Story/Mood: Stephen Chow’s wildly entertaining Kung Fu Hustle channels different film genres—from martial arts, to comedy, melodrama, and musical, and even Wylie-Coyote-versus-Road-Runner-style chases. The story opens in what looks to be the 1940s, when the feared Crocodile Gang terrorize the local Shanghai police. As the triumphant gang boss and his lady friend emerge from the police station, they’re confronted by members of the black-suited Axe Gang who casually gun them down and then break into a languid dance number. It’s a brilliant and unexpected transition and—like the rest of the film—doesn’t get old, even on the umpteenth watching.
The main protagonist of the character is Sing, an incompetent martial artist and wannabe gangster, who pretends to be a member of the Axe Gang and threatens the humble residents of Pigsty Alley. But for me, the real heroes are Pigsty’s motley residents, who include a philandering landlord, a landlady in curlers with a perpetual cigarette dangling from her lips, a kindly coolie, an effeminate tailor, and a baker. And it turns out, they’re not as helpless as they appear.
The Look: The film has a stylized, almost cartoonish, visual feel. The landlord with a clip in his hair, the landlady with her housecoat and curlers, the fedora-sporting Axe gang—they’re all drawn in broad visual strokes that makes them stand out. And Pigsty Alley is beautifully imagined with telling details like a public tap where everyone goes to bathe and fetch water—and a guy in the midst of a wash runs out of water while he’s still lathered up.
Memorable Moment: This is a film made up of moments that linger. But the shot of rubber flip flops nonchalantly dangling between the toes of the balding, slovenly Beast, a legendary martial arts assassin, has to be my favorite. It captures the spirit of the movie— idiosyncratic, thoroughly Asian (we have similar slippers in India, called chappals, and everyone wears them), and with a great sense of humor.
Crew: Stephen Chow, director and co-screenwriter who also plays Sing, describes how the opening scene came into existence: “When I thought about how to present how tough the Axe gang was, I took a long time to try to figure out how to make it tougher, and different from normal gangs. I saw that [the boss of the Axe gang] danced, and I thought, ‘Why not? Let’s dance.’ I know it sounds ridiculous to have dancing scenes to represent the toughness, but for me it makes sense, because I just tried to go another way around…”
Many of the actors came out of retirement for the movie including Bruce Leung Siu-lung, who plays the Beast; Yuen Wah, the landlord; and Yuen Qiu, who plays the landlady. Chow describes Yuen Qiu as the “big sister” of Jackie Chan. “Now she has her own family, she became a grandmother, and she didn’t really want to get involved in this business again. She plays mahjong all day long, has a beautiful life. Bring her back to work, make her gain, like, 30 pounds, do a lot of stunts – it was tough.”
Where to Watch: Steaming on Tubi (free), multiple platforms
Other notes: 95 minutes. In Cantonese and Mandarin with English subtitles.
