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BY BRETT MICHEL
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After Miramax dropped the ball with its handling of Stephen Chow’s first domestic release, 2001’s Shaolin Soccer (an agreeable merging of CGI with his trademark brand of "nonsense-speak"), the outlook for his scoring with an American audience appeared grim. But Chow, who ranks Bruce Lee as a defining idol, wasn’t going to give up without a fight. First seen declaring "No more soccer!" as he stomps a ball flat, he makes it clear that Kung Fu Hustle will be different. Set in a "time of social unrest" (which seems to mean 1930s Shanghai), Hustle careers through influences from Gangs of New York to gravity-defying Road Runner cartoons. Chow’s Sing is a wrongheaded thief masquerading as a member of the natty, malevolent Axe Gang in a bungled extortion attempt aimed at the denizens of Pig Sty Alley. This triggers the arrival of the real Axe Gang, led by Brother Sum (Chan Kwok Kwan), and a face-off with the alley’s hidden dragons (Chiu Chi Ling and Xing Yu) and its harridan landlady (Yuen Qiu, one of Lieutenant Hip’s two nieces in The Man with the Golden Gun). With its countless film references rendered meaningless in context, this eager-to-please comedy is both everything and nothing; you’ll either love it or feel hustled. In Mandarin and Cantonese with English subtitles. At the Entertainment, Flagship, Holiday, Providence Place 16, Showcase, and Tri-Boro cinemas. (99 minutes)
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