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Tuesday, June 21, 2005
I know kung fu.
 
Having taken the first of my finals on Monday, I decided that I deserved a few hours break from the real world. And that is how I came to be watching poorly subtitles kung fu movies this afternoon.

I started off with Kung Fu Hustle, a wonderful tale of the extraordinary powers hidden in a small housing complex in Shanghai. When the 'Axe Gang' comes and tries to take over, the residents pull together and find a number of old Kung Fu masters living among them. Intertwining the love story of a mute girl and a criminal turned good guy Kung Fu master of the Buddhist Palm, the story has intense bouts of side splitting comedy (aided by interesting subtitling), and a few misty eyed moments that all come together to make this movie one of the best kung fu movies I've ever seen. Of course, at that point I hadn't seen the next one that was on my list.

Shaolin Soccer followed shortly thereafter. Although the quality was not perfect, and the subtitles were never correct, it was another hilarious look into the world of kung fu. A down and out soccer player meets a poor Shaolin kung fu monk who wants to spread the ways of Shaolin to the world. With an idea to use soccer as his method, he recruits his Shaolin brothers, who have all had a run of bad luck, for his team. Again mixed with a love story where outer beauty is defined by inner thoughts, the movie spirals upwards to an exciting climax where wonderful special effects and fully developed characters come together to show that individual wekanesses can be overcome, even in the face of adversity, through teamwork. Another highly enjoyable film, it left me wondering which one I liked better.

In the end I think I would give a slight nod to Kung Fu Hustle for the story line, while Shaolin Soccer would win for character development and special effects. Comedically I can't decide, although the subtitles on Shaolin were so absurd that they enhanced the viewing experience in many ways.

Alright, that's my movie roundup for the week. I'm off to Brisbane on Thursday, so probably you won't hear from me much until I get back to Sydney on July 4th.


Comments:

:)

Glad you like those two movies. The main character made tonnes of comedies since more than 10 years ago and they were even funnier that those two.

But I think Kung Fu hustler is the funnier one, in addition to that, if you do know more about chinese martial arts literacy works, it's even funnier!

Try catching this show called "The God of Cookery" it's quite good! :P
 
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