Kung Fu Hustle [Gong fu]

I just wrote to my friend, Dennis, that he should rent/watch Shaolin Soccer and Kung Fu Hustle.  After reading about their American release and listening to the Ric Myers interview I soon learned how good I have it here in Taiwan. I see these movies all the time on TV, except they are all in Chinese and subtitled in Chinese (so my imagination is in overdrive).  Here in Taiwan you can not choose a subtitle feature like in the USA. All films are subtitled in Mandarin. Plus they are imbedded into the movie I think, because you can not turn it off or on. Anyway there are a lot of good Asian movies that miss the USA and it is too bad. However, Jason Zingale is right on with this commentary below:

 

Written by: Jason Zingale

   The widescreen DVD release of "Kung Fu Hustle" is a perfect example as to what happens when a brilliant import film is handled by the right company. MiramAxe have had their fun cutting, delaying, and inevitably ruining their share of Asian films (most notably "Hero" and Chow's prior picture "Shaolin Soccer"), so it was with great pleasure when I sat down to watch the Sony Classics-released "Kung Fu Hustle." This single-disc release is packed with special features, like an international poster gallery, TV spots, and two mediocre deleted scenes. The meat of the bonus material is found earlier on the disc though, including a full-length audio commentary track with Stephen Chow and various cast and crew, and the Making-Of documentary. Both of these features have been recorded in Mandarin Chinese, but there are English subtitles to help American audiences to follow, and if you're going to bitch and complain about reading subtitles, then you probably shouldn't have rented or purchased this disc to begin with. By far the best feature on the DVD, though, is a lengthy Ric Myers interview with Stephen Chow (in English), discussing everything from his history in the business to the film itself. It's nice to see that Sony Classics took such good care of this DVD release, and it's certainly one worth adding to your collection.