Kung Fu Hustle/Medallion

Kung Fu Hustle/Medallion

Kung Fu Hustle / The Medallion (Widescreen Edition)
Average customer rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • Do the Hustle.
  • Kung Fu Hustle Review
  • Great
  • This is hilarious!
  • BRILLIANT BRILLIANT BRILLIANT!!
 Kung Fu Hustle / The Medallion (Widescreen Edition)
Unknown
Manufacturer: Unknown
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

GeneralGeneral | Action & Adventure | Genres | DVD | Video
GeneralGeneral | Art House & International | Genres | DVD | Video
Martial ArtsMartial Arts | Sports | Genres | DVD | Video
GeneralGeneral | Foreign & International | Stores | DVD | Video
Similar Items:
  1. Shaolin Soccer
  2. Sin City - Unrated (Two-Disc Collector's Edition)
  3. Ong-Bak - The Thai Warrior
  4. Hero
  5. House of Flying Daggers

ASIN: B0009S4III

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars Do the Hustle........2007-06-06

Inventive. Action-packed. Absurd. Hilarious. Touching. Violent. Lively. Smart. And above all else- Superb.

You don't need all of those adjectives to describe a great movie, but you do when describing Stephen Chow's masterpiece Kung Fu Hustle. Taking place in 1940s China, our story involves the hundreds-strong Axe Gang, their efforts to take over the impoverished and dilapidated Pig Sty Alley, and the effects on Pig Sty's tenants. The gang believes taking or Pig Sty will be a cakewalk, but a few of the residents aren't about to let that happen.

Perhaps the most unique thing about the film is how our attention is shifted from one protagonist to another. The first part focuses on three Kung Fu experts (a baker who carries a wooden staff that can shatter metal guns, a hardworking laborer, and a sensitive homosexual tailor). The second part is about Pig Sty's tyrannical chain-smoking landlady and her philandering landlord husband. And the third part concerns a loser (played by Chow) who tries to take up life of crime because of a traumatic childhood incident when he tried to do good deed. I've read critics pan KFH because it lacks one true central character, but I just call it doing something different. Oh well, whatever gets those critics through those long and lonely nights.

Unconventional narrative style aside, there are plenty of other reasons to watch such as the eye popping effects and the humor. Ordinarily, I can't stand CGI, but I really love the way it was used here. Chow succeeds in using it in ways that most American filmmakers can't even dream about. A gut-busting Looney Toons inspred foot chase and a fight with two evil street musicians both have to be seen to be believed. Who needs people like Michael Bay who timidly believes he is pushing the envelope, while Chow demolishes the whole stationery store?

5 out of 5 stars Kung Fu Hustle Review.......2007-06-02

This was a great movie, containing a segment from almost every genre known to man. I loved it. The best parts for me were the fighting scenes, where the action is choreographed to be almost a dance. Most prominent in theis movie is the comedy...after the first 5 or ten minutes...that had me laughing all the way through. Though there was a lot of fighting, it was light on violence. I would recommend this movie to viewers at least ten and up. Totally.

5 out of 5 stars Great.......2007-04-18

As a high level martial artist I have to say this is the greatest martial arts movie since the Seven Samurai.

4 out of 5 stars This is hilarious!.......2007-03-24

I rented this movie from Blockbuster, and after I watched it, I had to have it! This is a well written (of you like spoofs) hilarious movie! I'm also a huge fan of "Shaun of the Dead"! So if you like that type of "off beat" humor, you'll love this movie!

5 out of 5 stars BRILLIANT BRILLIANT BRILLIANT!!.......2007-02-17

A friend provided a care package of movies before a rather lengthy business trip. He included this movie knowing that I love the genre and told me that this would most likely be a new favorite. The movie they showed on the plane was [..], so I popped the disc into my laptop and lo and behold!! I watched it 2 more times while I was on my business trip and thought it was more brilliant each and everytime. It's funny and heartbreaking and heartwarming and funny and thrilling and funny. But the best part is..It's FUNNY!! I mean hilariously so. The action scenes are well choreographed, but don't look choreographed. The acting is superb. I love this movie! My husband and I never get tired of watching, now the kids watch and love it too.
Kung Fu Hustle / The Medallion (Full Screen Edition)
Average customer rating: 5 out of 5 stars
  • Hollywoodized Chop-Socky Send-up
  • Awesome!
  • Great entertainment!
  • A true sleeper of kung fu satire
  • Martial arts will never be the same!!
 Kung Fu Hustle / The Medallion (Full Screen Edition)
Unknown
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

GeneralGeneral | Action & Adventure | Genres | DVD | Video
GeneralGeneral | Art House & International | Genres | DVD | Video
Martial ArtsMartial Arts | Sports | Genres | DVD | Video
GeneralGeneral | Foreign & International | Stores | DVD | Video
Similar Items:
  1. Shaolin Soccer
  2. Ong-Bak - The Thai Warrior
  3. House of Flying Daggers
  4. Kung Pow! Enter the Fist
  5. Unleashed (Unrated Widescreen Edition)

ASIN: B0009UVBQS

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars Hollywoodized Chop-Socky Send-up.......2007-02-07

There is a local cable station where I live that, late at night, often shows these tedious kung fu films that I can only assume are or were the mainstay for Hong Kong, Taiwan and some main land China film goers. Most of the action is between one or two young assailants and one older defender made up to appear older with white hair, puffy eyebrows and beard.) Foley artists I expect were exhausted after adding loud snaps and bangs to every contact between the fighters who, except for an occasional flip or ricochet off a tree, are fairly earthbound. And it is impossible to deduce from their barely subtitled dialogue what they are fighting about. Also, these battles almost always take place in a forest or rocky glen.
Recent kung fu epics like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; Hero; and House of Flying Daggers, to name only a few, have raised the bar both stylistically and in terms of production values. Stephen Chow, director and co-writer of Kung Fu Hustle, has taken the genre one step further: while keeping the high standards in fight choreography, special and trapeze effects, camera work and editing found in the aforementioned films, Chow produces an at first glance comedic kung fu movie that also incorporates American film genres, not only to inject this latter iconography into his story but also to expand the viewer's consciousness of the toll and meaning (or meaninglessness of) violence. It is obvious that Chow is an avid devotee of Hollywood: he appropriates 1930s musicals a la Fred Astaire in the dance Axe Gang leader Brother Sum and his mob do in their stronghold. Pig Sty Alley is a Chinese version a Bowery Boys back alley. Music, both traditional Chinese string orchestra and snippets from Western classical violin concerts, is used as a continuous underscore. And the physical comedy employed in the first half of the film - among them falls from buildings that do not injure, fist distorted features that snap back like rubber, running legs reduced to a cyclonic blur, people moved dozen of yards in less than a blink of an eye - all draw on Hollywood prototypes, especially the cartoons produced by Warner Brothers in the middle of the last century.
While the callous execution of a rival gang in the middle of the street has the expected comic twist and is nonetheless tolerated despite the carnage, the early death of the coolie, tailor and Donut the baker - the three initial defenders of the Pig Sty Alley - come, on reflection, as something of a shock. Who now is going to step up and defend Pig Sty Alley? The landlord and his wife come forward, revealing their mastery of the martial arts that is almost enough to conquer the Beast - almost, but not quite. Their salvation, and Shanghai's deliverance from the murderous tyranny of the Axe Gang is the transformation from street thug and gang wannabe (and secretly noble) Sing (played by director Chow) into a superfighter who finally vanquishes the Beast.
Throughout, the most vicious and powerful kung fu attacks barely graze the combatants, which maintains the sense of comedy even while the good guys are dying. Chow plays with this violent-comic, good-evil dichotomy with a master's touch. And yet on reflection we realize that more than good entertainment is at stake here. The violence is neutralized by the comedy, and yet the characters, who are so well drawn by this talented cast and its director, are taken from us too soon. Kung Fu Hustle plays this crafty game with us: amazing us with special effects-enhanced fight scenes, making us laugh with well timed and conceived comic bits and pratfalls, but in the end leaving us with an odd dissatisfaction, as much with the film as with the genre. Hollywood inspired images transcend the nominal crudeness of run-of-the-mill chop-socky far, but also raise the stakes in that the characters gain dimension, and in doing so leave the view bereft by their passing. While being more cartoonish, Kung Fu Hustle becomes more real.
Hung Fu Hustle comes highly recommended, and we can only hope that its sequel, due out in 2008, lives up to the standards set by this imaginative and unsettling film.

5 out of 5 stars Awesome!.......2007-02-05

Kung Fu Hustle is a brilliant parody of western themes and mindblowing Kung Fu action from start to finish. Several viewings are required to digest all the action and symbolism. The ambiance made me feel like i was in China again, as the tenement house was realistic and authentic plus the music score is of traditional Chinese opera orchestra. Choreography, sets, costumes and colors are magnificent! An unforgettable comedy. The special features are fun and Ric Meyers did a great one on one interview with Stephen Chow, (this is his Masterpiece). Enjoy!

5 out of 5 stars Great entertainment!.......2006-12-27

Just a blast! You'll never view martial arts the same way.

5 out of 5 stars A true sleeper of kung fu satire.......2006-11-04

I first saw this movie as a rental, and my daughter and I couldn't stop laughing. Having a week on the rental, and a dull week, I watched it again a few days later- something I religiously avoid- and surprising to me, I was laughing as hard as the first time around. As that has never happened before, I heartily recommend this movie for anyone who has seen a Bruce Lee, Jet Li, Jackie Chan, or the more "sophisticated" Crouching Tiger or Flying Dagger movies. This movie has subtle and slapstick humor (e.g., the unremovable cigarette in the matriarch's mouth), but is quite intelligent, and encompasses good cinematography with subtle effects (such as the visually vibrating heat waves as the bad guys first approach the slum village). Yes, it is cartoonish in parts, but is an intelligent cartoon, if that makes sense. I plan to buy a copy now for many future viewings.

5 out of 5 stars Martial arts will never be the same!!.......2006-09-26

Once again Stephen Chow has put out another winner. This movie has it all! Extremely entertaining with eye-popping visuals. Interesting characters, laughs and some tear eyed moments, plus the martial arts are excellent!!! If you have not seen a Stephen Chow movie then you are just lame!!

DVD:

  1. The Master
  2. The Ultimate Ninja
  3. To the Shores of Tripoli
  4. Cop on a Mission
  5. Fist of Unicorn
  6. Hidden In America
  7. Hercules Unchained
  8. Ulysses
  9. Cutaway
  10. Return to Treasure Island

DVD List

DVD

DVD

My Darling Clementine

The Ultimate Fighting Championship 2

Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg (REGION 1) (NTSC)

DVD: Prince of Darkness

Formula 1 1974 Review