Kung Fu Hustle / (Guest: Moses Olson)

Do your stretching, and get limber. In this edition we get our hustle on with returning guest Moses Olson (@whollymoses), for his choice “Kung Fu Hustle.” (2004 d. Chow). Starring: Stephen Chow, Yuen Qiu, and Yuen Wah. We go from existential metaphor to existential metaphor, in this homage laden kung fu genre/cinema masterpiece (?). An episode with speed, with reliability, and edited/operated by a man who was sent here by the devil! MONO...D'oh! Let's huuuuuustleeee! 5/13!

**All episodes contain explicit language**
Artwork - Ben McFadden
Review Review Intro/Outro Theme - Jamie Henwood
"What Are We Watching" & "Whatcha been up to?" Themes - Matthew Fosket
"Fun Facts" Theme - Chris Olds/Paul Root
Lead-Ins Edited/Conceptualized by - Ben McFadden
Produced by - Ben McFadden & Paul Root
Concept - Paul Root

Transcript

Oh, no. Continue. Please continue. We lost him. Naomi des.

I think I just record all of this until we get this figured out and use all of it. It'll be our greatest greatest achievement. I appreciate it. Unless I'm I'm fine. Apologies, yo.

We're doing it. Hey, that's exciting. Everyone, welcome. It's your favoritest, movie est, podcastiest podcast, The Review Review. I'm one of your cohosts.

My name is Paul. My name is Ben or Benito or Benjamin if you're not into the whole brevity thing. Okay. Cool, man. Sounds pretty chill.

We have a return guest with us, Moses Olsen. Hello. Hello. My birthday buddy. Birthday buddy.

Valentine's Day. We just figured this out, and so we had to have the great writer, director, filmmaker, podcast guest that we love so dearly come back and bring us something for his birthday, August. Amazing. It's important we celebrate it. And if you don't mind, I'm gonna go through the concept of this as quickly as I can.

We take a film submitted by a guest that they remember feeling passionate about that seven years or older. It's two hours and twenty two minutes or less. It's not part of any major franchise. We all rewatch this separately. We get together and talk about it and we rate it on the ends deciding if we've changed our minds or our hearts after a hearty conversation.

It's pretty good. Yeah. A little long. Change your heart. Yeah.

How does one how does one do that? To fix their hearts or die? You melt my icy heart with a cool island rhythm. They did that on the Or wait. Do you heat do you cool my hot heart with a chill?

Hard to say. Moses, please tell us about what you've been up to lately, wouldn't you? Yes. As always, thank you both for having me. Y'all know this is kinda my happy place, and it's always an honor to to sit with y'all.

Yeah. I'm, last time we met, I was in the middle of the documentary. Now that we're chatting, I am sunsetting that documentary, just getting some final things in. We're editing episodes, and I just joined a new team on a little contract thing that is really, really lovely. I'm working it feels kind of fitting for our group and no judgment to either of you lovely podcast hosts, but it's a working on a channel, as a creative producer, tastemaker person for them, the channel how to ADHD.

And have been doing some CP work with that team, and it's been really lovely. And the team's really amazing. And, yeah, just getting ready to do another shoot with them. That's awesome. I could see you, though.

I just let's just say, like, in a daytime justice show with, like, the robe and the gavel and the whole thing, like, judging. Maybe on the ADHD channel. Amazing. I'm here for it. I'd watch that.

Am I am I synced with a warm heart with a gooey center? Is that my my vibe? I think so. You change hearts. Thomas.

Apparently. I changed hearts melting said cold hearts. Yeah. With a smooth rhythm. With a Oh, yeah.

Island rhythm. And the hung jury. It's mock trial with Moses Oh. Yeah. Now that we know what Moses, has been up to, Ben, what have you been up to?

I went to Emerald City Comic Con this last weekend Oh, very cool. For the first time in a very long time. Met up with some friends who came over from New York, some college friends, and met at Comic Con and did the con. And it was it was a lot. I I only did it for two days, but I felt like I got hit by a Superman sized Optimus prime truck.

You know? Woah. Do you have, like, a tattoo or anything that says I did the con twenty five or anything like that? I have a tattoo of a RV on my chest. Is that what you care about?

I do. Continue. Any other no? I have more tattoos. Did you wanna see those?

All of them. All at the same time. But, like, Emerald City Comic Con sounds pretty amazing from what we've talked to a a little bit off mic. It's grown so much from when I used to go 10 ago. And yeah.

I mean, I think in general, the Comic Cons have become more and more mainstream as nerd culture has become more and more mainstream. Mhmm. Throw some cold water on the situation. Start talking about nerd stuff. You know, nerd culture is mainstream now.

So when you use the word nerd derogatorily, it means you're the one that's out of the zeitgeist. And, like, you know, it used to be more about comics and writers and artists, and it's it still is to a degree. I mean, the this new building, if people are local to Seattle, if you know, there's a whole new structure that they built for conferences and shit like that, and it's huge. It's, like, six, seven stories, and it's enormous. And it's in the old bus depot down on Summit And Pike.

Out. And there's a whole level that they had for Artist Alley, which was great. Oh, nice. Normally, the Expo Hall and the Artist Alley are kinda, like, comboed. But in this case, they had the Expo Center where you could get, like, merch and stuff like that.

And then they had the Artist Alley, and I got lost in there for a while. So Nice. Yeah. I had a lot of fun. Still tired from it.

Wasn't restful at all, and I spent too much money. But, you know, Hey. Cash is easy to get. Sounds like a good con to me. I, Yeah.

Love cons too. And I think that the the weird thing is I haven't gone back since funny enough, and I sound like I'm working only on documentaries, but I did a whole documentary within the, like, comic book culture before, like, Stan Lee died. We got to interview him. We got a bunch of, like, artists and comic writers that I was a huge fan of. And having had a media pass to go to, you know, behind all the closed doors of these spaces A multi pass?

Multi pass. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I'm gonna get it now.

I I'm up to speed. Brother, I haven't gone back since because even that, I was like, one, I feel like this is the best way to do a con. And two, I got very peopled out and exhausted. So, brother, I could see it in your face, and I feel you on that. The one cool thing that I liked that they added was on the very top Floor, they added they added the tavern.

And they Cool. They had a 21 up, and they had a just, like, 18 and up. Then they decked it out like a d and d tavern. And when you went up there in the middle of the day, they it was dim and dark, and they just had, like, like, classical music playing. And you could just sit at a table, relax, and it was like nobody would it wasn't loud in there at all.

And it really was, like, turn off all of the surroundings and just sort of, like, be in here for a second, and it was really nice. It's like the exact opposite of the movie that we watched, which we still haven't said. That's true. Not that they read it. But before we say that, Paul, what do you think about it?

To. Shit. Yesterday, I tried to eat a piece of licorice, and it pulled off a crown. So if you're a dentist and you're listening to this, email us. I got it back on there.

Oh. I think we're good. But No. You need to go to the dentist. I gotta get that taken care of, and I'm having trouble finding a dentist.

So if you're a dentist, help me out. And there's, I'm I'm not in pain. It's all good. We're good. We're okay.

It's not the nub. The crown's there. I can't get it off of my fingers anymore. I hope the listeners are still on this journey with us. Yeah.

This is They've got they've left. Fucking The listeners are probably making the same face that Ben and I are making right now. Also, I wanna shout out. There is a bootleg Simpsons store. The Blurist of Times is the name of it.

Board of darkness is the proprietor of this. And I just wanted to say that I love the stuff. I got some stuff from my pal, Board of darkness, and I've just been relishing in the things. I think I just wanna yeah. As we're talking about, like, merch and stuff and buying stuff in this bandana you have, I just wanna you know, the only con I've ever been to is Hall of Flowers.

Guess what that's about? So I can't speak to cons except for big marijuana ones. Now that we all know what we've been watching, just or what we've been doing. Oh, no. We watched Kung Fu Hustle.

But Moses, what have you been watching? So obviously, you know, we're coming out of the award show season stuff. So I did a bunch of the nominees and to kind of purge myself of all the sometimes pretentious, sometimes really amazing films that were in that set. I've been watching a bunch of like pulpy seventies cinema the last few weeks. And, and with a few other things kind of mixed in.

So the outfit, like 1973 French Connection, a lot of William Friedkin. Yeah. So it's been kind of burly cars getting hit and, handguns being shot and guys, you know, staring off into the distance with suits on and whatnot. Yeah. It's been it's been kind of Hey.

Big thing. A lot of William Friedkin, a lot of, like, Richard Stark novel, Parker, the the Parker characters. So, yeah, that's kind of where I've been at. Nice. Cool.

I love that kind of shit. Ben? Yeah. Mhmm. What you been watching?

I went to the movie theater. Mhmm. If you don't know kids, if you don't know, it's a place where you don't hold your phone in your hand and you watch it. Hallelujah. Amen.

So go back to the club. And I saw Bong Joon Ho's Mickey 17. Yes. Go on. But I liked it.

It was fun. It was Robert Patt is great. I think that I just love this I love this new I I just love his choices. He's such a fucking weirdo, and I think, like, his choices syncing up with how much of a weirdo Bong Joon Ho is. It just sort of they mesh.

It's not my favorite of his work. It's definitely close to him. You can tell yeah. You can tell, like, this is, like, the fun thing that he gets to make now, post winning best picture. But it you know, if you go in thinking it's Parasite, you you'll probably be disappointed because it's not Parasite.

It's closer aligned more with, like, Snowpiercer or Okja, I'd say, with, like, the sense of humor and, even more sense of humor than than those movies really. I really felt like it reminded me a lot of Okja mode, and I thought of you two guys when I was watching it because we did mother together. Mhmm. And I really enjoyed it. I'm with you, Ben.

I think that something I really appreciate about it as well was it's it's nice to kinda see big budgety looking sci fi in Mhmm. In the cinemas, especially weirdo. Sci fi reminded me of thing you know, it kinda remind me of Brazil or Yep. You know, this kind of just kinda go for broke, commit to a bit type of clearly it's saying something. Clearly it has a lot on its mind.

Yeah. I I also really enjoyed it. And yeah, I think, if someone is going in really hyped and wanting the next parasite to ground it and go, it's just really fun, the. Somewhat smart watching Robert Pattinson be really amazing at what he does and watching Bong Joon Ho really kill it is it's it's a good time in the theaters for sure. For me, it was.

Yeah. It's interesting to to to have, you know, to have a big budget original blockbuster sci fi, you know, that looks great. And, like, the, clearly, like, so much of the money was like, I will say this because I don't wanna give away too much, but the trailers don't really give it away, which is Right. It's super nice in this world where you can see the whole movie in a trailer. So, yeah, I, I enjoyed it.

I enjoyed seeing it on the big screen. Nice. Okay. I rewatched a movie that I had only seen before once on the big screen similar to the movie we are about to review review. Spoiler alert.

But I saw Rocky four colon Rocky versus Drago in the theater a few years ago, and this is Stallone's cut of the movie as if he were trying to make it more of a timeless thing rather than a very eighties, energized time capsule. There's no Seiko the robot, which is a real bummer in It's a free time. New cut. Alright. It it's interesting watching it not only at home, but not I wasn't as, like, charmed and and kind of mesmerized by it as I was when I saw it in the theater where there are some, like, weird edges around characters, the way the edits happen or that they achieve this.

But basically, the movie is what's not montages, which a lot of those are, you know, kept in that time capsule in Lucite, Zubaz pants. But Stallone does this thing where he used a bunch of footage he hadn't used before and makes, like, a totally different movie. And for whatever anyone may think about Stallone and his valid or whatnot as those thoughts may be, really is a fucking filmmaker and a writer and, you know, all these things. And to take a movie that is nearly 40 years old, at the time of release, I think 35 years old, the director's cut, and really making these characters shine that you really wanna see, like Carl Weathers and Talia Shire and Bert Young, a little bit. But, oh, man.

The the actor who plays, Tony, is the name of the actor who plays, Apollo's trainer. But the Tony Burton. But these actors get a real chance to, like, shine and add context in layers. And, like, take this movie that's kind of strange and, like, this, like, very patriotic or whatever kind of a thing and somehow maintain that energy and make a totally different fucking movie. And if you haven't seen it, it's definitely worth watching for sure.

Even if you're like, I don't like Rocky four. It's like fine. This is a different movie. I'm really I've I was already excited to see the cut or more intrigued, and now you got me really excited to see it. Yeah.

It it's when I originally saw it, I was like, this is like a four and a half star thing. And now I rewatched it. I'm like, oh, it's like it's like a soft four kind of like the original cut, but, again, it's different movie, which is just a really cool achievement unto itself. Again, some of the editing's a little bit wonky, but overall. Is Stallone gonna fix Hollywood like he fixed that movie?

I hear I hear he's gonna fix Hollywood. I my understanding is like him and and a few of those guys are like, we don't know what that means or what's going on and let's hope it stays that way. But they don't know what that means or what's go did you hear something new or something else? No. But, you know, people Oh, yeah.

We heard about the potential appointments or titles. I mean, right now, it's it's a good time to say you don't know what they're talking about. You know? Oh, yeah. That's true.

That's a good point. What do you jump ship now, everyone. Yeah. But we should jump ship right into some facts. Okay.

Let's go after a transition for you. I like it. Archaeology is the search for facts. Anytime, big hand. We watched thank you, Moses, for bringing back Kung Fu Hustle into my life.

It is oh, and I'm gonna murder so many names in this. I'm so sorry. It is Hawaii Brothers, TAI Films company, Sony. It's rated r. It's from 2,005.

It is an hour and thirty nine minutes. The budget on this film is 20,000,000. Adjusted, that is 33,633,000.000. Opening weekend in North America, the wide release, 04/22/2005. It made 6,700,000.0 in The US, Eleven Point Two Million adjusted.

Final gross, North America, 17 Point 1 Million, adjusted 28.5. Final gross worldwide, a hundred and 4,800,000.0. Adjusted that is a hundred and 76.2. Of course, it probably killed in China. Other releases this weekend, The Interpreter, a lot like love, King's Ransom, Enron, the summoner's guys in the room, and frog?

Question. Yeah. Are any of those real? Are all of those real or only some real? Some of them are real.

They're all real movies that came out that weekend. You and frog. Wait. With the exclamation mark? That's exactly how it's titled.

Alright. Like, $17,000. If anyone can text us or write into us about have they seen frog g g exclamation mark, please do. You can contact us. It'd be a beast.

You're a beast if you've seen it. We can top five The Interpreter, The Amityville Horror. That's the remake. Right? Yep.

A Lot Like Love, Sahara, and this movie. Other films from 02/2005, Walk the Line, Flight Plan, Monster in Law, Guess Who, In Good Company, Madagascar, and Meet the Fockers. Letterbox average on this movie is four. Follow me on Letterbox at run b m c. Follow me on Letterbox at Paul x badly.

Moses. If you'd like to follow me follow me, Letterboxd, you can find me at holy Moses, w h o l l y m o s e s. Yes. Do it, people. Do it.

Follow Moses for sure. Ebert gave this three out of four stars. Rotten Tomatoes, 91%. Eighty nine % popcorn meter. Metacritic, 78, eight point one user.

Major award and wins nominations, this BAFTA nomination for best non English language film. Paul. I'm gonna back up because I I know I had a little amendment. This was also nominated for same award at the Golden Globes. Director of this film was Stephen Chow, Shaolin Soccer from Beijing with love, c j seven.

Writers were Steven Chow, the mermaid, Sang Kan Cheong, king of comedy, Chan Man Kyung, stunt woman, and Xin Ho Shower. Director of photography, Pun Hang Sang, the great it man. For those who are unfamiliar, get familiar. A Chinese ghost story, fearless music. Wouldn't you know it?

Steven Chow, this film. Zhan Lu Zhong, this film. Raymond Wong, Ying Hua, the blade, and Hang Yi, this film. Producers, Wang Zhong Li, Molly's game, Zhao Haicheng, Police Story, Lockdown. If you're not familiar with Police Story, get familiar.

Just saying. Jeffrey Lin Chun Wai, fallen angels. Chuy Po Chu, crouching tiger, hidden dragon. David Hung, eternal fist. Bill Borden, Desperado.

Steven Chow played Singh, gorgeous royal tramp, the lucky guy. Q Yuan, landlady, the man with the golden gun, dreadnought and the bodyguard from 2016. Hua Yuan, landlord, Shang Chi and the legend of the 10 rings, into the dragon His final film? Fist of fury, game of death, r yeah. RIP to a legend.

Who who who did he play in that? In Shang Chi? He was the uncle that taught her how to shoot arrows. Oh. Oh.

Okay. Okay. It was a big deal to Chinese audiences that he was there, and it was his final film. Yeah. Thank you for cameo.

Yeah. Thank you for mentioning. Because I went crazy with the credits for him. Police story three, super cop, meet the cop who can't be stopped. Oh, you got red on your Lam Se Chung, sidekick, a home with a view, badges of fury, meow, Bruce Leung Siu Lung, the beast, the grand master, Hapkido, the lady hermit.

Sheng Yi Huang Fong, takeout, race to which mountain from 02/2009 with Hey, Dwayne. Airstrike, Danny Chan, Kwok Kwon, Sum, IT MAN three, IT MAN four, and Kung Fu League. I feel like what's unfortunate is I don't remember except for landlady and landlord and maybe sidekick, I don't remember anyone's names. But you know who the beast is. Right?

If I say the beast? Oh, the beast. Okay. Yeah. I know the beast.

Yeah. And soon as the lead baddie, the axe gang leader. Okay. Yeah. It was fun.

The girl. The girl with the lollipops. Yeah. Who she doesn't say much. Right?

She's got kind of the classic. She's mute. Right? Yeah. She's mute in the movie.

And she's 20, and Steven Chow is 40. Fun facts, fun facts, everybody. It's fun fact time. So, Paul gave me some lovely notes, and I'm gonna add onto those notes as well because I wanted to kinda nerd out and help out with this as well. Because I think that there's some really, really cool stuff.

So just kinda take in some of the time. Basically, just so you know, almost any actor in this movie that's over the age of 30 is a legend. Hands down, again, the cool thing with this movie, right, if you don't know who these actors are, you're just enjoying as is. And if you do know who who these actors are, it's this, like, smorgasbord of, like, brilliant, like, legends in the genre, type of, filmmakers and actors and stunt people. The big burly ball parody scene where he fights the thousand men in black suits was an homage, obviously, to what had just happened in the Matrix.

Yen Wuppin came in to do the choreography for most of the film. Samuel Hung was actually the original choreographer Oh. And choreographed a few fights in the film. The first being, when the coolie takes on the first heroic moment. Yeah.

And he starts doing all the kicking as well as before the three Kung Fu masters kind of have that little sparring session that was also choreographed by Sammo. Sammo got sick and had to come in with very little time and very little prep and immediately jumped in. What are you trying to tell? So Well, respect. Respect to bullets.

Masters all the way. I love I didn't know this because, like, I watched this movie and I grew up on some shit, like, wheels on meals in project Dane. We're like Hung and Chan movies. And this feels like a Hung and Chan it feels like a a a Hong Kong Laurel and Hardy movie. It is absolutely that.

Yeah. Absolutely that. Yeah. And I think you can I I think the last time we were chatting, I was telling y'all that I was in a Hong Kong movie, especially a bunch of Sammo Hung choreographed stuff? And you can really tell if you're looking for those things, how different that choreography is, but how also I think Yen Wiping is like the master of the set piece.

So that whole liar scene, which I'm sure we'll talk about later is, is incredibly brilliant. During the jailbreak run, down the hallway, as he's about to free the beast, this is a direct reference to Stanley Kubrick's the shining. And another moment, the landlady seated between the boss and the assistant wags her finger closes both fists. Again, the, it says it's an homage to Bruce Lee in return of the dragon, which was its English title. The traditional title is way of the dragon, which I will always prefer as a big Bruce Lee fan.

It's also better than a better title. Title. It's a better title. It was actually called Return of the Dragon, and now we're getting into nerdy mode. It was called Return of the Dragon because most Americans didn't know that Bruce Lee was dead.

And their first Bruce Lee experience, if it wasn't The Green Hornet Show, was Enter the Dragon. And a lot of his films came out posthumously. And that's why they called it Return of the Dragon because people went in thinking it might be a sequel to the big hit for Bruce. But Way of the Dragon was the one that Bruce Lee famously wrote and directed. And speaking of that, when we start talking about Yen Wa who plays the landlord, he actually a lot of those credits that you listed were Bruce Lee movies Yep.

Because he actually doubled Bruce. He, in enter the dragon, there's only a few movements that Bruce Lee doesn't do himself and all of them are flips. And so that first kick when he kicks Sam on the beginning of the film and when he does the flips past the monks, that's all Yen Wa. He was a famous stuntman. Oh, wow.

Yeah. Yeah. Similar physique. And if you watch how Yen Wa kicks in the film, he kicks a lot like Bruce, and I think that that's very much on purpose. Yeah.

In the opening scene, the axe gang can be soon doing a dance number reminiscent of West Side Story, reminiscent of Romeo and Juliet by Billy shakes, a musical in which two gangs fight for power over their territory. And I think we'll definitely comment on this later as we talked about both the shining, the clearly West side story. There's a lot, a lot, a lot of Easter eggs and a lot of, a lot of classic cinema. In the opening scene, some kids are playing soccer. Steven chow steps in and stomps the ball.

Oh, your friend, little guy. This is not the Shaolin soccer, which was a massive, massive hit both stateside for Stephen Chow. A statement of what's to come. Another beautiful thing about that is when it released Shaolin soccer was the biggest box office, broke all the numbers in China, and then Kung Fu Hustle comes out and destroys all those numbers. So not only did he beat himself, but yeah.

I read that for a while, everyone thought this was Shaolin Soccer too, like, when he was in production. They did. And people have been wanting a Kung Fu Hustle two. And then funny enough, just as we are preparing today for this podcast, Shaolin Soccer two has actually been Oh, shit. Oh, wow.

With an all female cast that Steven Chow is going to be returning to direct. Awesome. Wow. So it sounds like a cool international cast. Oh, you broke news for us, Moses.

Look. I am excited to be here. So That's great. I I needed to come correct for y'all. The English dubbing and English subtitles are almost entirely different scripts.

While in some places, the phrasing might be turned around, others' whole lines have been rewritten with different jokes and references. For the record, we all watched the subtitled version. Yes. We did. Indeed.

Paul, am I gonna do the bad thing? Okay. Moses, do you remember Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. For you here? What's that? Do you remember now we ask for you to give us your best shot at the log line to this movie? I feel so biased.

I feel like my log line would be so passionate. I actually want one of y'all, if I don't mind flipping the script, I would love to hear your pass at the log line. I actually the document I have up, Paul, is actually the one without the log line. Okay. So maybe I should give it a shot.

Take a stab at it. Give it take a swing at it. I'm I'm gonna have a hard time with the names. Let me go back up. I don't know how much of the names we're gonna use.

Okay. Because the structure of this movie is so fascinating to me, so it's it's harder, I think, to to to do a traditional log line to it. Something along the lines of when the axe gang takes power in a small town in China, they face a village of trained masters who are bested by yeah. See, it's like they are bested by a kung fu master known as the beast until the one is born to defeat him. It's so hard to sum up.

It's really hard to sum up. Well, especially since, like, we don't really our main character, was Singh is, like, not really a focal point for much of the movie. And so it's hard to get to, like, the heart of, okay. So what does the logline say? Well, my attempt at the logline, You have the document.

The document's closed, sir. I'll just read it. I'll just read it. I'll open it. Fine.

Well, I wouldn't have done super great. In Shanghai, China in the nineteen forties, a wannabe gangster aspires to join the notorious axe gang while residents of a housing complex exhibit extraordinary powers in defending their turf. I guess see, what what's interesting to me about that is, like, I don't feel like the crux of the movie is that he wants to join the axe gang. Interesting. Oh, I do.

Yeah. He can't become that he's not that bitter. He can't become that evil. When they tell him to, like, kill people, he's like, yeah, I'll do it. And then he keeps talking about how he's gonna do it and he doesn't.

Yeah. It's just not what his to me, it's not what his, like, main drive is. Well, what was this episode brought to us by? Who is our sponsor? I don't recall.

Because it sure shit ain't cool island rhythms because you just recently got a rap sponsor. So Yeah. We didn't we don't we're sponsorless. I guess we're, this episode of the review review is brought to you by the review review. And breakneck speed.

See you in a minute. Hey, this is the review review dude presenting the speediest, slickest, sickest, sloppiest, choppiest commercial for the review review podcast and co host Ben and Paul. Each one has a super duper curated letterbox for you to enjoy or run BMC and Applelex badly. You can follow the pod on instant blue sky or view x two podcast and certainly subscribe anywhere you listen or catch them specifically on Good Pod, silly. And don't forget the movies Monster Squad, Iron Giant Galaxy Quest, The Last Starfighter and more.

The podcast is on your phone and in your pockets and so portable it can play any place and many episodes have their own special edition guests that miraculously occasionally reoccur. The review review movie podcasts with reviews and deep cut jokes so dazzlingly detailed you'll wanna listen again and again. And don't forget, the more referential they are, the better they are. So it's nord for nothing. Coming to us.

Holy shit. That was fast. That was almost too fast. Holy smokes, we're back. Is that what she said, punk?

Graceclaw. One pump machine gun. One pump machine gun, baby. Moses. Hey, Ben.

What's in your hands? You're familiar with this game called Cinephile? I am. For our our listeners, this is a deck of cards that has an actor's name on it and a weird photo or drawing, and a movie. Moses gets to pick one, and he's gonna name a movie that's already written on here.

So he gets a freebie of the of the actor, and then we'll go around the horn. We'll each have to name a movie that actor's in until one of us messes up, and then we'll talk about our first experience and our most recent experience with the movie Kung Fu Hustle. We ready? I was born ready. Alright.

Here we go. Stop. Steve Martin, the jerk. Okay. Roxanne.

Planes, trains, and automobiles. LA story. Father of the bride. The Muppet movie. Bowfinger.

Father of the bride part two. Cheaper by the Dozen. Pink Panther. Cheaper by the Dozen two. How many, I was gonna say, Flower of the Bride three.

Did they make three? That's Andy Garcia. Darn it. Alright. Oh, Nerds.

Apparently, it's tough. I wanted to hit with three amigos so bad. Oh. Yeah. You just did.

Yeah. You did. It's a good one. So I first saw this movie, in two thousand five in a movie theater in Hawaii. Oh.

I was visiting my college friend, James, who I was in college at the time. I think it was spring break. I think it was spring break. Yeah. Right?

Because it came yeah. I think it was spring break. And I went there for a week, and I saw this in a movie theater probably most definitely super stoned, and I remember loving it. James was probably as my one of my closest friends in college was probably the person not probably, was definitely the person who introduced me more into kung fu movies and, more Eastern cinema. So it was really cool to go to the movie theater with him, see it, and I remember loving it, thinking it was so weird and so great.

And I probably back then would have given it a four. And I just rewatched this movie today, actually. Hadn't seen it since then. Always spoke fondly about it, you know, whenever it was brought up in conversation. It's great.

You rarely see anything that truly captures the essence of a cartoon without being elementary or childlike or using That's all you're like, yeah. I love the live action Lion King. It's a great live action jungle book. All real and Stop talking. Stop talking.

Hijinks. Stop talking. Stop talking. And I thought it was so great because I love animation, and I love cartoons and especially, like, anime. And I think, like, you just you just rarely see anything that can capture both the sort of, like, humor from that and the physical comedy and the visual comedy as well as having such badass fight sequences with really high stakes and emotional grounding.

So Mhmm. I'm gonna sit with I was I was trying to figure out my my what I was gonna use. I'm gonna go with four and a half handles. Four and a half handles. Yep.

Does everyone know what the handles are? Yes. Okay. Moses? So I had a friend.

I had a bunch of friends that were my direct line to China, like literally would be in China and would get me movies from China when they were coming out in China, like, straight from Hong Kong. And I'd grown up watching Stephen Chow films because in the eighties, especially watching, like, God of Cookery and From Beijing with Love and all these, like again, the guy's, like, a master of these really silly slapstick comedies. Very much funny enough. Steve Martin was a a brilliant card to kinda draw because he's very much in kinda that type of space Mhmm. With a lot of Chaplin and Buster Keaton kinda pulled in.

But, also, like, he's good at playing an affable jerk or an idiot or someone that's, like, not atypically kind of a good person, but finds you know? So this film is kind of his magnum opus in that way. A friend had literally just come from Hong Kong and brought over a copy because I was always a movie geek even then, and was like, this movie is a big deal in China. You need to see it, and it was Shaolin Soccer. And when Shaolin Soccer kicked in, it was in rotation an obscene amount because I just was in love with that film.

And by the time that that had kicked over, you know, Kung Fu Hustle had kinda popped up. And I think I'd managed to get all my friends that I was, like, got obsessed with Shaolin Soccer. I was like, it's the guy that made Shaolin Soccer. We need to go see this. And I think I mobbed pretty deep with some homies, and we watched Kung Fu Hustle in the theater.

And I was not disappointed and in complete awe and in love and bought it bought it on DVD right away when it hit here. And, and it was something that I had always, very similar to Ben, talked quite often about. Everything that Ben said, I'm just saying hallelujah, amen. And I think, funny enough, because I had a different non letterboxed movie journal for a while, and I saw that I'd given it four and a half stars then. So very, very high.

And to be honest, if I'm, I just rewatched it the moment we got the green light to jump into this. So I rewatched it two days ago, super fresh. And, guys, I'm I I can't believe I'm starting off like this. I'm I'm giving it five stars. Woah.

Okay. Starting off with five stars. Right it right into the midst of this. I love it. And you watch this now on Blu ray.

Right? I watched it on Blu ray. Yeah. It's gorgeous. I assume.

It's still gorgeous. You know? And that was the thing. Right? 2,004 also.

Right? That's like peak Sony Blu ray, though. That's like It's peak Sony Blu ray, but, you know, like, you wonder if special effects will hold up the same way. And I it almost is like a a nonstarter, nonargument because everything, again, Ben just said, and I'm sure we'll talk a lot about the effects even when you got in that era of the kind of rubbery CGI human replacement stuff works perfectly for this. And, apparently, there were sequences that they wanted they wanted to do, like, an underwater shark fight thing.

And at the time, the the CGI team was like, we can't do it. It's not gonna look good. And I love that this film really played to its strengths in in both in fight choreography and even the CGI, I think all works wonderfully. And it looked great on Blu ray. I watched this originally at the theater as well.

Oh. I grew up watching Bruce Lee, Bruce Lee, Bruce Lee, Bruce Lee. Oh, I'm so sorry. Pause real quick. I give it five Buddha Palms.

Oh, oh, perfect. Perfect. Sorry. I apologize. Didn't wanna No.

Forgiven. I would not I mean, I'm talking to the hand here. So Yeah. All good. No.

I saw this at the theater as well. I grew up watching not only Bruce Lee Lee, but Bruce Lai and Bruce Lee, the fake Bruce Lees as some people would put it, as well as what we've been talking about, like, Sammo Hung and Jackie Chan. I watched some Sonny Chiba, stuff like street fighter and yes madam and police story and all this kind of stuff. Because my stepdad at the time was super into it. And he was the one who heard about this and former guest of the show, Dave Maguire.

Tell you this for free. He and I were going to the movies all the time. At this time, I had my senior discount, which was great. Could save some cash. We went to Applebee's before.

Always went to Applebee's, eating good in the neighborhood. They accepted my AARP card. I got my discount, got my discount ticket, and had a great fucking time watching this movie. I watched movies with subtitles way more years ago than I do now, which is kind of a shame because especially this podcast, I think, has been helping me realize how much of a shame that is because there's so much great shit that doesn't come from here. This being one of those things, I don't wanna keep people in suspense.

I walked away singing in the theater one time and pieces on TV at another time giving this a four, like a very strong four where it's like, oh, this knows it's super funny. It knows what it is. It tells story so well through body language and through lighting. The sets are incredible. The costumes are great.

I love the way that they dress Steven Chow at the end of the movie. And it just super resonates with me and the landlord and landlady and the beast and everybody and just the way that it represents class, in terms of the socio economic version of class is so great. Watching this last night digitally, I rented it and walked away with feeling everything that I just said. There's a the thing for me, I guess, why I'm at the four as, like, I'm feeling very good about this four and, like, very receptive to this conversation we're about to have. I guess, like, I just, like, find myself and I know this is, like, probably the the mission of the movie, so I should be giving it credit.

I just find myself fucking exhausted by it at a couple different points just because the action is so relentless and zany, and it's really, really fun. But sometimes for me, it's almost like and that's the thing though. It's just done with just like a very gentle like delicate artist hand. But at this point, I'm at four pairs of red underwear. What do you have red underwear on?

What do you wear red underwear? Amazing. I think it's time. We're at a where are we at now? A five, a four and a half, and a four?

Yeah. It's a high high rated movie. Yeah. We're gonna start. No one suspects the butterfly.

Start the movie. Start the movie. Start the movie. Start the movie. And now our feature presentation.

That is terrible. Terrible. See the butterfly flying and credits and whatnot and walk right into crime busters. That first one shot with all the cops just standing there in silence is so great. You know?

And you can hear the guy getting his ass kicked off screen. It's great way to start. It's great. It's a crane shot, I believe, and it's almost it's so smooth. And it's so angled.

And everybody that's, like, frozen in time kind of in this moment, and we get our first, I'm a fucking bad gangster motherfucker. Like, the movie's just very boisterous. Right off the bat, you're and you're seeing, like, the the the level of violence and the level of somewhat cartoony violence pretty quickly and not. It's just kinda giving you the a real good window into what you should prepare for with the ax chopping off that guy's foot as he's running. It's so great.

That shot's great. I think what's fascinating right off the bat as well when we jump into this film, and Paul and I have had this conversation before, and this film does it. The only other there's only two filmmakers that I technically three, I guess, filmmakers that can do this type of thing, which is when you genre mash up. Right? Edgar Wright, clearly one of them, understands tone, can kinda play with, this for me.

I think I saw this. I know that in our rankings that, you put it with 2,005 films. I think it came out in 02/2004. And so for me, February was a really interesting year because this same year, this is our very first podcast together or my first guest on your podcast. I talked about that region free DVD player and I had a copy and I had a copy of Sean of the dead.

You've got. So in 02/2004, I got this film and Sean of the dead in the same year. Yeah. And so Wow. I was watching these crazy genre mashups, and the thing that I really appreciate and the other the other group of filmmakers that I think understand tone, are the Coen brothers.

Mhmm. And the hard thing, I think, when you do a genre mash up or you start to play with different styles, and I've heard Ben bring this up in the podcast as well, and I really love when he kinda locks it in with this is stakes. Right? Is making sure that there's, like, real stakes. And I think with usually, when you start to play with comedy and action or horror and violence and humor Wolfman's gone.

You tend to not. Most filmmakers can't balance all of them, and it's this weird tight rope walk. And I think what's so fascinating about that opening and it reminds me a little bit of a Coen Brothers shot. Right? It's it's a shot that if you're a film geek and you're like, this is a oner.

Mhmm. They're doing this all and it's and we're getting reaction. And then we also get our first, like, kind of thing. Right? Because he's doing a little bit of the old school gangster films.

He's doing an homage to Chinese gangster films and Chinese genre films. Both that acts, the previous gang leader and I think the commissioner are both well known genre directors in China. So he's bringing in directors to kinda sit in for these little cameos. And then we get that first bit of violence, and it's intense. And it's a little mean.

Right? And then we have, the crazy, you know, the psychic moment with Yan Juan. We see the ax go flying, and it's cool looking. Right? It's got that heroic bloodshed air where, like, the violence is, like, a bit poetic.

Right? He doesn't need to lay on his back to throw the ax, but he throws this ax and chops up his leg because it just looks cool. But then you've got that overhead shot when the ax is going under and we're like, did I just see that? You know, stripping away the the sound so that we just get it's not a gore. A few extra touches in a different direction, now we're gory.

A few extra touches and it's the violence is scarring. And instead, we he finds his balance with stripping out sound. So I I think there's a brilliance in all of this as we're getting in the begin. Because there's not it's not really humorous until we get the axe gang dance. Mhmm.

That yes. I'm sticking my little finger up here where it goes from this, like, it's clean. It's very clean. The shots very clean. The sets are very clean.

The lights are very clean. Everyone's dressed very clean. And the cut of the leg is very clean. And then all of a sudden everybody starts fucking dancing. And it looks like smooth criminal or something or or what hat like you see.

I'm gonna try to make references to some things that I can. It's like Kill Bill and this had, what parallel development obviously because they came out around very similar times. But, like, without this, what is everything everywhere everything everywhere all at once in the end? But the with with that they're all dancing. It's smooth.

It's whatever. And then all of a sudden, we cut to this completely different class group of these people just, like, living in rural in rural China, like, in a village or what have you, and everything's different. One building, it seems. One You're right. Giant building.

And that was actually the moment because it's been so long since I've seen it, twenty years. Yeah. When I fir when we finally got to that set of that building, I remember like, suddenly, the entire movie just, like, fell into place for me in my memory. I was watching the opening sequence, and I was like, I don't really remember this part. And now granted, I was 18 and stoned.

But also, like, then we got yeah. When I saw that set, which is a great set, and I think that, like, that world, this, like, this isolated world is such a great place to be, and it looks great. The colors are great. They shoot it great. And the introduction of all of these city folk is so well done.

And Or people that are, like, living in a if it's not a village, it's like a project, essentially? It's a it's a direct reference to the Kowloon Walled Cities in China. Okay. And it was basically this it was like a particular slum that was kind of known. It's been the, a location that's been used or inspirations of the original, Kowloon Walled City were inspirations in a lot of comic books and things like that.

So there were a lot of almost refugee like people. There was obviously, it's known for its high crime crime rates. It's been used for other other stories have used. Actually, funny enough, similar landlady and landlord type characters. So it's a it's a kind of a directing, but, again, the way that it's affecting y'all, I think, is really on point.

And that is also a testament to how great the filmmaking is is immediately you get that juxtaposition to what we just saw to this other very, very different place, and we immediately feel it. And Steven Chow coming in in terms of, I really like the statement of, like, the same fucking Chow in soccer. Like Mhmm. That's that's a very fun way to show exactly the direction that we're going. And it makes quite a a hard statement, I think, more than anything else.

Like, this is it may be me, but this is a different. This is not that thing. When the And it was known as a tight knit community, and I I think that that also connects over in the film. Yeah. I love and I love how Everybody's jobs.

I love how they set up these these denizens, if you will, of the village and their and their yeah. And their jobs and their, and when that's gonna come back into play, you know? And I think, like, showing us the guy the ramen guide, donut and, and the landlord and and the tailor and the the dude who carries eight things of rice on his back. Call Collie? Collie.

Collie. Coolie. Thank you. And the lamb so cool when he flips the rice up. That was so dope.

Little little again. Right? These character beats that are telling you something about the characters before we even know anything about them. Right? Yeah.

You know, at first, it's just it seems like this is just a normal village and that this is, like, a mean landlady and her, you know, her, wandering, husband. He has wandering eyes. Wandering eyes. Yes. And hands.

It's such a yeah. Exactly. Spoilers. Everyone's playing a part. You know?

Everyone's hiding and of some kind. Yeah. But, yeah, Singh and his buddy come try to get a free haircut. And it seems like this is a con that maybe or, you know, it seems like they're they're broke, and they just try to con their way into getting free shit. Yeah.

I I wanna say real quick. We've established the landlady has an enormously powerful yell, which is gonna come back into play. And for me, Ben, the thing that I was like, oh, yeah, was like, why is this kid's ass hanging out? And I don't know if we passed that part, but this kid's ass is hanging out all the time in this movie. I don't know what it is, but like, he's just hanging ass.

Like, whatever points, but either way, I love when they go to get the haircut and do they've got this hilarious sound effect almost like it's like Simpsons or whatever where dude's in the chair and he's got the fake axe gang tattoos. Yeah. And Chuck Jones all the way. So good. I'm dissension.

He's Dennis the man. And after that when Steven Chow comes out and he starts challenging everybody in the village, and he's like, wait. Not not you. No. Not not the tall guy.

No. Not the ripped kid. No. Not the ripped baby. Like It's just so funny.

I'm a I'm a big fan of Moses Moses. I'm a big fan of Avatar the Last Airbender. And, like, where I felt the live action version of that failed was in the comedy because that show is so funny. Hey. That's our birthday, buddy.

Watch it. Who's your birthday buddy? Avnishah, hold on, is Moses' birthday buddy. No. I'm not I'm talking about the series.

Sorry. Not the live act I don't I don't that movie doesn't What? I've eliminated it from my brain. I'm talking about the series. But, anyway, those moments that come that moment in the crowd with the super tall dude and the buff baby and shit was just like, that's in line with what those cartoons and they're and it's great.

And just because it's live action doesn't mean you can't do both. But like Moses was saying, I I totally agree. It's it's a really hard thing to do. And I especially think for some reason, people when they try to do recently, especially recently, when they do action comedy, one or the other tends to take the wheel and it really Yeah. Something suffers.

Yeah. Do some improvisational comedy. But, yeah, he throws this little, like, firecracker to call the x gang, and would you wouldn't you know it, they happen to be on the other side of the wall. And he hits one of them with it. Like, ruins his head.

There's also there's also kind of something really interesting. And and this is this is me making my subtle arguments for a five star rating. The cool thing about this film is the crescendos. And another beautiful thing, not everyone's a I mean, clearly, Paul's got some, I was unaware of your game, sir. There's, are unfamiliar with your game, sir.

And here's what's really cool about this flick is it is clearly a love letter to cinema and and, obviously, a lot of both kung fu and kung fu cinema. Mhmm. But I think something I was thinking about while watching it this this with as fresh eyes as I could. I didn't even look at my old rating until I finished the film, and I wanted to just try to go in knowing that I had a deep affinity for the film. But you could almost watch this movie without subtitles and still get a really strong idea of most of the film.

The visual storytelling is fantastic. The visual storytelling is fantastic. And the the body the acting with the body language is also Yeah. Really, really fantastic. And there is something universal.

Right? You always hear of people that have moved to this country that have learned English by watching comedies. A lot of times Mhmm. Like cartoons or comedies. And this was such a fascinating thing because you see all these influences on on Charles' shoulders, on his sleeve, I should say, and he's carrying it firmly on his shoulders.

And there's a cool thing that's kind of happening is the film just crescendos. It slowly gives you little pieces. So things that in in another type of film, again, may not work in the way that it works as well here because we've got a film that's essentially what? We've got Mel Brooks and Chuck Jones and comic books and vintage Hollywood, and all of that is crammed into under a hundred minutes. Mhmm.

Yeah. Which is insane. And right at the beginning, we we meet the axe gang. We see again, right, it's that the the fish being in by the bigger fish, you know, by the bigger fish thing. Yeah.

We meet what we think is going to be the main villain of this film. He's set up, and within minutes, we get the axe gang and them taking over. And within minutes, we get and I and understanding that this group is expanding their reach. So I love that when we get to this moment with this walled city, it almost is just, like, serendipitous, and the timing of it is so brilliant, and the filmmaking's so efficient that they're right around the corner, and it just so happens. So is Singh affected by thinking that the x gang is spreading their power, and that's why he's trying to use this new ruse?

Or is it just, again, the very first time that he's ever done anything like this? And I even that, like, that we can interpret with the character, I wanna believe that this character almost feels like nothing for so much of the film. Mhmm. Because I think I was just having this conversation with another filmmaker, not to use The Last Airbender, but an avatar like character that doesn't have a lot we don't know a lot about that character. And I do think that this one does a really great job of giving us backstory as the film kind of progresses.

But at the beginning, we don't know a lot about him aside from that he's not nice. But, again, because Chow is so amazing at that type of character, we can't help but like him even as he's and most of the time, it's because he's the butt of the joke. Right? He's Mhmm. He's trying he he wants to fight, but he's gonna get that first punch.

And I also think with the stakes, the violence in this movie, as Chuck Jonesy, as Bugs Bunny esque as this film is, the violence is real. It Yeah. You know, we it hurts when he gets punched. It's not just him selling the punch of, like, oh, he's bleeding and, like When the farmer lady punches him. It's great.

Amazing. Yeah. And so, again, I I just to plant little seeds here of just the efficiency and the way that the film goes, It doesn't feel random that the axe king is just around the corner, and I know of the comedic timing of that. The there's a level of me, I guess, like, being subject to so much of the movies I've seen that I almost want, like, a little exposition break where it's like I need, like, a breather almost. Like, the movie is is moving at such a pace.

And again, like you're saying, Moses, it's like, this is the mission of this person. So, I mean, well well put and well understood. I do think it's fun. After he gets punched in the stomach, he goes, what do you do? Yeah.

I'm a farmer. Yeah. When He's got blood in his mouth and it's just like, what what do you do? When Great show. Moses, you you mentioned flashbacks too.

We're we're basically at this point in the movie where Stephen Chow and the sidekick are like, yeah, we're gonna kill people and do whatever because we wanna be in the axe gang. And he has a flashback to him believing that he was gonna read this book and gain this power believing in himself that there is no spoon What are you trying to tell? And that anything is possible and the magic of of life and existence and love That I can dodge. And, someone offers him a book to learn the Buddhist palm and, you know, it's a 2¢ kung fu book as he's made fun of by these kids that catch him when he has it that he spends, you know, his little life savings on. And this poor kid just gets peed on by all these kids.

It's terrible. Yeah. I just feel so bad for him. Did so does that flashback I I'm trying to remember. Does that flashback happen before or after the big showdown in the Walled City?

There's, we get go back to it a few times. Yeah. I think it's after it's in when he gets back to the town after them failing at the Walled City. Because the the reveal that the ramen dude, the tailor, and Yeah. And the strong guy are they're all masters of a different martial art, and they all come from a different school.

But that they come out and, like, they each are able to take on this axe gang, that whole sequence. Remember, I I remembered a lot from this movie, but some of the things, again, were gone away with the brain cells that I that I smoked. But what I really what I really loved, especially with we're accustomed to the story of big tough gang comes into small town, tries to muscle their way in Yeah. Western Or, you know, seven samurai. Yeah.

Yeah. And I think, like, it customary in those stories where it's like, wow. Someone's gonna have to come in and save the day. And while we do kind of get there in this, the idea that the simple ramen dude Taylor and rice carrier are these, like, fucking badass masters who just, like, can kick ass. And that's only, like, the first layer of the onion of this of these people.

But, like, that first layer feels like this is gonna be it. This is this is the story. We're gonna follow these three guys as they protect their town. Right. And yeah.

So when he comes back and they're the the throwing knives, oh my god. It's like, you were saying, Moses, it's it's funny, and it's still, like, every time he takes the knife out of his arm and then puts it back in, you can I still was like, oh? You can still feel the the real pain of it. For sure. It's just brilliant, and I love that you brought up the seven samurai.

Let's just call it what it kind of has become kind of that trope, and I adore and, again, I'm just planting more extra star, half star seeds here, is I adore that the film continually surprises you with, again, the genre, the action genre, the kung fu genre, the seven samurai esque thing, the villagers, you know, need the heroes. Here immediately, the heroes are there, and it's almost backwards seven samurai. From the beginning of the film, we get the guy that we think is gonna be the main antagonist. He's removed right away. Mhmm.

We get these amazing and again, if you're fans of the genre, each of them being a master of this very specific style. And going back to sing the the kung fu manual that he receives is a comic book. He basically gets a comic book. And what he learned is equivalent of us learning the crane kick from watching Karate Kid and thinking that we could take every villain out with the crane kick. And that's kind of the cool thing.

And also that Wait. I you get what? Don't don't do it. You just destroyed my whole reality. You know, the fact that you haven't been up trying to crane kick somebody is a great thing because I definitely thought I should.

And there's just something so great that the film continually surprises with this comedy, with its take on the genre. And I think removing and that, we're jumping around a little bit, but that knife sequence and that, the liar sequence, the Chinese instrument sequence Yeah. Are two amazing moments in cinema that happen to be in the same freaking movie is crazy. I think about both of those scenes a lot, like, rent free for sure. And it is the comedy rule of three.

The the first knife he throws, ding, ding, back into his arm. The second one, the dude throws right into his arm. And then the third one, he, like, puts back and it comes off in his arm and he throws the handle at her and the the handle hits the woman. And she's furious. And well, it's like we're talking about the rule of threes that gets punched and then it's like the tall guy than the shorter guy that's buffer than the shorter guy that's buffer.

It's escalation and de escalation at the same time. Yeah. Like, it's bringing the size of the person height wise down, but the the muscles up or whatever. And it's like this crazy apex that like somehow works with like, again, the ridiculous cartoonish like imagery is so good. Now this is essentially like the axe gang meeting.

Right? Where they're like, we're gonna hire these musician dudes to come in and take these guys out. And these guys, I feel like yeah. They like, when when we get that horror sequence well, first, the meeting of the three masters in the the town where they're like, they have to have their sparring session Yeah. And they get to celebrate that they're, like, protecting, but they've been asked to leave by the landlady, which we'll learn later is because she's trying to protect they're in hiding, and they're trying to protect themselves.

From themselves also. From themselves. Yeah. They're the only worthy opponents that we know of. Well, on top of that, right, they they share later in the film.

They reveal that they don't want to fight. They don't want to have anything to do with it because they lost their son. Yeah. Yeah. Same mother can I make some sense?

I love what they say at the end where they're like, if this could he's about the age or what I that was very cute. I liked that. But the That's very cute. When the yeah. The the pool gets decapitated.

Yeah. You were saying though, Ben, that what? That well, I was saying, like, that horror sequence of the Yeah. I almost picked half cats as my Oh. As my Enough, bro.

My Enough, bro. We see the shadow of the kitty jump and then Yeah. Amazing filmmaking. Yeah. It really is.

And those and those two dudes, the the, like, assassins who are fighting with this thing this instrument that's that throws swords, it felt, like, straight out of, like, Cowboy Bebop or something. Like, it felt Totally so cool anime. You know? It just was, like, oh my god. These are the new badasses in town.

And this is the Wen Wu Ping, one of the directed sequences. Right? Yeah. He did the choreography for it. And we also because I wanna know my audience as well and then you two.

Like, even when we first meet them, as scary and interesting as they are, the first time they sit down, did you notice it was a Blues Brothers reference? Because they both sit just like yeah. Hey, Tisha. How? The film just keeps hitting you with over and over and over and over with these, like, cool meta film geek kinda moments and but then at the same time, it's scary, and you notice his nails and you know?

Yeah. Very, very horror movie. The landlady is now ready to kinda, like, step up to a degree. Well, first I guess. She has to say multiple times, people have to wake up in the morning, be quiet down there.

Right. They're not gonna get they're really trying hard, and it makes more sense when they reveal themselves that every time she opens it that he's that her husband's, like, closing the door. Yes. He's trying to keep the lid on them as long as they can until until there are three badass dudes in town. Two of them die, and one of them is kinda die.

Yeah. They this movie also, like, you know, again, totally different thing, but it's, like, echoes of so many things. It's like I wanna now I wanna watch everything everywhere all at once again. I'd love to watch various different Chan and hung movies again. Like, I'd like to watch Big Trouble in Little China again.

Like, this made me think of the three storms and, you know, kind of there's a a level of Stephen Chow. The charm is similar at times to Kurt Russell as Jack Burton, like, knocking rocks on his head and stuff like that. It's you guys are okay. Well, this is where we're finding out there's a like, the the hair fire thing. Oh, man.

Well, and then on top of that too, and I love that you bring up Kurt Russell and Carpenter's Big Trouble in Little China because Big Trouble in Little China is John Carpenter showing love to the Shaw Brothers films. Right? Like, he's basically making, you know, on the budget that he had, his kinda kung fu film. And it is. Right?

It's that physical comedy's there. Mhmm. This kinda loser that thinks he's a bigger deal. And also these seeds, and we get it with both landlord and landlady, this really important idea of what it means to be good or to do good. And I think that that's the fact that the film, as I said at the beginning of this is or the, beginning of this particular conversation is this film is not only a love letter to kung fu cinema, but it's a love letter to kung fu.

Mhmm. Right? And the I the understanding to be, to act, to react is is kung fu. Right? When everyone in the when we meet the people in the town and we're seeing them cut hair and the coolies moving the bags and, you know, making the donuts and all these things.

It's also a playoff of what Chow was doing in Shaolin's soccer. Because the end of Shaolin's soccer, the big message at the end of that film is kung fu is everywhere. Right? That's the end that's the final message of the film is you could be going to work and be partaking in kung fu. And I I think that that's such a beautiful thing is he he's kind of taking away the mysticism of the martial art and just saying, you can be doing kung fu in your everyday life.

And And I thought that that was a very cute message at the end of that film. And here, he's already giving us this understanding of these characters that they could not help but do the right thing in that moment. They could not right? He was both a doughnut maker and a kung fu practitioner. He was both a you know?

So there's just something I think kind of beautiful in that pool. I don't I don't disagree, and I think there's an even bigger message, a bigger swing that I'm gonna I'll bring up at the appropriate time that I Well, no. Respect the shit out of. But the I love when they get on the bus, like, Chow and his, like, buddy after, like, they do this, like, ice cream robbing or whatever of the poor girl, like, and they dart off. But, like, that guy with the glasses that just beats the shit out of them, They're, like, trying to pick on him and, like, bully him as they've failed at every attempt to be, like, scoundrels essentially other than, like, stealing ice cream and just being, like, generally, like, doing stuff that somebody's gonna go home and be like, well, I had a bad day because this happened.

It's like you guys are just generally being fucking shitheads. An important plot point is that when the snakes bite Singh and that he then, like, we see him, like, have this moment inside of a traffic light. Yeah. House, actually. Yeah.

Where he is, like, swollen, and, he's, like, busting out of his clothes. And we're we're getting the idea that he is he has more power than than we think. And he his buddy, the psychic even says, like, how did you recover so fast? What hospital did you go to? He's like, I don't know.

I don't remember. He's like, well, probably better that you don't remember. Memories are bad or something like that. Yeah. Yeah.

They just move on from it. But it's a little touch of, like, oh, yeah. This dude, there's something within him that we're going to find out more about. But they're very patient with it, which is Mhmm. Rare, I think, anymore.

People want the hero right off the bat. Well, it's like it it's interesting because you have this him participating. It always feels like a ruse when he's in the axe game. It never feels real. It never feels like it's gonna stick.

And even after they find out he's like this amazing lockpick when he saves him and his sidekick, when they're gonna get executed and then they need him to get the beast out. Mhmm. And even at that point when he gets the beast out and they're interviewing the beast and the whole thing, and he's like, I'm gonna hit you old man. My fist, look at it. It's huge.

And then he like pokes him in the head and runs away. There's never any level of him that really makes me feel like he's a fucking scoundrel. Like, he's I love the his line, like, the yeah. The slippers are kinda crappy, but That's good. He'll he'll clean up.

Okay? Yeah. And and there's also just something whoever worked and I know that this is an art form in itself, but whoever worked on these subtitles because I don't speak Mandarin or Cantonese. You know? I've watched enough movies.

Now words you know, I know certain words or whatever just from watching way too many movies. But even just that bit have you ever murdered someone? I've thought about it. You know, there's just these, like, the responses. And even that, the the play from have you ever seen a fist this big?

And then and to to get that at the end of the final act when the beast shows his fist, and he comments on how to make like, there's just so much great little wordplay and Mhmm. And stuff that has made it even through the subtitles that I I very much appreciate. There's this moment here now too where the beast is kinda they're testing his strength cause they don't believe that he's the beast cause he looks like this broken old man. I get it. He's super strong.

He's a badass. They sell it many, many times up to and including him catching a bullet, which like is very cool when he grabs the gun and he's like, oh, an import. Like and it's just very casual. Like, it's all extremely casual for him. And now we get the big fight between the landlord and the landlady and him.

Is that now? Yeah. Real quick too. Just this Paul, you said a thing about this and you probably didn't even know it. The actor is, Bruce Leung.

Right? Also known as Lung Su Lang. Right? Oh, okay. Bruce Lung was one of those Bruce Lee clones in the era.

Yeah. He was a hero of Stephen Chow. Okay. And Stephen Chow got him to come back to acting for this movie. He had he had not acted for fifteen years before coming back to do this flick.

So you had you've probably seen his movies without knowing it. He was kinda popular stuntman and actor. Same as actually, Yun Chao, the landlady. She actually was a famous stuntwoman. She was actually in a James Bond flick.

She's when she makes the comment, like, oh, he could he could be a and they make that lawyer joke that, you know, he he deserved. And she goes, oh, probably a stuntman at best. Yeah. I love that comment. Both of those actors were stuntmen.

And the you like extra layers. Yeah. The movie has such a huge reverence for physical actors and stunt people and people who do, like, so much hard work to make really great dynamic movies that are so alive. Like, that that's one of the things that, like, watching this movie, even as, like, some of the fight scenes, I'm like, I feel like I'm getting punched in the chest to a degree. Like, with the the landlord and the landlady, it goes on for a bit, but there's a great payoff for me, like, when they work together and use the bell as, like, a megaphone to Oh, yeah.

Start beating the beast. And we the beast is not an honest, decent guy and, like, stabs them both as he's surrendering, and they end up in, like, a pretzel together. And I I just love these the parallels that, again, I'd love to to have a discussion, but it's just like, you know, the the donuts or the lollipops or the pretzel twists and then again, like, the everything bagel and everything everywhere. Like, so many things that tie together so beautifully that came before and after this movie. It's such a cool kind of, I don't know, like, crux.

I don't know how to put it. There is an interesting thing about the lollipop in this. Yeah. It being a symbol of sort of what he started out being, which was be wanting to help. Yeah.

And then having gotten so far away from that because when he did try to help, he just you know, what happened to him. Right? He got Yeah. Pissed on. Yeah.

And so that when you know, in this and this is, I I think, a good transition to this moment. Like, he now has to be beaten down to an absolute hope. And because he's con constantly tried now at this point to become those people who peed on him, for lack of a better term. Right? Like I agree.

The bull the bullied becomes the the victim becomes the bully. Yeah. And at our most base at our young we're like, every people aren't necessarily born evil. And I think that's one of the other messages of this movie is and, like, the reminder, the lollipop of the, like, like, remember who you are. Like, that's Yeah.

I mean, I think he and I think, again, like, you know, we see him, like, we he's he's doing these, like, pretty somewhat harmless things, you know, like stealing a haircut, stealing an ice cream cone, Hee hee. You know? Throwing a firecracker. Because he know because we but we you know, the the the metaphor now is very clear of the of the cocoon opening. Yeah.

Right? Like, we he has and he has been, like his head was pushed seemingly, like, four feet underground as he's being pummeled into the Mhmm. Earth by Yeah. By the beast. But he's also a victim of himself.

Right? Because Mhmm. The the lollipop that was saved, that she had saved, that was such a big deal to her Mhmm. That affected her, it only gets broken when he breaks it. So it's a it's a very kind of beautiful, you know, bit of imagery there Mhmm.

That the right? And he makes this action because of the lollipop. Right? Because he was not yeah. It's just I it's such a beautiful little image.

The movie can be so profoundly beautiful at times. Even that blood drawn lollipop is just a beautiful piece of art in that moment. There's just something really cool about it. You you really get the message without it feeling like it's busting the lollipop over your head that, like, that is his lost innocence that that person is no longer. And he is part of the axe gang not too long after that.

And as short lived as that is and whatever, when he gets after he gets beaten up and then he's in like that mummy cocoon, and I'm 99% sure I heard him say, Anakshu no moon. Like, when he, like, emerges from that thing, and that's that's the big thing to me at the end of this movie when he gets into the big fight with the axe gang and it's all about, like, stepping on toes. Like, just kinda pissing people off and whatnot. But the the ultimate when when he reclaims his innocence and his best personage, like, and and he truly ascends and we find this out at the very end and I want you guys to go on and on about this fight and whatnot. But when it's all about love and understanding, like he ascends way beyond like so many basic ridiculous feelings like anger and revenge and worrying about who thinks what or who pisses on what or whatever.

He's just like, if you wanna know anything you anything, I'll teach you. Like, it's a pretty cool We we get the, Enter the Dragon Bruce Lee homage, right, with his outfit. But then we also get, I think, in a big deal with Chinese culture, Asian culture, you know, both black and white. White is actually symbolic for funerals. So in in Chinese culture, which is very different, right, than our Mhmm.

And then black is actually the opposite. And so for him to be both black and white and, you know so there's just, like, a lot of cool, very simple, very, you know, catch it, you miss it kind of, you know, visual stuff, that I really, really appreciate. Right? And and again, if you see that outfit, you if you're a martial art geek, martial art movie geek, you're like, oh, Bruce Lee ended the guy. So dope.

And the shoes, everything. It's so great. And the fight scene itself when he's fucking jumping off birds and like the beast is like going into frog mode and shit. And you're just like, yeah, do it. Like just throw the kitchen sink.

Go. But it also I think, you know, it's something we see a lot in Western cinema where a lot of Asian cinema, especially this era, where you can escalate your action, where every set piece becomes bigger and bigger and bigger, and the stakes kinda can remain the same, which is, you know, I think the closest cool kung fu thing we've seen western in a recent time aside from everything everywhere all at once was probably Shang Chi. Right? Yeah. You've got this amazing bus fight.

You've got this really cool, hotel, apartment complex fight. And then the whole end of the movie is just riding CGI dragons. And, you know, you've got the greatest martial artist we've ever seen in the MCU riding dragons and, you know, and and nothing matters. The stakes aren't there. And here, we're still getting the CGI, but it you know, embracing the weird.

It's also something really, really cool about this flick is that silly and corny and campy and sil just goofy goes so deep that it becomes cool. Mhmm. So, you know, even the frog thing is if someone were explaining that to me, that his kung fu style is this frog technique, I'd be like, what? And then seeing it played out, I love it embraces the weirdness. Mhmm.

And it's, you know, the the the throat jutting out and and all these, like it's just something really, really fascinating about how it embraces the CGI, yet we can still go, oh, the violence still sells. The impact still sells. I can tell that this can hurt. I can tell that these things are you know, have an effect. That wouldn't feel weird in an anime or a cartoon.

Nope. You're right. That's That's why I just kept coming back to that in my head where I was like, this is fucking amazing because that we just don't get that in live action in that way. It harnesses it harnesses a similar energy. I think that I guess, is what you're saying, Ben.

I think and Yeah. Because it can go because which is so hard to do. Right? Yeah. Yeah.

So difficult to do. And then let's also because my two theater geek friends as well, I love that the, the landlady and landlord become essentially the chorus. They're giving us the play by play as for those that may not be big geeks in this thing, here's here's the thing for the audience. Right? And and just little little things like that are really cool.

They're Waldorf and Statler. I think it's two chimps right now. It's great. And the during that big fight scene in terms of me saying, you know, throwing out the kitchen sink and just going with it, it all still exists in that world. They're not throwing the world away.

They're they're throwing the world at you where it's like, if you're not already here, we've been here for a while. You should be here. Again, I just wanna say I really love the message as Steven Chow gets knocked up to the heavens and jumps off of an eagle or whatever and flies back down and does the Buddhist palm. He is is potentially gonna be stabbed as we've seen the beast will trick you and stab you or poison you and disable you when he's not actually surrendering. And Stephen Chow stops him pretty easily now that he's ascended and hit some sort of enlightenment and what have you.

He takes the beast's weapon and flips it out and makes it fly away because the this whole movie is literally about like forgiveness, understanding, love, and moving on. Like you don't have to be you can love these things and and understand these things, but you don't have to be what these people or these ideals or these things tried to make you. Yeah. Finding finding beauty in violent things or finding beauty in ugly things or broken things. There's a martial art instructor that probably said kind of something that is so, so important, right, is, like, the art of fighting without fighting.

Right? The the greatest martial art the greatest use of martial arts is to not get in a fight. Mhmm. And I think that that that idea that this guy that was basically, like, violent and ugly both externally. Right?

The beast is You look like shit dirty. Externally now. Yeah. Be you know, we see that character in Akuma and, you know, Street Fighter. We see this character in in anime quite often.

Right? I've gone all the way around. I've seen everything everyone wants. I've seen everything, and now nothing matters. Mhmm.

Right? And here's a character that in this moment is so humbled that now Singh is like, I can teach you this. Right? I can teach you nonviolence, which is the coolest thing to do at the end of a kung fu movie where most of what you want to see is punchy punchy. You wanna see him punch this dude.

But also the idea that we're seeing the walls being broken down in this, you know, walled city, this this slum. It's open. We see literal Buddha enter, you know, this space is is cool. Yeah. Well and as you were saying in terms of the beast, like, the physicality and the presentation is, like, dirty and rotten and ugly and what have you.

As we know, as Stephen Chow has ascended, Moses, cleanliness is next to godliness. Right? Amazing. And I love that I don't have a sponge. Sorry.

But I got you. No. Amazing. And I really dig as we kind of I don't wanna take it from you because I know we're entering the final act here. I love is it City Lights with Charlie Chaplin and the flower girl?

I believe it's City Lights. Right? And he never talks sorry. I'm I'm I'm flexing my film geek. No.

It's great. I don't remember which chaplain. It makes me cry every time, but the the film ends right where, again, neither of them really speak. She's blind in the film if I recall. Okay.

And and he obviously is the not the scamp. She mustaches. Mustachie? No. The there's a name that they called that character that that totally escapes me.

Oh, I know what you're talking about. But he obviously never speaks. Mhmm. And at the end of the film, she recognizes him by his touch, and that's how the film ends. Right?

It we basically get the meet cute at the end of the film. I cry like a freaking baby every time I get to the end of city lights. Mhmm. I adore that he's doing that that again here with the mute character instead of a blind character. She sees right.

And even her impact, he saved her. She has now saved him. Mhmm. And now he is paying, you know, and other children now have the benefit of the healing in both of them. It's a really cool ending for this kung fu film.

Yeah. Love it. Very romantic. It's beautifully romantic. And there it is again, and it's yeah.

It's, you know, it's amazing. Well, I mean, they opened a candy shop. That's it. We did this at breakneck speed. We sure did.

This was a I wanted to be respectful to your time. And, also, I was trying to now we've blessed with me being in your second longest episode, and I was trying to go for your fastest episode. I don't know if we're there. I mean, I did a recredit of Batman episode Batman Returns, so that one's pretty short. But this one, I mean, it just flew by, and that that was something else we talked about.

The movie's so dense, but, I mean, without credits, it's an hour thirty five. Like, it cooks. Well, shall we see if any of our our rankings have altered? I I doubt mister Olsen's have. No.

His his has probably gone even higher. Higher. Higher. Higher. You know, I'm afraid we meet again.

It is kind of, like, when he lands on that hawk or whatever, it does feel kinda, like, hair medley. It's awesome. Creed right there in that moment. I want all the Scott's What's on Swaddow? Resistivity to that to that song at the end with the Almost definitely.

Almost definitely. So Moses Philo to five. Ben? I am going to stay at four and a half half cats now. I'm gonna go to four and a half half cats.

I was on I was I was thinking about going up. I was and it's not like there's anything in this movie that, like, necessarily pulls me back down. It's just sometimes just so you know, sometimes art is subjective in that way. And this movie for me resonates as a four and a half, half cats. And I'm really glad I'm gonna buy this movie actually if I can.

Oh. Is there a is there a four k? Probably not yet. Not yet. There's a Blu ray edition So I'll wait.

Out there and it's yeah. But four four and a half half cats. Oh, alright. Well, again, how many is that? We have are we gonna do That's half like we nine full cats.

Okay. This is kinda tough for me partly because I don't know how far is this down a list of, like, movies I'd like to rewatch again in terms of just movies we've discussed? Fuck it. I wanna say I'm gonna go to four and a half pairs of red underpants. Like, one of them is either a thong or, like, a banana hammock or something like that.

So you got some brain hanging out or whatever. But You're obsessed with that dude's butt. Yeah. I just it just I was like, Superman's in this? Like, when they're talking about red underwear, I could it just threw me.

But I'm gonna go to four and a half. I think as we're talking about it and especially Moses hit me with the point about the breaking lollipop and then that was something that happened to you in the moment. I was like, oh, yeah. That's the that was like the symbolization of like the memory that you have that innocence is gone and then the redemption and, you know, etcetera, etcetera. I think the movie also I think part of the movie's intention is to make me feel tired of fighting as the beast feels tired of fighting and the landlady feels tired of fighting the land.

All these people are tired of fighting. And there's and as much as I love fight scenes and kung fu and kung fu movies, that's the one thing and I still love those scenes. I wouldn't change a single thing about them. So four and a half pairs of red underpants. I mean, where else are you gonna get a film, a Chinese film, that gives you Sean Connery's line from the untouchables?

What is it? What are you prepared to do? You know, Sean Connery's like, definitely and I love it again. Right? In Chinese, they're like, we don't know what you're saying.

Because he says it in English. Oh, yeah. That's great. Like, that is strictly for film geeks and for, like, American film geeks. Yeah.

It's just the the film has got so many, you know, the their cha cha dancing, and it's a Bruce Lee ref like, Bruce Lee references and Cohen like, it's just yeah. I'm I'm here for it. I'm glad, you know, that we could push you up half a half a star. I really I really, really enjoyed it. I really, really enjoyed it.

And people that I know that are, like, Moses and I or Ben, you and I or what have you, people that are, like, I have an appreciation for this kind of thing. This is one of those things that I would, like, have right in my back pocket. Yeah. %. Moses, man, it's so glad.

I'm so glad that you could join us. I'm so happy. Thanks for having me again, man. It's always Chat with you always. Where can people find you if they want to or find your work?

Social media wise, again, I'm like YouTube good looking gentlemen. I'm very active on Letterboxd. So that's probably the best place to find me. I don't do both Paul and and Ben inspire me to write more more actual reviews on my letterbox. But I'm very big on kinda journaling, and I'm always down to have message conversations about cinema.

So Mhmm. Probably that or Instagram is probably a very easy way. I know it's kinda hard to want to use any social media these days, but for those of you that want a fun, safe space to talk about movies or life or whatever, man, I got you. That's amazing. And, also, you can follow us on Instagram at review x two podcast.

Please do that. Yeah. You can follow Ben on Letterboxd at Run b m c. You can follow me at Paul acts badly. Our book ends are Jamie Henwood.

What are we doing? What are we watching? Is Matthew Foskett. Our fun facts theme is Chris Olds. Some of our interstitials are the gentlemen on the screen that I am looking at, mister Benjamin McFadden.

We really, really, really appreciate you listening. Please watch Kung Fu Hustle. Moses, you'll come back, for demon night in October? Anytime y'all have me, you know, I am I am, but a call away. Yeah.

I I I get to pick I get to pick a movie and a guest for October. So I'm just Oh, Billy. We love him. Okay, everybody. Thanks so much.

Bye. Don't go too fast. Hi, everyone. This is JJ, the cofounder of Goodpods. If you haven't heard of it yet, Goodpods is like Goodreads or Instagram, but for podcasts.

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