Kung Fu Hustle ( Stephen Chow, 2004) is a film that is co-written, co-produced, directed by and stars Stephen Chow. The film encourages viewers to reflect upon the past and its present conditions of China , its people and culture, as well as Hong Kong’s cinemas industry. Throughout the film there are scenes that reflect a 1940s Shanghai. Contextually the film also illustrates the handover of Hong Kong to China in 1997, reflecting the regions political change from being a British colony in its past to a becoming part of the People’s Republic of China. Kung Fu Hustle also parodies many martial art films and genres from both the west, Hollywood and from the east, China. Kung Fu Hustle is a film that can be placed in its cultural , industrial and generic context.
Industrially the film pays homage to the Shaw Brothers studio films and the kung fu genres. On the other hand in terms of the wuxia genre ,the film has references to the wuxia works of The Buddhist Palm (which was a major element plot based on the 1982 martial arts film Ru Lai Shen Zhang (Taylor Wong, 1982) Many classic kung fu films refer to the Buddha Palm as a supernatural mixture of spiritual strength and physical power. Stephen Chow enjoyed a series of films based on the idea of Buddha Palm produced in Hong Kong in the 1960s and reprised by Shaw Brothers in Buddha's Palm (1982). The film alludes directly to the Shaw Brothers studio system in which Chow cast Chang Cheh a martial arts director of that studio era. Most of the characters are portrayed by respected martial artists, kung fu film actors, and Peking Opera performers. Chang Cheh influenced Chows casting choices for the film as he had a favourite which was Dong Zhihua who plays Doughnut. Even the Pig Sty setting is borrowed from the 1973 film The House of 72 Tenants (Chor Yuen,1973) also by the Shaw Brothers studio. Ironically this film beat Bruce Lees Enter The Dragon (Robert Clouse,1973) in 1973 too. The Shanghai setting therefore alludes to the past cinematic world of the Shaw Brothers films.
Kung Fu Hustle is a co-production of the Beijing Film Studio and Hong Kong's Star Overseas and was distributed by Columbia Pictures. Thematically the film does explores the past and present. Evidence to support this comes from the circular narrative that the film employs. Stephen Chow’s character Sing is obsessed with his childhood memory in which he was sold a false Buddhist script. He attempts to saves a girl from school bullies but fails and as a result lives a life of crime as Sing realises that the "good guys never win". With the films multiple references to genres, the film throughout explores the history of cinema from mainland China, Hong Kong and that of Hollywood cinema. A critic had argued that ,"Chow’s passionate embrace of the history of popular film makes quotation more than subliminal but turns it into sublime moments of global integration"(Stephen Teo,2007:129).The kung fu genre, the actors and the parodied films, all provide what Edwin Jurriens calls a "intertextual minefield"(Edwin Jurriens, 2008:308).Audiences are bound to cross these ‘minefields’. This becomes important as it draws audiences from regional, local and global areas, drawing audiences from China, Hong Kong and the west itself. Thus the films engrossment of $100 million worldwide at the box office shows how Kung Fu Hustle was able to draw audience from a local Asian market to a global one, reflecting the concept of ‘Glocalisation’. By referencing the Shaw Brothers Martial art films, this acts as a global approach to draw global audiences. Yet the local aspect that Chow uses is seen through the Columbia Asian division, which works through local taste. Kung Fu Hustle’s place both amongst the plethora of recent transnational martial arts films and within the history of kung fu cinema.
Both Chinese and Hollywood films have significant cultural effect. The films , The Shining (Stanley Kubrick,1980) and most dominantly The Matrix (Wachowski brothers,1999-2003) and A West Side Story( Robert Wise,1961) with the Axe Gang dance paying tribute to this. The film draws on connotation of the western genre with Sing’s character being an outlaw. The film also references The House of 72 Tenants. The landlady in Kung fu Hustle has a cigarette in her mouth yet in 72 Tenants the lady has a toothbrush. It is these visual gags and jokes that pave the way to reading Kung Fu Hustle as a "cinema of attractions"(Edwin Jurriens, 2008:45). However it could be argued that Stephen Chow’s jokes and gags in his film are a result of his personal consciousness wanting to address Hong Kong’s cultural, political and economical issues of both past and present. This ties in with the theory of psychoanalysis. In 1905 Sigmund Freud analysed humour in his book ‘Jokes and Their Relation to The Unconscious’ (Matte,2001:12). Freud’s argument was that jokes surfaced when a persons consciousness allowed forbidden thoughts which society suppresses. This is very much the case with Kung Fu Hustle in which the mass appeal comedy and action is used to hide any political referencing. Stephen Chow hides his political criticism of the lower class people through depicting them as extraordinary people amongst the ordinary. But he is only able to do this through the visual jokes and blends them with the political allusion to the film of The House Of 72 Tenants . However it is also possible to argue that Kung Fu Hustle is just a film that only pays homage to films with no subtext underneath.
Kung Fu Hustle blends the conventions of the Hong Kong martial arts genre and the gangster, western, slapstick genre. However the most significant genre that the film explores is that of the wuxia pian genre. Kung Fu Hustle is indeed a martial arts comedy, but it incorporates many of the conventions of the wuxia genre and in particular urbanises the themes of Jianghu. Instead of having rivers and lakes as settings, the film uses buildings and casinos as a narrative. Furthermore it soon becomes clear that Pig Sty Alley is the home to a number of martial arts masters who have sought to leave Jianghu behind them. The film takes place in Shanghai during the 1940s. Nonetheless this is Shanghai very much like that in Shanghai Noon (Tom Dey,2000), a western comedy shanghai, it is anarchic ruled by the Axe Gang, who previously terrorized Shanghai in the 1972 Shaw Brothers film Boxer From Shantung (Chang Cheh, 1972)and Drunken Master II (Lau Kar-Leung,1994) by Golden Harvest. The character of Sing does not follow the code of xia. He is not a noble or honourable at the start of the film. However by the end of the film he transforms into a xia hero as he defends the landlady, landlord and the Pig Sty alley residents from the beast. The Landlady and Landlord stand for the traditional wuxia hero(ine) who battle the Axe Gang to defend their Pig Sty home. The Axe Gang represent the anti authoritarian mind-sets that make them outlaws as opposed to civilised people in traditional society. They also drive the wuxia pian narrative into final showdown between the protagonist, Sing and his nemesis, the Beast. The history of xia is that of a disruptive social force, defiance against oppression. Kung Fu hustle also depicts the world of Jianghu through portraying both Sing and the Axe gang are outcasts and outlaws and clearly there is no courts of law, they are merely dysfunctional.
The setting of the film is important as it reflects the economical and political issues of China during the 60’s and 90’s. Pig Sty Alley is a reference to the Kowloon walled city of Hong Kong, reflecting Hong Kong’s colonial history. It was caught between a political and legal dispute between the Britain and mainland China before the handover took place in 1997. It is a no mans land ,neither British or Chinese, it is caught between the two powers. Kung Fu Hustle is littered with references to this ‘no mans land’. The film is set in 1940’s Shanghai as it references the economical debate whereby " Shanghai contributing about 10% of the GDP yet the city authorities had little concern to protect the water bodies in its environments"(Seungho Lee,2006:236). Evidence to support this comes from the water ration scene reflecting the severe draughts that Hong Kong went through during the 60’s. On the other hand the film draws on post colonialism in which the Axe gang’s mise en scene and costumes reflect Hong Kong’s modernism as they all wear black business suits and drive cars as opposed to the pig sty alley residents.
Comparisons can be drawn between Kung Fu Hustle and The House Of 72 Tenants film. Both films include the important staircases buildings. The buildings are also used in Kung Fu Hustle as a set, part of a mise-en-scene that acts as a theatrical space and allows Chow/Sing to battle the Axe Gang. Before 72 Tenants the Hong Kong film industry of the 1960s and early 70s was dominated by Mandarin films, produced by the studio of Shaw Brothers with the help of actors and actresses emigrating from Shanghai. However 1973 is celebrated for being the "… year in which no Cantonese pictures were produced, Shaw Brothers, which was still regarded as the king of the Mandarin film studios, took the lead in the revival of Cantonese by making and releasing The house of 72 tenants."(Gary G. Xu, 2007:92).This is complimented further by David Bordwell’s comments that "in 1973 no other films in the local dialect were made". (Bordwell, 2000: 18). This is important to note as this had revived the Cantonese films that Stephen Chow was so used to watching when he was young. The Cantonese comeback also introduced authentic narratives about people who were socially inept and poverty stricken.
In conclusion it is clear that Kung Fu Hustle represent 1940s Shanghai. Steven Chow scatters and literally litters his film with the history of kung fu/ Hong Kong cinema and the wuxia pian themes. Kung Fu Hustle blends the present with the past and the history of cinema into this blockbuster film. The film clearly adheres to the observations made one film critic. They suggested that Kung Fu Hustle is a "intertextual hall of mirrors"(Edwin Jurriens, 2008:304).The film evidently layers reference upon reference from other films, drawing on the history of Hollywood and Hong Kong cinema rather than the history of Southern China for its visual and narrative context. Thus Kung Fu Hustle calls attention and relies on its intertextuality to the martial arts. Sing’s character adheres to the xia hero, he is the conventional martial arts hero at the end of the film. In contrast to the Hollywood films of the Matrix , Kung Fu Hustle combines choreography and special effects to parody CGI. The film also revitalizes the story elements of wuxia culture, exploring the world of Jianghu, Kung Fu Hustle satirizes martial arts films and generically lampoons the association of xia masculinity. The film subverts against the Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee masculine appeals. Pig Sty Alley is full of unlikely martial arts warriors, including a child who has muscles, a cook, landlady and landlord. Its fair to conclude that Kung Fu Hustle was a film that responds to how Hollywood has used both the kung-fu and wuxia genres. The Matrix fight scene is parodied to suggest how Hollywood has incorporated and yielded to the forms of Asian cinema. The film has adapted its comic style for a international audience, has become global through local references. This is all to help the film cross borders, initially is Glocal. Therefore Kung Fu Hustle is a film that that can be placed in its cultural , industrial and generic context.
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