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SYNOPSIS:
Brought
up by her father, a Kung Fu Master, Phoenix has been trained
in martial arts but her real dream is to be a dancer. When
Phoenix is offered the chance to work in the big city, she
leaves her father and small town ways behind for Shanghai.
Working in a garment factory by day, Phoenix takes a night
job at a dance school. She quickly transforms from an unsophisticated
country girl and becomes a media sensation but her newfound
fame impacts her life in unexpected ways.
MOVIE
REVIEW:
For those who are wary of another dance movie like Step Up, Jump seems like the Asian knockoff that caters to the demographics that are lapping up on this genre. One could imagine that Stephen Fung (or whoever started the ball rolling for Jump) pitch the idea for Jump as a Chinese counterpart of the Hollywood dance genre with humour. But surprisingly, Jump which originated from a story by Stephen Chow was more akin to his past movies where a country bumpkin aspired to do good in the city and his protege Kitty Zhang has the comedic chops to make his teacher proud.
There's no doubt that Jump is a showreel for Kitty Zhang and owned this movie. Playing an unrefined yet likable character, she was able to draw plenty of laughs with her performance as a country bumpkin chasing her dreams in the city (which in this case, street dancing). She look good as the unglamorous duckling who is wading her way though as a fish out of water. The camera seems to love her and managed to captured every gleam off her smiling face that beaming with optimism. Without her on screen charisma, Jump would pale into another formulaic "chasing your dream" type of movie.
There are also plenty funny cameos coming from Stephen Chow's comedic camp. Personally, one of my favourite scene would be Daniel Wu's cameo as a plastic surgeon. It was a pointless detour from the movie plot but coupled it with Tin Kai Man's voice and pictures, it was easily the funniest moment in the movie. (In case you are not sure who is Tin Kai Man, he is the guy who used his body and belly to protect the goal post in Shaolin Soccer)
However, it's ironic to note that this dance movie might not appeal that much to those fans of Step Up type of movies even if there are quite a few dance routine and the eventual finale dance off. The problem here might be that this movie is filled with "ugly" characters. Even though Kitty Zhang and Leon Jay Williams were there to fill up the eye candy duties, most of the supporting roles are taken up by weird looking characters that either fat or placed at the wrong androgynous range. It feels right at home for a good old Stephen Chow's underdog comedy but for those who are coming for a street dance movie, they might feel a little cheated with the lack of hunks and babes strutting their moves on the dance floor.
SPECIAL FEATURES :
NIL.
AUDIO/VISUAL:
As a dance movie, this movie is filled with lots of hip hop dance music with colorful clothing and backgrounds. This DVD did well to present them on a television using a normal DVD player.
MOVIE RATING:
DVD
RATING :
Review
by Richard Lim Jr
Posted on 27 April 2010
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