Course:ASIA325/2025/Kung Fu Hustle: Spectacle As Both Parody and Homage

Kung Fu Hustle: Spectacle As Both Parody and Homage

Group Members' Contributions

	Contributor(s)
Introduction	CW
Stories behind film production	CW
Reception of the film	CW
Scholarly Literature Review	CWa
Comparative Analysis	OL
An Alternate Interpretation	SS
Conclusion	SS CWa
Revisions	SS CWa

Introduction

Cover of Kung Fu Hustle (2004)

Kung Fu Hustle (功夫) is a 2004 Hong Kong action-comedy film directed by Stephen Chow (周星馳). This action-comedy martial arts film was co-produced by several companies including Star Overseas, Huayi Brothers Media, and Columbia Pictures Film Production Asia . Stephen Chow directed and starred, playing the protagonist, Sing. Chow recruited many veteran actors including Yuen Wah (元華) as the Landlord, Yuen Qiu (元秋) as the Landlady, and Leung Siu-lung (梁小龍) as the Beast . Kung Fu Hustle premiered in mainland China on December 23, 2004, and was released in Hong Kong and internationally in early 2005 .

The story follows Sing, a directionless, small-time crook who dreams of joining the powerful Axe Gang. While attempting to impress his way into the group, Sing accidentally starts a war between the residents of Pig Sty Alley, a hidden community of kung fu masters, and the Axe Gang. This leads to a series of fantastical battles where Chow mixes features such as slapstick comedy, CGI-heavy choreography, and traditional martial arts storytelling to both parody and pay homage to the genre (para.18).

This academic review begins by exploring the production and background of the film, including its set design, casting of retired kung fu stars, and Chow’s decision to combine practical choreography with digital spectacle. It then examines the historical context and public reception; with particular focus on how the film’s global success reflected post-handover Hong Kong’s aspirations and anxieties. Drawing on the scholars Kin-Yan Szeto, Raechel Dumas, Xiaoyu Chen, and Matthew Chew, this scholarly review argues Kung Fu Hustle is a “celebratory critique” as it honors the legacy of martial arts cinema while challenging how kung fu has been depoliticized and commodified for Western markets (para. 30). Finally, through comparative analysis with Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), we explore how directors like Chow and Ang Lee interpret kung fu to reflect evolving Chinese identities within global cinema beyond Hong Kong.

Stories Behind the Film

Kung Fu Hustle at its heart shows Stephen Chow’s love and passion for the old Hong Kong kung fu films, particularly from the Shaw Brothers era. Chow intentionally designed Pig Sty Alley to emulate the feeling of classic Shaw–era film sets with tight lanes, laundry hanging overhead, and frequent rooftop battles (para. 10) .

Initially, Chow hired the legendary Sammo Hung as the action choreographer, but Hung left after varies reason (para. 1) . Chow then brought in Yuen Woo-ping, famous for works such as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and The Matrix (para. 12) . Yuen praised the way the film mixed old-school fighting with digital effects, saying they matched each other well (para. 18).

Chow also specifically chose cast members to pay tribute to past kung fu movies and history. For this purpose, Chow invited Yuen Wah and Yuen Qiu, both veterans of the China Drama Academy and the Shaw Brothers studio system (para. 14). Chow also cast Bruce Leung, the “Third Dragon” after Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan, who returned to screen after many successful films (para. 10). Seeing these legends reappear gave audiences a connection to the past while pushing the genre into the future.

While Chow worked with Centro Digital Pictures to successfully blend traditional kung fu with CGIs, he expressed in an interview that his goal was never to Westernize kung fu (para. 31). Instead, Chow elaborated that he wanted to preserve its spirit while giving it a stylized, modern flair that would speak to both Chinese viewers and the global film market (para. 23). That blend of homage and parody is what makes Kung Fu Hustle feel like a respectful celebration and a sly critique, all at once.

Histories of the Film’s Reception

Kung Fu Hustle’s impact was partially due to the historical significance of both the story being set in the 1940s and the timing of its release in 2004. Many features throughout the film such as singers wearing Qipao, and the Axe Gang symbolized the mythic pre-communist China. As the film premiered just after Hong Kong’s 1997 handover and post-SARS, the city’s chaotic internal battle with its own identity was illustrated by Chow (para. 1). This tension between past and present shaped how different audiences saw the film.

When it came out in late 2004, the movie became Hong Kong’s top-grossing cinematic export with the North American market seeing over $17 million in box office sales (para. 5). Kung Fu Hustle also ranked as the year’s best-performing foreign-language film (para.5). This served as a milestone for Hong Kong cinema and demonstrated the continued potential for martial arts movies to appeal to both the East and West.

Audiences from these two sides of the globe responded differently to the film as seen through contemporary reviews and reactions. Western critics were mostly enthusiastic. The Guardian praised it as "exuberant, exhilarating entertainment" (para. 9) and New York Magazine described it as a movie that "may seem nutty on the surface, but its slyness, its dreamy unfolding of so many moods and genres, becomes intoxicating" (para. 5). Western viewers appreciated the the energy, speed, and visual flair, but missed some of the deeper cultural layers as reviews from famous publications like The Guardian would only comment on the surface level cinematography techniques and the entertainment the film brings (para. 9). These mixed reactions revealed a gap: western audiences admired the surface spectacle but sometimes missed the cultural subtext.

On the other hand, in Chinese-speaking regions viewers were able to understand more of the film’s context. Many Chinese viewers pointed out that Kung Fu Hustle reminded them not only of classic kung fu films but also of childhood memories filled with humor and wonder. One feature in China Daily describes kung fu movies as “China’s most resonant cultural export,” suggesting audiences appreciate both their nostalgic charm and global reach (para. 13) . On Douban, Kung Fu Hustle holds an impressive 8.9 out of 10 based on over 1.28 million ratings, ranking it higher than 99% of action and comedy films on the platform . Viewers frequently say it reminds them of the martial arts films they grew up with and that it revived a sense of cultural pride.

This divide highlights the Kung Fu Hustle’s dual role. Western fans treated it as light entertainment and a showcase of globalized Chinese action while Chinese viewers saw deeper nostalgia and national identity. The film honors kung fu legends while pointing out how their stories have been reshaped for Western consumption.

Even today, it remains a vivid cultural memory. Many people watch it to laugh at the flying kicks while others see it as a stylish ode to lost eras. Kung Fu Hustle holds both meanings and serves as a bond between the east and the west to show how kung fu was brought into a global conversation without losing its cultural heart.

Scholarly Literature Review

Xiaoyu Chen - Intertextual Otherness

In their work “Intertextual Otherness Between Shanghai and Hong Kong: The Localisation of Space and Collective Nostalgia in Kung Fu Hustle,” Xiaoyu Chen (2025) argues that the film’s spatial setting functions as a site of cultural memory and identity reconstruction, utilizing the framework of Michel Foucault’s Heterotopia concept. Chen works to highlight how Kung Fu Hustle utilizes nostalgic urban space, separated from historical realities, to project a distinctly Hong Kong identity onto a depoliticized setting (p. 4).

Heterotopia as put forth by philosopher Michel Foucault is a space that mirrors, critiques, and reorganizes real urban spaces, often housing those who are ‘othered’ from society as a way to maintain cohesion outside of the confines of the heterotopia. The film's central setting, Pig Sty Alley in 1940s Shanghai is described as an “enclosed and humanised space” that contrasts the violent urban world outside; despite this definitive historical framing, Chen emphasizes how Pig Sty Alley as a location is more closely aligned with the historical and architectural memory of Hong Kong, particularly the now demolished Kowloon Walled City (p. 2). The mirroring of Pig Sty Alley and Kowloon Walled City help define a space that resists the alienation of modern urban life through collective resilience and solidarity.

Chen connects the film’s characters and setting to the foundational Hong Kong work, The House of 72 Tenants, noting that Chow adapts its structure to evoke solidarity and the historic cultural connection between Shanghai and Hong Kong without replicating its class critique and political radicalism (p. 3). The film uses Pig Sty Alley as a place of heterotopia to evoke a “nostalgia [for] rekindling social relations and the bygone essence of Hong Kong” exemplified through the resilience of the tenants of Kowloon Walled City (p. 2). Chen’s article helps outline how the spaces of Kung Fu Hustle celebrate a shared Chinese heritage and culture, while also being locations of critique and reimagining of the modern Hong Kong experience.

Raechel Dumas, Kung Fu Production for Global Consumption (2009)

Raechel Dumas in their article “Kung Fu Production for Global Consumption: The Depoliticization of Kung Fu in Stephen Chow’s Kung Fu Hustle,” (2009) argues that the film’s notable international success is built upon a deliberate detachment from the political roots of kung fu cinema, emphasizing how Chow both embraces and critiques the genre’s transformation into an internationally marketable spectacle.

Dumas begins by highlighting how Kung Fu Hustle was designed for international appeal, and was incredibly successful in this regard. At the time of its release the film was “the most widely released foreign film in the United States,” and won multiple international awards (p. 4). To achieve this success, Dumas argues that Chow simplifies cultural content and presents “distinctly Western notions of Chineseness that many earlier kung fu films set out to subvert” (p. 1). Using the films of Bruce Lee as points of contrast, Kung Fu Hustle is shown to be disinterested in kung fu cinema’s politically subversive roots and attempts to sever these connotations from the archetypal martial arts hero. The “large[ly] one-dimensional” cast of characters is used by Dumas to showcase how the film “detaches kung fu from many of its associations with mainland politics” (p. 1).

Dumas continues this argument through the film's depiction of martial arts as special effects entertainment rather than a metaphor for moral or ideological struggle. Chow "signals he is learning from Hollywood” through how heavily the fight choreography and special effects embrace visual excess and borrow from western films such as The Matrix and Kill Bill; this works to position kung fu within the realm of pure entertainment (pp. 4-5).

While recognizing this, Dumas suggests that this overwhelming spectacle contains a major satirical edge. Through exaggeration and parody, Kung Fu Hustle does contain a form of critique for the very mythologies it also works to celebrate; specifically highlighting the genre’s transformation under global capitalism. Despite this reading, Dumas is left unsatisfied by the “fail[ure] to exhibit the critical self-reflection apparent in both Chow’s earlier films and the recent transnational reiterations of the martial arts genre” (p. 8). Whether intentional or not, we argue that the film’s revelry in its own commodification works to reveal the costs of this cultural globalization, and thus Dumas’s article works towards our overall thesis.

Shao-yi Chan - Orientalism Writes Back: Discourses of ‘Chinese’ DissemiNationalism in Transnational Martial Arts Films (2018)

In “Orientalism Writes Back: Discourses of ‘Chinese’ DissemiNationalism in Transnational Martial Arts Films,” Shao-yi Chan (2018) examines how Kung Fu Hustle and similar films use strategies of self-Orientalism to both engage global audiences and subvert dominant narratives of Chinese national identity.

Orientalism, as first introduced by the Palestinian scholar Edward Said, is defined as “a Western style for dominating, restructuring, and having authority over the Orient,” via the construction of an arbitrary and racist binary between the East and West predicated on an imagined “Orient”. Orientalists' works depict the East as a place of exoticism and backwardness, intending to intrigue western societies in the possibilities of these lands while justifying colonial rule. In seeking the approval of western audiences, some colonized artists have been accused of self-Orientalism, or “internalising ‘the gaze of Western culture, [whence] Chinese national culture…[is] even more profoundly alienated, frozen in the language and representation of the Other’.” Chan argues however that artists raised in “site[s] of dislocation” such as Taiwan and Hong Kong have weaponized self-Orientalism to construct identities of Chineseness which are separate from the spatial locality of the mainland through transnationalism (p. 357). Chan works to reframe this self-Orientalism as not a passive submission to the colonial gaze, but a strategy for “writ[ing] back” to dominate narratives about Chinese nationalism which allow space for those alienated from China as a physical space and place (p. 353).

Chan goes onto coin the term “DisseminNationalism” as a way to describe how filmmakers such as Stephen Chow, Ang Lee, and Hou Hsiao-hsien highlight the “performative nature of a single national culture, thereby setting forth… a discursive process of proliferating and disseminating a supposedly singular nationalism” (p. 359). These directors use a pluralistic depiction of Chinese identity to disrupt the “space-centric discourse” and logic of mainland Chinese nationalism (p. 363). Chan argues that the “imagined china” depicted in these films, and the martial arts genre as a whole provide an ideal setting for testing alternative chinese identities, “martial arts film thus becomes the perfect playground for exploring numerous interpretations of this ‘common’ past' (p. 358).

While indulging in global-friendly spectacle, these film’s strategic self-Orientalism allow them to celebrate kung fu cinema’s legacy while utilizing an imagined China to explore new definitions of Chineseness. This dual purpose, both as a celebration of Chinese culture and a critique of modern nationalist narratives, directly contributes towards our reading of the Chows film as a layered and foundationally Hong Kong piece of art.

Comparative Analysis

Stephen Chow’s Kung Fu Hustle (2004) and Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) both make important contributions to martial arts cinema, but they do so in very different ways. Comparing these films is worthwhile because each reinterprets kung fu traditions to explore cultural identity, power, and storytelling across different audiences. While Chow uses parody and comedy to reflect on kung fu’s evolution, Lee treats wuxia with emotional depth and elegance. Their contrasting styles show the different ways martial arts cinema responded to an era of globalization and the western gaze..

Both films engage with the wuxia genre, which centers on wandering martial heroes known as xia, who act outside state authority and follow personal codes of honor and self-cultivation. These stories often combine physical mastery with spiritual and moral development . In Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, this genre is treated with seriousness, while in Kung Fu Hustle, it is exaggerated for humor. These different approaches reflect how martial arts cinema has adapted to cultural change and globalization.

Similarities

1. Wuxia Heroism and Personal Growth

Both films feature characters whose journeys reflect core themes of the wuxia tradition, such as inner cultivation, moral self-realization, and personal sacrifice as a path to transcendence. In Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Li Mu Bai and Shu Lien act with restraint and follow a strict code of honor. The camera frequently frames Li Mu Bai and Shu Lien in still, symmetrical compositions, especially in temple and courtyard scenes, where each character is centered between columns or positioned in mirrored balance with the other. These visuals emphasize their internal restraint and the tension between emotion and duty. In contrast, Kung Fu Hustle’s main character, Sing, begins as a petty thief but becomes a powerful fighter who chooses mercy over violence. In the final battle, he uses the “Buddha’s Palm” technique, a nod to older kung fu films, and defeats his enemy with spiritual grace instead of revenge.

Sing use Buddha's Palm in Kungfu Hustle [01:30:41]

2. Use of Digital Effects to Show Martial Arts

Both films use modern technology to update old kung fu traditions, though with different results. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon uses wirework and long, graceful takes to make martial arts look like dance. The bamboo forest fight between Li Mu Bai and Jen is nearly silent, with only light wind and the rustling of leaves. The camera floats with the characters, emphasizing their spiritual balance. In contrast, Kung Fu Hustle relies heavily on CGI to create fast, exaggerated action. In the fight between the Landlady and the musician assassins (00:51:59), golden soundwaves cut through walls in dramatic slow-motion.

Landlady "Lion Roar" in Kungfu Hustle [00:51:33]

3. Setting as Symbolic Space

Each film builds a setting that reflects the story’s emotional themes. Kung Fu Hustle is centered in Pig Sty Alley, a poor but lively neighborhood. The alley’s crowded buildings and aging interiors represent community and resistance to modern violence. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon moves between palace halls and vast deserts. The city courtyards are composed with strict architectural symmetry, stone walls, square patterns, and fixed doorways that create a sense of order and hierarchy, visually reflecting the social constraints placed on Jen. In contrast, the Gobi Desert, where Jen and Lo ride together (00:55:55), is framed in wide shots with shifting sand and horizonless sky, evoking emotional openness and unstructured freedom. In both films, the environment deepens the viewer’s understanding of the characters’ emotional journeys.

Differences

1. Tone, Genre, and Style

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon uses a calm, serious tone to explore personal longing and moral conflict. Jen’s mountaintop leap (00:01:54) unfolds in a quiet long take, using minimal sound to emphasize spiritual ambiguity. In contrast, Kung Fu Hustle plays with genre through constant tonal shifts. The Axe Gang’s entrance (00:06:13) resembles a musical, turning violence into stylized comedy. These choices reflect each director’s goals: Ang Lee uses emotional gravity to elevate wuxia into moral tragedy, while Stephen Chow uses humor and parody to question kung fu’s meaning in a global entertainment landscape.

2. Role of Female Characters

Rooftop fight in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon [00:17:07]

Ang Lee gives emotional depth to women in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; Jen’s rebellion and Shu Lien’s quiet strength are central to the story. Their rooftop fight (00:17:13) is not just physical, it expresses their moral tension and opposing beliefs. The scene uses close-up shots to show pain and restraint. In Kung Fu Hustle, the Landlady’s “Lion’s Roar” attack is visually distorted through exaggerated sound, fast zooms, and spiraling camera movement (00:49:07). While powerful, her strength is treated as absurd. This depiction reflects the film’s broader tendency to use female characters for comic relief, contrasting sharply with Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’s emotionally complex portrayal of Jen and Shu Lien. These stylistic choices suggest that Chow’s film uses parody not only to critique martial arts cinema, but also to play into and exaggerate gender tropes for humor.

3. Visual Style and Cinematic Meaning

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon uses slow pacing, soft lighting, and wide landscapes to reflect inner peace and discipline. Scenes are often quiet, letting the emotion speak through movement and space. In Kung Fu Hustle, visuals are bright, chaotic, and fast-paced. During Sing’s final transformation (01:31:31), CGI clouds part, golden light shines down, and his hands glow with power. While Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon focuses on personal emotion and spiritual struggle, Kung Fu Hustle presents martial arts as a global commodity, using spectacle and parody to highlight how kung fu has been commercialized for international consumption (p. 7).

Bamboo Forest Fight in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon [01:36:58]

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Kung Fu Hustle both draw from wuxia traditions, but they take very different paths. Ang Lee’s film is poetic and focused on inner emotions. Stephen Chow’s is loud, funny, and visually extreme. Yet both show how kung fu cinema can change while still connecting to its roots. One film asks us to admire the beauty of discipline, while the other asks us to laugh, remember, and reflect on what kung fu has become.

Alternative Interpretation

In Raechel Dumas’ article "Kung Fu Production for Global Consumption: The Depoliticization of Kung Fu in Stephen Chow’s Kung Fu Hustle,” she posits that the film owes international success to a deliberate detachment from the political roots of kung fu cinema, rendering it a consumable spectacle for western audiences (p.1). However, when taking into context the intertextual references Stephen Chow is making, the careful portrayal of traditional kung fu values, and the history of wuxia and kung fu cinema, Dumas’ argument falls flat. We argue that Kung Fu Hustle’s over-the-top choreography and special effects pays homage to past wuxia and kung fu films while criticizing western cinema’s soulless representations of kung fu.

Scene 1: [00:12:12-00:24:23]

This is first demonstrated in the scene where Sing and Bone pose as Axe Gang members, attempt to blackmail the hairdresser, unsuccessfully fight the working people of Pig Sty Alley, and subsequently call in the actual Axe Gang as backup. This scene comments on the Western use of kung fu in cinema by pitting the Western-appearing Axe Gang against humble kung fu masters.

Axe Gang walking in under dark cloud [00:17:23]

The Axe Gang is introduced in a long shot, accompanied by a dark cloud. This use of pathetic fallacy signals to the audience that they are the villains. However, this ominous mood is quickly undercut by the comical image of the vice-general being tossed into a bucket, followed by the over-the-top fireworks used to call for reinforcements. When backup arrives, the tension builds again, aided by another long shot and a literal pulling into the scene, as an Axe Gang member drags Rabbit-Tooth Jane by her hair. The viewer sees the fear in the residents of Pig Sty Alley and the brutality of the Axe Gang. This tension is again deflated when three noble, yet unassuming heroes easily defeat the gang members.

Axe Gang clone-like costumes [00:19:31]

In terms of costume, the Axe Gang is dressed identically in black suits and top hats, giving the impression that they are all the same person. Dumas notes that this imagery evokes Agent Smith and his clones in The Matrix Reloaded, suggesting that the film is paying homage to Western media (p. 5). We argue, however, that this is not homage but parody. Despite their appearance, the Axe Gang are suffer repeated and humiliating defeat; they are not presented as aspirational nor 'cool' as are the clones. Although their outfits might initially appear intimidating, the comically oversized top hats render them absurd.

Tall man coming out from behind crowd [00:15:32]

In contrast, the film introduces the first three masters—the coolie, the tailor, and the cook—as humble, hardworking individuals. These characters embody traditional kung fu values, unlike the Axe Gang, who lack kung fu skills and rely instead on brute force, numbers, and weaponry. Their costumes reflect the clothes of working people, and their martial arts abilities are tied to their labour. Unlike The Matrix Reloaded, where the Agent Smiths are defeated by a single messianic figure, the Axe Gang is defeated by representations of the working class. Earlier in the scene, when Sing is confronted by the residents of Pig Sty Alley and attempts to use his dime-store kung fu manual, the comical blocking of the scene—through character placement to hide their bulk or height—highlights his ineffectiveness. This visual arrangement emphasizes that the residents are united in their defiance and suggests that any one of them could be a hero.

Rather than inviting Western audiences in, the scene’s exaggerated choreography, special effects, and Western-style characters work to challenge Western conceptions of kung fu. It shows that kung fu is not meant to harm others unnecessarily but rather exists for the protection and safety of the community.

Scene 2: [01:17:43-01:31:40]

This interpretation is further demonstrated in the penultimate scene, where Sing’s true nature is revealed as he ascends from a good-for-nothing figure to a messianic hero capable of vanquishing the Beast—but instead chooses to teach him his ways. This moment reflects the core values of kung fu and the history of fantastical elements in wuxia cinema, contradicting Dumas’s assertion that the film affirms Western perceptions of kung fu (p. 7).

Sing dressed as Bruce Lee from Enter the Dragon [01:24:02]

Sing’s grand transformation represents the return of the son; the Landlord and Landlady speak of him as if their son has come back. When Sing appears, shocking the Axe Gang—but not the Beast, who had already guessed from witnessing the butterfly’s metamorphosis—Sing has transformed into a Bruce Lee figure from Enter the Dragon, wearing a similar white top and hairstyle. This transformation symbolizes the return of kung fu to China. Sing's earlier attempt to learn kung fu through a mass-market commodity prevented him from reaching his true potential. It is only when he chooses to do the right thing—and is beaten down to the point of surrender—that he finally unlocks his true self. This speaks to Chow’s desire for kung fu to return to China where it has a long history and context—even with over-the-top special effects. Chow underscores this by highlighting that Sing is saved partially because of Chinese medicine. He does this by slowly panning the camera past a sign saying “Chinese medicine” before cutting to the reveal the infirmary. It is Sing’s connection to Chineseness and religion that ultimately saves him.

Hand prints in traffic light [01:19:19]

Sing’s ascension to “natural born kung fu genius” is foreshadowed first when Sing experiences a miraculous recovery from multiple stab wounds and snake bites, a scene in which he is trapped in the bowl of a traffic light and leaving impressions on the glass. This is recalled with a close-up shot of Bone looking at the traffic light where Sing was trapped. The shot/reverse shot of Bone noticing the handprints builds tension and signals to the viewer that there is something different about Sing. The handheld close-up shots of the handprints also foreshadow Sing using the “buddhas palm” move as they are reminiscent of Buddhist Mudras—an allusion to the religious roots of kung fu.

Sun peaking out behind Sing's head [01:31:26]

The scene ends with Sing choosing not to vanquish the Beast but instead offering mercy and to become his teacher. The camera looks up at a backlit Sing from a low angle—a point-of-view shot from the Beast’s perspective—making Sing appear as a divine figure, with the sun just peeking out from the top of his head. The next shot looks down from a high angle, from Sing’s point of view; the Beast is now a diminished figure. Sing’s mercy reflects the Taoist values that “martial arts are not merely physical disciplines but also spiritual paths that cultivate character and morality".

Finally, in this film Chow is specifically referencing Buddhas Palm (1982), a four-part Cantonese language film series, with his use of over-the-top special effects and violence—not just western films—"[m]agic and monsters were popular elements of the Cantonese fantastique wuxia films” (para. 16), elements like palm magic, flying swords and levitation were all staples of the fantastique films of Shanghai and these elements crossed over to Hong Kong cinema (para. 22). Therefore, when Chow uses CGI or has his characters engage in larger-than-life stunts, he is not falling prey to western tastes but rather calling back to a Chinese cinematic tradition. In her article Dumas lays out a limited vision of kung fu and wuxia cinema and ignores the genre's long and varied histories. This is not to deny that Stephan Chow may have been influenced by film series like The Matrix, but to refute the narrative that Kung Fu Hustle’s stylistic choices are “affirmations of stereotypical perceptions of kung fu and Chineseness" (p.7) .

Conclusion

Kung Fu Hustle was released to acclaim, and has since become a cult classic of the genre. Upon its release, Chinese audiences connected with the film’s veneration for the history of kung fu, as well as its thematic commentary on the 1997 handover. China Daily deemed Kung Fu Hustle “China’s most resonant cultural export,” and on Douban, the film holds a rating of 8.9 out of 10. In contrast to the East’s appreciation for the genre legacy Kung Fu Hustle holds up, Western audiences connected with the stylized elements and humour of the film, while missing some of the depth Eastern audiences appreciated. This is ironically apt, as Chow utilizes these CGI filled sequences to critique the ways kung fu has been integrated into Western films.

Overall we feel Kung Fu Hustle is a highly entertaining film and a must-watch for diehard kung fu genre enthusiasts, while also offering something to those who can enjoy campy comedy. Chow’s use of slapstick humor, over-the-top fight sequences, and playful special effects kept us laughing throughout, and would be accessible to most audiences. Beyond the surface fun offered by the film's action and absurdity, we found it to have more depth than many of the reviewers we analyzed gave it credit for.

As a group, we wholeheartedly recommend Kung Fu Hustle. It presents a highly enjoyable and influential homage to the kung fu genre, while also playfully offering commentary on the western gaze and the laundering of kung fu cinema for international audiences. For members of the Chinese diaspora it is another contribution towards the post-handover attempts to generate an imagined China which makes space for transnationalism.

References

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