Chow for thought

[muckefuck]

Today's entertainment: Kung Fu Hustle! monshu's been looking forward to this so much we would've seen it openning weekend if we hadn't been in Tribeca. At least this way we we able to catch a fairly sparse matinee at our old reliable, the Village North. Some reactions:

• Obligatory linguistic commment: I don't think I've ever seen a Chinese film where characters consistently spoke with each in different dialects during the same conversation. For instance, of the three martial artists forced to leave Pigsty Alley, one ("Coolie", the pole fighter) spoke Mandarin whereas the other two spoke Cantonese. Similarly, the two hired musical assassins speak only Mandarin in their negotiations with the Cantonese-speaking Axe Gang. I assume each actor was simply using his native sublanguage. In itself, this isn't unusual, but the general practice is to dub over these lines into the language of the film, except when some actors are explicitly playing Mainland characters. (For example, in one of the Police Story films, Jackie Chan speaks Mandarin [with an exaggerated Hong Kong accent] when dealing with Mandarin-speaking fellow cops from Taiwan and the Mainland.)
• Obligatory Ghetto Theatre Experience Moment A middle-aged coupled walked in halfway through the film, sat right behind us, and began discussing the film in conversational voices. Around the same time, another man sat down in front of us, added his commentary to the fight scenes, then walked out again as soon as the final set-piece battle was over.
• Obligatory Inexplicable Cantonese Humour Element When we got home, monshu asked, "Some of the young men wore their pants way down on their asses througout the film. Why was that done?" I haven't the slightest. With the barber, I thought this was intended to connote a certain camp lasciviousness, but that explanation doesn't account for all cases.
• Unanticipated Eagle-Shooting Heroes Homage When the Beast dropped to all fours, I stage-whispered to my brother: "Toad Force!" I was just referencing Tony Leung Chiu-wai's bizarre martial-arts style in that film. I didn't realise they were actually resurrecting it for this movie.

Comments

Axe Gang!

[febrile.livejournal.com]

It is my duty to take niemandsrose to see this movie. If only to see the Axe Gang a la Legend of the Drunken Master back in action.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

Was there an Axe Gang in Drunken Master? I don't even remember. It's your duty because this is the most hilarious movie to come out of Hong Kong in years--and for the Buddha's Palm.