Kung Fu Dunk review

Saturday, February 09, 2008

Kung Fu Dunk review

So I went out today to watch Kung Fu Dunk, a movie starting Jay Chou. Chou plays an orphaned boy (Shi Kie) who grew up in a martial arts school, and as such is well versed in kung fu. One day he was displaying his exceptional shooting ability by throwing cans into a trash bin, and was picked by Wang Li, a poor man who made his living in the streets to be a basketball player.

Supposedly, this film was inspired by the best selling manga series Slam Dunk, written by Takehiko Inoue, but in no way does the film resemble the series. There were passing nods to Slam Dunk here and there, but mostly the film went its own way. In fact, I can count on one hand the number of references to its so-called source material.

1)                  The team captain Ting Wei quoted one of the most famous lines from Slam Dunk, saying “If you control the rebounds, you control the game.” He also mentioned Akagi’s dream about making it to the top 8 in the finals.

2)                  Fellow teammate Xiao Lan (Baron Chen), is obviously based on Slam Dunk character Rukawa, and he was introduced with Rukawa’s famous fangirls trailing after him, going all “Rukawa Xiao Lan, we love you!” Unlike Rukawa through, he’s most more of a teamplayer on the courts.

3)                  Shi Kie, like Sakuragi, has great jumping ability and totally sucks at the basics (ie dribbling, passing and everything else). Unlike Sakuragi, he can shoot hoops for peanuts. And did I mention he knows kungfu?

4)                  Shi Kie faces off against a character whose behavior resembles Nobunaga Kiyota from Kainan in his first match. Shi Kie makes Sakuragi’s famous “Dunk On The Head” here as well.

5)                  Ting Wei pulled off a gorilla dunk at the final game, breaking the blackboard in the process.

And that’s about all the Slam Dunk references I can spot.

To my understanding, this is supposed to be the theme movie for the 2008 China Olympics (correct me if I’m wrong). But as a movie, it totally sucked. The storyboard screwed up, sending the story into the realms of fantasy bordering on the lines of ridiculousness. Fight scenes without any point other than making Jay Chou look cool flood the opening of the movie. Shi Kei, Ting Wei’s and Xiao Lan’s basketball skills are totally out of this world. Some scenes seemed forced, and didn’t pan out well. Many scenes are over dramatized, going really overboard. Halfway through the movie it gave up the ghost of a basketball story (not that it really had it much in the first place) and went straight into an all out slugfest between Shi Kei’s kungfu masters and the rival team. The ending…heck, everything about it was cheesy.

But entertainment wise, it’s pretty good. Looking past stuff like directing, execution, acting, story, and all other things, its good. It serves a purpose that every movie should perform, that is, to entertain the viewer. On that aspect, it did an outstanding job. It had me laughing all the way. Seeing the characters pull off impossible dunks and shots (okay, the shots can be done, its just very difficult) and nifty ball-handling was fun. This is one movie where you won’t get bored, where you will feel reasonably happy parting with your money for.

Certainly, if you have only one movie to watch, don’t watch this (watch Sweeney Todd instead). But if you have time to burn and want a laugh, then catch Kung Fu Dunk to lighten up your spirits.