Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1136 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

Not just for Kung Fu Fans
I got this film for my husband as he is into Kung Fu, however I decided to watch it with him and I'm glad I did. I love comedy and this was very funny, but unlike many Hollywood comedies, this film does not take itself too seriously. Although there is an underlying coming of age story, it doesn't engulf the film and make the ending any less funny than the beginning.

This film is kung fu crossed with the matrix crossed with Looney Tunes. The landlady is destined to become a legendary character. Very entertaining - a must watch.

not for non appreciative knuckle heads
if you love good film, you cant fail to like this movie.. the visual style is warm and always interesting. the acting is deliberately hammed up, and to very good effect

some very funny parts also, and exciting fight sequences

if all you want from a movie is mindless action and fighting you might prefer to look elsewhere. if you enjoy good action mixed with style, wit and originality you must see this movie

Thrill to the Toad Style and the long lost Buddhist Palm
For the most part, I like my martial arts films to be as realistic as possible, but I have no problem taking a walk on the cinematic wild side, especially when the special effects are as impressive as those in this film. Kung Fu Hustle can't be compared to any other single movie or genre. Regardless of its excesses, the martial arts action in the film is something to behold. Underneath all of the comedy and over-the-top visual delights (and it can be almost cartoonish at times), there's also a seriousness to the film. It's all about good vs. evil, self-realization, and stepping up to meet your destiny. And, as much as I hate to say it, I thought the ending was quite sweet. The extraordinary special effects dominate the film and any viewer's discussion of it, but don't let that fool you into thinking there isn't a substantive story behind all of the flash.

The toughest hombres around are the members of the Two Axe Gang; put a Japanese face on John Dillinger, give him a pair of axes, and you've the old-time mobster look and feel of these guys down. They usually leave the slum areas alone, but Pig Sty Alley, run by a seemingly wimpy landlord and the toughest landlady you'd ever want to meet, ends up in the gang's crosshairs thanks to a couple of bad guy wannabes (and perpetual screwups) trying to insinuate themselves into the gang. Sing (Stephen Chow) desperately wants to be a bad guy, having paid a price as a child for trying to live up to his destiny (a rather questionable one, at that) of bringing peace to the world. The landlady's mean attitude isn't enough to hold off untold dozens of axe-wielding gangsters, but the town is saved by three kung fu masters who had moved there in search of a peaceful life. Rest assured there are repercussions, as the Two Axe Gang brings in some of the world's most deadly killers to exact revenge - starting with a pair of musicians with a unique, decidedly deadly playing style. Later, they have Sing engineer a breakout of the Beast, the deadliest killer of them all. He doesn't look like much, but the Beast is an almost unstoppable force. The only person who can possibly take him on with any chance of success is a natural-born, kung fu genius - and those are pretty darn rare.

The special effects of the many fight scenes go way beyond the kind of wire work seen in, say, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and also out-Matrix The Matrix; on occasion, you'll see stuff right out of Hanna-Barbera cartoons. Does this make the movie too goofy for its own good? Somehow, it really doesn't. If you're going to go to the extreme with your action, you might as well go all the way - and that is most certainly what Kung Fu Hustle does. From a chase right out of Road Runner cartoons to the perfectly ridiculous Toad Style of fighting perfected by the Beast, you'll laugh - but you'll also be in awe at how well the scenes play.

Basically, Kung Fu Hustle is just a complete hoot of a movie. As writer, director, and star, Stephen Chow has produced a pure winner capable of entertaining fans across a range of genres. Even he cannot steal the limelight from Leung Siu Lung, however, as this landlady, with a cigarette perpetually hanging out of her mouth, truly roars - both literally and figuratively.