Over the years, greatkung fu movieshavepresented amazing martial arts action, but several are also funnier than you might expect. These films often take martial arts fighting seriously, at least as far as the hero is concerned. However, they also work well in showing how many martial arts stars, especially men like Jackie Chan, owe a lot of their careers tosilent film comedians like Buster Keatonand Charlie Chaplin. This includes as much gymnastics to fluster enemies as kicks and punches.
However, many of these films arefunny because of more than just wild kung fu action. They also have some sharp scripts that allow the usually serious and often somber kung fu fighters to show a different side of their personality. Jackie Chan set the template in the 1970s for how to have a greatmartial arts movie have just the right touches of comedywhile never once disrespecting the fighting style the men and women honed to perfection throughout their careers.
Drunken Masteris a kung fu movie featuring fictionalized versions of Wong Fei-hung andBeggar So, a folk hero known for the drunken boxing style, where the martial artist would imitate the movements of a drunk person. While it seems the fighter is uncoordinated and has no idea what he is doing,drunken boxing isa sophisticated fighting styleincorporating several martial arts styles into unusual body movements that make it hard to defend.
This unusual fighting style brings most of the laughs, as Jackie Chan has mastered this comedy kung fu fighting style and taken it to great lengths in this film. However, the story is also great.Drunken Masteris about a young man who has gotten into so much trouble that he risks being banished and finally learns how to control himself, thanks to the Drunken Master. Chan also reprised the role in two sequels.
In recent years, the funniest kung fu movies have almost always been made to pay homage to the martial arts films of the 1970s and 1980s. That is what David Sandberg’sKung Furyset out to be. Crowdfunding the film through Kickstarter, Sandberg gained over half a million dollars to make his movie and took it to the Cannes Film Festival, paying off all his hard work. The film was set in the 1980s witha detective named Kung Fury working for the Miami-Dade Police Department.
Sandberg threw a lot into his film, but in the end, it was highly praised and received almost universally positive reviews.
Sandberg plays Kung Fury, a man struck by lightning and bit by a cobra, which gives him superhuman kung fu fighting skills. He uses these to fight a time-traveling Adolf Hitler and his new Nazi followers while also getting help from the Norse god Thor, a group of Valkyries, and a tyrannosaurus, all traveling through time as well. Sandberg threw a lot into his film, but in the end, it was highly praised and received almost universally positive reviews.
Jackie Chan has been part of several great action franchises throughout his career, but the one that is arguably his best is thePolice Storyseries. The first film, directed by Chan and starring him as a Hong Kong police detective named Kevin Chan-Ka Kui, arrived in 1985. In this first story,he arrests a drug lord but then has to clear his name when he is accused of murder. This was Chan’s first movie after he tried to break out in the American film market with the disappointingThe Protector.
What resulted was a project that has been called one of the best action films of all time and one of the best martial arts movies ever made. It received a sequel; both films are available through the Criterion Collection. What makes it funny arethe actual action scenes, which Jackie Chan workedwith the stunt team to make as wild as possible. He filmed each scene around specific set pieces that he could interact with to make things never seem to stop moving, showing reverence for his silent era influences.
Director Stephen Chow has made his name creating comedy kung fu movies, and his masterpiece might beKung Fu Hustle.This movie takes kung fu fighting and sets it ina movie that is as much a Loony Tunes cartoon as it is a fighting movie. This was actually taken to the extreme, as there is a scene with the landlady who begins to run in Roadrunner fashion, along with the sound effects from the old Saturday Morning cartoons. It helps make the movie a great comedy.
The plot is set in the same world as classic kung fu fighting movies, with a young man having to fight the evil gangsters who threaten a small town. It also has the trope of older kung fu masters who no one respects but are there to aid in the battle. The movie has madcap cartoon-style comedy and uses the Wuxia fighting style from films likeCrouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.Chow is a filmmaker who knows how to deliver comedy while still honoring the fighting styles.
Kung Fu Pandacontinued DreamWorks' track record of creating successful animated franchises, followingShrekbut beforeHow to Train Your Dragon. Jack Black voicesa panda named Po, an orphan raised by a stork in a small village. He idolizes the Furious Five—Tigress, Monkey, Mantis, Viper, and Crane—a group of kung fu warriors trained by Master Shifu to protect the valley. However, after an ancient villain returns, Po becomes the Chosen One and takes his spot with the group.
Kung Fu Pandaremains one of the longest-lasting ongoing franchises for the animation studio.
Kung Fu Pandawent a long way toward creating something unique. While it still used a lot of broad humor for laughs, it was also a heartfelt story with some great animated kung fu action. It was also so successful that it spawned a franchise that included three more movies, each updating the animation style to groundbreaking levels. It also spawned several TV shows, expanding the film’s world, andKung Fu Pandaremains one of the longest-lasting ongoing franchises for the animation studio.
Jackie Chan has been involved in several American crossovers, combining his madcap kung fu action style with more American genre offerings. WhileRush Hourwas the most successful, a buddy cop movie with Chris Tucker, his funniest came withShanghai Noon.This film sees Chan star as Chon Wang, a Chinese Imperial Guard in the Forbidden City, who travels to the Wild West in America searching to find a missing princess. There, he teams up with an outlaw named Roy O’Bannon.
Owen Wilson plays Roy, and his sarcastic and often dismissive attitude contrasts perfectly with Chan’s acting as Chon Wang (which sounds like John Wayne). The two of them end up as uneasy partners who set out to stop a criminal. The film also introduces some classic Wild West characters, including Wyatt Earp.Shanghai Knightsre-teams them in Britain, but that movie relied too heavily on cameos (Sherlock Holmes, Jack the Ripper, Charlie Chaplin), and the first film remains the funnier of the two.
Kung Fu Hustletook the idea of Kung fu movies and made them almost cartoon-like, whileKung Pow!Enter The Fistmade a movie that was a full-on spoofof the genre, similar to releases likeScary MovieandNot Another Teen Movie. Most of the spoof movies ended up as disappointments, and few lived up to the genre they attempted to make jokes with. However,Kung Powhad a secret weapon involved. Steve Oedekerk directed this, using footage from a classic film,Tiger & Crane Fist, to tell his story.
Oedekerk stars as The Chosen One, a man who travels from town to town trying to find the man who killed his family. He soon trains under a master who helps him become an unstoppable fighter with almost superhuman strength. When the man who killed his family arrives in town, The Chosen One has to train harder than ever to match his fighting skills. Critics ravaged the film, awarding it almost universally negative reviews. However, it has become a cult classic for its off-kilter humor and sketch-like comedy.
Jackie Chan starred in the 1984 Chinese kung fu comedyWheels on Meals, which was released in China asSpartan X.Chan plays Thomas, a man who runs a food truck with his friend David(Yuen Biao). When a young pickpocket named Sylvia (Lola Forner) is targeted by a ruthless gang, they use their martial arts skills to protect her. As with most of Chan’s movies from the 1970s and 1980s, this was all about his over-the-top fight scenes.
In fact, outside of the hilarious comedy based on Chan’s iconic fighting maneuvers, the movie also contains one of the greatest kung fu fight scenes in cinema history when Jackie Chan’s character fights Benny Urquidez’s (also known as Benny the Jet) thug in the final fight.Wheels on Mealsreceived almost universal praise and spawned a franchise in China, although none of the later films matched the brilliance of this original.
Stephen Chow created a cartoon-like kung fu movie withKung Fu Hustle, but he also had another great comedy before that with a more traditional comedy storyline. InShaolin Soccer, a disgraced man who threw a soccer matchfor payment and then ended up beaten and broken thanks to his decision finds a way to get revenge on the man who set him up.He meets a Shaolin kung fu master who wants to show the world the benefits of his martial artand the two men decide to work together.
The movie takes some of the cartoon-like aspects Chow later used inKung Fu Hustleand adds them to the soccer play…
The disgraced player teaches the kung fu master how to play soccer, and the former monk invites his brothers to join the team. Soon, they combine the sport of soccer with kung fu and create a new style of play that shakes up the entire soccer world, winning matches almost too easily, thanks to their powers. The movie takes some of the cartoon-like aspects Chow later used inKung Fu Hustleand adds them to the soccer play to create a film that was unique and groundbreaking at the time for a kung fu comedy.
Two of the most popular genres in the 1970s were blaxploitation films andkung fu movies. In the 2009 comedyBlack Dynamite, director Scott Sanders blended them into one hilarious project. Michael Jai White stars as Black Dynamite, a Vietnam War veteran and former CIA officer who decides he will clean up the streets of drug dealers and gangsters after his little brother is killed. Not only is Black Dynamite a tough former soldier, but he is also highly skilled in kung fu.
The CIA reinstates him so he can legally go after these bad guys, and he soon realizes that many gangsters on the streets are using things like black orphanages and other businesses as fronts, and he sets out to clean up his town. The movie was a huge success, with an 83%Rotten Tomatoesscore. Critics praised its comedy and how it deconstructed the genre and created something wholly unique. It was so beloved that it spawned comics, an animated series, and a web series.
