Kung Fu Dunk

Kung Fu Dunk (China)

The Gist

An expelled kung fu school student was discovered by Eric Tsang to be darn accurate throwing things into a small hole. He immediately gets taken to be a basketball superstar.


What Do I Think?

Amongst the four movies that Jay had appeared in, I must say (being a big fan of his) that this is definitely the worst I have watched. The only scene that made him shine is the brawl in the club where Jay is fighting one against 20 guys. Most of the stunts were done by himself and I must say the whole thing was pretty impressive.


Pretty disappointing to know that his acting chops were improving from his blur as stone character in Initial D, then an emotional son in Curse of the Golden Flower and finally a credible actor (as well as director and writer) in Secret.


Initially titled Slam Dunk, this whole film is sort of a rip-off of Shaolin Soccer in terms of the whole structure and concept. In terms of its aesthetic values and international appeal, KFD is 20 times worse.


Director Kevin Chu is known for making teen idol films with earlier efforts of promoting Takeshi Kaneshiro and Wu Zhi Loong in the 90’s. KFD is the same, to promote Chen Bo-Lin and Baron Chen (no relations to Edison Chen), with Jay Chou being the weight of the attraction. I hope these two Chens use this opportunity wisely to bring themselves up in the entertainment industry.


Eric Tsang plays a stereotyped manager that only cares for Chou and nothing else in the film. Charlene Choi is a talent really, really wasted and underutilized in the whole outing. They could have used a good-looking newcomer for her role. Ng Man-Tat, a regular in Stephen Chau’s earlier films returns to the big screen, albeit only a cameo appearance. When is he going to be star with Chau again?


There were jokes that were pretty funny like Chou’s earlier relationship experiences. I watched the Cantonese-dubbed version of this film, which didn’t quite bring justice to the script.


And in the end, I should have known better because this was released as a Lunar New Year outing. All Hong Kong films released this time are money-making crap. Except for Protégé.

Rating: 4/10

Last updated: 2009-08-12 01:13:14 by joekhor