Hong Kong comedy-fu meets “The Matrix” in “Kung Fu Hustle,” a chop-socky on f/x steroids that’s devoid of genuine inspiration or involving character development. Long-awaited return by multi-hyphenate Stephen Chow, after his socko Asian hit “Shaolin Soccer” (2001), tries for something new but unfortunately throws the comedian’s usual trademarks out with the bath water. Initial numbers are likely to be hearty in Asia, thanks to pic’s must-see factor, but long-term legs look wobbly; in the West, some auds may respond to the f/x feast but Sony/Columbia will need major marketing kung-fu to hustle up sizable theatrical action.
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Auds familiar with Chow’s distinctive comic style and the rhythms of his previous movies — including a large number of Western fans and the whole of Asia — will quickly feel shortchanged. From its Westernized tempo to its apparently deliberate avoidance of Chow’s trademark moleitau (nonsense) verbal humor and self-spoofing comic payoffs, “Hustle” is a very different animal from his three previous outings as director-writer-star (“Soccer,” “King of Comedy” and “God of Cookery”).
There’s a debilitating emotional flatness at the heart of the picture, as if Chow has tired of his usual shtick but isn’t quite sure what he wants to put in its place. For producing partner Col Asia, whose philosophy has always been to put local auds first, “Hustle” reps a major gamble with Asian expectations.
Set in a deliberately vague, pre-People’s Republic of China neverland — presumably Canton (modern Guangzhou) in the early ’30s or late ’40s — wafer-thin plot starts with the arrogant boss of the Crocodile Gang (helmer Feng Xiaogang, cameoing) being hacked to pieces in the street by the tux-wearing Axe Gang, led by Brother Sum (Chan Kwok-kwan) and his sidekick (Johnnie To vet Lam Suet).
Disquieting seriousness of the violence is quickly dispelled by an inventive song-and-dance number, intercut with a B&W photo montage, celebrating the Axe Gang’s control of the city.
The awaited comic payoff appears to come with a cut to a poor quarter of the city, the appropriately named Pigsty Alley.A large U-shaped tenement building with an open courtyard becomes the center location for the main story. As the colorful characters are introduced, in a consciously theatrical manner, Chow seems to be recalling classic Chinese legit, especially the much-filmed “The House of 72 Tenants.”
Enter Chow himself, as Sing, a wannabe hood with a dumpy sidekick (Lam Tze-chung), who unsuccessfully tries to extort money from the inhabitants. But though Sing is a typical Chow creation, penniless yet with attitude to spare, there’s little self-mockery, no double-take humor and an early reliance on visual effects and Road Runner-like cartoonery.
First major set piece arrives 20 minutes in, when Sum’s sidekick arrives with the real Axe Gang, resulting in an impressively staged rumble. Rest of pic is a series of set pieces as Sing — hired by the Axe Gang to bust an all-powerful Master, nicknamed The Beast (Leung Siu-lung), out of a loony bin — finally discovers that he too has the makings of a super-hero, as Master of the Buddha Palm.
Basic story arc and some of the visual effects parallel recent South Korean comedy-actioner “Arahan,” also centered on a cocky ordinary Joe in a super-Master universe. On almost every level “Arahan” aces “Hustle,” from its blend of comedy and action, through character development, to use of visual effects as an adornment rather than replacement to the human drama.
A subplot featuring Sing’s long-lost childhood love, street-seller Fong (Huang Shengyi), seems thrown in as an afterthought. Typically for Chow’s distaff leads — Karen Mok’s grotesque in “God of Cookery,” Zhao Wei’s ugly duckling in “Soccer” — she’s a social outcast, in this case a mute. As for any emotional underpinning, forget it.
Tech package is slick at all levels. Action by Yuen Wo-ping (“The Matrix”) is OK, though repetitive. Original action choreographer, Sammo Hung, quit after six weeks, reportedly after disagreements with Chow.
