| | | From Walking Disaster To Kung Fu Master
Features: DVD, Widescreen, Aspect Ratio 2.40:1, Dolby Digital (5.1); Dolby Surround Sound, Deleted Scenes, Outtakes & Bloopers, Audio Commentary, Interview, Poster Gallery, English, French, Dubbed & Subtitled
Stephen Chow (director and star of Shaolin Soccer) is at it again with his newest action-packed andcomedic martial-arts adventure, Kung Fu Hustle. From wildly imaginative kung fu showdowns to dancesequences featuring tuxedoed mobsters, you've never seen action this outrageous and characters thiszany!
With jaw-dropping fight sequences by Yuen Wo Ping (famed action choreographer of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and The Matrix), Kung Fu Hustle will blow you away! In a town ruled by the Axe Gang, Sing (Stephen Chow) desperately wants to become a member. He stumbles into a slum ruled by eccentric landlords who turn out to be kung fu masters in disguise. Sing's actions eventually cause theAxe Gang and the slumlords to engage in an explosive kung fu battle. Only one side will win and only one hero will emerge as the greatest kung fu master of all.
"...it seems to whirr every kung-fu movie ever made into the most luscious action smoothie you'll ever imbibe." David Edelstein, Slate
"Think Kill Bill meets Looney Tunes." Entertainment Weekly
"Don't miss it! Exhilaratingly hilarious!" Lou Lumenick, New York Post
Editor's Note
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 sabers 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 Wo 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.
| Features | Anamorphic Widescreen Presentation | | Audio: Cantonese, English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound; French Dolby Surround | | Interactive Menus | | Photo Gallery | | Scene Selection | | Ric Meyers interview with Stephen Chow | | Outtakes and Bloopers | | Audio Commentary with cast and crew | | TV Special - Behind the Scenes of Kung Fu Hustle Featurette | | Subtitles: English, French | | Deleted Scenes | | TV Spots | | Previews | | International Poster Exploration Gallery |
| Entertainment Reviews
 | Kung Fu Hustle - DVD Review By: Nicholas Schager - filmcritic.com DVD Reviews Published on: 7/20/2007 7:28 PM | |
Stephen Chow’s Shaolin Soccer was a unique genre potpourri in which sports films, The Matrix, and science fiction anims all irreverently coalesced into a frantically funny tale of victorious underdogs. The filmmaker’s signature cartoon craziness – an idiosyncratic mixture of Buster Keaton’s physical comedy and Dragonball Z’s lunatic action – likewise permeates Kung Fu Hustle, a similarly ridiculous medley of gangster pictures, musicals, and martial arts films. ...read the full review |
| Technical Info
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Release Information
| | Studio: Sony Pictures |
| Release Date: 1/17/2006 |
| Running Time: 99 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 2005 | | Catalog ID: 10882 | | UPC: 00043396108820 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: Cantonese | | Available Audio Tracks: English [CC], English Dubbed, French Dubbed, Cantonese | | Available Subtitles: English, French | | Video: Color |
Aspect Ratio | | Widescreen 2.40:1 |
| Cast & Crew
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| | Professional Reviews | Entertainment Weekly
"[An] insanely entertaining smash-fantasy burlesque....You don't just watch it, you ride with it, laughing all the way." 04/15/2005 p.60Los Angeles Times
"For all its extreme cartoonish violence, KUNG FU HUSTLE is a surprisingly sweet and charming movie." 04/08/2005 p.E8 New York Times
"The showstopping fight sequences are choreographed by the legendary Yuen Wo Ping and given an extra jolt of nutty inventiveness by some cheerfully crude digital effects." 04/08/2005 p.E21 Sight and Sound
"That one can indeed call KUNG FU HUSTLE delightful reflects its wonderfully compelling, high wire sense of dreamy knockabout..." 05/01/2005 p.64 USA Today
"HUSTLE's approach to a simple good-vs.-evil plot is eccentrically exuberant." 04/22/2005 p.4E Rolling Stone
"[Chow is] a one-man comedy parade....[He] turns his characters into live-action cartoons and then, miraculously, makes it all ring true." 04/21/2005 p.124 Uncut
"[N]o one's ever captured the escapist thrill of a four-coloured splash panel as well as Chow does here." 07/01/2005 p.128 Movieline's Hollywood Life
"[I]n terms of physical timing, comic ideas and snap-crackle-pop filmmaking it buries any 10 other American comedies you can think of." 09/01/2005 p.101 Uncut
Ranked #14 in Uncut's Best Films Of 2005 -- "[A] blast of exuberant, over-the-top cinematic madness....Ridiculously entertaining." 01/01/2006 p.82-83 James Berardinelli's ReelViews 9 of 10
Kung Fu Hustle is an action/comedy designed with lovers of the '60s and '70s Shaw Brothers' movies in mind. It's an homage to a genre that, despite being regarded as campy by about 95% of the movie-going populace, has nevertheless captured the hearts and minds of thousands of loyalists. Stephen Chow, Kung Fu Hustle's director/writer/producer/star, is one such person. His love of those old movies is evident in every frame this picture. Fans of "traditional" kung fu cinema will think they have died and gone to heaven. - James Berardinelli
Rolling Stone
He stands tall, looking ready to kick your ass. But Hong Kong actor-director-writer-producer Stephen Chow (Shaolin Soccer) is also just as likely to dance a jig and make funny faces. He's a one-man comedy parade. In the seriously cuckoo Kung Fu Hustle, Chow knocks himself out to please and also to sneak in a little social satire. Set in China in the 1940s, the movie takes deft notice of how the poor are exploited in Pig Sty Alley. Chow stars as Sing, a wanna-be gangster who's willing to step on the underdog to impress the notorious Axe gang, whose members hack up a rival before doing a musical number in top hats and tails. You get the picture. And if you don't, join the hustle. Nothing is safe from Chow, who spoofs the CGI tricks of The Matrix, turns his characters into live-action cartoons and then, miraculously, makes it all ring true. Does the plot spin out of control? You bet. But dumb fun this smart is a gift. - Peter Travers
Chicago Sun-Times 9 of 10
Lurking beneath the surface of most good martial arts movies is a comedy. Sometimes it bubbles up to the top, as in Stephen Chow's "Kung Fu Hustle." The joke is based not so much on humor as on delight: The characters have overcome the laws of gravity and physics. To be able to leap into the air, spin in a circle and kick six, seven, eight, nine enemies before landing in a graceful crouch is enormously gratifying. - Roger Ebert
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