KungFu+Hustle

Director: Stephen Chow

From the five movies I’ve watched that were directed by Stephen Chow, I’ve come to realize that underneath the famous slapstick comedy there’s always a moral lesson in it. I realized that amongst the films that Chow directed, the characters (especially the ladies) were often “uglified” for a comedic effect (for example the Landlady and Jane from Chow’s famous film //Kung Fu Hustle//, and Turkey from //The God of Cooking//). Apart from that, Chow always stars in the movies he’s directed, and tends to manipulate a little part of his original name to create a new name (for example ‘Chow Sing Sing’ from //Fight Back To School,// ‘Sing’ from //Kung Fu Hustle//, and ‘Stephen Chow’from //The God of Cooking//). In the fifth film I’ve watched, //Kung Fu Hustle//, focuses on another Stephen Chow character who longs to be a good person, but due to him being bullied by his childhood, he believed that there’s no good in helping other people. By the end of the movie, he embraces his full potential in becoming the “One and Only” Kung Fu master, and destroy the villains, becoming a hero. Once again, the slapstick comedy within the film served as a “voice” for Stephen Chow’s films. This film fits into the director’s work perfectly because of the factors of pure exaggeration.

There were a lot of great choices that Stephen Chow has made in the 5 films. Not only do they serve a key element in creating meaning to his story, but they also make sense with his jokes as well. There are some of the choices that I thought were the most effective in creating meaning for the film:


 * 1) //The God Of Cooking//: Chow was able to create a sense of mood using lighting in the scene where Chow and Turkey discover a new type of food called “Pissing Beef Balls”. The lighting as a whole was cold and dark, but ironically the dialogue and the story of the scene was hilarious and funny. It created a sense of irony between the storyline and the overall mood that it gave for the audience, thus making the whole scene hilarious to watch.
 * 2) //The God of Cooking:// I thought the montage for the part where Chow was arrested and “dethroned” as the God of Cooking was pretty memorable as well. Not only did that “fast-forward” the movie back into the present (The story starts off with Chow telling Turkey that he’s the God of Cooking, and then the movie flashes back to his life when he was famous for being the God of Cooking. Lastly the movies goes back to where it started and carries on the story in the present). That way the audience can put a picture in their minds back to when Chow says to Turkey “I’m the God of Cooking”.
 * 3) //Fight Back To School:// I thought that one of the biggest elements that made this film so hilarious was the music that played in various scenes of the movie. The music was very light beat and very comedic, and it matched with the tone of the scenes it was played in very well.
 * 4) //Fight Back To School:// The Misc-En-Scene used within the scene where Tat prays to eight bright red memorial tablets were extremely significant to the movie. Behind Tat and Chow Sing Sing there was a big bright blue wall. The contrast of the red memorial tablets and the blue wall made a comedic effect towards the house. Along with the white that both the characters were wearing, the colors of this scene makes the world that they both live in extremely surreal.
 * 5) //Forbidden City Cop//: I thought that the match cut contrasting the King being attacked by the Gum people and the happy adventures between Ling Ling Fat and his wife played a big role in establishing the comedic effect of Chow’s films. The match cuts switch back and forth whenever a similar action was being made by the two different characters. For example, in the scene of the king being attacked, the attacker raised his wooden stick to hit the king’s guards. Then the scene cuts to a watermelon being cut opened by a wooden stick by Ling Ling Fat and his wife. We know what happens to king’s guards through the action of the watermelon, but at the same time we also have a laugh as the scene switches from scary to funny in a short time.
 * 6) //Forbidden City Cop//: I thought that Chow made a nice decision on giving his character Ling Ling Fat a white costume to wear in the scene where he meets the prostitute (Gum Kingdom). The costumes helped out with the slapstick comedy he presented throughout that scene a lot. Contrasting the white costume that represented innocence and pure to the dark red lighting of the brothel gives the audience a sense of of laughter.
 * 7) //Forbidden City Cop//: One of the best parts from this film was an “unnecessary scene” where Ling Ling Fat starts to present awards to “Best Actress” “Best Actor” to the members of his family for helping him save the king. This was really sudden and took the audience by surprise. I thought that this played in well with Stephen Chow’s style in film.
 * 8) //A Chinese Odyssey:// One of the most commonly used shots for Stephen Chow’s films was zooming in onto the character’s face for a dramatic effect. In the scene where Sing’s crotch was lit on fire by the two devils, there was a minute of every single character’s face being zoomed in and it creates a dramatic tension between those characters. However, the way to put out the fire on Sing’s crotch was having his friends step on it. The dramatic effect of the zooming in cinematography and the idea of friends stepping onto his crotch creates a sense of irony and hilariousness to the audience, therefore establishing Chow’s style.
 * 9) //A Chinese Odyssey//: I thought that the Spider Woman’s costume in the beginning of the movie was really impressive. She came in with a black cloth over her head, and after she took it off it was bright red with white spots all over it. The black cloth that she wore gave a mysterious feel towards the audience. However, if we put the red, white and black together, it forms a deadly color of the spider she is.
 * 10) //Kung Fu Hustle//: I thought that the landlady’s characterization and acting skills were extremely good. Stephen Chow definitely made a right decision in casting Yuen Qiu as a normal woman with a hidden talent of Kung Fu. There were several factors of the landlady’s actions that makes her character so well developed. For example the scene where she yells at the villagers in the beginning of the movie. This not only establishes her hierarchy in the village but also how she views her own world in Pig Sty Alley. At the same time, the comedic run that she does when she was chasing Sing after discovering he tried to kill her with knives. makes her a hilarious character that everyone comes to love in the film.
 * 11) //Kung Fu Hustle//: The setting of Pig Sty Alley was really memorable for me. It serves as a place where the villagers live, and also at the same time serves as several battlefields on several fights in the movie as well. The structure of the village was in a shape where characters could easily interact with each other, and also makes it easier for Chow to include everyone in the shots as well.