- Year: 2003
- Starring: Michael Chow, Joyce Thi Brew, Karena Davis, Colman Domingo, Darryl Fong, Wallace Choy
- Directed by: Darryl Fong
From the back of the box:
”Art Chew is the star martial arts pupil of China’s ancient Shur-Li Temple. His wise teacher, Master Card, sends him on a quest to retrieve a magical peach that holds the secret to eternal youth. Art travels to America to recover the ‘Ancient Peach’ with the help of his friends Roy Lee, who despite having no martial arts skills, believes he is the reincarnation of Bruce Lee, and the heroic and sexy Sue Shee. KUNG PHOOEY is Bruce Lee meets Austin Powers in an outrageous spoof with Kung Fu action and knock-out laughter.”
Making a parody/spoof is probably the hardest thing to accomplish in showbiz. When done right (YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN, AIRPLANE, THE NAKED GUN), the results are downright hilarious. When done wrong (KUNG POW! ENTER THE FIST is a great example), the results are horribly unfunny. Thankfully, this low budget martial arts spoof leans toward the former and is highly entertaining.
Director-writer Darryl Fong delivers a film that throws jokes at the audience fast and furious. As with most parodies, not all of them hit their mark but there are some truly funny moments in the film. Of course, the actors play a great role in all of this. For a low budget comedy, the acting is quite good. Michael Chow, previous seen Brucing it up in the HK flick THE SPIRIT OF THE DRAGON, plays it straight here while co-stars Joyce Thi Brew (as the evil Helen Hu) and Wallace Choy (as the requisite Uncle Wong) steal the show. For our purposes, special mention should be given to Colman Domingo as Roy Lee, a young black man formerly known as Leroy who believes he is Bruce Lee. Domingo gets the outlandish Bruce mannerisms down and is damn funny. Fong, as the character Waymon, also gets his Bruceploitation on during the final warehouse fight where he spoofs Bruce Lee getting cut up in ENTER THE DRAGON.
The biggest asset to the film is that it doesn’t just rely on cliché martial arts jokes. Oh don’t get me wrong; they are plenty in there. We have the bad dubbing joke and the “You killed my teacher” routine. But director-writer Fong also uses his film to inject a bit of biting social commentary. Much like Robert Townsend’s HOLLYWOOD SHUFFLE, this film tackles the Asian stereotypes in the U.S. that are still being promoted to this day by Hollywood (see LETHAL WEAPON 4 for a recent shining example). The funniest bits involve the character of Uncle Wong, an old restaurant owner who shuffles around and speaks in clipped English. When asked why he does this, Uncle Wong responds, “Because it says so in the script” and then proceeds to pull out the script and read the hackneyed description of his character. Later, during the final fight, Uncle Wong encounters a stereotyped young gang member and the two of them compare their diplomas from the Hollywood Asian Film Stereotype Academy.
If I had one bone to pick (or break) with this film, it would be that they left the funniest scene on the cutting room floor. The end of the film has Art climbing a series of stairs a la GAME OF DEATH but they only show him fight a Jean-Claude Van Damme wannabe. One level featured a Steven Seagal look-a-like that was dead-on and hilarious. He was out of shape and eating friend chicken. After a series of puns involving Seagal movie titles, he tries to grab Art and becomes frustrated. “Give me your wrist!” he screams, to which Art replies, “Why?” “So I can flip you,” replies the Seagal impersonator. That gave me the biggest laugh. This bit appears in the end credits, but I think it should have remained in the film.
Reviewed by William.
