Do the Hustle
Despite the 40 degree temperature drop, slate grey skies, and super killer winds, nothing was keeping me home on Saturday, cause I had two missions. 1) Catch a Matinee of "Kung fu Hustle", and 2) Score some tomatillos and Cilantro from Martin's IGA in Effingham (It's pretty sad that I have to dry 45 minutes just to get fresh Cilantro...).
"Kung fu Hustle" is the mutant love child of Flying Kung fu and Chuck Jones cartoons. And it's not a parody or a send up of the subject matter (like the rancid "Kung Pow"), instead its an offbeat yet loving homage to its progenitors. From start to finish the movie is laden with bizarre characters (just wait till you see who most of the Ultimate Kung fu Masters turn out to be), unusual moments (the main villians aren't just snazzy dressers, they like to do dance routines in their off time), silly gags (don't wanna ruin these, just keep your eyes peeled for a hi-arious footrace midway through the film), and crazed martial arts mayhem (Which somehow manages to be both serious and silly at the same time). If you can get down with the vibe of this flick, then it'll rock your socks off. If you can't, then you probably went to watch "Guess Who" and are probably reading the wrong blog. (Course, if you did watch "Guess Who" and are a regular reader of this blog, then I profusely apologize. Really.)
Huh. Y'know, besides watching the Hong Kong based "Hustle" this weekend, I scored two anime (Samurai Shamploo Vol. 2 (see the review in the blog archives) which is quite enjoyable, despite the fact that the swordplay is toned down alot in this volume, and "Mouse" Vol 1, which is pretty much just a fun little show about a world class theif and his three ridiculously overendowed female assistants. Have I mentioned I'm a Pig lately?) and three manga (Ultimate Muscle vols 1 & 2, not for every taste, but I'm a wrestling fan, and GTO vol 17, I'm trying to get caught up on this excellent series). Which beggars the age old question, are all of the truly good ideas coming from the East? Has Western culture homogenized itself to the point where only foreign imports hold any interest? Sure, we get the occasional movie (Sin City), or comic (Seven Soldiers) that's a barn burner, but they're becoming fewer and farther between. Something to ponder...
"Kung fu Hustle" is the mutant love child of Flying Kung fu and Chuck Jones cartoons. And it's not a parody or a send up of the subject matter (like the rancid "Kung Pow"), instead its an offbeat yet loving homage to its progenitors. From start to finish the movie is laden with bizarre characters (just wait till you see who most of the Ultimate Kung fu Masters turn out to be), unusual moments (the main villians aren't just snazzy dressers, they like to do dance routines in their off time), silly gags (don't wanna ruin these, just keep your eyes peeled for a hi-arious footrace midway through the film), and crazed martial arts mayhem (Which somehow manages to be both serious and silly at the same time). If you can get down with the vibe of this flick, then it'll rock your socks off. If you can't, then you probably went to watch "Guess Who" and are probably reading the wrong blog. (Course, if you did watch "Guess Who" and are a regular reader of this blog, then I profusely apologize. Really.)
Huh. Y'know, besides watching the Hong Kong based "Hustle" this weekend, I scored two anime (Samurai Shamploo Vol. 2 (see the review in the blog archives) which is quite enjoyable, despite the fact that the swordplay is toned down alot in this volume, and "Mouse" Vol 1, which is pretty much just a fun little show about a world class theif and his three ridiculously overendowed female assistants. Have I mentioned I'm a Pig lately?) and three manga (Ultimate Muscle vols 1 & 2, not for every taste, but I'm a wrestling fan, and GTO vol 17, I'm trying to get caught up on this excellent series). Which beggars the age old question, are all of the truly good ideas coming from the East? Has Western culture homogenized itself to the point where only foreign imports hold any interest? Sure, we get the occasional movie (Sin City), or comic (Seven Soldiers) that's a barn burner, but they're becoming fewer and farther between. Something to ponder...
1 Comments:
My thought on it is that it's the ole Grass is Greener syndrome. Once a market reaches a certain income level, the formulas for making money there are down pat. Once that happens, every new entrant to the game gets judge by the level of the top performers, making new talent difficult to come by. Even as "the audience" we live with the formulas here at home daily, so we've picked them out. Foreign formulas aren't as readily apparent to us.
On the creative side of things, regardless of the high level of quality of the work, it's possible the invasion of eastern entertainment is just another non-pop culture fad. Similarly, compare the quantity of british sitcoms and the like viewable in the US during the Monty Python craze. Now, we have "Office".
Now, I'm not saying that our interest in these forms will burn out. It is possible, though, that it becomes non-profitable for them to import their entertainment into our greedy hands.
And in the interest of brevity, I won't even hit on how anti-pop and intellectual a lot of the anime/manga fans think of themselves, making late nights at Cartoon Network a veritable suasage fest for the downtrodden looking to elevate their status by discussing the ethical messages laden in InuYasha.
Really, despite the fact that we've loved it for years, it's new. As a cultural phenomen, it's new. Much like our own industries, there are big names and there are up and comers, and the big wigs decide who's who. We don't see it, cause one Yukuhana Lee Hoi Chung Dong Dang is just like any other to most Americans. If a name's not European, Yiddish, or recognizably biblical, it doesn't stick in our minds as well.
Course, I may just be too grumpy to be posting, this morning.
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