Message from rflores

[Anonymous]

Comic book meets the action film, the comedy, the musical, drama, and the didactic story;"Kung-Fu Hustle" by Stephen Chow is the movie that has it ALL!

"In a time of social unrest and disorder the gangs run amuck. The most feared of them all is the Axe Gang. Only in the poorest districts, which hold no interest for the gangs can people live in peace" (Kung-Fu Hustle Prologue)

I love-love-love this film! It is one of my ultimate favorites and this is the first time I have ever thought of the possibility of using it in the classroom to teach/review Elements of Literature (Exposition, plot, setting, conflict, complication, climax, denouement, and resolution) as well as, Narrative, and Theme. YES, it is rated R, but I would use it to teach enrichment in an after school or saturday class, AND of course I would get adminstrative and parental consent.

If I could get it approved , I will use this action-packed, fun-filled, great story-line to help my students understand the concepts I mentioned above.

How?

Well, teaching 1st and 3rd-person Narrative can be challenging if you have reluctant and/or low-level readers. Because I have a class with 11 resource students (all with different learning disabilities, and low-low reading skills), I would love to use "Kung-Fu Hustle" to draw the students in. If you think about it, I could hit a lot of the 7th AND 8th grade California English Standards doing this.

See..

The movie is like a cartoon! The characters run, act, fight, and behave like the Road-Runner, Wile E. Coyote, Tom and Jerry, and so forth. The students will definitely be into it. It's funny! Yes, it's in Chinese, and they will HAVE to follow the subtitles, but if they can't, they will be able to follow the action nonetheless.

With the students drawn in, and therefore paying CLOSE attention to the story, I can use it as a jumping base to talk about HOW the characters are depicted and introduced. What are their characteristics? Strengths? Flaws?

Then, we could talk about setting? When and where does the story take place? How do you know? Give examples, explain.

What is the conflict of the story? How do you know? Examples from the film? Do we see the conflict get worse? What are the complications? Discuss, explain.

The students will not have a problem telling me what the Climax is because it is evident. And although there are A LOT of exciting parts in the movie, they will know which scene was the most critical.

After the Climax, students will be asked to discuss the denouement...how are things winding down? What is the resolution? Was the conflict solved? How? Explain and give examples from the movie.

Once we discuss all of these elements (1week), I can always assign the students to rewatch the movie outside of school--and they will and do have access to the film. If I get approval,, they can even watch it in the school's auditorium for the second time during lunch time in 3 days! During their second viewing I will ask them to pay attention to the order of events (plot). What happened first, sencond, third, last? And have them create a flow chart the plot.

Once students have watched "Kung-Fu Hustle" at least twice, we can review the above mentioned elements and begin talking about theme. This film has soo many positive messages! World peace, redemption, kindness, love, etc.

Finally, we could discuss the characteristics of narrative by examining short stories. As a culminating task students will have the option to write a narrative assuming the persona of a character from the film or from one of the stories studied, and retell one event of the story in the 1st or 3rd-person point of view.

This of course will take about 2-3 weeks, 2-5 if we want to discuss the symbolism within the film.

I know the use of this film in the teaching of middle-school students is HIGHLY unlikely, but it is an exciting idea...maybe it be better for high-school or college students in basic English classes. Who knows! But I know I would get great results if it could be done.

What do you think?