| By Fred Topel
In Theaters Now
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Sure, you’ve seen Jackie Chan’s comedies where he turns martial arts battles into slapstick comedy. You’ve seen John Woo movies where gunplay becomes operatic ballet. You’ve seen Bruce Lee’s hardcore Kung Fu and Yuen Woo-Ping’s floating, flying wirework. But you’ve never seen anything like Stephen Chow.
In Kung Fu Hustle, Chow blends old school wirework with Matrix style CGI effects, adding cartoonish gags and even musical numbers. It is a style that even Chow cannot describe.
“I think the film itself is quite unique but the tone of the film is already there,” Chow said. “That’s a Stephen Chow style movie. And you can’t find anything like it. But what is my own style? Take a look at Kung Fu Hustle or my previous one, Shaolin Soccer. That’s my style.”
American audiences may take it for granted that you can combine martial arts with visual effects. I mean, they did it in three Matrix movies and all of its imitators. But Chow’s job was not so simple.
“In Kung Fu Hustle, it’s very complicated work for me because you have to deal with the choreographer and also the people from the CGI company. Basically, there are two major parties representing the very traditional and the high tech technology. But I have no choice because some of the crazy ideas you have to have these two major parties involved. Like the two assassins that kill with the Chinese piano. Those kind of ideas, I can’t imagine how they’d make it without CGI. But a lot of wirework as well.”
Even though such sequences require careful planning and meticulous execution, Chow allows room for improvisation. Some of the film’s cartoonish effects were last minute ideas.
“It’s about adjustment and balance. If you make a film in a system, then it’s not easy to do. You have to deal with all the people, a lot of people watching you on the set. As long as you are following the schedule and you don’t spend a lot of money and everything is on schedule, is on track, then everything’s okay.”
Kung Fu Hustle is only Chow’s second experience with CGI. He learned the technology on his previous movie, where soccer players use martial arts tricks to beat the competition. Before Shaolin Soccer, Chow had been making comedies without special effects, working within the limitations of cinematic technology.
“You remind me of a movie that I made a long time ago. It’s called A Chinese Odyssey. I made that film a long time ago and I changed it into another version because the original movie was too difficult to make. It involved a lot of amazing imaginations, a lot of fantasy that we were not able to make, like the Lord of the Rings. You have a wire, you have two piece of wire and you try to make Lord of the Rings? That’s why I changed it into a love story, because I had no choice at that time.”
If you missed Shaolin Soccer, that’s because its American distributor, Miramax/Dimension, held onto it for several years only to dump it in two cities shortly before its scheduled video release. Chow does not blame Miramax, as he cannot presume to judge their marketing decisions.
“I think everybody wants to do business and you want to make a good film and that is a good business for me if I can make it good. For them it’s the same thing. I think there has to be some reason [for the limited distribution] if they cannot make it as good as they expect. I don’t know why. It’s difficult for me to criticize.”
Sony Pictures Classics is releasing Kung Fu Hustle in the U.S., and Chow had a different relationship with them. “With Sony Pictures is another story because with Miramax, they were the buyer and I sold it to them. That’s it. But with Sony, we developed the idea from the very beginning. It’s different because you’re more a partner from zero until the completion.”
So far, Chow has not followed his Hong Kong colleagues Jackie Chan, John Woo, Jet Li and Chow Yun-Fat to Hollywood. He is optimistic about future prospects, but also hopes to help the Hong Kong Cinema remain strong. With few new prospects to fill the shoes of the industry’s legends, Chow seeks out unknowns for his films to give them a chance.
“We have talent in different ways. It doesn’t have to be from the same school. So that’s why I would like to use a lot of new things, just try to provide a chance, opportunity for whoever is interested in this movie industry. That’s all I can do.”
While other Asian Cinemas evolve into viable markets, Chow hopes the competition will inspire Hong Kong artists. “Korean filmmakers and Thai are very outstanding right now. A lot of fresh ideas. We can find a lot of fresh ideas from Korean movies right now. So that’s good. Maybe we can work harder with this big competitor.”
Kung Fu Hustle opened in New York and L.A. April 8 and expanded to a wider release on April 22. |
