The Kung Fu Hero in the Digital Age: Stephen Chow’s ‘Glocal’ Strategies

Abstract

In the previous chapter we have examined the way in which the ‘new Hong Kong action film’ has transformed certain stylistic and thematic patterns to update and critically re-engage the local in contemporary cinematic parlance. This chapter continues this line of inquiry by extending it to a related sub-genre, the comic kung fu film. I will anchor my discussion on two recent works by Hong Kong’s number one comedic actor-director1 Stephen Chow, namely Shaolin Soccer/Shaolin zuqiu and Kung Fu Hustle/Kung fu. Chow is well known to the local audience for his consistently hyperbolic, farcical screen persona. To the extent that Chow’s career as a comedian has been built upon his travesty of social norms, especially those regarding graphic depictions of bodily excesses and the creative deployment of archaic Cantonese linguistic markers, puns, and in-jokes, the popular appeal of the king of comedy has been confined largely to Hong Kong and other Cantonese-speaking communities in the region. More recently, especially after Shaolin Soccer, Chow is better known to audiences in Mainland China. Chow’s recent breakthroughs on the international markets signal a conscious self-transformation of the actor-director, and hence the different strategy of embracing the local popular culture—his all-time favourite and inspiration—in order to go beyond the geographical and linguistic confines of the local itself.