Kung+Fu+Hustle

Film Analysis on Kung Fu Hustle - Karson Mo

Kung Fu Hustle is an action-comedy film directed by Stephen Chow that takes place in Shanghai in the 1940s. The main character of the film is Sing, a silly man who tries too hard to be a gangster. He first makes an appearance with his sidekick in a ghetto residency complex in a remote part of Shanghai acting all *excuse my language* "douchey" and tough pretending to be a gangster from the legendary Axe Gang in order to get a free sidekick a free haircut. However, his plan goes wrong and the everyone in the complex surrounds him and he gets threatened by them. Still pretending to be a member of the Axe Gang, Sing attempts to intimidate the complex dwellers by calling for his imaginary "backup," which brought in one small group of Axe Gang members. Failing to realize that Sing was not a real Axe Gang member, the Axe Gang caused a huge fight in the complex which led to the whole Axe Gang coming in and getting defeated by three individuals from within the complex who turn out to be kung fu masters. After the fight, the Axe Gang retreated back into their hideout, dragging along Sing and his sidekick (the Axe Gang found out that they were phonies) as prisoners. **It was then when it was revealed that Sing wanted to be a part of the Axe Gang for real.**

However, due to Sing having extraordinary lock picking skills, he and his sidekick were both released, with Sing being recruited into the Axe Gang to pick a lock of a cell in a mental hospital to release a beastly killer. Why the Axe Gang needed that beastly killer to be released will be explained in the next sentence. Do you recall the three kung fu masters which I mentioned before? Well the Axe Gang did not like the fact that someone had defeated and humiliated them, so they sent out two of the top killers to go kill them. They succeeded in killing those three, but while they were battling, two new Kung Fu heroes emerged from the complex; the landlord and the landlady. The couple defeated the top killers, which angered the Axe Gang even more, which is why they recruited Sing to release the beastly killer. Sing does release the beastly killer, and the beast killer was hired by the Axe Gang to eliminate the kung fu master couple. The killer agreed to do so, and got into a big fight with the couple, leading to the destruction of a casino. Nearing the end of the fight, the tree combatants got themselves tangled in each other's limbs, and the Axe Gang leader told Sing to intervene and hit the male of the kung fu master couple on the head with the leg of a wooden chair. He does not do so, but instead hits the killer on the head with the leg after after beating up the leader due to his unclear instructions, and gets pounded to a pulp by the killer, having his face smashed repeatedly into the ground (literally). The killer was going to pound Sing even more, when suddenly the kung fu master couple swoops him away to a remote location near their complex and healed him. **It's then that one would realize that what Sing really needs is to discover that he is the kung fu genius, and that his true cause is to defeat the killer and the Axe Gang in order to save the complex, and not to be some gangster in the Axe Gang.**

The tone of Kung Fu Hustle is **humorous, heroic and sad** at the same time. This movie is a comedy after all, so of course there would be a humorous tone in it, and many things help make the tone humorous, like actions of the characters and other stuff that I'll be talking about more later. It has a sad tone as well though because when the original three kung fu master's were killed off, and when I thought Sing was dead, I had developed quite an emotional attachment to them and had that NO I DON'T WANT THEM TO DIE! STOP! WHAT ARE YOU DOING STEPHEN? BRING THEM BACK IMMEDIATELY! kind of spazzy feeling when those things happened. It's also pretty heroic because throughout the whole movie, there are heroes that stand up in the face of evil to protect the people in the complex from the danger of the Axe Gang.


 * Mise En Scene elements:**


 * 1. Setting -** The setting of this movie is mainly in the ghetto residency complex. Most of the major fights take place within this complex, and is where a lot of the main characters live. The darkness of the complex develops a sad and depressing kind of tone, but the state of the complex after the final fight leaving giant handprints everywhere bringing light into the complex makes it create a humorous tone and heroic tone as well. It relates to the theme because the darkness in the complex kind of symbolizes Sing's evil wants of joining the Axe Gang but the handprint bringing light into the complex makes everything seem heroic and symbolizes that Sing had discovered his true intents of having to defeat the killer and Axe Gang.


 * 2. Costume -** In this movie, the costumes of the main character, Sing, develops over time as he gets what he wanted, and later, what he needed. In the beginning of the film when he was a wannabe gangster of the Axe Gang, he was dressed in a way similar to that of a homeless person. The way he slung his jacket over one shoulder and having one button on the top of his shirt unbuttoned gives off kind of a humorous tone. As the movie advances, he has a new costume; one of the legitimate Axe Gang, which kind of gives off an evil tone. However, by the end of the film, the director showed the audience the theme of the movie and put Sing in a kung fu uniform.


 * 3. Props -** There are a number of props that have a special meaning to them, one of which is a lollipop. The lollipop is an important prop to the film because it holds a lot of meaning in it. The director clearly wanted to show that the lollipop as an important object, as he made it appear on several occasions spread out across the movie, with it being centered, focused, and in a close-up shot every time. Apart from that, every time the lollipop was shown, there was a sort of heroic non-diegetic music that played, creating a heroic tone. The lollipop is a symbol of the goodness in Sing. It directly relates to the theme of the movie because the first time Sing encountered the lollipop was when he was trying to be a hero when attempting to save a girl (owner of the lollipop) from bullies who were trying to take it from her. It didn't work out so good for him when he did that because he thought he was a master at kung fu when he was not. The second time he encountered the lollipop was when he was robbing the ice cream cart where the girl he saved worked at (keep in mind that this is before he officially joined the Axe Gang). The girl tried to give him the lollipop but Sing knocked it out of her hand and it fell to the ground, shattering into 10+ different pieces. After that, he joined the Axe Gang, showing that he had lost his goodness in joining the Axe Gang. The next time the lollipop appeared was after Sing got beaten to a pulp by the killer and the kung fu couple brought him to a shrine to heal him after he saved their lives. He used his bloody hand to draw the lollipop on the ground with his blood, symbolizing that he wanted to go good and realized that his joining the Axe Gang was a bad decision, and that what he should have done all along was to help destroy the Axe Gang. The last time the lollipop appeared was in the end of the movie, when Sing opened up a candy store with the lollipop as it's logo, and showed that he was successful in becoming good again.

a) Sing's actions in this medium shot shows his defiance to the Axe Gang when he his the boss of the Axe Gang with the wooden leg of a chair. I'm guessing the director decided to get Sing to do this to show his "resignation" from the Axe Gang, which supports the theme. b) Again, Sing shows defiance to an antagonist, the beastly killer. After he provoked the killer by smashing a chair leg on the killer's head, Sing got beaten into a pulp with his head smashed into the ground. The killer proceeds to ask why he hit him, and Sing responded by weakly picking up a splinter of the chair leg and bonking it on the killer's head, which led to his head being beaten further into the ground. Before the killer was able to do any more damage though, the kung fu couple who were also in the scene whisked Sing away to heal him. In the process of healing Sing, Sing's inner Chi was released, and he recognized his own kung fu genius. c) Upon releasing his Chi and recognizing his true kung fu genius and his purpose, Sing faces the entire Axe Gang and the beastly killer in an all out mega battle. He fights and destroys everyone, strongly supporting the theme.
 * 4. Actions -** The actions of Sing in numerous scenes in the movie help to support the theme of the movie. Below are some examples.

In the following medium shot, Sing had finally gotten what he wanted; he had joined the Axe Gang. Note how he is dark and shrouded in<range type="comment" id="404140562_10"> shadows,</range id="404140562_10"> showing that he had made the wrong decision in becoming an evil Axe Gang member. However, in this close up shot of him, he had gotten what he needed; he had realized that he was the kung fu genius that everyone needed and through <range type="comment" id="404140562_11">back lighting</range id="404140562_11">, Stephen Chow gives Sing a holy and heroic feeling. Sing has made the right decision and became a good guy.
 * 5. Lighting -** The lighting used in this movie creates a rather dark and heroic tone. Stephen Chow used light and brightness to show who the protagonists (the kung fu masters) were and who the antagonist group (Axe Gang). He used the following long shot towards the beginning of the film to show who the protagonists and antagonists are, by shining light upon the kung fu master and casting shadows and clouds upon the Axe Gang. Throughout the film, he uses different lighting to show how Sing progressed from getting what he wanted to getting what he needed.


 * 6.<range type="comment" id="404140562_12"> Color</range id="404140562_12"> -** There is a rather important scene in this movie, and it is the scene where Sing tells his sidekick the story of how he learnt the kung fu technique "Buddhist Palm." When he told the story, the film faded into a less saturated scene, letting us as an audience that we were now watching what had happened in the past. In this scene, Sing was approached by a homeless person on the streets who told him that Sing had a lot of Chi in him and that he had the potential to become a true kung fu genius, and that he could become one by buying the manual of the Buddhist palm from the guy. Sing does buy it and practices the moves, which he thought he had perfected. Then the movie cuts to something that happened after his practice; young Sing sees a little girl being bullied and harassed by a bunch of older kids, so he used his new moves to try to defend the girl and ward off the kids. His move fails and the kids all gang up on him, beating him to the ground hand pissing on him before they left. After that ordeal, he gave up hope that he was a kung fu genius and gave up on the Buddhist Palm manual. However as we now know, in the future he does release his Chi and become a true kung fu genius and perfected the Buddhist Palm, using it to defeat the Axe Gang and the beastly killer.


 * 7. Framing -** In this movie, I realized that during the fight scenes, the heroes of the battle were often framed in the same way; they were often centered, g<range type="comment" id="404140562_13">iving a heroic tone to the scenes. </range id="404140562_13">Because the heroes were framed this way and often showed up like this, it is hinted to the audience that there is something important about all these heroes, and they could probably relate that Sing will later become one of them because of all the attention Stephen Chow decided to focus onto them.


 * 8. <range type="comment" id="404140562_14">Contrast</range id="404140562_14"> -** Stephen Chow often used contrast in this movie to show the differences between things, like the contrast of white with black, which indicates the difference between good and evil. In this particular scene, Sing has already discovered that he is the kung fu genius, and he is currently fighting off the Axe Gang from the housing complex. It can be seen clearly that the "evil" in here is the black clad Axe Gang members and that the "good" is Sing, the white clad kung fu genius. There is a humorous tone in this scene because of the non diegetic sounds of the pinball machine "<range type="comment" id="404140562_15">ding</range id="404140562_15">" whenever he kicks someone away.


 * 9. Location -** When the kung fu master couple escaped with the injured Sing in order to save him, they brought him to a Buddhist shrine to do so. I thought this was a very smart decision for Stephen Chow to make, because when I first watched that scene, I immediately flashed back to the scene where Sing learnt the Buddhist Palm kung fu move. Bringing him to the Buddhist shrine gives foreshadowing of Sing's release of Chi and discovery of his being the kung fu genius and his being able to use the Buddhist Palm move. The fact that he was saved by the kung fu couple also foreshadows that he will join forces with them and fight off the Axe Gang and beastly killer.


 * 10. The <range type="comment" id="404140562_16">Butterfly</range id="404140562_16"> (Props) -** The butterfly is yet another important prop in the film. Although it only appears in one scene throughout the whole movie, it shows up at an important time. It is a metaphor to Sing's wellbeing. When the butterfly was still in the cocoon, it represented Sing's state while in a full body cast; both creatures inside the shells were generating life within them, and when the butterfly broke free of the cocoon with a brand new power with a brand new freedom, Sing did too. When they both broke out of their respective shells, they had to conquer some challenges. The butterfly had to fly away, while Sing had to defeat the Axe Gang and the beastly killer.