Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3572 in DVD
• Released on: 2005-10-24
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Dubbed, PAL
• Original language: Cantonese Chinese
• Subtitled in: Dutch, English, Greek, Portuguese, Spanish
• Dubbed in: English, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 95 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Movie-kinetics genius. Kung Fu Hustle takes the gleeful mayhem of Hong Kong action movies, the deadpan physical humor of silent comedies, and the sheer elasticity of Wile E. Coyote cartoons and fuses them into a spectacle that is simple in its joys and mind-boggling in its orchestration. A run-down slum has been poor but peaceful until a bunch of black-suited gangsters called the Axe Gang show up to cause trouble--and discover that, hidden among the humble poor, are three kung fu masters trying to live an ordinary life. But after these martial artists repulse the gang with their flying fists and feet, the gang leader hires a pair of assassins, whose arrival leads to the unveiling of more secrets, until both the screen and the audience are dizzy with hyperbolic fight artistry (choreographed by Yuen Wo Ping, who also choreographed The Matrix). Weaving through this escalating fury is a loudmouthed loser (writer/director/actor Stephen Chow) who suddenly finds himself having to live up to his bragging. Kung Fu Hustle more than lives up to the promise of Chow's previous film, Shaolin Soccer: it's a movie made by an imagination unfettered by the laws of physics. Hugely entertaining. --Bret Fetzer, Amazon.com

Synopsis
Stephen Chow's follow-up to SHAOLIN SOCCER ups the over-the-top action quotient by about three zillion percent. The story is set in 1930s Hong Kong, with Chow as a shaggy-haired, would-be bad guy named Sing, who gets caught up in the middle of a war between the top-hat-wearing Axe gang and the hard scrabble inhabitants of Pig Sty Alley. Chow who wrote, produced, and directed doesn't step in as the star here for quite a while, letting the comic duties fly in a myriad of directions: a landlady in curlers (Yuen Qiu) has a yell that can flatten buildings; people get kicked across courtyards and through walls; musician assassins whip ghost sabres from lyre strings, and a mental patient in pink flip-flops named 'the Beast' (Leung Siu Lung) catches bullets in his fingers. Buoyed by SOCCER's box office success, HUSTLE uses bigger production values and a dizzying amount of CGI-enhanced martial arts (imagine Bruce Lee vs. Bugs Bunny in THE MATRIX). It's full of references to other films and filmmakers, revering spaghetti westerns and '70s Shaw brothers movies a la Tarantino's KILL BILL (fight choreographer Yuen Woo-Ping worked on both films). It also pays sly homage to the works of Wong Kar Wai, D.W. Griffith, Sam Raimi, Jean-Luc Godard, Stanley Kubrick, and Akira Kurosawa. Raymond Wong's inspired score matches each cinematic reference with the appropriate cue as the camera circles and swoops around the sprawling sets. This is a real treat, more than a great action film or comedy, it's a great film period, and one that set box office records in the East.

Customer Reviews

Nothing quite like it
This is a hard film to give a review too as it is an absolute diamond and I want it to be as successful as possible but it is guaranteed not to be liked by everyone.
It is based around the Kung-Fu we all know and love but is one of the funniest films of 2005 without a doubt. The humour is not to everyones taste and the marital arts background is another vice to which some people will hold a grudge. However if you wish to sample a truly great piece of cinema which is different enough to be like nothing you have seen before, Kung-Fu Hustle is bound to interest you.

Some of the fight sequences put Kill Bill to shame, and without being overly gory they remain enjoyable to watch throughout. Chows performance is fantastic, and the prolific Paris and Helen of troy characters are some incredibly unlikely martial arts masters, which will make you smile from ear to ear. The music fits nicely, with some incredibly cheesy Chinese pop thrown in for good measure. As previously mentioned, this is a delightful film and a joy to watch with friends. If you've any interest in martial arts or comedy in general, it deserves your time.

I've no idea what the English voice acting is like, as I'm a subtitles man.

HILARIOUS
This film is freaking hilarious! I can't remember the last time I laughed so hard. Afterwards I wanted to tell people how funny it was but every time I tried I would start laughing again simply from thinking about it. Stephen Chow is incredibly funny and talented. Its hard to write why the film is funny without spoiling it but I'll give it my best shot because Kong Fu Hustle deserves to be seen without having any preconceived notions about it.

The principal actors are all very funny and have great sense of timing and even though I saw the film subtitled it didn't make it any worse. Especially Stephen Chow is funny and both his posture, facial expressions and general timing is high above average. I also like the fact that he has a high degree of self-irony and is not afraid to let the joke be on him, which pretty much all the jokes in the film are. Among other actors worth mentioning are Wah Yuen who plays the landlord and Qiu Yuen who plays the landlady. They both seem enthusiastic about the project. The supporting cast is pretty good as well.

The acting is not in the high seat, however. Obviously the main attraction is the action and all action scenes are brilliant. They are executed in a very stylish and aesthetic manner and are also very, very funny. There are scenes that were just beautiful and left me breathless but they never lose the self-irony which is so incredibly well executed and are therefore also incredibly entertaining. Much more than in other Hong Kong action movies like Hero, which in my opinion could have done with a dose of self-irony. The computer effects are blatantly obvious but they still seem pretty believable within the confines of the film universe and they are generally very well done. Also I found the burly brawl sequence to be incredible and it had me in stitches. Overall the effects and fight scenes make the film very worthwhile and therefore highly recommendable.

Overall Kong Fu Hustle is an incredible achievement in film making and everyone who is not afraid to see the Hong Kong action genre spoofed should definitely watch it.

Why is Stephen Chow not a global superstar?
I must confess to acquiring my copy of Kung Fu hustle on the cheap after remembering it getting a rave review in a certain popular film magazine. Not knowing quite what to expect (and not really being a martial arts fan if I'm honest) I was completely blown away. From the rather gory, noirish opening sequence to the cartoon-like escapades in Pig Sty alley, every scene was a delight and not a minute of screen time is wasted. One minute I was laughing so hard I nearly peed my pants, the next minute my jaw was hitting the floor with amazement at the sheer skill and athleticism of not only the star, Stephen Chow, but of the other support characters. Stephen Chow is incredibly charismatic, and the only gripe I have is that perhaps his character, Sing, is not on screen for long enough. Still, this is at the expense of the support characters who get their fair share of screen time (which is not a bad thing). This film has really opened my eyes to the delights of Asian cinema - and I'm not just talking the standard horror movies that seem to be the in-thing to rave about at the moment. Take a chance on Kung Fu Hustle and I guarentee you will not be diappointed.