Where Winds Meet doesn't just draw from centuries of Chinese martial arts fiction — it pays direct, unmistakable homage to one of the most beloved kung fu comedies ever made. Stephen Chow's 2004 film Kung Fu Hustle is woven into the game through NPC cameos, learnable combat skills, and visual gags that recreate iconic movie moments. If you're a fan of the film, here's where to find every major tribute scattered across the world of Jianghu.
Quick answer: Where Winds Meet contains at least four distinct Kung Fu Hustle references you can interact with — the Toad Form NPC modeled after actor Liang Xiaolong, the Lion's Roar bell skill, the Buddha's Palm (called Guardian's Palm in-game), and a cartoon-style running mount animation — plus a gacha pull animation that echoes the film's guzheng-playing villain.
Liang Xiaolong and the Toad Form NPC
The most striking reference is an NPC who teaches you a skill called Toad Form. The character's in-game model is designed to look like Liang Xiaolong, a real Chinese actor who appeared in Kung Fu Hustle as one of the film's memorable fighters. The NPC even shares the actor's actual name, leaving zero ambiguity about the tribute. Liang Xiaolong also starred in a 2021 film, making the NPC something of a double reference to his broader career. The Chinese server version of Where Winds Meet actually featured a promotional advertisement with the actor himself, further cementing the collaboration as intentional rather than coincidental.
To encounter this NPC, explore the towns in the open world. Once you find him, he teaches you the Toad Form skill — a fighting style that mirrors the toad-style kung fu seen in the movie. While the concept of toad-style martial arts has appeared across various wuxia adaptations (including multiple Condor Heroes films and dramas), the specific visual presentation and the use of the real actor's likeness make this a direct Kung Fu Hustle nod rather than a generic genre reference.
Lion's Roar from the Copper Bells
In Kung Fu Hustle, the Lion's Roar is one of the signature techniques used by the landlady of Pig Sty Alley — a devastating sonic attack powered by sheer vocal force. Where Winds Meet recreates this as a learnable skill tied to a set of copper bells in the game world. Striking these bells triggers the ability, letting you unleash an amplified sonic blast that mirrors the movie's exaggerated sound-wave attacks.
The bell interaction is easy to miss if you're not exploring thoroughly, so keep an eye out for large copper bells as you travel. The skill itself functions as an area-of-effect attack and is one of the more entertaining abilities to use in open-world encounters.
Buddha's Palm (Guardian's Palm)
The Buddha's Palm is arguably the most famous technique in Kung Fu Hustle — the climactic move where the protagonist leaps off a passing bird, falls backward through the air, and slams an enormous palm-shaped energy strike into the ground. Where Winds Meet includes this skill under the name Guardian's Palm, and it faithfully reproduces the movie's choreography. The "lightly hop off a passing bird into a backwards fall" animation is a near-exact recreation of how Stephen Chow's character performs the technique in the film.
While the concept of a Buddha's Palm technique has existed in Chinese martial arts fiction since the early days of television — it's been depicted and re-depicted across decades of wuxia dramas — the specific aerial delivery method in Where Winds Meet matches the Kung Fu Hustle version rather than any of the older interpretations. The visual language is unmistakable.
Cyclone Fleethoof Cartoon Running Mount
One of the more playful references is a mount animation that replicates the exaggerated, cartoon-style running seen in Kung Fu Hustle. Known among players as the Cyclone Fleethoof, this mount features the over-the-top leg-spinning sprint that Chow's characters are famous for. On the Chinese server, this was added as a store item in a later content update. International players may not have access to it yet, depending on which content patches have been deployed to their build.
Gacha Animation and Other Visual Nods
Even the game's gacha pull animation carries a Kung Fu Hustle flavor. The sequence appears to reference the film's opening scene, where one of the early villains plays a guzheng (a traditional Chinese stringed instrument) before launching into combat. It's a subtle touch that players familiar with the movie will recognize immediately.
The community has also noted broader thematic parallels in the game's story structure. Without spoiling specific plot points, certain narrative beats — particularly around characters concealing their true martial arts mastery behind ordinary disguises — echo the film's central premise of retired kung fu masters hiding in plain sight within a run-down neighborhood.
Wuxia Roots and Why These References Work
It's worth understanding that Kung Fu Hustle itself was riffing on decades of Chinese martial arts fantasy. Techniques like the Buddhist Palm, toad-style kung fu, and sonic roar attacks all have deep roots in wuxia literature and film, going back to early television. What Stephen Chow did was package these concepts into a comedic blockbuster that introduced them to a massive international audience for the first time.
Where Winds Meet threads a careful needle. The game functions as a broad catalog of Chinese martial arts culture, drawing from historical traditions, classic wuxia novels, and popular film. But the Kung Fu Hustle references stand apart because of their specificity — using a real actor's name and likeness, replicating exact choreography from the film, and matching visual gags beat for beat. These aren't vague genre homages. They're deliberate, affectionate tributes to a specific movie, embedded in a game that clearly respects the wider tradition that movie came from.
Players have expressed hope that additional martial arts styles from the film might eventually appear in the game, including Hung Gar Kuen, Tan Tui, and the Eight Trigram Staff — all fighting styles featured by the hidden masters of Pig Sty Alley. Whether the developers plan to expand the Kung Fu Hustle tribute roster remains to be seen, but given how thoroughly they've already committed to the bit, it wouldn't be surprising.
