I'm tempted to say Stephen Chow is leading a charmed life right now, but maybe that's not giving him enough credit. He might be really onto something. Kung Fu Hustle is the comedy actor/director's follow-up to Shaolin Soccer, which reigned as the all-time box office champ in Hong Kong until it was recently dethroned by... Kung Fu Hustle. Clearly, Chow knows what his audience wants, and what that audience wants appears to be utter comedic insanity.

Perhaps you think all that means is Chow's film is popular with the masses, but, because of its seemingly frivolous nature, it can't really be called a great movie. Then why did Kung Fu Hustle recently win Best Picture at the Hong Kong Film Awards? Either Chow is really onto something, or the people in Hong Kong are just nuts. Were they hustled? After all, a film like this one could never take home Best Picture at the Oscars, right?

What is "a film like this one," anyway? Kung Fu Hustle defies description. It's unfiltered comedy, inspired by Warner Bros. cartoons and an imagination that only explores hyperbolic situations. It's so random that the disparity of its set pieces emerges as evidence of ingenuity. Watching this movie is like playing a game where someone makes up the rules as you go, each one increasing the level of fun until everyone wins.

There is indeed something to Chow's approach to filmmaking. He's found a universal common ground for his comic films -- keep things simple. After he establishes that there's a side to root for and a side to root against, he starts trotting out exaggerated characters and upping the stakes with each confrontation. Perhaps most importantly, he fleshes out his characters in big broad strokes so that you know what they're about, and they actually anchor the humor of the action. How did I know the movie was working for me? Simply because even though I knew it was going to be an all-out comedy, throughout the picture I kept worrying about what might happen to some of my favorite characters. Such a reaction is unexpected in a movie this silly, but I think it's another credit to what Chow is able to accomplish with such simplicity.

And Chow has indeed learned a lot. He's come a long way  from his unpolished '90's run, and his last two movies are his best. Although I still think Shoalin Soccer is the more solid, well-rounded movie, Kung Fu Hustle is better technically and appears more daring, particularly visually. Chow has a love for visual gags and his ability to assemble them gets better each time out. What makes his comedy direction so strong is how he pays attention to that, how he uses the medium to his advantage. In a lot of movies, jokes are told, jokes are schtick, jokes are situation-based; and physical comedy is marginalized. Good visual, physical comedy may be a lost art, but not to Stephen Chow.

So is this high praiseworthy stuff or not? All I know is, in the run of this film, we get -- and here I was about to list a bunch of the best gags. But that would ruin things; so much of the fun comes from how the jokes impact you when you see them. They're frantic, they're ridiculous, and they bar no holds. Chow isn't hustling anyone -- he's just putting everything out there, and Hong Kong likes what it sees. If you also like Kung Fu Hustle, you'll probably agree this movie deserves its awards after all.

(Released by Sony Pictures Classics and rated "R" for sequences of strong stylized action and violence.)

Review also posted on www.windowtothemovies.com.