Gong fu guan lan

Well sometimes quite literally. Not in a way Basketball is supposed to be played. Then again, I sometimes dreamt of playing a few sports like the Shaw Brothers would have taught me. Flying through the air and all that. Might not be fair to be honest, but then again the bad guys don't play fair either, do they know? That was rhetorical, because they obviously don't.

Having said all that, this is quite cliche and you can actually see where this is going. If you don't mind that, go ahead and watch it and enjoy the romp for what it is. Some fantasy come through, with many flaws and predictable as can be ... but you know fun

Technically, it may not be on par with films that deserve a 7 star rating, but it sure is entertaining. Its iconic original soundtrack by Jay Chou, paired with fun and entertaining kung fu and basketball scenes makes this an iconic gem in many asian millenial and gen-zs lives.

If you go looking on Netflix or Hulu you can watch this sports movie Kung Fu Dunk. It stars Jay Chou. You might remember Jay Chou from the movie The Green Hornet. Jay Chou plays a orphaned boy that grew up at a kung fu school and eventually becomes a talented basketball player. This movie is mixture of basketball, kung fu and a love story.

Many people have compared this movie to Shaolin Soccer and may have thought it wasn't as good. I actually like this movie. There are parts of this movie that were really funny. In the beginning the kids master dies trying to alter the universe. He ends up being frozen. I don't know if I should be laughing or crying. There are elements that you won't find in most sports movies. This movie doesn't follow the usual formula for most sports movies.

Parts of this movie did feel disjointed. There is the kung fu, the basketball, a love story and the kid trying to reunite with his parents. I feel like there is something that could have made it better. If you can get around the flaws this is a good movie.

First of all, I have to say that the Cine Asia DVD cover promises more than the movie actually delivers. Which just goes to prove, don't judge a movie by its cover.

"Kung Fu Dunk" is a combination of basketball, Kung Fu and a semi-romantic love story thrown into the midst. The end result was entertaining enough. However, the movie didn't really fully get a chance to spread out its wings and be all that it could have been. The movie just brushed over the various topics on the storyline on the surface. And that was a shame, because if the director had delved more into the depths of some topics instead of trying to be everywhere at once, then the movie would have had much more impact, depth and meaning. Personally, I found the movie to be good entertainment, but it was a rather shallow story, because it never took time to go into depths with the topics.

The action scenes were nicely shot, and the Kung Fu scenes were really well choreographed and looked nice. The basketball scenes, however, well they were great, it was like you were there on the court with the players. One thing that really didn't fit well into the movie, despite it was amazing to look at and funny, was when the four Kung Fu masters entered the basketball court and started fighting the Fireball team. Sure it looked nice and there was a lot of nice effects, but come on, it was just too much.

Being a long-time fan of Asian cinema, then it was really nice to see some of the big guns from Hong Kong cinema appear in a Mandarin Chinese movie. I haven't seen Eric Tsang (playing Zhen Li) in a long, long time, so it was a nice treat to get to see him on the screen again. He always brings some comical charm with him to the movies he is in. And of course you had Hong Kong cutie, Charlene Choi (playing Lily), as well and despite having a minor role she actually did it great, because it was a step away from her usual sugar-coated late-teen love romance roles (and it was nice to see her in a movie without Gillian Chung around). Finally, in a small cameo role, you had huge Hong Kong movie star from back in the day, Kenneth Tsang (playing Wang Yiwuan). His role was very small, but still, just his presence there was awesome.

The movie's main actor, Jay Chou (playing Fang Shijie) was really carrying the movie mostly by himself. He was really well-cast for this role and he did a great job with his character.

"Kung Fu Dunk" suffered from a half-hearted storyline that never explored its potential, and that was a shame, because the movie really had potential for so much more.

If you liked "Shaolin Soccer", then the chances are that you will like "Kung Fu Dunk" as well, though this movie is not as good as "Shaolin Soccer". But still, it is entertaining and fun to watch.

The movie is absolutely silly.

But were you expecting a high-brow intellectual film based on a comic called Slam Dunk? Really? Jay Chou's acting isn't exactly the most moving thing I've ever seen, but I certainly enjoyed the movie. Was it somewhere near the level of awesome that someone like Jet Li or Stephen Chow can produce? No, not really. Was it thoroughly entertaining if you're just taking it at surface value? Absolutely. It's a movie about some Chinese eye-candy idols and musicians who can play basketball at an unreal level of expertise. There's an evil Triad-style dude and a wacky scheming guy who gets Jay Chou involved in all of this. A love interest. It's formulaic but really, suspend disbelief for a while. Come on. It's called Kung Fu Dunk. What do you really think you signed on for? Do yourself a favor if you watch it - I found myself a copy with some Engrish subtitles that made the movie nigh unintelligible conversation wise, but we got a great laugh out of it. They would appear to be extremely fixated on Jerusalem and the numbers 1, 10.

I laughed, I cried, I hurled. I'd watch it again.

Especially for that fight scene in the bar. Well choreographed and well shot. I especially enjoy the plexiglass lit pool table - I'd LOVE to play on one of those.

Slick enough for me, but I dig on trash cinema.