Post 1
9
plain
2018-12-07T22:21:59-08:00
Before watching Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Kung Fu Hustle, I had never seen a Kung Fu movie before. These movies were unlike anything I have watched before--everything I’ve watched before being very “Western”. I was surprised when watching Crouching Tiger because I had never really seen fight scenes like the one in this movie. With wide shots and longer scenes with more disciplined movements, it differs greatly than action movies that I’m used to watching. It was actually really interesting to see a different style of fighting that is almost like a musical number, every move carefully choreographed and intentional. Kung Fu Hustle also interested me a lot because like Crouching Tiger, I haven’t seen anything like it. Kung Fu Hustle also had detailed fight scenes with everything choreographed down to the individual hand movements.
Although Kung Fu Hustle and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon are both Kung Fu movies, I found them very different in terms of the way in which their separate stories were presented but they did share similar themes. Crouching Tiger was more serious, focused on technique, and seemed more disciplined to me while Kung Fu Hustle was more comedic and exaggerated with the movements, sound effects, and fighting styles. Kung Fu Hustle seemed to incorporate more of the “supernatural” as well with the different fighting techniques and skills each person had. Furthermore, the aesthetic of the two movies seemed to differ because Kung Fu Hustle used colors that were more vibrant and costumes that were more exaggerated to go along with their comedic style. However, throughout the two movies, I found that there were similar themes, especially the struggle between good and evil. In Crouching Tiger, Jen is walking a line between good and evil with Jade Fox being the evil and Mu Bai being the good. In Kung Fu Hustle, Sing wants to be evil and join the axe gang because throughout his life, being good got him nowhere. However, throughout the movie he starts to remember what being good meant to him and has an internal struggle about which path he wants to go down.
