Shanghai. The clumsy Sing and his oveweight friend Bone falsly claim they are members of the Axe Gang in order to try to extort money from people. However, when the Axe Gang really shows up at an apartment complex, they capture Sing and Bone. They let them go and offer them the option to join the gang under the condition that they kill somebody. Sing tries to kill the Landlady with a knife, but it backfires when she chases after him. Sing recalls how, when he was a child, he bought a Kung Fu technique pamphlet, but while trying to save a deaf girl, he was beaten up by bullies, so he decided to become a criminal. Sing uses his lock-picking tricks to free the Beast from a mental asylum, who becomes the new boss of the Axe Gang. The Landlady and the Landlord fight against the Beast, and are assisted by Sing, who decides to become good. Sing develops huge martial arts skills, beats up the Beast and the Axe Gang, and teams up with the deaf girl again.
"Kung Fu Hustle" is a weird patchwork of a live action-cartoon and a homage to Kung Fu and martial arts movies, yet some it its perplexing choices make it feel as a stuipid comedy at times. A huge problem is the meandering-chaotic story which is hard to follow in the first half, as sometimes it's not quite clear why some characters do the things they do, nor why do some episodic characters appear only to disappear without any role in the storyline, but it does improve in the second half when it gets to a satisfaying conclusion. The director and writer Stephen Chow displays a whole array of wacky jokes, some of which are very funny (as kids play association football, one guy catches their ball, plays with, it and then "squashes" it; as the Axe Gang enters the field, a shadow of dark clouds "follows" them; the Landlady says that it's difficult to find a genuine Kung Fu talent, comparing it to finding one person in a million, so one wimp steps forward from the crowd and starts doing the lamest random Kung Fu moves to show off, saying: "He is right in front of you!", but then the Landlady just kicks him out of the frame: "No, he isn't!"), but some other scenes contradict them with their seriousness and harsh brutality (throwing an axe or a knife at someone; a criminal shoots a woman behind her back; bloody wounded victims), creating a disparate tonal shift. One emotional sequence is simply perfection, though, and gives a strong artistic anchor to the film: the main character Sing recounts how, when he was a kid, he wanted to save a little deaf girl with a lollipop from bullies, but was instead just beaten up from them, so he decided to become a criminal, thinking it's the only nature in the world. As he robs a candy cart on the street and takes money from a woman in the present, she tries to communicate with him using sign language, and he realizes she is the deaf girl from his childhood, and he became the very bully he despised, causing him to change his ways and become good again. Despite all the frantic martial arts choreography and elaborate gags, the said quiet and focused emotional mini-character arc involving Sing and the deaf girl is a small gem that overshadows everything else in the film.
Grade:++
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