The Evil Team is unstoppable!

Stephen Chow has a new film coming to the states--Kung Fu Hustle.

Words don't really do it justice, and the trailer doesn't really attempt to explain the plot all that much anyway. So far it looks like it has ghosts, kung fu, production dance numbers, and a bunch of familiar faces.

Stephen Chow is not as well known as Chow Yun-Fat or Jet Li or Jackie Chan, though his films do amazing business in Hong Kong. I'm particularly fond of Shaolin Soccer. Didn't see it? Don't remember it? I'm not surprised--Miramax treated it pretty poorly. First they bought the rights and they were going to release it over summer. Then it was fall, but recut. Then it was spring but dubbed and without the awesome opening sequence. Then they decided to release just the original version but just in select cities.

One of the things that I like the most about Shaolin Soccer is that they do not have a failure of imagination. The Wachowski brothers, as brilliant as the first Matrix is, pretty much focused on shooting crap and half-baked philosophy. Chow creates a world where kung fu and soccer change the world for the better, in addition to featuring a kick so powerful, it strips the very turf from the stadium. In the words of Jamie Hyneman, he rejects our reality and replaces it with one of his own, only better.

There are a couple of films that made me think, "I want to live in that world." Sky Captain was one of them--Shaolin Soccer was another.