L’intervista a Teddy Chan, regista di Kung Fu Jungle, in occasione del Far East Film Festival 17

With Kung Fu Jungle, Teddy Chan presents a crime story that fuses an obsession with becoming number one in martial arts with the power of love. Hahou Mo (Donnie Yen), a former martial arts instructor, ends up after an accident during a duel. But after three years in prison, he sees that the top masters of different martial arts disciplines are being murdered and convinces Detective Luk Yuen-Sum (Charlie Yeung) to let him help her in this manhunt in exchange for his freedom. The killer leaves metal swallows at the crime-scenes as clues, and decides how to kill the victims by finding out their specific skills: boxing, kicking, grappling and the weapons.

The victims are chosen because the killer believes if you want to be the best, you have to defeat the best in every discipline. The love the main characters feel for their women is the engine that motivates them and it drives the movie until the end: while the villain, Fung Yu-Sau (an extraordinary performance by Baoqiang Wang), loses control because of his girl’s battle with cancer, Hahou fights to protect his loved one.

The influence of memories is also a major theme: the director amazingly mixes present and past in scenes that are used to demonstrate the characters’ emotions. Kung fu Jungle is an enjoyable movie in which men and their weapons become welded together.

It’s a story of redemption in which the grace, speed and power of various martial disciplines find their ultimate expression. Nobody is born evil, but jungle-like environment these characters exist in allows only two possibilities: be the king, the lion of the land, or death.

Luca Feole (@palahliuk)

L’ARTICOLO SUL FEFF MAGAZINE 2015: