REVIEW:
Strange is the best word to describe the combination of pre-CGI special effects, screwball comedy, and animation that is Wong Jing's Kung Fu vs. Acrobatic. Even the title is odd. There really is no kung fu or acrobatics aside from occasional posturing and Yuen Wah's crazy antics. With poorly translated subtitles and cultural references, some of the humor is lost to Western audiences, but there is still something moderately compelling about the film.

Ah Fi (Andy Lau) and Ah Chi (Nat Chan) are two average Hong Kong residents trying to make a living until they get the not-so-bright idea of buying fake Chinese artifacts for resale. On a trip to China, they mistakenly get mixed up with smugglers trying to sell real artifacts and a brief chase involving police leads them to fall into a cave. After eating a strange medicine they find intending to cure snake bite, they inherit powerful magical abilities that waken a princess and her attendant. The princess is Yun Lo (Joey Wong), a woman imprisoned within the cave along with the man responsible who is an evil magician named Tien Chian (Yuen Wah). As Tien starts to wake up, the four scurry back to Hong Kong where Yuen Lo and Hsiu Mun (Moon Siu Wai) experience culture shock after hundreds of years of hibernation. Fi and Chi learn to use their new powers, but before they can master them, Tien catches up with them hoping to win Yun Lo's heart. After a series of mishaps which leaves Fi and Chi under the temporary control of Tien who has taken the governor of Hong Kong hostage, the two escape with the help of the girls. With the aid of a Buddhist magician and a spirit that appears in the form of an animated turtle, Fi has a final showdown with Tien.

This is classic Wong Jing fare who wrote and likely co-produced the film. Wong has created every kind of film from comedies to Category III erotic thrillers. But the common thread has always been a mainstream sensibility. This time around he wrote a film that seemingly panders to a family audience with a combination of broad humor that is less crude than usual and lots of special effects. The best hook the film uses as a plot device is seen in the opening credits. Scenes from old black and white fantasy films of Hong Kong's past flash before our eyes before cutting into the main story which seems to be an homage of sorts to this genre which once was so common many years ago.

The action scenes are dependent on old fashioned light effects that are consciously nostalgic. Without any martial arts players aside from Yuen Wah who choreographed the action, there isn't any attempt at portraying kung fu and most of the action is played for laughs. Of course, the film doesn't take itself seriously and this is no where more apparent then when an animated turtle rises out of a grave and later joins the final fight.

On the plus side, the film manages to remain engaging despite moments of incoherence, mostly brought on by the poorly translated subtitles. Nat Chan is obviously a funny guy who has appeared in several Stephen Chow films. But, like Chow, some of the dialogue-heavy jokes get mangled or misunderstood in the translation. Yuen Wah plays more of a traditional Cantonese role where his actions and mannerisms are accentuated more by body language. As a naive villain whose power mad ambitions slip away as he's seduced by the novelty of hamburgers and television, Yuen Wah is in one of his most colorful roles.

Where Wah and Chan add zest to the film, Andy Lau and Joey Wong who are better known for their dramatic or romantic roles have little to offer other than star power that likely helped the film at the box office. Even Mooi Siu Wai, a lesser known actress who plays Wong's attendant upstages her. But the film's greatest fault lies in the story which peters out in the second half without much in the way of action, plot development or engaging humor until the very end.

It must be hard to constantly come up with good material for films when your work is only a means to an end rather than a labor of love. Wong Jing has written some decent films in his day even if he admits to having no emotional investment in them, but its obvious when he's simply trying to meet a deadline. Kung Fu vs. Acrobatic feels rushed near the beginning where a lot is happening and oddly tries to kill time near the end. This unevenness added to the film's other attributes makes for mediocre viewing at best.