Kung Fu Hip-Hop

	Hong Kong 2008 Director: Huayang Fu Cast: Jordan Chan, Bingbing Fan, Poppin Hyun-Joon, Kuan Tai Chen, Min Gao, Xiaoting Pan Rating: II A (Hong Kong) Language: Cantonese Release Date: 27 August 2008 Running Time: 1 hour 30 minutes The Movie Review		KUNG FU HIP-HOP ( Jing mou moon ) Storyline: Cast: Ending: Overall:
	After several notable dance movies like You Got Served (2004), Stomp the Yard (2007), Dance and Hip Hop fans are getting bigger by the theater. So probably by mixing dance and kung fu, the dance moves and the hype could be cranked up a notch..., couldn't it? Chu Dong (Jordan Chan), is a man who excels both in Kung Fu and in Dance, but his desire to dance was oppresed by his family rule. Chu Dong makes his living not by dancing though but by selling fake or imitation women bags on the crossing bridge. One day he meets a unique buyer who turns out to be a DJ named Tina (Fan Bingbing), and Dong accidentally steals Tina's bag while being chased by the authority. Dong then uses the money inside Tina's bag to pay for the operation of Dong's nearly-blind little sister Ya ya (Wang Yue). Tina confronts Dong to pay her back or by doing another option, to dance in the competition with Tina as their DJ, Dong as the lead dancer and Dong's friends who work as mechanics as the crew. Dong and his friends who actually only know kung fu would have to learn much to defeat their nemesis, the one who was actually Tina’s ex-boyfriend. As it is common to see almost every dance movies, it's kinda mandatory for the audience to overlook its storyline. Yes, this dance movie is not an exception…, the background story that interweaves the dance scenes is wallpaper thin. I don't know how many have I read/watched/known the story of "helping my ill little sister/brother so that he/she could get a costly operation". So, Kung Fu Hip Hop is not to be enjoyed at all from the storyline standpoint. This flaw usually comes in a package with rudimentary acting, and the package comes in complete condition too in this dance flick. Besides, those actors are appreciated by their dance ability not by their acting performance for all I care...that's of course as long as the dance scenes are tasty...aren't they? Well, the answer to that would be...Nope, not quite. First of all, for the audience to be really appreciative to the dance moves/scenes, the camerawork should be enjoyably and steady. This movie instead has a confusing camerawork, which abruptly changes between the crowds and the dancers on stage or between different angles of the dance stage. It too often flips flops, that I could not enjoy the dance moves without feeling dizzy first. Bearing the title Kung Fu, I didn't see any distinctive use of Kung Fu. I've only seen a couple of scenes where the dancers purely practicing Kung Fu, one dance scene where they use sticks, and one that's the most unnatural part of this film, a true fighting scene where they use great kung fu skill! Oh my.... Kungfu Hip Hop surely has its own moments, the dance scenes are pretty intense and featuring great performance from its dancers and the dance songs are just fantastic. The songs however purely a matter of taste though. Sadly to say, I've seen some greater moves (or at least equal) on an amateur dance talent scouting on a local TV. More interesting than the ones this movie is showing. Funny thing is the one thing that captures my attention the most is clothing and costume of the entire cast, they are too flashy compared to the overall dance moves. It would have been much better, if they had put that much of an (make-up/wardrobe) effort in the dance moves or the story instead. © iwan pranowo of Movielogy.com Twitter: @movielogy posted: 2008

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