Kung-Fu Hustle (14 April 2005)
Kung-Fu Hustle is so much of an improvement over Shaolin Soccer that I wonder if Stephen Chow did not feel guilty about his first venture. Maybe the intent was there with Shaolin Soccer, but Kung-Fu Hustle is easily the definitive spoof homage to the kung-fu movies and their imitations in Hollywood. The story is brilliantly held together by the principal actors in the landlord v. ganglord muddle while Stephen Chow provides comic relief from time to time with equal poise. All the hilarity and outlandish tomfoolery do not in any way make excuses for the gore and liberal dosages of blood spewing out from all possible orifices which is just as well -- nobody, not I at least, expected to see a movie on kung-fu without its concomitants. The action sequences are wonderfully choreographed and very original in their jest while the dialogue has been flawlessly translated to retain all its native Mandarin/Cantonese humour so much so that for once the original diction seemed to have the right comic timing.