This movie was SO much fun!

Why the R rating? I was thinking about taking the family to this one. I was expecting this to be PG-13 at the most.

It has some brief moments of strong violence, violence against women, peeing on children.

I thought this movie was a riot! I will be surprised if another movie this year entertains me as much as this one did. The movie was not what I expected it to be. I thought it was gonna be more along the lines of that Kung Pow movie from a few years ago. This will probably get me in trouble since Sin City is so popular ( and rightly so, IMO) around here, but I think I enjoyed and was more entertained by Kung Fu Hustle. I will definitely own this movie when it gets a R 1 release.

This was the most fun movie I've seen in a long time. I was able to rent the import DVD from my local video store, and I'm definitely going to watch this one again before it's due back. So many classic moments in this movie, it's hard to name them all, and so many different styles mixed together so slyly. (I might even have to make some animated gifs of it if I have some time tomorrow. )

Can I vote for...

That's definitely on the list. I swear I'll end up with about 2 dozen or more before I'm done.

coolest shot in my opinion was when that crazy musician was throwing at daggers at that guy walking away, and you see everything in the background get cut

That poor cat.

Great fun movie! Let's all keep our fingers crossed that it did well at the box-office this weekend. As much as we (including myself) like to gripe about the ill-treatment of foreign movies by American distributers, I have to give props to Sony Pictures Classics. There wasn't a huge delay in bringing it to the states, it was well-advertised (at least in my area), opened on a bunch of screens, left in its original language, and wasn't edited down to avoid the R. I hope it kicks kung fu ass this weekend and shows the nitwits at Miramax how much money they blew by shafting Shaolin Soccer.

brainee... it was #5 with $7.2 million. Not horrible but not great. Hopefully word of mouth gets around to keep it going.

Saw this Friday, had to see it again Saturday. When I left, two people with me immediately picked up their phones and told people to go see this movie. It was great to see it again and pick up a lot of the foreshadowing. Audience was laughing out loud during both shows.

I'll be getting this on DVD.

Oh God, the goggles! They do nothing!
I was cringing each time the trailer came on, same old lady w/ cigarette and hair rollers, hiLARIOus incident between young punk and business man on train, tit enlargement? And a guy wonders why that stereotypical music played on the trailer for a movie that's a stereotype of their culture.

So have you seen the movie or not? The trailer isn't a good representation of the mood and style of the movie.

The fact that this movie didn't bank much this weekend is another illustration that the masses are asses. I have to say that one would be surprised how many people would avoid a movie in my area because it was subtitled.

the trailer really didn't do this movie justice at all.

Oh yes, everyones stupid because they don't go see a movie that a lot of people here like. Look, I loved the movie to death, but saying everyone who doesn't want to see it is stupid or somehow irrelevent is arrogent and makes you look like an ass.

But you have to admit, the way they advertised it was Kung Pow 2.0. They attempted to build up buzz by releasing it in N.Y. and L.A. first but even that fell short. Big factor that I think played into it is Chow even that well known or a name you can bank on? Add in the whole subtitles and that really hurts the films release.

I think this will be very big come dvd.

Given that I own a multi-region DVD player, I already saw the film on the Region 3 NTSC release already.

For those who are familiar with TV serials in Hong Kong, this movie is even more of a hoot because I can see a number of parodies of famous Hong Kong TV serials from the 1980's.

The masses:

Don't be too hard on them. As JackSkelton said, the trailer and marketing left much to be desired. I took some friends who really loved the film, and told me they never would've seen it had I not taken them, because the trailer made it look "cheesy", and they were right. I realize how difficult it is to market something so original and daring, compounded by the fact that it is in another language which they don't want to play up, so they can't use much dialogue from the movie in the trailer. But I can't imagine this was the best marketing angle they could come up with - "Kung Pow II?" Come on.

This is the best-reviewed wide release movie so far this year - that should be their marketing campaign from now on.

And before the reviews came out, they should've structured a marketing completely around post-screening interviews with very excited moviegoers of all ages - build word-of-mouth in the advertising itself. Get people's attention.

Another point:

Sony Pictures Classics is maintaining a bullish stance on this picture - evidently their post-screening numbers on this film are through the roof, and they are hoping for a word-of-mouth hit. I only wonder how many theaters this will lose in the rural areas next week... that will play into if it can get its legs under it or not. Here is their full quote, that I've found, on the matter:

http://boxofficemojo.com/news/?id=1795&p=.htm

I realize full well they have to say stuff like this, but these are very strong words all the same, and indicate a sincere hope, I believe.

And I don't think it's out of the bounds. I am in a "Red State", and I saw the movie a few times over the weekend - I never had very many people in the theater but the reaction was fantastic at each screening. People seemed to REALLY like this film, and I imagine that word of mouth will be very strong everywhere. The subtitles didn't seem to be an issue for all for anybody - there was no grumbling or anything like I've seen at the beginnings of many foreign films in wide release. I've been seeing less and less grumbling as time goes on, and I heard none of it for this film at any screening I attended. It seems Americans are actually getting used to the idea of subtitles!

And as far as Stephen Chow not being a name - I really think this film will mark the last time that is the case for one of his releases. This movie will have great word of mouth, probably have a pretty solid run at the theaters and a fantastic run in DVD rentals and sales. It may be a lot like the original Austin Powers in that regard - did just okay in theaters compared to other comedies, but built a huge following on DVD to the point that a sequal was not only made, but opened to the kind of business that sequals to big blockbusters do.

I predict the next Stephen Chow film will be marketable as a Stephen Chow film. I hope I'm correct in that prediction.

And one last point for now:



To those who mention they watched it on DVD - I did as well, and to tell you the truth, I was pretty underwhelmed and lukewarm to the film. My friend has it on DVD and we watched it on my home theater system. It was a group of us, almost all Stephen Chow fans, and the reaction simply wasn't nearly what it's been to other movies.

I thought the film was interesting but "a miss". My friend with the DVD felt the same way, and even watched it three times to make sure it wasn't just an expectation thing. A couple of other guys didn't say so, but they seemed lukewarm to it as well.

That was a couple of months ago.

So, to be honest, I wasn't expecting much on the big screen - but WHAT A DIFFERENCE! I absolutely loved this film on the big screen. The impact was completely different in feel, and opened my eyes to the brilliance of the movie. And it wasn't "just me", either - before I could say anything, my friend with the DVD asked me if it felt different seeing it on the big screen, as he felt it was far better. He ended up seeing the movie three times this weekend as well.

It was a big lesson for me, and I think a great illustrator to the power of the big screen. As good as home theaters are, they simply cannot compare to a projected film on a big screen watched with a group of strangers. Kung Fu Hustle wasn't even close to as good outside of the arena it was designed for. And my entire group felt the same way - we've gone from lukewarm to rabid fans of the film down to a man.

Laughter is contagious - that is certainly a big part of seeing it on the big screen, but aside from that, it just felt so much more... immediate. So much more real and grandiose that way. The change even converted a friend of mine who had maintained that there was no difference between a good home theater and a big screen experience - he agreed that he was wrong after seeing Kung Fu Hustle on DVD and being only lukewarm, yet laughing his ass off and loving the film when it was playing projected in a movie theater.

I had a similar experience to this with Hero - which I saw about a year and a half before its release on DVD. I thought it was visually rich on DVD but that the movie itself sucked - yet when I saw it in the theater later I was blown away and taken by surprise, because I hadn't "gotten it" at all on DVD. Now much of this was because the subs on the DVD were so bad that I could not follow the story the first time, so it seemed like a random series of events. I thought that the big screen effect must have had some impact as well, but chalked up most of the difference to the new subs that let me follow the intracacies of the plot.

But Kung Fu Hustle was basically exactly the same on DVD and the big screen, and the difference for me and others I know was absolutely huge.

Seeing a film on the big screen is still the best way to view a movie - especially a movie that is just made for it, balls to bone, like Kung Fu Hustle. What a revelation.

Fantastic film, sits at no. 2 for me behind Sin City this year as far as entertainment but they are 2 TOTALLY different film genres. And like
most others here dubbing would just have totally ruined it for me, you just
completely miss the feeling that is coming from the original source typically.

With the films that will be coming out shortly I do not see this doing very well at the theaters but should do quite well on DVD. Just hope that awesome soundtrack comes through on DTS as it appears that it gives a HT set-up quite a workout.

I don't know...personally, whenever I see a TV campaign like that I usually assume the movie sucks (and the most recent example I remember using this technique was The Ring 2). I just don't find that technique very effective.

Does anyone know if the title in chinese translates to something else? I just think that 'Kung Fu Hustle' doesn't really sum up the film well.