Hong Kong movie star Stephen Chow's action comedy King Fu Hustle kicked up a storm when it opened in the US last weekend, but left delighted film critics battling to describe it.
Hong Kong's highest grossing film ever opened in limited release in North America last Friday, raking in an average around US$38,000 per screen, far outpacing any other movie last weekend.
The weekend's box office champion, Matthew McConaughey's Sahara, only managed about US$5,728 per screen, but brought in a total of US$18 million in its debut.
PHOTO: AP
The tongue-in-cheek martial arts comedy, starring Chow as a small-time gangster who discovers his destiny as a kung fu superhero, came in 20th at the North American box office with a total haul of around US$266,000.
US critics raved about the film, set in a 1940s Chinese city that appears to be Shanghai or Hong Kong, but were at a loss as how to define its genre or even describe the high-kicking action epic.
"A film in which Jackie Chan and Buster Keaton meet Quentin Tarantino and Bugs Bunny," wrote respected American critic Roger Ebert.
PHOTO: AFP
"It's been a long time -- you might have to go back to the Bruce Lee era -- since a martial-arts film busted through the limits of physical freedom as wildly, and promiscuously, as Kung Fu Hustle, raved Entertainment Weekly
In turn violent and hilarious, the film tells the story of two bungling would-be gangsters who get caught up with an evil axe-wielding gang who try to wipe out a poor neighborhood dominated by a chain-smoking harridan of a landlady who can scream loud enough to shatter walls.
Die-hard fans of the Star Wars movie have started lining up to buy tickets for the final instalment in the fabled film series nearly seven weeks before it opens -- at a rival cinema.
A core of nine fans of George Lucas's out-of-this world tales set up camp outside Hollywood's legendary Grauman's Chinese Theatre last Saturday, 46 days ahead of the May 19 opening of Star Wars: Episode III -- Revenge of the Sith.
But the entertainment industry press reported that the sixth and last Star Wars movie was set to open instead at another Tinseltown movie house, the Cinerama Dome at the Arclight.
Keen followers of Luke Skywalker and Princess Leah are however having none of it. They are hoping to strong-arm 20th Century Fox into launching the film at the Chinese, where the original 1977 film was first screened.
"It is a very good cause," explained unemployed Jerry Anderson, 27, who is one of the group of enthusiasts who have set up a tent and deck chairs outside the grandiose Chinese Theatre.
The Star Wars camp-out in front of the 1927 picture palace has become a tradition for fans. A similar stake-out was launched for the most recent episodes in 1999 and 2002.
Bollywood darling and former Miss World Aishwarya Rai will take on an obsessive "godman" in a new thriller set to start shooting in the next two months.
Rai, the Hindi film industry's highest paid actress, has signed on for Saamna (Confrontation), a film that for the first time in Bollywood deals with the contentious subject of gurus who exploit people by instilling fear in them.
Charismatic religious leaders, who call themselves "godmen" and claim to have supernatural powers, have long flourished in India. They usually attract hordes of disciples and own vast amounts of wealth, land and fleets of luxury cars.
The film is being made by respected Bollywood director Raj Kumar Santoshi.
Yoshitaro Nomura, famed Japanese director of suspense thrillers such as Castle of Sand, has died of pneumonia at a Tokyo hospital. He was 85.
He had been in hospital since March 22 and passed away last Friday, news reports said.
Nomura, born to a film director, served in World War II and entered the cinema world in 1946, becoming an assistant director working under late Japanese film director Akira Kurosawa and others.
He made his debut as director in 1952 with Pigeon. His 1974 suspense thriller Castle of Sand was widely praised and won the special prize from juries at the Moscow International Film festival the following year.
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