On Stephen Chow

I recently discovered that I like Kung Fu movies. . .

On Saturday night, A and I saw Kung Fu Hustle, a Hong Kongian (Hong Kongese? Hong Kongish?) kung fu movie. It was showing as part of the Portland International Film Festival. It was amazing. . . and impossible to describe. Some action, some drama, some comedy, some romance, some good fighting, some good special effects. A story about poor folks in a housing development. A notorious gang wants to control them so the gay tailor, middle aged restaurant owner, a day laborer, stereotypical landlady (rollers in her hair, wearing a housecoat, a cigarrette perpetually dangling from her lips), & her drunken, frail, womanizing husband fight back. Conveniently, they all are kung fu masters. It is enjoyable to see dumpy old people beat up young thugs. And it was funny - laughing-so-much-my-stomach-hurt funny.

At the festival, they passed out a paper with information about the film, the director, etc. etc. etc. Stephen Chow is the director and star of Kung Fu Hustle. He made a movie a few years back, The God of Cookery, that is a cross between God of Gamblers and the Iron Chef TV series. I was unfamiliar with God of Gamblers, but I love Iron Chef. I even created my own mildly entertaining spoof of the thing for VISTA early service training years back. So I was expecting a lot. Such a promising premise: kung fu + cooking show= amazingness. Movie Madness, my favorite video store ever, had it in stock. E and I watched it last night. I was disappointed. It didn't help that I always fall asleep when I watch subtitled video at night, regarless of their quality. When it's a spanish-language film I can still sort of follow the plot with my eyes closed. My Mandarin sucks. There wasn't much fighting. . . the cooking was very cool though. The villian makes a mean assorted noodle. There were some amusing typos in the subtitles: "Dame you! Dame you!"