WAC: Kung Fu Hip Hop

I'm starting up my new Weekend Asian Cinema (WAC) section with Kung Fu Hip Hop. Every weekend (hopefully), I'll put a post about an Asian movie to try to increase awareness of them in America!

My spoilerific comments and video after the jump.

Kung Fu Hip Hop is asian cinema's take on the various hip hop dancing movies of late, and the only way I can describe it is by saying that it's one of those movies that so bad, it's good. If you can get over the fact that the main actor, Jordan Chan, who is 42 years old according to wikipedia, attempts to play a part more suitable for a 24 year old, then it's quite enjoyable to watch.

Raised solely by his grandfather and the heir to grandpa's kung fu, this is a coming of age story about an aspiring 42 year old dance artist who is held back due to his immediate need to make ends meet for his vision impaired sister. Somewhere in the movie, he's discovered by superstar DJ & future love interest Tina (actress Fan Bingbing) and convinced to follow his dreams. Coinciding with this event is an accident involving his sister and the sudden need to raise funds for life/sight saving surgery. What is an old man supposed to do? Create a dance crew with your mechanic buddies and enter a national dance competition for the prize money!

Since none of you are ever going to watch it otherwise, here's final 10 mins of the movie; background: the main character was delayed from making the finals in time by the evil conglomerate henchmen sponsoring the other dance crew; after their hollow victory, the leader of said opposing dance crew (played by Korean dance/pop star Poppin' Hyun Joon) announces a dance off to determine the real winner. The video starts around there, and finishes with the final, cathartic dance sequence. I only wish there were subtitles to help illustrate the ridiculousness of the script. Something along the lines of "this is real hip hop" followed by "and this is hip hop kung fu". Enjoy :)



BTW, there is a sequel for this movie already in production.