Quite an experience, and in a great way as well!

Went into this one totally blind as to its contents, truth is, is that I was mooching round the shops yesterday and came across an Asian triple pack DVD at a bargain price, since one of the films was Jet Li starrer Unleashed, i thought it was worth the cheap price on offer. Got home and the write up on the back of the case didn't give much away as regards plot for Kung Fu Hustle, an Axe Gang, some guy named Sing wants to be in the gang, and that some creaky old residents in a place called Pig Sty Ally are tougher than they look.

What I got was what I can only describe as a live cartoon full of class and style, the sort of flip side to the more arty Asian films that have (rightly) become massively popular in the subsequent decadse. Written, directed, produced and starring Stephen Chow (Sing), Kung Fu Hustle is a remarkably breathless piece of work, the plot is threadbare for sure, but it really matters not, because Chow has fused the grand old genre staple punch up with balletic comedy, it's quite something to behold. It's as loud as a face off between Motorhead & Iron Maiden, yet it's just so flipping tender at the same time! Incredible sequences will dazzle you one moment and then have you laughing the next, I'm quite annoyed that I didn't catch on to this film back in 2004, but even now some years later this film is still a breath of fresh air on the home format release. See it and roll with it, enjoy. 9/10

Stephen Chow approaches the very real discipline of kung-fu in the way I view most kung-fu movies, it is all a bit silly, a bit preposterous and really should not be taken too seriously. Therefore, it is obvious that this type of kung-fu movie would appeal to me more than the kill everyone, dead serious, ‘look at this, ‘look at that’ kung-fu movies that have been made over the decades.

Imagination is no limitation to Chow and here we see deaths, cartoon violence and wirework all thrown together to make an action-packed laugh-filled movie.

The story is packed with dance-sequences, jaw-dropping martial arts fight sequences that are never ever taken seriously. It is a cartoon made flesh.

Chow is without doubt the anti-hero for most of the running time and it must be said he subverts your expectations as characters come to the forefront, seem to be the focus and then drift away, die or change their viewpoint.

The style is slapstick and daft in the main but with the storyline, the action, it makes sense and with Chow and his ‘teams’ acting and timing it works perfectly and in lesser hands it could have been a dull disaster. The line is fine and the skill in getting this correct cannot be underestimated.

In particular one sequence had me actually ‘laughing-out-loud’ and chucking about it long after it had passed, well known by viewers and fans of the film the knife attack and snakes in the box scene is very funny and skilfully put together. A masterclass in a simple slapstick, comedy-of-errors, set-up, ‘Who threw a handle?’ indeed.

Not afraid to use computer effects for the snakes, daggers and axe attacks Chow mixes the traditional kung-fu balletic choreography with more modern methods and once again he melded them almost seamlessly.

No film is perfect there are moments that jar and moments that do not quite work but in such a frenetic and fun-filled action comedy the target is going to missed from time to time. The story, such as there is, slightly confuses you but in reality we are here to sit in watch the fun, laugh and have a good time.

Stephen Chow delivers this fully and even if you do not like silly comedy or kung-fu too much it would still pay you to watch Kung-Fu Hustle on a rainy boring day when you need cheering up. It is fun, colourful and entertaining – you cannot really ask for much more.

_"I didn't know the Lion's Roar...could be done with a speaker."_

Very underwhelming. Hell, that may even be an understatement. I went into this film expecting to be relatively entertained because so many familiar reaction channels on Youtube have reacted to this film and seemingly loved the hell out of it. Not only that, it seems like the majority of people, overall, feel the same way. Well, I don't. So, I pretty much think this film is massively overrated.

Yeah, this film is super goofy and "fun." Different, especially, perhaps in a way no other films are. Or not many other films are. And that's great and all. I feel like style over substance isn't a problem for me, and I would've probably thought it would never matter. Yet this time, it did. You learn something new every day, huh? The sound effects, visual effects, visual gags, pure stupidity, and so on were _there._ But I didn't _care._

The highlight was the fight choreography. At least when it was practical, not necessarily when it involved visual effects. But I guess, in general, the fight choreography was quite good. I know, for most people, the highlight(s) is probably the visual gags or the visual effects or anything else in the film. I don't know. I didn't seem to care about any of that, or anything throughout the film, for that matter.

Another highlight worth mentioning is the soundtrack. Some may think it sounded too "basic." In the sense that it's similar-sounding to what you'd expect to hear. Traditional. And like how a lot of pop music sounds similar. But that didn't make it any less immersive or great to hear.

I guess I'm just very disappointed. There are probably "similar" films out there that I'd like a lot and be pretty entertained by them, but, for some reason, this film wasn't one of them. Maybe the fact that it's a foreign film had something to do with it. For some reason, I was expecting this to be an English-speaking film.

No, thank you. Films that aren't in English are not for me.

Other thoughts:

- Danny Chan Kwok-kwan/Danny Kwok-Kwan Chan reminded me of Andrew Koji. A lot. I know a lot of people attribute his likeness to Bruce Lee. But I saw Andrew Koji.

- The beginning of the final score brought me to a _Metal Gear Solid_ game; specifically, _Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots._ I feel like it sounded similar to a score you'd hear in that game. I guess it's because of, what I'd assume there to be, the similarities between Japanese and Chinese things; music, in this case.