Kung Fu Zohra is a 2022 French film directed and written by Mabrouk El Mechri (JCVD, The Cold Light Of Day).
Zohra (Sabrina Ouazani), an Algerian woman, marries Omar (Ramzy Bedia) and follows him to France. They soon have a daughter, Zina. Over time, Omar grows increasingly frustrated by his own life and becomes increasingly violent towards Zohra, but she can't bring herself to demand divorce as she thinks Zina will suffer from it, and she doesn't listen to her best friend's advices. Then, one day, Zohra meets a Chinese kung fu master.
Kung Fu Zohra provides examples of the following tropes:
- Almighty Janitor: The middle-aged gymnasium janitor from Beijing turns out to be a kung fu master and ends up training Zohra.
- Amicable Exes: At the end, Zohra and Omar are divorced. When Omar comes to bring their daughter Zina to Zohra, Zohra proposes him coffee without an issue and he behaves gently, having learned a lesson from the beating he got from her.
- Ass Kicking Pose: Zohra makes more and more of them as she becomes increasingly good at kung fu.
- Author Appeal: The director is a big fan of Hong Kong Martial Arts Movies and it shows.
- Awful Wedded Life: The first few weeks of happiness with Omar making Zohra laugh don't last. Omar becomes increasingly frustrated with his job, lets his inner Control Freak take control and hits her more and more.
- The Baby Trap: Zohra has no issue with having a child (she loves her daughter very much), but it's crystal clear that Omar uses Zina to his advantage so Zohra won't leave him.
- Badass Long Robe: Zohra sews herself a red Chinese style long robe that she starts wearing the day she brings the divorce papers to Omar, anticipating that she will have to go through a physical fight first to obtain divorce.
- Best Friend: Binta, a black bus driver, is Zohra's best friend.
- Beware the Nice Ones: By the end, it's better not to get on Zohra's bad side, as Omar finds out the hard way.
- Blatant Lies: Zohra tells increasingly improbable medical condition lies to her friend Binta about her swollen eyelids and cheeks. Binta knows all too well it's because of Domestic Abuse and tries to convince Zohra to accept her offer to bring some of her cousins from Africa to beat up Omar into stopping his violent ways, to no avail.
- Bring It: Zohra does it to the Chinese master when training at one point, and towards Omar in the climactic fight.
- Clothing-Concealed Injury: Zohra hides her swollen eye behind sunglasses, but that doesn't fool her friend Binta the slightest.
- Control Freak: After quitting his job, Omar visits Zohra more and more at her job to make sure there's no man around her or that she doesn't look at other men.
- Crazy Jealous Guy: According to the narration, Omar "spends more time looking at the guys who look at Zohra than he spends time looking at Zohra".
- Creative Closing Credits: Zohra mops up the floor of the mall in which she works with a gang of young delinquents who have come to loot in it during the Closing Credits.
- Deadly Disc: Zohra throws plates at Omar like frisbees in the climactic fight.
- Domestic Abuse: Past the first few weeks of marriage, Omar becomes an increasingly violent abuser towards Zohra.
- Door Fu: At one point in her climactic fight with Omar, Zohra deliberately hits Omar's chin when opening the fridge's door.
- Foot-Dragging Divorcee: Zohra wants to divorce, Omar doesn't want to, and they solve the matter with the big climactic fight.
- Frying Pan of Doom: At one point during the climactic fight, both Zohra and Omar use frying pans.
- Good Parents: Both Zohra and Omar are good parents to their daughter (even though Omar is one shitty husband).
- An Immigrant's Tale: Zohra moved from Algeria to France, although she has no integration issue in French society, nor seems to face racism. The main issue is her husband's Domestic Abuse.
- Improv Fu: The climactic fight between Zohra and Omar is full of this, they use everything they come across in the apartment from a lamp, a rolling pin and frying pans to the door of a fridge and even a vacuum cleaner.
- In-Universe Factoid Failure: While small-talking Zohra to seduce her in Algeria, Omar pretends Jackie Chan was in Enter the Dragon. Zohra thinks he mistakes Chan for Bruce Lee, seemingly thinking Chan was not in the film, but Omar is factually correct, Chan did have a cameo in it.
- Mean Boss: Upon being overpowered, Omar tries to have Zohra pity him by telling her about his racist boss who calls him "bougnoule" (a racial slur aimed at people of North African or Arabic ethnicity). Zohra then simply tells him to beat up his boss, and the fight resumes.
- Nice Girl: After merely a few weeks of settling in France and taking up a cashier job, Zohra is already very popular among her co-workers.
- Pet the Dog: Omar is a domestic abuser towards his wife, but he's a genuinely loving father to his daughter at the same time and never acts violently towards her.
- Pressure Point: The day Zohra really starts to overpower Omar with martial arts, she headlocks him and tells him he will be unconscious after 30 seconds, which really happens.
- Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs: Zohra lands several punches in rapid succession on Omar in the climactic fight.
- Rolling Pin of Doom: Zohra crushes Omar's fingers with a rolling pin in the climactic fight, then Omar tries to hit her with it.
- Taught by Television:
- Zohra learned French watching French movies such as those of Jean-Paul Belmondo or La Vérité si je mens!. Whether or not the Hong Kong Films she had at her home in Algeria are dubbed is not specified.
- Subverted with the self-defense lessons Zohra follows on the Internet. Her practice with the Chinese master produces much better results.
- Tuckerization: Mabrouk El Mechri gave his mother's name to the main character.
- Unskilled, but Strong: Omar doesn't practice kung fu, but he's still able to land some powerful blows on Zohra in the climactic fight.
- Verbal Tic: The Chinese janitor/master often says "Kitchen!".
- Weapons That Suck: In the climactic fight, Zohra uses a vacuum cleaner to momentarily incapacitate Omar, by having his mouth blocked in its power nozzle by the sucking.
- What the Fu Are You Doing?:
- While looking for self-defense videos on the Internet, Zohra looks at hilariously bad "methods" that endanger the person more than they help.
- Omar makes increasingly incoherent pseudo-Ass Kicking Poses as Zohra overpowers him in the climactic fight.
- Why Did You Make Me Hit You?: After slapping Zohra, Omar often seeks to make her feel guilty about it.
- Working-Class Hero: While she owned a shop in Algeria, Zohra works as a cashier in France, then as a mall employee.
- Would Hit a Girl: Omar has no qualms slapping his wife repeatedly then trying to punch her.
