Stephen Chow is coming back for another round with Kung Fu Hustle 2 and it kind of sounds like fans are at least interested enough to take note. If you’ll remember, the first film didn’t exactly gain notable acclaim but it did manage to gain an impressive following after it had been released as it began to get noticed by fans now and again. It’s action is definitely over the top and makes even Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon seem more realistic at times, but it is entertaining and it did have the kind of charm that made it endearing to a lot of fans. Plus, the whole over the top quality of some martial arts films is what draws people to them anyway. Dan Zinski of ScreenRant has reported that this film won’t be a direct sequel but will instead be a ‘spiritual sequel’ to the first film. It will also be set in modern times whereas the original film was set in the 1930s.
It’s also been established that Stephen Chow won’t be acting in this one, though he might have a cameo. That would make sense considering the span of time that is being thrust between the two movies since most of the characters would have likely passed on at that point. Adan Kohnhorst of Radii has stated that the film might even feature a female lead, which would be interesting since most of the main characters in the original film were male with one female being among the strongest of the kung fu masters. This time around it might be that a woman will take the lead and will carry on a legacy, possibly, as another villain or gang or imminent threat looms. So far there isn’t a lot to tell on that front but it seems as though details might be forthcoming the closer we get to the first look at the movie.
John Lim from Mashable reminds us that despite not being that well known Kung Fu Hustle managed to gross well over $100 million dollars against a $20 million dollar budget, which is quite impressive really for a film that many people don’t remember or have never seen. It will be kind of interesting to see what kind of a budget Chow will be working with on this movie and whether or not he’ll make the same kind of profit once it’s released and the numbers are out. If the sequel is anything like the first movie it might take a while to really gain that much notice, but once it does it could keep rolling along for a while. The original story was after all something that was hard to get into at first for some folks, but once it was established just what was happening and who was of more importance it became a very engaging and entertaining movie that moved along at a pretty good clip. Plus, the over the top martial arts techniques such as the Lion’s Roar were so great that it’s hard to doubt that people were trying to learn some of them once they’d watched the movie only to figure out that such things are not anatomically possible. But in the movie world they’re nothing short of brilliant.
It is kind of hard to hear that Chow won’t be starring in this movie but it does make a certain amount of sense. His character would be an old man by now if he was still alive and would be better off as a mentor or teacher and not much else. But it could be that Chow wants to take a seat behind the camera and give someone else a chance as well. Who knows? What is known is that when Kung Fu Hustle came out it was looked at much as the rest of the martial arts movies were being looked at around that time period, only once people looked at it closer they started to realize that it was something a little different and a lot more fun. There are so many martial arts movies out there to pick from anymore that trying to pick a favorite is simply too difficult at times. But Kung Fu Hustle, despite being another seriously jumped-up martial arts film, still managed to maintain enough different aspects within the movie that it wasn’t just drama and action, it was drama, action, and comedy. Such a thing has been done before, but rarely is it ever that successful to get people to watch it even years after it’s been released and people have forgotten about it.
The sequel is no doubt going to be something that people watch with a wary eye since a lot of sequels suffer from the aura of expectation as they just can’t measure up. But hopefully this one will be different.
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