Kung Fu Hustle successfully blends together traditional Chinese and Western culture into an unexpectedly amusing film. Director Stephen Chow has succeeded in creating a comical montage of references to films such as Spiderman and the Matrix as well as martial arts. Surprisingly, his film was widely received, even though the dominant language spoken in the film is Cantonese. Humor is the predominant explanation for such high reviews of Kung Fu Hustle.
Even if you mute the movie, I think that the actions and emotions of the characters would be sound enough to convey meaning to the audience. For example, when Sing is being chased by the stubborn Landlady, to emphasize how their speed, we see their legs rapidly turning in circles- an obvious and silly reference to the Looney Tunes cartoons. The relationship between the Landlady and Sing is reminiscent to Wile E. Coyote and the Roadrunner. Sing provokes the Landlady which results in some sort of chase just as the Roadrunner never fails to put Wile E. through a futile pursuit. You can tell by the Landlady’s facial expressions just how relentless she is in trying to catch Sing. These cartoony scenes indicate clearly that language isn’t a barrier for understanding comedy.
The comedy is so overwhelming, however, that I missed most of the political remarks. Understandably, these sorts of messages should be covered up with a little bit of ridiculousness to get away from censors, but it seems that Stephen Chow is more focused on making a successful movie rather than a political statement. And, perhaps, language is a barrier, if you’re attempting to locate these political nuggets and find yourself hurriedly scanning the subtitles and chuckling at the outrageous behavior instead.
Kung Fu Hustle definitely possesses the bag of tricks necessary to garner an audience. If you want to find out what secrets Chow’s hidden in it, however, keep a straight face, will ya?
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