Kung Fu Hustle

What a hodge-podge of styles this movie is. It takes the Hong Kong tradition of martial arts mysticism, slapstick (also in the tradition of Hong Kong martial arts movies), Airplane humour, Loony Toons silliness, Matrix slo-mo fighting and even West Side Story gangster moves, all with an extra large topping of cheese.

The pre-Communist Chinese village of Pig Sty harbours several secret kung fu masters, all of whom are targeted for assassination by the ruthless, black-suited Axe Gang (to those of you who think Asians all look alike, you'll get a flashback to the plague of Agent Smiths in the third Matrix movie). The village's landlady specialises in the Lion Roar, a scream which not only shatters glass but can also repel demon swordsmen (and what a refreshing change from the literal femme fatale she is - she's overweight, middle-aged and has a cigarette perpetually dangling from her mouth. Zhang Ziyi she is not). Her husband does kung fu in his sleep; sort of an homage to Jackie Chan's Drunken Master movies I'd say.

Okay, so there is actually a bit of real, nasty violence, but mostly it's highly stylised. And in the end the good guys win, the lost souls find direction and the hero gets the girl.

It was great fun.