I love "roundtable" press days. A star of some sort spends time at a fancy hotel, sits at a table in a suite surrounded by journalists who fire off predictable questions, and tries to answer them as politely as possible. Okay, roundtables basically stinkk. But I could not pass up a chance to sit with Stephen Chow, who was in Los Angeles to promote his latest film, Kung Fu Hustle, and attend its US premiere. Kung Fu Hustle is a truly mind-blowing and streamlined work that pays tribute to to '70s martial arts movies with nods to Looney Tunes, big musical production numbers, The Shining, Army of Darkness, and Chow's own Shaolin Soccer. That film, which was Chow's previous work, was his first international hit and a turning point. Since then, he hasn't merely been making funny movies with crazy dialogue and ridiculously uncomfortable situations--he's been making great movies that happen to be make audiences laugh. Chow's high production value, bulletproof timing, uncompromising style, and perfectly cast characters add up to a truly original cinematic vision. In person, the Hong Kong producer/director/actor is super mellow and casual. Wearing jeans and a white shirt, he responds to questions in a thoughtful mix of Cantonese and English. He's much more like the humble and broke ex-monk in Shaolin Soccer than the famous and arrogant chef in God of Cookery or smart-ass and selfish attorney in Lawyer, Lawyer. 
In the roundtable discussion, I was surrounded by two basic varieties of reporter. First, there were the Asian-language media members who tried to dig up gossip from the veteran filmmaker. One asked, "An award-winning actor criticized your casting choices for the landlord and landlady. What do you have to say to that?" Chow's response was, "I think they're perfect." Another asked whether it was true that he received a $2.5 million bonus from Sony after the movie became Hong Kong's all-time box office champ. "Are you sure?" Chow said. Then there were the non-Asian movie freaks who felt compelled to show how down they are with the Asian film industry by asking loaded questions like "Are you leery about getting distribution in Hollywood, which has typically commodified films from the East?" and "Other Hong Kong films cast pop stars to increase revenue, yet you didn't and came up with the biggest hit ever." Chow declined to talk shit, and mentioned that he's always intended to make films that are accepted by different kinds of audiences and that there was no one like the landlady in Hong Kong's pop music scene. I have no right criticize the questions since I wasn't aggressive enough to squeeze out one of my own from my spot way in back. (I was late.) But I'd have been bummed if even one of the other 14 attendees used my killer quote, anyway... The affable Chow did give a funny line about Leung Siu-Lung, who plays the film's villain: "He's not in the same position as Bruce Lee in my mind, but he is one of my favorites from the '70s. Actually, he was an imitator of Bruce Lee. You know, when he died there were a lot of Bruces: Bruce Leung, Bruce Li, Bruce whatever. He was one of them, but he was quite different. He has real combat ability." He also described his working relationship with Yuen Wo-Ping, who took over martial arts direction duties from Sammo Hung. "Yuen is probably one of the best action directors in the world," says Chow. "He knows all kinds of stunts and martial arts--especially Chinese martial arts. He's so familiar with all the traditional culture. At the same time, he is a man with an open mind. He can accept so many different opinions. No matter how crazy they are, it is no problem. The ideas are from me. I just talk to him and we figure out to make it happen, how to make it into a picture." After the roundtable, Chow stuck around to sign autographs and take pictures with reporters. Addressing the packed Arclight theater hours later at the movie's premiere, he had only one thing to say: "Thank you." 
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