Kung Fu Hustle is one of many high rated modern Chinese movies where I don't understand how comes it's so well received and critically acclaimed in the whole wide world.
I must admit that the movie kicks off with a couple of solid jokes and some sympathetic characters that may addict you. The first twenty minutes or so are entertaining and promising.
But the downward spiral starts soon after. The lazy, stereotypical but somewhat sympathetic character of the main hero's corpulent friend almost disappears. The fight scenes move away from aesthetics and get more and more random, ridiculous and unreal. The plot development is strange but not in a good sense. The dialogues are thin and seem as if they were written in a hurry. We get some horrible special effects towards the end that add the little cherry on the top of your cheese cake.
I'm aware of the fact that this movie somewhat wants to parody the stereotypes of classic Chinese and Hongkong Kung Fu movies. I'm a big fan of these old films and I have no problem with a good comedy or a solid homage to them. This movie is not an original parody with many déjà-vu moments but a very childish attempt to attract a larger public. The jokes work in the beginning but the same ideas are repeated all the time and we get to see more and more exaggerated fighting techniques with over the top slapstick moments throughout the whole movie. Many movies that mix martial arts with comedy fail to find a good balance between both styles and I don't like most of these attempts but this film here is one of the worst attempts to combine these two genres. I usually adore Asian humour a lot, especially in many South Korean movies but this one is comparable to the bunch of Hollywood parodies that came out when Scary Movie rose to fame.
In the end, I would only recommend this movie to somebody that laughs about anything and almost only watches any kind of comedy movies. Any fan of the artistic side of martial arts or modern Chinese cinema should stay away from this superficial embarrassment.
I must admit that the movie kicks off with a couple of solid jokes and some sympathetic characters that may addict you. The first twenty minutes or so are entertaining and promising.
But the downward spiral starts soon after. The lazy, stereotypical but somewhat sympathetic character of the main hero's corpulent friend almost disappears. The fight scenes move away from aesthetics and get more and more random, ridiculous and unreal. The plot development is strange but not in a good sense. The dialogues are thin and seem as if they were written in a hurry. We get some horrible special effects towards the end that add the little cherry on the top of your cheese cake.
I'm aware of the fact that this movie somewhat wants to parody the stereotypes of classic Chinese and Hongkong Kung Fu movies. I'm a big fan of these old films and I have no problem with a good comedy or a solid homage to them. This movie is not an original parody with many déjà-vu moments but a very childish attempt to attract a larger public. The jokes work in the beginning but the same ideas are repeated all the time and we get to see more and more exaggerated fighting techniques with over the top slapstick moments throughout the whole movie. Many movies that mix martial arts with comedy fail to find a good balance between both styles and I don't like most of these attempts but this film here is one of the worst attempts to combine these two genres. I usually adore Asian humour a lot, especially in many South Korean movies but this one is comparable to the bunch of Hollywood parodies that came out when Scary Movie rose to fame.
In the end, I would only recommend this movie to somebody that laughs about anything and almost only watches any kind of comedy movies. Any fan of the artistic side of martial arts or modern Chinese cinema should stay away from this superficial embarrassment.