Kung Fu Hustle, Maria Full of Grace

reviewed Aug 2005


Kung Fu Hustle

Not as entertaining or light-hearted as writer-director Stephen Chow’s previous effort, Shaolin Soccer.  It’s gorier than I expected, and the fights are surprisingly tame.  There are some neat effects – the assassin shooting invisible swords from the strings of a Chinese instrument is cool – but overall, a disappointment.

 

Maria Full of Grace

Terminally depressing, but very well-done, movie about a young Columbian woman who becomes a drug mule.  Catalina Sandino Moreno is terrific as Maria, who’s restless in her constricted village life but gets into far more than she could have imagined when she starts carrying drugs to the U.S.  It feels very immediate and real, to the point that it’s sometimes hard to watch.



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