Jump
Director: Stephen Fung
Year: 2009
Rating: 7.0
I sometimes wonder if I live in the same universe
as other people. At least the movie universe. I seem to like a lot of films
that no one else does. This film for example. I thought this was delightful,
funny, adorable and cute. The other reviews I have read were not so kind.
It is like they are stomping on a Hello Kitty stuffed animal. The star of
the film is sort of a human Hello Kitty and every time she laughed, so did
I, every time she gave one of her broad as a barn smiles, I laughed. In fact,
I laughed a lot in this silly film. It unfortunately slides into predictable
dross without the laughs towards the end - only to be saved by a little Drunken
Kung Fu. The fact that Stephen Chow was behind this film and that Stephen
Fung directed it gives me hope that I am right and everyone else in the universe
is wrong! From the moment Kitty Zhang (Phoenix) opens her window to look
out on the verdant green rural fields and women pop up out of the high grass
to start singing, I was hooked. There are times and angles where she looks
so much like a young Cecilia Cheung in King of Comedy that I thought - ok
- Chow found his new Cecilia and he starred her in CJ7 and The Mermaid. She
gives to say the least, a high energy performance. She is a Mainlander and
the film is shot in Mandarin.
Phoenix is a hick from the sticks - or as
she is called by the urban elite, a peasant. She overflows with simple joy.
Everything makes her laugh. A big let it go laugh. She is made for the simple
life, but she wants to dance. She needs to. Her father (Yuen Cheung-yan)
has taught her kung fu and how it is like dance. At dinner they have chopstick
kung fu battles for the chicken wings. A native of the town who has made
it big returns to tell the village that he has ten openings for jobs at a
factory in Shanghai and the only fair way to choose - since everyone wants
to go - is a game of musical chairs. Ten chairs. Ten people. When the music
stops there is a riot of people beating each other up to get one of the chairs.
Almost by accident Phoenix gets one. But she gives her voucher to her
large rotund friend Snow (Yao Wen-xue) but decides to go with the group to
the big city. The first thing the two friends do is go to a plastic surgeon
in hopes of getting bigger breasts. The doctor keeps showing them his Harvard
degree but every time he sneezes either his nose or ears go flying. He is
played by Daniel Wu in a cameo.
She ends up working at the factory anyways
and also becomes a janitor at a street dance class studio - having to sneak
into the locked factory at night across the rooftops. As a janitor she watches
all the dance moves and practices them on her own - there are a few kung
fu films that were similar. All the city folks make fun of her manners -
peasant - but then this light charming film has to go down a well-trodden
path - part Pretty Woman part Breakin' - a street dance competition against
a Korean team and some romantic nonsense. And the film loses its mood of
exuberance and slight believability but Kitty Zhang stays adorable till the
end.
