes.

In the DVD commentary, Oedekerk frequently mentions the "story arc" of the Kung Pow trilogy, as a running joke on films planned as part of a series. In the end, during the trailer, he does state however, that they are seriously intent on making the "mythic" parts II and III.

Steve Oedekerk has said that two sequels are planned, and they are currently expected to be done with help from 20th Century Fox.

The Internet Movie Database currently states that a sequel, Kung Pow 2: Tongue of Fury, will be released in 2008, and that Oedekerk has been looking through hundreds of films to dub over.