It's a movie that is well aware that it is unbelievable, and uses that fact to its advantage. The fight scenes are very well done, exaggeration is used to great comic effect without detracting from them. There's just enough plot to tie things together without slowing things down.
posted
I saw an ad for this last night and was bummed it is rated R. However:
quote: "Kung Fu Hustle" is rated R for scenes of martial-arts violence (as well as some shootings, stabbings and animal attacks — all done for laughs), occasional use of strong profanity, gore (nothing too graphic), some off-color humor and references, brief partial male nudity, and some brief drug use (opium smoking). Running time: 95 minutes.
If it's for male nudity, it would be misogynistic to NOT see it.
Posts: 2010 | Registered: Apr 2003
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I loved it. It is funny and silly. It's like watching a cartoon. It really isn't gory, but they subtitle enough profanity to warrant an "R" I guess (with everything else).
My brother and I just kept cracking up when we saw the young man that wore his pants about 2 inches below his waist, always showing the top third of his bum. There was really no point to a lot of things like that, but it made it even sillier. I think they just barely got the "R" rating.
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Wow. That knife throwing scene... I don't think I've laughed that hard since I saw Shaolin Soccer.
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I swear, I might have to break my rules and go see this one. Just the comercials had me laughing.
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I actually just went with a group of Linux geek friends (4 grad students and two local business owners who I won a year of free hosting from earlier in the night), and it really was a blast. I still intend to see about finding someone to take on a date to see it, though .
Of course, if I were feeling really smooth I'd locate a place that sells those giant swirly suckers to which to head to afterwards (perhaps happening upon it "accidentally").
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quote:Wow. That knife throwing scene... I don't think I've laughed that hard since I saw Shaolin Soccer.
That whole scene, from the knives to the end of the high speed chase, is funny as hell. That reminds me, I need to see Shaolin Soccer.
quote:Of course, if I were feeling really smooth I'd locate a place that sells those giant swirly suckers to which to head to afterwards (perhaps happening upon it "accidentally").
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Shaolin Soccer is on one of the premium channels on Dish Network this month. Don't quote me, but I do believe it is Starz...
Posts: 1870 | Registered: Mar 2003
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I wonder if OSC is going to review it- I don't get to see many movies- so I mostly just read his reviews to know what I would want to watch- except for the movie Pleasantville- I disagree with him on that one. BUt otherwise- we agree on a lot of things, like I saw Ocean's 12 last night- and I was dissatisfied and knew it was all because of the things he mentioned.
Posts: 30 | Registered: Feb 2005
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Kung Fu Hustle isn't dubbed? I thought it was because Shaolin Soccer was too, iirc. I want to see Kung Fu Hustle but the idea of dubbing pushes it much lower on my list of movies to watch.
Posts: 1056 | Registered: Mar 2002
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Just came home from seeing it. I thought it had its moments (the first twenty minutes were great and the knife scene was good) but overall my reaction was pretty bleh.
I felt the CGI was overused, and it really detracted from the fights.
My friend* said afterwords that the actual lines were a lot funnier then the translations.
I wouldn't spend my money seeing it again, but I don't feel bad for having paid to see it once.
*who was born in Hong Kong, and assures me that Chinese people really can fly, only they choose not to in front of us ghosts...
[ April 23, 2005, 11:30 PM: Message edited by: Lord Solar Macharius ]
Posts: 254 | Registered: Apr 2005
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I saw it with my 13-year old son, and we both had a great time--there are some very funny sequences.
However, we did NOT like toe first 20 minutes. Its violence was NOT "comic."
<<SPOILERS>> . . . . . . . . . The ad that shows that guy throwing a low-spinning axe? It cuts a guy's leg off, and he collapses to the ground; blood is splattered.
A woman is shot with a shotgun at about a 15 foot range, is killed, and blood sprays onto the street (and, if I remember correctly, an adjacent building).
Neither of these scenes is funny; both are graphic.
The scene of the "Axe Gang" doing the Kung-Fu Hustle? It's intercut with bloody b&w scenes of the violent deaths this gang has caused--it's like old police photos of gangster hits. The audience was strangely silent. We wanted to laugh at the dance sequence, but it was interspersed with scenes of serious violence (axes in backs, people hanging out of car windows, blood everywhere).
Don't get me wrong--there's blood later in the film, too--but you're already into "Road Runner" mode by then. It's not real violence--it's cartoon violence. You can laugh at it; your heart isn't telling you "people got hurt here..."
The director didn't need to show me that the Axe Gang is a bunch of ruthless killers. Overall, just how "nasty" they are is unimportant; and by the time you're into "comedic violence" mode, it doesn't matter at all.
Let me modify that--there is still "real" violence throughout--the spirit knives, the expanding flowers, etc. But (IMHO) it's handled much more "cleanly" by that time. There's a different approach to it. If I get back to this thread, I'll try to explain it better.
Nope - subtitled. I much prefer that - seeing Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon subtitled and then dubbed made me realize how much better these movies are with subtitles.
ssywak, that's a very good point about the first 20 minutes. It didn't bother me to much, but I wasn't into the settle in and enjoy the movie mode until after that scene. I think you've nailed the reason for that.
Posts: 26071 | Registered: Oct 2003
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For me personally, the movie wasn't that funny.
I didn't say that the first twenty minutes were funny, but that they were great. It spelled out the Axe Gang. It told you who they were. And it had a catchy tune.
I thought Stephen Chow was good as an actor, and his direction seemed okay (except for the "gay" characters). He is still one of coolest people alive as far as I'm concerned. The man has to stay away from writing though. As Dag said, there was enough of a plot to string things together, but I never really cared while watching it. If it had been hilarious, that would have been fine, but, again, I didn't think it was.
And the over-use of CGI and slow motion during the Kung Fu scenes took me right out of them.
I guess it's a difference in humour.
P.S. My above mentioned Chinese friend told me that there was a lot more swearing in the actual Chinese/Cantonese (the actors switched between the two languages) then was subbed.
[ April 24, 2005, 10:32 AM: Message edited by: Lord Solar Macharius ]
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I loved it when one fellow started speaking in English saying profound things. I didn't realize it was English until his friend asked him why he was speaking in English. Ho, ho, um, guess you had to be there. Posts: 231 | Registered: Apr 2005
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posted
It's moments like that throughout the entire movie that made it work and made it funny for me.
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