search/destroy stephen chow (aka stephen chau)

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do it do it do it now while he's hot!

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Tuesday, 12 April 2005 18:53 (twenty years ago)

o man do you not like stephen chow?

― j blount (papa la bas), Tuesday, 12 April 2005 18:56 (twenty years ago)

YOU NEED TO TELL ME WHICH FILMS TO WATCH DUDE!

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Tuesday, 12 April 2005 18:57 (twenty years ago)

Shaolin Soccer!

― Huk-L, Tuesday, 12 April 2005 18:58 (twenty years ago)

yeah the only one's i've seen are god of cookery and shaolin soccer, they're both fun. shaolin soccer's one of the best sports flicks ever. i'd find a non-miramaxed version of it if possible.

― j blount (papa la bas), Tuesday, 12 April 2005 19:02 (twenty years ago)

Kung Fu Hustle is fuckin great. non-stop fun-ness.

― Shakey Mo Collier, Tuesday, 12 April 2005 19:05 (twenty years ago)

The New Order fetish is a bit of a turnoff.

― ---- (nordicskilla), Tuesday, 12 April 2005 19:06 (twenty years ago)

Rah the Shaolin Soccer. It's a treat (and that final tracking shot on the field after *that kick*...beautiful).

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 12 April 2005 19:07 (twenty years ago)

i love shaolin soccer. i'm so excited for friday (when kung fu hustle comes out)

― s1ocki (slutsky), Tuesday, 12 April 2005 19:10 (twenty years ago)

Recent Stephen Chow is actually BETTER than he has ever been. Def start with the awe-inspiring Kung Fu Hustle and the almost as amazing Shaolin Soccer.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Tuesday, 12 April 2005 19:10 (twenty years ago)

Irritated is the word for my response to Kung Fu Hustle. Michael Sicinski has rarely been so very wrong. (Saying it's fun is one thing; comparing it to The Ladies' Man and Playtime is something else entirely.)

But I'm probably only speaking for about .00263% of the moviegoing population, here.

― Eric von H. (Eric H.), Tuesday, 12 April 2005 19:22 (twenty years ago)

Less than that maybe.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Tuesday, 12 April 2005 19:23 (twenty years ago)

That said, I could easily imagine actually liking some of his other films (like Shaolin Soccer, for starters). Just not this one.

― Eric von H. (Eric H.), Tuesday, 12 April 2005 19:23 (twenty years ago)

King of Comedy has a scene parodying John Woo that is one of the funniest things I've seen.

― whenuweremine (whenuweremine), Tuesday, 12 April 2005 21:00 (twenty years ago)

does it feature doves and people with a gun in each hand?

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Tuesday, 12 April 2005 21:02 (twenty years ago)

I haven't seen any of his films yet, but I enjoyed the interview with him in the Onion this week.

― Jordan (Jordan), Tuesday, 12 April 2005 21:08 (twenty years ago)

Only seen Kung Fu Hustle and Shaolin Soccer, both lots of fun. I think I actually liked Soccer better, because it had so many oddball things thrown in (the song and dance number at the food stand, the way the girl shows up with her head shaven, etc.). But Hustle's good too.

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Tuesday, 12 April 2005 21:10 (twenty years ago)

Is Kung Fu Hustle out in the U.S.? If so, why the fuck is it not playing in Madison?

― Jordan (Jordan), Tuesday, 12 April 2005 21:10 (twenty years ago)

It opened in NY and LA last week; goes nationwide this weekend, I think (although it might have a more staggered release).

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Tuesday, 12 April 2005 21:10 (twenty years ago)

Amateurist: yes. A bit obvious, but still pulled off in a very funny way (I suppose this could describe a lot of Stephen Chow gags).

― whenuweremine (whenuweremine), Wednesday, 13 April 2005 02:28 (twenty years ago)

I'LL SAY THIS.... CGI IS RUINING KUNG FU FIGHT SCENES. I WANT TO SEE REAL STUNTS ALA ONG BAK. KUNG FU HUSTLE IS LIKE ALLLLL CGI. WHATS AMAZING ABOUT THAT?

― charleston charge (chaki), Wednesday, 13 April 2005 02:36 (twenty years ago)

What's amazing about Bugs Bunny? It's funny, 'sall. Also, goes nationwide next weekend, not this one.

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Wednesday, 13 April 2005 02:47 (twenty years ago)

i know its funny but i mean... have yo useen it? the fight scenes are pretty much a frenzy of graphics. but still.. beautiful, funny movie.

― charleston charge (chaki), Wednesday, 13 April 2005 02:59 (twenty years ago)

Search: Shaolin Soccer(only saw the original version, did Miramax butcher it that badly?), King of Comedy, God of Cookery in that order
didn't care for Tricky Master, which wasn't really one of "his". He was funny in it though, I'd like to see a lot more
My friend who hipped me to SC has actually been peddling a script he wrote with Stephen in mind for two years(even went to Hong Kong for an audience with SC's management) and his main problem (as he saw it) is very few in L.A. knew who he was, which will change obv., but probably not in a way that will help my friend unfortunately.

― tremendoid (tremendoid), Wednesday, 13 April 2005 03:18 (twenty years ago)

I'LL SAY THIS.... CGI IS RUINING KUNG FU FIGHT SCENES. I WANT TO SEE REAL STUNTS ALA ONG BAK. KUNG FU HUSTLE IS LIKE ALLLLL CGI. WHATS AMAZING ABOUT THAT?

At least he was honest about it in the Onion interview, like 'well if I had Bruce Lee skillz0r I wouldn't use CGI, but since I don't I have to rely on things like technology and plot and stuff'.

― Jordan (Jordan), Wednesday, 13 April 2005 03:24 (twenty years ago)

I think it's best not to think of it as a "kung fu movie" (title notwithstanding). It's more an homage/parody that draws on a lot of different things (cartoons, vintage slapstick, film noir, MGM musicals). Kind of a Mel Brooks kung fu movie.

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Wednesday, 13 April 2005 04:01 (twenty years ago)

God Of Cookery is his best for sure.

Shaolin Soccer, King Of Comedy, Kung Fu Hustle, and God Of Gamblers II are all real good too.

My memory on From Beijing With Love (his James Bond spoof) is quite vague, but it was decent if I recall. The only one I've seen which was quite substandard was Sixty Million Dollar Man, although I haven't ventured that far into his earlier work

― Mil (Mil), Wednesday, 13 April 2005 04:20 (twenty years ago)

I'd also add that my attraction to his films is moreso based on the quality of scripts and his regular supporting cast. I find Chow's acting to be tolerable, but not nearly as funny or charismatic as the people he surrounds himself with (which has been one of his strengths, I guess)

― Mil (Mil), Wednesday, 13 April 2005 04:25 (twenty years ago)

God of Cookery is amazing! my favorite bit is when he gets his ass kicked thrice by the 18 Brassmen of the Shaolin monastery.

― Gear! (can Jung shill it, Mu?) (Gear!), Wednesday, 13 April 2005 06:06 (twenty years ago)

'well if I had Bruce Lee skillz0r I wouldn't use CGI, but since I don't I have to rely on things like technology and PLOT and stuff'

Um... what?

― Eric von H. (Eric H.), Wednesday, 13 April 2005 06:57 (twenty years ago)

Kung Fu Hustle is fantastic. He does seem to be getting better and better.

― Gear! (can Jung shill it, Mu?) (Gear!), Monday, 25 April 2005 07:51 (twenty years ago)

Kung Fu Hustle = best movie I've seen since Harold & Kumar.

― adam (adam), Monday, 25 April 2005 13:12 (twenty years ago)

The New Order fetish is a bit of a turnoff.

Adam, I told you even *I* didn't like Get Ready - see? I'm objective and not fetishistic in the least. By the way, do you want to hang out and listen to an hour long audio interview with Peter Saville? We can drink Pernod out of my The Other Two commemorative tumblers.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Monday, 25 April 2005 16:09 (twenty years ago)

Kung Fu Hustle was the best time I've had in a movie theater in a long, long time.

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 25 April 2005 16:25 (twenty years ago)

one month passes...

KFH was rollicking fun, even moreso than Shaolin Soccer.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 17:53 (twenty years ago)

Shaolin Soccer was a billion times better. KFH was good and fun, but SS fucking CHANGED MY LIFE.

― Huk-L, Wednesday, 1 June 2005 17:59 (twenty years ago)

is stephen chow his real name?

― mark p (Mark P), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 18:00 (twenty years ago)

I prefered SS to KFH as well, but just by a smidge.

― n/a (Nick A.), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 18:04 (twenty years ago)

They are both awesome.

― n/a (Nick A.), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 18:04 (twenty years ago)

I think I enjoyed SS so much, at least in part, because I wasn't expecting it. With KFH, I was all slobbery in line at the movie theatre.

― Huk-L, Wednesday, 1 June 2005 18:07 (twenty years ago)

The New Order fetish is a bit of a turnoff.

Adam, I told you even *I* didn't like Get Ready - see? I'm objective and not fetishistic in the least. By the way, do you want to hang out and listen to an hour long audio interview with Peter Saville? We can drink Pernod out of my The Other Two commemorative tumblers.

I'm glad I wasn't the only one who read the thread title and thought of Spencer.

― Ian Riese-Moraine's exploding hamster zeppelin! (Eastern Mantra), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 18:12 (twenty years ago)

Has all of the earlier stuff got thesame loony cartoon aesthetic?

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 18:19 (twenty years ago)

i didn't like kung fu hustle as much as shaolin soccer either. the structure was fucked.

― s1ocki (slutsky), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 18:27 (twenty years ago)

haha, WHAT structure?

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 18:29 (twenty years ago)

The entirety of the Casino scene was golden, though.

― Huk-L, Wednesday, 1 June 2005 18:31 (twenty years ago)

And any illusions of a Morbius-Eric tag team on the movie threads suffer another blow.

― L'Histoire d'Eric H. (Eric H.), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 18:39 (twenty years ago)

i found KFH sort of overstimulating. i got tired out by it. my friend loved it though. it needed more dancing baddies as in the opening sequence.

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 19:04 (twenty years ago)

Morbius is righter than he's ever been!

― Gear! (can Jung shill it, Mu?) (Gear!), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 19:07 (twenty years ago)

one month passes...

i think i didn't "get" everything in kung-fu hustle. one review claimed bits of "kill bill" and "spiderman"!? the most truly funny bits were the whole absurd flashback childhood subplot and resolution, which was pitch-perfect, and also the "fight" gags in the last bit (i *think* they were gags!?) involving how the dude only knw lame dimestore kung fu but was just rilly rilly good at it.

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Thursday, 14 July 2005 05:45 (twenty years ago)

kung-fu hustle was FANTASTIC, and i liked it a lot more than SS because the world it took place in was SO AWESOME. western meets kung-fu gothswing gang-members, with succeeding degrees of awesome bad guys and heroes, each fight ramping waaay up from the last one. the poor people are all secretly amazing? those blind assassins with the musical instrument? YES!

it was FUNNY, too.

― sean gramophone (Sean M), Thursday, 14 July 2005 11:18 (twenty years ago)

I thought the most effective scene in the movie was the one where the stereotpyical HAWTT young kung fu master was obliviously walking down the alleyway with the blind guys flinging lethal notes at him, quitely bisecting everything around him. That was awesome.

(The funny stuff was great, don't get me wrong, but that's the scene that has stayed with me.)

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Thursday, 14 July 2005 12:46 (twenty years ago)

is stephen chow his real name?

-- mark p (mark.p****...), June 1st, 2005 12:00 PM. (Mark P)

*snicker*

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Thursday, 14 July 2005 16:06 (twenty years ago)

one month passes...

Netflix has over a dozen films... but no God of Cookery!
Help me pick:

All for the Winner (1990) Du Sheng

Chinese Odyssey 1: Pandora's Box (1995)Xi you ji di yi bai ling yi hui zhi yue guang bao he

Chinese Odyssey 2: Cinderella (1995)Xi you ji da jie ju zhi xian lu qi yuan

Faithfully Yours (1988)Zui Jia Nu Xu

From Beijing with Love (1994)Guo chan Ling Ling Qi

God of Gamblers II (1991)

God of Gamblers III: Back to Shanghai (1991)

King of Beggars (1992)Wu zhuang yuan: Su qi er

King of Comedy (1999)Hay Keck Wong / Choi kek ji wong

Lawyer Lawyer (1997)Suan si cao

Royal Tramp (1992)Lu ding ji

Shaolin Idiot (1990)Shi xiong zhuang gui

The Tricky Master (2000)Chin wong ji wong 200

― Forksclovetofu (Forksclovetofu), Wednesday, 17 August 2005 03:19 (twenty years ago)

I think that Netflix is letting you down a bit with the choices it has available. The only one of these I've seen is King of Comedy, and I remember that one as being a very slight romantic comedy. If I'd recommend any of the ones on your list, that would be the one, I guess. From Beijing With Love is, I think, the first Stephen Chow self-directed film, and is supposedly somewhat uneven, according to the reviews I've read (but it does have Anita Yuen in it, which I think is probably a big plus). Of the pre-handover films on your list, the only one that "respected critic" Paul Fonoroff recommends in his book is All For the Winner. I think The Tricky Master is actually a Wong Jing film that just has Stephen Chow in it for a bit, same for the two God of Gamblers movies you have listed. I suppose your choice there depends on whether you like Wong Jing or if you think his movies are just retarded. I thought that the first God of Gamblers he did with Chow Yun-Fat and Andy Lau was pretty amusing. (If you haven't seen any Wong Jing movies before, he's the guy behind the "so bad it's good" former cult flick Naked Killer and its sequels, the semi-pornographic Raped By An Angel series, as well as the City Hunter movie with Jackie Chan and the highly amusing New Legend of Shaolin with Jet Li.) Lawyer Lawyer is supposedly a "substandard" Stephen Chow film, from the reviews I can find available online. And, um, that's a lot of advice, considering that I've only seen one of these flicks. Anybody else want to try?

― Chris F. (servoret), Wednesday, 17 August 2005 14:23 (twenty years ago)

I saw Lawyer, Lawyer a year or two ago but didn't think it was all that great. I remember it being pretty funny in a few spots, but overall pretty tepid.

― Eric H. (Eric H.), Wednesday, 17 August 2005 14:41 (twenty years ago)

six months pass...

(Saying [KFH is] fun is one thing; comparing it to The Ladies' Man and Playtime is something else entirely.)

Oh man, I totally thought of The Ladies' Man too! What was the source of yr irritation, Eric? Chow seems to have an utterly autodidactic comic sensibility like Lewis's -- ie, spectacular even when not funny. And thanks for links to this Sicinski guy.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 28 February 2006 18:27 (nineteen years ago)

"(Saying [KFH is] fun is one thing; comparing it to The Ladies' Man and Playtime is something else entirely.)"

We're not talking about legendary softporn flick Playtime here are we?

Thought not.

Pity though.

― Ned T.Rifle (nedtrifle), Tuesday, 28 February 2006 18:36 (nineteen years ago)

no, Jacques Tati's 1967 Parisian absurdist/modernist epic.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 28 February 2006 18:39 (nineteen years ago)

Chinese Odyssey 2: Cinderella and Lawyer Lawyer are both AWFUL (and I loved Shaolin Soccer!)

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Tuesday, 28 February 2006 18:48 (nineteen years ago)

three months pass...

Shaolin Soccer’s Stephen Chow to start filming alien movie in China in July
HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong comedian Stephen Chow of Shaolin Soccer fame will reportedly start filming a new movie in July with an alien theme that is budgeted at more than 100 million Chinese yuan (about $14 million Cdn).
In the film, which will be shot in the eastern Chinese port of Ningbo, Chow plays an astronaut who accidentally lands on a foreign planet and befriends a group of young aliens, the Dushi Kuaibao newspaper reported, quoting Chow’s assistant.
The plot also involves a romance with a female robot, played by newcomer Zhang Yuyi, the report said.
Chow is known for his comedies such as Shaolin Soccer and Kung Fu Hustle.

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Tuesday, 27 June 2006 15:04 (nineteen years ago)

a romance with a female robot

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Tuesday, 27 June 2006 17:00 (nineteen years ago)

one year passes...

Reception of CJ7 has been mostly tepid... but there's always Armond!

http://nypress.com/21/10/film/ArmondWhite2.cfm

In a healthy film culture, critics would celebrate Stephen Chow the way they do P.T. Anderson, Todd Haynes or Sofia Coppola. I take that back, Chow doesn’t require you to lower your intelligence; he raises it. Chow’s new movie CJ7 confirms that he deserves the recognition once given great movie artists like Griffith, Chaplin, Keaton, Welles, Renoir, Lang, Borzage and Rene Clair—filmmakers who were populists, not elitists. They knew that cinematic ingenuity must be related to feeling. In CJ7, Chow continues this tradition, writing, directing and starring in an allegory about the value of movies....

If (the plot) sounds suspiciously close to E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, Chow’s ahead of you. CJ7 is an unabashed tribute to Spielberg’s classic. Chow returns to the annus mirabilis of 1982, the year of E.T. and Michael Jackson’s Thriller (preeminent global art events for the following decades) to find the common emotion, the populist richness, that movie culture has recently lost.

― Dr Morbius, Wednesday, 12 March 2008 13:36 (seventeen years ago)

three years pass...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJ5asE6N7ow

― http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1tAYmMjLdY (dayo), Tuesday, 14 February 2012 22:18 (thirteen years ago)

two years pass...

Has anyone seen Journey to the West? Chow directed & wrote it, but doesn't star in this one.
I loved it! Has a lot of Chow's humor. I think familiarity with the story might help going in (growing up watching the Monkey tv show helped),Anyway, a bit corny in places but I found the ending v moving.

Apparently there's talk of a sequel. I hope it happens!

― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Friday, 11 April 2014 16:33 (eleven years ago)

five months pass...

NYC retro of 8 films

http://www.bam.org/film/2014/stephen-chow

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/06/movies/stephen-chow-the-king-of-comedy-film-retrospective-at-bam.html

Mr. Chow’s 21st-century movies retain the off-the-cuff goofiness of classic Hong Kong comedy, but they’re more polished, with comprehensible plots and expensive digital effects. The 1990s films lack the polish and coherence, but that’s no barrier to enjoyment. If “Justice, My Foot!” (1992) or “God of Cookery” (1996) had been released in America, their continuous, disorderly but inspired silliness might have found an appreciative audience in the years of Bill & Ted and Austin Powers.

― son of a lewd monk (Dr Morbius), Monday, 6 October 2014 20:25 (eleven years ago)

Sucks that they're not doing Forbidden City Cops

As much as I love Shaolin Soccer the thought of seeing it with an audience that would laugh in all the wrong places gives me the hives

― 龜, Monday, 6 October 2014 20:45 (eleven years ago)

Film Forum membership makes you immune to those hives.

No baseball tomorrow, so I guess Justice, My Foot!

― son of a lewd monk (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 7 October 2014 20:52 (eleven years ago)

one year passes...

so anyone seen in The Mermaid yet? Despite Sony doing its best not to promote it, it's getting raves from critics who are paying to see it, and they all seem to the only white people in the audience

― danzig, Tuesday, 1 March 2016 21:57 (nine years ago)

planning to see it this week or next. haven't seen any of his mainland-targeted comedies and apparently i'm the only one who thought kung fu hustle was a drop in quality so...

― 龜, Tuesday, 1 March 2016 22:48 (nine years ago)

three months pass...

another NYC retro, five days...

http://metrograph.com/series/series/25/stephen-chow

― helpless before THRILLARY (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 28 June 2016 20:34 (nine years ago)

anyone have a pref for King of Comedy vs God of Cookery?

― helpless before THRILLARY (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 28 June 2016 20:58 (nine years ago)

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