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Kung Fu Hustler
Source: Edward Douglas April 2, 2005
www.comingsoon.net/news/topnews.php
Stephen Chow may not be as well known in the United States as Jackie Chan or Jet Li, but back home in China, he's a huge comedy star, having directed and starred in two of the country's biggest blockbusters ever. After his 2000 film Shaolin Soccer became one of China's highest grossing films, he is as famous back home as Jim Carrey or Adam Sandler are here.
Many thought that Shaolin Soccer would help break Chow out in the States, but the movie was fumbled by its US distributor Miramax, who dubbed it in hopes of getting a younger audience and then repeatedly delayed it, before finally releasing a subtitled version in only a few cities.
Undaunted, Chow returns to the States with his latest action-comedy, Kung Fu Hustle, in which he plays Sing, a bumbling gangster wannabe, who inadvertently starts a war between the deadly Axe Gang and the impoverished town of Pig Sty Alley. But before you put your money on the axe-wielding gangster mob, you should know that Pig Sty Alley has three kung fu masters living there in hiding, taking on rather unassuming roles as tailors and bakers.
The film was inspired by Chow's love of martial arts films as a kid, a legacy that he hopes to carry on with this movie. "The difficulty in this film is just how to make it different from any other," he told ComingSoon.net recently, "because there's already a lot of different kinds of kung fu films." He said that it's common in these types of stories for the underdog to turn into a hero.
Ultimately, the feud in Pig Sty Alley leads to some amazing over-the-top action sequences, for which Chow enlisted the very able aid of action choreographer Yuen Wo Ping (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, The Matrix) and the legendary Sammo Hung. "Of course, there is no need to say that Mr. Yuen is one of the best action directors in the world," Chow said. "He looks so old style and so traditional, but he actually is a person with an open mind. He can accept different kinds of opinions. No matter how crazy it is!"
It also continues Chow's use of computer-generated effects to enhance the action, something that allowed him to create amazing scenes unlike anything seen before on film. "Shaolin Soccer was the first time for me to do stunts with a lot of CGI. I'm lucky, because I already got used to a lot of CGI being involved, so in Kung Fu Hustle, I'm already quite familiar with these kind of things." We asked him to talk a bit about how he combined the practical on-set stunts with the computer-generated stuff. "Actually, it's quite complicated work," Chow confessed. "Every different shot—some of it involves CGI and in some, it's not necessary. Overall, it takes a lot of time to do and there are a bunch of people involved—there's the team from the choreographer, another team from the CGI company and my team—trying to stick together and trying to do it better."
The film's setting, the slums of "Pig Sty Alley," makes for an amazing background to the modern action scenes. We asked Chow what the inspiration was for the village, which Chow actually had his crew build as a full-scale set. "The Pig Sty is exactly where I lived in the past--the same shape, same kind of building, same similar situations, with a lot of people living together."
To make sure the film maintained the kung fu traditions that Chow loved as a youth, he recruited three of China's legendary kung fu stars of the ‘70s, all of whom were Chow's heroes when he was growing up as a kid. Two of them, Yuen Qui and Leung Siu Lung, had not appeared in a movie, let alone in a martial arts role, in over twenty years, so it's surprising to see them resurface in such active roles. We asked Chow why he picked them. "You just try to find some actors who are great and suitable to play the role in the movie," he responded. "It's always the first thing that I consider: is it the right person to suit the role, instead of is he famous enough? I don't have these kinds of concerns for casting. I knew them quite well, because I was a fan of theirs. They were all famous a long time ago. [The guy who played] the Beast (Leung Siu Lung), he's one of my favorite kung fu stars of the ‘70s. The only thing is how to find them, because it takes time to find out where they all were."
Chow also had some nice things to say about the younger generation of movie martial artists, most notably Ong-Bak star Tony Jaa. "I think it would save money to have Tony Jaa, because you don't need any CGI," he joked. "He just does it!"
Although no one has approached Chow to make American movies just yet, he admitted that he wanted to direct more than anything else, not that this might dissuade him from starring in a film if given the option. As a lark, I mentioned to Chow that there may be Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu movie in development. I was surprised to hear that he not only had never heard of the Marvel Comics character, but that "Shang-Chi" is his actual birth name. Maybe this coincidence would make that the perfect role for Chow to make his possible entry into the American film scene.
He does hope to get away from the action though, since it's so difficult having to "wear a wire shirt all day long." He thought at 42-years old, he might be too old to keep doing it, even though he still practices his kung fu regularly. That said, he thought he might want to try to do a sequel to Kung Fu Hustle as his next film, because he's never tried to do a sequel before.
In the meantime, Kung Fu Hustle opens in New York and Los Angeles on Friday and rolls out nationwide on April 22.
source:
www.comingsoon.net/news/topnews.php
Source: Edward Douglas April 2, 2005
www.comingsoon.net/news/topnews.php
Stephen Chow may not be as well known in the United States as Jackie Chan or Jet Li, but back home in China, he's a huge comedy star, having directed and starred in two of the country's biggest blockbusters ever. After his 2000 film Shaolin Soccer became one of China's highest grossing films, he is as famous back home as Jim Carrey or Adam Sandler are here.
Many thought that Shaolin Soccer would help break Chow out in the States, but the movie was fumbled by its US distributor Miramax, who dubbed it in hopes of getting a younger audience and then repeatedly delayed it, before finally releasing a subtitled version in only a few cities.
Undaunted, Chow returns to the States with his latest action-comedy, Kung Fu Hustle, in which he plays Sing, a bumbling gangster wannabe, who inadvertently starts a war between the deadly Axe Gang and the impoverished town of Pig Sty Alley. But before you put your money on the axe-wielding gangster mob, you should know that Pig Sty Alley has three kung fu masters living there in hiding, taking on rather unassuming roles as tailors and bakers.
The film was inspired by Chow's love of martial arts films as a kid, a legacy that he hopes to carry on with this movie. "The difficulty in this film is just how to make it different from any other," he told ComingSoon.net recently, "because there's already a lot of different kinds of kung fu films." He said that it's common in these types of stories for the underdog to turn into a hero.
Ultimately, the feud in Pig Sty Alley leads to some amazing over-the-top action sequences, for which Chow enlisted the very able aid of action choreographer Yuen Wo Ping (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, The Matrix) and the legendary Sammo Hung. "Of course, there is no need to say that Mr. Yuen is one of the best action directors in the world," Chow said. "He looks so old style and so traditional, but he actually is a person with an open mind. He can accept different kinds of opinions. No matter how crazy it is!"
It also continues Chow's use of computer-generated effects to enhance the action, something that allowed him to create amazing scenes unlike anything seen before on film. "Shaolin Soccer was the first time for me to do stunts with a lot of CGI. I'm lucky, because I already got used to a lot of CGI being involved, so in Kung Fu Hustle, I'm already quite familiar with these kind of things." We asked him to talk a bit about how he combined the practical on-set stunts with the computer-generated stuff. "Actually, it's quite complicated work," Chow confessed. "Every different shot—some of it involves CGI and in some, it's not necessary. Overall, it takes a lot of time to do and there are a bunch of people involved—there's the team from the choreographer, another team from the CGI company and my team—trying to stick together and trying to do it better."
The film's setting, the slums of "Pig Sty Alley," makes for an amazing background to the modern action scenes. We asked Chow what the inspiration was for the village, which Chow actually had his crew build as a full-scale set. "The Pig Sty is exactly where I lived in the past--the same shape, same kind of building, same similar situations, with a lot of people living together."
To make sure the film maintained the kung fu traditions that Chow loved as a youth, he recruited three of China's legendary kung fu stars of the ‘70s, all of whom were Chow's heroes when he was growing up as a kid. Two of them, Yuen Qui and Leung Siu Lung, had not appeared in a movie, let alone in a martial arts role, in over twenty years, so it's surprising to see them resurface in such active roles. We asked Chow why he picked them. "You just try to find some actors who are great and suitable to play the role in the movie," he responded. "It's always the first thing that I consider: is it the right person to suit the role, instead of is he famous enough? I don't have these kinds of concerns for casting. I knew them quite well, because I was a fan of theirs. They were all famous a long time ago. [The guy who played] the Beast (Leung Siu Lung), he's one of my favorite kung fu stars of the ‘70s. The only thing is how to find them, because it takes time to find out where they all were."
Chow also had some nice things to say about the younger generation of movie martial artists, most notably Ong-Bak star Tony Jaa. "I think it would save money to have Tony Jaa, because you don't need any CGI," he joked. "He just does it!"
Although no one has approached Chow to make American movies just yet, he admitted that he wanted to direct more than anything else, not that this might dissuade him from starring in a film if given the option. As a lark, I mentioned to Chow that there may be Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu movie in development. I was surprised to hear that he not only had never heard of the Marvel Comics character, but that "Shang-Chi" is his actual birth name. Maybe this coincidence would make that the perfect role for Chow to make his possible entry into the American film scene.
He does hope to get away from the action though, since it's so difficult having to "wear a wire shirt all day long." He thought at 42-years old, he might be too old to keep doing it, even though he still practices his kung fu regularly. That said, he thought he might want to try to do a sequel to Kung Fu Hustle as his next film, because he's never tried to do a sequel before.
In the meantime, Kung Fu Hustle opens in New York and Los Angeles on Friday and rolls out nationwide on April 22.
source:
www.comingsoon.net/news/topnews.php
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