Who’s throwing the handles?
Just when you’d completely forgotten Kung Fu Hustle existed in cinematic history, Steven Chow just pulled the nostalgia train into the station and announced the film is rising like a phoenix from the ashes in the form of a confirmed second instalment.
Here’s the trailer for the first to whet your appetite for nostalgia and nunchucks:
During a recent promo interview for The New King Of Comedy, Chow revealed a second Kung Fu Hustle is officially in the works, reports the Hong King-based entertainment outlet Apple Daily.
It would not be a sequel, as such, but Chow said the film will take place in the same continuity as the original film, with the narrative of a follow-up to the 2004 wuxia gangster comedy.
It was directed, produced and written by Chow, who also starred in the lead role and might be making a cameo of sorts in the second film, which will take place in the modern day.
Chow, whose new movie teaser has just dropped, hasn’t confirmed the location of the fictional japes which will ensue.
In Kung Fu Hustle, Chow played the lead character Sing, a wannabe martial artist who dreams of joining the notorious Axe Gang in 1930s Shanghai.
Sing and his dim-witted pal, Bone (Feng Xiaogang), try to scam the residents of Pig Sty Alley into thinking they’re members of the dreaded Axe Gang.
Quickly, the real gangsters descend on this Shanghai slum to restore their fearsome reputation, resulting in all-out war between the Axe Gang and the Kung Fu masters of Pigsty Alley.
The anti-hero eventually embraces the failures of his childhood and accepts his Kung Fu training, which comes in useful when a powerful and ruthless fighter known as The Beast threatens the city.
The 56-year-old martial artist and filmmaker has hinted he’ll continue to work on the project after he completes his sequel to The Mermaid (2016), which is the fourth highest-grossing film of all time in China.
The Chinese director, who’s incidentally also an adviser of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, entered the movie industry through the 1988 film Final Justice, which won him the Taiwan Golden Horse Award for Best Supporting Actor.
Since, he’s been dominating Chinese cinema, but is arguably most recognisable globally for Kung Fu Hustle.
The 2004 film featured a number of famous 1970s Hong Kong action movie stars and grossed $102 million against a $20 million budget, earning high praise from critics as well as six Hong Kong Film Awards and five Golden Horse Awards.
There’s no date for release of the as-yet-untitled Kung Fu Hustle 2 yet.
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A former emo kid who talks too much about 8Chan meme culture, the Kardashian Klan, and how her smartphone is probably killing her. Francesca is a Cardiff University Journalism Masters grad who has done words for BBC, ELLE, The Debrief, DAZED, an art magazine you’ve never heard of and a feminist zine which never went to print.