In December 2004, Stephen Chow's "Kung Fu" was released in theaters. At the beginning of its release, the film was only selected for Chinese mainland and Hong Kong, China. However, the word of mouth after the release was not too good, and it was groundlessly accused and scored low in China. Some people say that until 2015, the rating of this movie was still around 6 points, but now open the rating of this movie and look at it, the rating has risen to 8.7 points.
When it was just released, "Kung Fu" encountered the complaints of many domestic audiences. Some people say that this is a low-budget blockbuster of Xingye, the whole film is paying tribute, and Zhou Xingchi's nonsense label has disappeared. Some netizens said that Zhou Xingchi deliberately played cool and ugly in this movie; some netizens even said that the content of this movie was empty, the performance was poor and other extremely dissatisfied words; and even some netizens directly commented on this movie as a bad film.
Xiao Shuai believes that some of the views expressed by netizens are completely unrealistic. "Kung Fu" is an international film co-produced by Huayi Brothers and Columbia, which cost 20 million US dollars at that time, equivalent to 128 million yuan, and investing more than 100 million yuan is not a low-cost film. Moreover, although the film has a bridge section to pay tribute to movies such as "The Shining", it does not deliberately pay tribute, and it is completely smooth plot design. As for some people saying that this movie is a bad movie, that is even more nonsense.
Today, after more than ten years of precipitation, thanks to the development of online short videos and streaming media, many classic bridges in "Kung Fu" have been continuously turned over, making this movie a classic in the classic again. It is no exaggeration to call this film the pinnacle of Stephen Chow's nonsense comedy style. Although time has proved "Kung Fu", but did you know that as early as 2005, this film was recognized by many foreign audiences.
Do you know how foreign media evaluated the movie "Kung Fu" that year?
At that time, although there was a lot of complaints in China, after the film was released abroad in 2005, it was completely different from the domestic feedback, and the response from abroad was unanimously praised. The film landed in North American theaters in 2005 and later on streaming platforms in 2012, and has been receiving continuous praise and praise. On foreign professional rating websites, the professional film critics of "Kung Fu" gave 91% freshness on Rotten Tomatoes, and the popcorn index given by the audience reached 89%. Such a score can be said to be a very high praise.
Foreign media have also expressed different views on this film than in China. Some media said that this is the pinnacle of Stephen Chow's nonsense style comedy; the Hollywood Times said that this is a new height of kung fu comedy, Time Magazine said it was the funniest kung fu movie; and the famous father of Garfield, who called kung fu the highest peak of contemporary comedy.
The foreign media's evaluation of "Kung Fu" is even comparable to "Hero" directed by Zhang Yimou and "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" directed by Ang Lee at one level. Undoubtedly, these three works are all stories that show Chinese kung fu as the core element, and foreign audiences have always had a very high level of appreciation for Chinese kung fu, whether it is the Bruce Lee era, the Jackie Chan era or the current kung fu theme of various movies. Even John Stevenson, the director of hollywood's well-known IP series "Kung Fu Panda", admitted that he made this series of movies that year to secretly borrow the martial arts style of Chow's "Shaolin Football" and "Kung Fu" films.
So then again, why is Stephen Chow's "Kung Fu" widely recognized by foreign audiences?
This has a lot to do with the martial arts instruction in the movie. In addition to Hong Jinbao being the spokesperson for hong Kong's classic martial arts instructor, there is also a movie called Yuan Heping. He has directed many films, such as Drunken Fist, Qi men Dunjia, A Generation of Grandmasters, Ip Man 3, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, King of Kung Fu and so on. There is also one of the most legendary Hollywood series, The Matrix. I don't know if you have found that some of the martial arts in "Kung Fu" are very similar to "The Matrix"? In fact, these are all Yuan Heping's martial arts style works.
It can be said that Yuan Heping is well versed in the essence of martial arts, and the Hollywood work "The Matrix" he has directed can be a great success, also because the Chinese martial arts elements in it are attractive enough. Naturally, for "Kung Fu", it can also attract many foreign audiences with its martial arts style.
Well, today Xiao Shuai will share it with you here. I don't know what everyone thinks of the foreign media's evaluation of "Kung Fu"? What would you say about Stephen Chow's Kung Fu? Welcome to comment on the message and discuss with me.