Last year, Miramax released one of its all-time worst butcher jobs, Stephen Chow's "Shaolin Soccer," three years late, with about 30 minutes of footage removed and the rest sloppily dubbed into English. Most Americans would never know that this curiosity had, at one time, been Hong Kong's highest grossing film.

Now for Chow's follow-up -- which, incidentally, broke "Shaolin Soccer's" box office record -- Sony Pictures Classics has stepped in to give it a proper release. The hugely enjoyable "Kung Fu Hustle" races across the screen in a colorful collage of various styles, from classic kung fu films to silent comedies to Tex Avery and Chuck Jones cartoons.

Set in a dilapidated apartment complex called Pig Sty Alley outside a stylized 1930s Shanghai, the action centers around a small time crook (Chow) who tries to swindle money from the locals by claiming to be a member of the sinister but oh-so-dapper Axe Gang. Two problems arise: these locals aren't so easily fooled and the real Axe Gang turns up, none too pleased about the ruse.

But amusing as it is, this plot is merely an framework upon which Chow hangs an uproarious array of increasingly elaborate fight scenes. Each time a "master" is defeated, an even more powerful one emerges from the sidelines. When we reach our final showdown, it feels like the most extraordinary match ever waged. Each blow sends sprays of rubble flying into the wind. Chow cleverly incorporates comically cheap CGI effects into his fights so that combatants can be blasted miles into the sky, or appear to run like Wile E. Coyote or leap like a frog.

As an actor, Chow emotes very little and lacks the explosive presence of a Jackie Chan or a Jet Li, but his directorial skill more than makes up for it. He gets a terrific, especially animated performance from Yuen Qiu as a chain smoking, curler-wearing landlady who turns out to be yet another kung-fu master.

And the icing on the cake: Two Hong Kong legends, Yuen Wo Ping and Sammo Hung, served as action choreographers, helping place "Kung Fu Hustle" in the pantheon of great martial arts comedies.