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Tuesday, April 12, 2005
Kung Fu Movies
I was looking around for some new kung fu movies to watch, and I found the new Stephen Chow (of Shaolin Soccer fame) movie Kung Fu Hustle.
Not many people outside of the Asian movie market areas know about Stephen Chow's history, that he practiced martial arts with dedication as a kid in Hong Kong, and grew up, like many of us, watching the chop socky films that were flooding out of the East after Bruce set the scene.
Stephen Chow was first known for his children's presenting on comedy kids television programs. His popular blend of surrealism, irrelevance and nonsensical slapstick was an easy skill to translate to film, and his early passion for martial arts and kung fu in general led him to adding more and more martial arts content in his films.
One of his earliest films, The Saint of Gamblers, has him portraying a Big 6 boy (a country hick) who has tremendous QiGong powers and can make poker cards appear and change at will (some might call this cheating!). He is one of my favourite Chinese actors, as I grew up watching video tapes of his movies sent to me from my relatives in Hong Kong.
Anyway, his brand of comedy is most humourous and his martial arts ain't half bad, if a little comical, though Shaolin Soccer let him display some more bold moves than he ever has before (I think he must have had a few years of training just for the film!)
If you liked Shaolin soccer, I would definitely get Kung Fu Hustle, and check out his earlier films too at www.Sensasian.com
J
Not many people outside of the Asian movie market areas know about Stephen Chow's history, that he practiced martial arts with dedication as a kid in Hong Kong, and grew up, like many of us, watching the chop socky films that were flooding out of the East after Bruce set the scene.
Stephen Chow was first known for his children's presenting on comedy kids television programs. His popular blend of surrealism, irrelevance and nonsensical slapstick was an easy skill to translate to film, and his early passion for martial arts and kung fu in general led him to adding more and more martial arts content in his films.
One of his earliest films, The Saint of Gamblers, has him portraying a Big 6 boy (a country hick) who has tremendous QiGong powers and can make poker cards appear and change at will (some might call this cheating!). He is one of my favourite Chinese actors, as I grew up watching video tapes of his movies sent to me from my relatives in Hong Kong.
Anyway, his brand of comedy is most humourous and his martial arts ain't half bad, if a little comical, though Shaolin Soccer let him display some more bold moves than he ever has before (I think he must have had a few years of training just for the film!)
If you liked Shaolin soccer, I would definitely get Kung Fu Hustle, and check out his earlier films too at www.Sensasian.com
J
