anybody seen previews for 'kungfu hustle'?

[Veronica]

a stephen chow movie. i've never seen his stuff. i think miramax picked up the film for U.S. distribution and the preview commercials are playing very regularly. it looks crazy and hilarious. anybody seen it or plans to see it?? i hear SC is one of hong kong's comic giants?

[Webmaster]

i'm watching vh1 right now and i just saw the commercial... actually twice now.

i've seen "kung fu hustle". it's alright funny but i guess i like his previous movie "shaolin soccer" more.

yes stephen chow was a huge comedian in hong kong back in early 90's... all along the years and still IS pretty huge nowadays.

[alisa]

I saw it but didnt get the joke in there at all. I think the joke is too HK and I just dont get it by reading subtitle.

[Veronica]

alisa said:

I saw it but didnt get the joke in there at all. I think the joke is too HK and I just dont get it by reading subtitle.

i was thinking about that. i thought the preview looked hilarious, but definitely different humor than i'm used to. and it's 60 seconds. maybe i would be too fed up with two hours of that. even 'china dragon' bothered me. only liked it because takeshi is in it and the kids were cute. but the humor, it gets annoying after about 20 minutes.

[Webmaster]

that's true though. i think that not only hk comedies are too specific to the hk culture that people who are not familiar with that will not get the jokes, but hk movies in general are too specifically designed to the hk audience. even other chinese-speaking audience from other regions might not fully get hk movies either.

stephen chow's movies are very, very "hong kong" and different. his style is weird too... he was the first one to have that certain style in hk. even not all hk people are into his stuff...

his jokes would NOT be funny at all in english. i'm pretty sure about that... hehe... there're still a lot of things you can't translate.

[ariana]

I went and saw Kung Fu Hustle the other day. I thought it was great. I was even doing some of the dancing today. Saw that, watched House of Flying Daggers later that day, then ran into Jason Scott Lee at my favorite bar that night. (He was in town for a film festival.)

[TickTake]

The instant I saw the trailer for Kung Fu Hustle during HOFD's theatrical run, I knew I had to see this movie. And after seeing it, I was not disappointed. I think it is an absolutely phenomenal piece of movie making!

I love martial arts movies anyway, but that wasn't what impressed me most about this film. I was blown away by things like camera angles, the cinematography, and the composition of some of the shots and scenes.

Stephen Chow is truly an amazing director and screenwriter. Anyone who can conceptualize the scene with the two blind assassin musicians AND actually translate it well onto film has to be a cinematic genius.

[Webmaster]

You know what, I love the landlady character in the movie!! I think the actress has done a fantastic job - she totally grabs your attention.

Stephen Chow is a huge Bruce Lee fan so you're gonna see lots of Bruce Lee references in the movie as well as his previous success "Shaolin Soccer". "SS" is a wild movie too.

Just curious, is the movie English-dubbed or in its original voice with English subtitle? (obviously, I haven't gone to the theater to watch it, I have the DVD... this movie was released last year in Hong Kong & Asia)

[TickTake]

Just curious, is the movie English-dubbed or in its original voice with English subtitle?

I'm happy to report that the movie was subtitled (I'm not at all a fan of dubbed movies).

The landlady was my favorite character as well. She absolutely owned the screen in every scene in which she appeared.

Stephen Chow reminded me soooo much of Bruce Lee in he films climax in Pig Sty Alley. I knew Chow was a big fan of his, and his admiration of Lee was really evident. I thought it was great!

I'm kicking myself for not buying Kung Fu Hustle at YesAsia when I had the chance. I wanted to make sure I saw the movie for the first time on the big screen, but I never thought about holding off on watching the DVD until after I saw it in a theater. DUH! There are times when my brain doesn't quite function properly!

[Samanosuke]

Wow I'm really late on posting in this thread. I bought this movie before it was release in theaters. FYI - the American release is cut and censored.

I'm not from Hong Kong and I do admit that the jokes are geared towards their culture but for some reason I always seem to understand it. When I watch Korean, Japanese and Hong Kong movies I can get the joke. Maybe it's because I am asian(Vietnamese).

This movie is set to be release in August I think. I'll buy it again eventhough I already have the original. I want to see what extras are included in the American version.

[alisa]

News about the sequel from Monkeypeaches.com

According to the Taiwanese media, filming of the sequel to Kung Fu Hustle will begin in Shanghai this September or October and will complete by the yearend. Almost everyone, including Stephen Chow himself, Lam Tse-Chung (Chow's sidekick), Yuen Qiu (the Landlady) and Yuen Wah (the Landlord), will reappear in the sequel. Even Chan Kwok-Kwan, whose character died in the first film, will return with a new character. However, Huang Shengyi, who played the female lead, is currently trying to leave Steven Chow's agency and her chance of returning to the sequel is quite small. The action will still be handled by Yuen Wo-Ping and there will be more action sequences in the sequel. The budget is about US$ 15 million and part of it comes from Sony Pictures.