In part one of this series, I talk about Kung Fu Hustle and its martial arts that come from the real world. In this second part, I’ll try to cover all of the fictional styles and their respective origins in kung fu films and literature. This second post will have a LOT of spoilers so enter under your own risk.
Brief Recap and summary
The protagonist of Kung Fu Hustle is this loser named Sing who tries to become a gangster by bullying the tenants of Pig-sty Alley, a slum in 1930s Shanghai. He fails spectacularly and attracts the attention of the Axe Gang. They try to take the slum but are thwarted by three kung fu masters. After this first attempt, the gang tries sending several assassins and the battles escalate in power level. It is in this part of the movie that the fictional martial arts styles enter the scene.
All this fictional styles come from kung fu movies which are in turn adaptations of classic wuxia novels. Wuxia is a genre of martial arts fiction from China. There are a lot of wuxia novels, short stories, comics, video games and of course films. If you want to know more about wuxia fiction and where to find it I recommend reading my article in Martial Journal’s first print issue (you can download it here).
The Good Guys
Lion’s Roar
After the first attempt, the Axe Gang don’t give up and they hire two very eccentric assassins who work together. This guys defeat our initial three heroes with their very esoteric kung fu which uses a guzheng. When all seems lost, a scream as strong as a lion’s roar surprises them and breaks their strings. It turns out the landlady is a master of the mythic Lions Roar kung fu. This is a the powerful technique of the Golden Haired Lion King Xie Xun, an important characters from Jin Yong‘s famous novel The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber. As the name implies, it’s a powerful scream that can beat opponents and destroy objects. It’s so powerful that it overcomes the deadly music of the assassins.
Buddha’s Palm
In a brief flashback, we learn that as a kid, Sing bought a kung fu manual from a beggar. This manual taught Buddha’s Palm, a style that originates in the wuxia novel Palm of the Heavenly Buddha’s Palm (天佛张 Tian Fo Zhang) by Liu Canyan. And, of course, this novel has several adaptations to film. This is a very powerful and very esoteric Buddhist style, and allows Sing to defeat the final villain in the end. More than a style, this specific technique allows the fighter to project powerful energy from their palms. The way it’s depicted in Kung Fu Hustle is a little different than how it is in other movies (see image on the right).
Additionally, though unrelated to the film, several real world kung fu styles have a form called Buddha’s Palm, which makes sense given the influence Buddhism has had in Chinese culture and martial arts. At least the ones I’ve seen consist mainly of palm and open handed strikes.
The Bad Guys
Deadful Melody
The two assassins mentioned earlier use a Chinese musical instrument as a weapon, specifically a guzheng, to attack using the music. At first, the notes seem to cut and break anything they come in contact with. Then, in a fight against the masters the music becomes weapons, fists and even spectral soldiers. As esoteric kung fu goes, this one is up there with the most fantastical of them. Of course, comes from a wuxia novel by the name Deadful Melody by Ni Kuang and its adaptations into film.
Toad Style
Our final entry in this list is the movie’s final villain. A fighter so deadly and crazy that he’s nicknamed the Evil God of Fiery Cloud in Chinese, but is better known as The Beast in the translation. The name comes from the same novel as Buddha’s Palm but his special fighting technique comes from another. The Beast’s special technique is called Toad Style and comes from Legend of the Condor Heroes, another of Jin Yong’s novels. As seen in the movie, it’s a very weird style in which the fighter adopts the posture and leaps of a frog.
Bonus: The Old Beggar
In the movie’s final scene, a young kid meets the same beggar from Sing’s flashback. The beggar tries to sell the kid the same manual but he’s not interested. So the Beggar shows him several other manuals (see the picture on the left). Each of these manuals comes from a film or a novel.The four manuals on the right come from Jin Yong’s novels. The first one on the right is Dugu’s Nine Swords, this one appears in several novels. The other three are Yi Yang Finger, the Nine Yin Manual and Eighteen Dragon Subduing Palms from the Condor Trilogy. The manual on the far left says Powerful Fist of the Thousand hands. This last one I couldn’t really find where it comes from but it’s the title of two wuxia films from the sixties. So there’s a chance it also comes from a novel.
The subset or specific technique thing
In the first part I mentioned a pattern, most of the kung fu masters in Kung Fu Hustle specialize in a small set of techniques. This is a common trope in Chinese martial arts fiction, it’s also very common in anime. But it is also a common idea in traditional Chinese martial arts. Every fighting style has a plethora of techniques. You can be proficient in many, even very good at them. But it takes years to really be a master. As the saying goes, jack of all trades, master of none. So the idea is to find a subset of techniques and master them. As Bruce Lee famously said: I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.
As always, I hope you liked this article. Feel free to use the section down below, any and all comments are welcome.
- Hidden applications in traditional martial arts - October 30, 2023
- The Kung Fu in Kung Fu Hustle (part 2) - November 1, 2022
- The Kung Fu in Kung Fu Hustle (Part 1) - October 5, 2022
Ola Ezequiel.
This was a very nice piece that u wrote ✍️ about kungfu hustle 👍👏😊 Truly informative.
Do u know more about the kungfu in the movie 🎥🍿 Monk Comes Down The Mountain 🗻
Lemme kno
Adios
TC
Aditya
Thank you very much for your comment. About Monk Comes Down the Mountain, I’d have to watch it again. If I do I’ll tell you what I know.