Kung Fu Dunk, formerly known as Slam Dunk is a film that is inspired by the Slam Dunk manga and anime series and is almost like an imitation of Shaolin Soccer by incooperating Kung Fu into sports.
SPOILER WARNING: Plot and/or ending details follow.
The film revolves around an orphaned boy, Shi-Jie (Jay Chou) who grew up in a kung fu university but get thrown out of the university after making trouble at a nightclub. Eventually, he meets Wang-Li (Eric Tsang) who discovers Shi-Jie’s talents and Wang-Li is keen to make Shi-Jie his cash cow.
On the excuse of helping him search for his long lost parents, Wang-Li invited him to play basketball at the First University.
After joining the basketball team, Shi-Jie is often distracted by Li-Li (Charlene Choi), sister of Ting-Wei (Bo-Lin Chen), the captain of First University basketball team. In order to get the attention of Li-Li, Shi-Jie competes with Xiao-Lan (Baron Chen) but the conflicts between each other when Ting-Wei helps Shi Jie to combine his Kung-Fu with the important basketball techniques.
Jay Chou in Kungfu Dunk
After winning games after games, finally First University meets its major competitor in a team led by Lee Tien, a former captain of First University basketball team, who has betrayed them in the previous season. Lee Tien also used to taunt Ting-Wei by telling the tale of what he has done to Ting-Wei’s girlfriend. Ting-Wei has resorted to drink alcohol to overcome this.
Earlier, Wang-Li has made great efforts to persuade four grand masters from the kung fu university in which Shi-Jie grows up to take up a challenge at the last moment. With Ting-Wei and Xiao-Lan both injured, will Shi-Jie manage to overcome this obstacle and win the championship? Well, let me spoil it for you — First University initially loses the championship due to a bribed referee but Shi-Jie uses his Kung Fu to freeze time and reverse it to win the championship.
Kung Fu Dunk is a way better movie than Jay Chou’s previous efforts in Initial D, though his Cantonese has not improved much. Perhaps, with the profits from the box office, Jay Chou should after all, have a make-over or something. Both, Bo-Lin Chen and Baron Chen overshadowed Jay in the movie as they are better-looking in every sense, making Jay looks very much like a cow dung. Perhaps, the movie should be name Kung Fu Dung?
My ratings: 7 out of 10. With a $10 million budget, Kung Fu Dunk doesn’t even have a decent babe in it makes you think where all the money goes to? However, despite that and the bad storyline, Kung Fu Dunk excels as more than just another film that is inspired by a manga.
Popularity: 3% [?]
