Kid: Hey Uncle, will you teach us to play soccer?

Stephen Chow: Still playing soccer?

KUNG FU HUSTLE

It is screenings like this that make being in Toronto for the festival one of the most wonderful things in the world. Thirteen hundred rabid kung fu fans packed in a theater for the world premiere of Stephen Chow's Kung Fu Hustle. And it blew away our expectations. It features awesome Yuen Wo-Ping choreographed fights, a gorgeous look, and most importantly a completely unrestrained energy that makes it both hilarious and original.

Let me explain my Badass-Induced Giddiness theory. What is more beloved in cinema than the supreme ass-kicking badass? They are forces of nature, practically impossible to beat, and when they clear a room you just want to stand up and say "Hell Yeah!" At the end of the Matrix, when Neo just holds up his hand you just get this tingling all over. And that is only the first stirrings of the giddiness.

Of course this is what the kung fu genre is all about. The student or master meets a roomful of guys, or better yet, another supreme master, and it's ass-whooping ballet time. He pulls out some move that makes you crap your pants and then you look at your buddy in disbelief and issue a chain of expletives to celebrate the achievement. The Matrix and Crouching Tiger took the badass from kung fu movies, augmented the classic wire work with computer technology and large budgets, and raised the bar. They raised the poswer level but they couldn't play up the giddiness factor much because they were trying to be serious. But what if you just used the technology to take things totally over the top and played up that moment when you just bust out laughing at how monstrously good the hero or villain is? That is exactly what Kung Fu Hustle does to cackle-inducing effect. Just when you think you've seen the ultimate boss badass, here comes another even better. And another, and another, and so on to the point of complete, glorious absurdity. When you then mix in a cast with a great sense of comic timing, bring-the-house-down one liners, and some inspired physical gags, you get the funniest movie I have seen all year.

Even the setup for the movie brings a smile to your face. Chow plays a would-be, but inept bad guy who starts a war between tuxedo-wearing, dancing gangsters called the Axe gang, and the indigent residents of a housing project who all seem to know kung fu. It seems that in this universe the more unlikely the look of the person, the better they are at ass-kicking. The paunchy, middle-aged men and fat landlady of the project dish out a seemingly never-ending array of smackdowns - a gag that never gets old no matter how many times it recurs.

Chow is celebrating all the old-time kung fu classics, like Shaw Brothers movies from the 70s. But references have come full circle now. Chow pays homage to modern geek obsessions like Quentin Tarantino movies, and the Matrix, which were already referencing classic Shaw Brothers movies! Even unexpected references like Spider-Man and Loony Tunes crop up for scene-stealing cameos.

If you are any kind of kung fu fan at all you should be absolutely thrilled with Kung Fu hustle. Who knows, it may even bust out of its genre movie roots and attain true crossover status.