Shaolin Soccer
Directed by: Stephen Chow
Written by: Stephen Chow, Kan-Cheung Tsang
Starring: Stephen Chow, Vicki Zhao, Man Tat Ng, Yin Tse

Watching a foreign movie is always an exciting adventure, offering a refreshing alternative to the cliches of North American (in particular Hollywood) film that really do grow tiresome after a while. This is exactly why everyone needs to brave a movie from outside the North American bubble every now and then, even if you are subtitle-phobic.

Shaolin Soccer is one such import that I think will please both casual viewers and fans of Hong Kong cinema alike. It was released last year in Hong Kong and smashed box office records over there, which prompted Miramax to pick up the North American distribution rights. It is now expected to hit theatres here very soon, although the movie will be dubbed and most likely edited to a certain extent in order to make it more “digestable” for the American public. I won’t get into a debate over which version of the film will be better… I’m sure you can guess my opinion on the matter, but at least this will give more people a chance to see it. Regardless, this is a review of the original version of the movie, as viewed on VCD (it’s also currently available on region-less DVD).

Although Shaolin Soccer is a foreign movie, it does play on an idea that we’ve seen time and again in Hollywood films. It’s the comedic feel-good fairytale story of an underdog sports team that rises against all odds to defeat their opponents (who are always evil in one way or another — in this case they are actually called Team Evil). So I guess you might be thinking of something along the lines of The Mighty Ducks, Like Mike, or my personal favourite, Air Bud, but as it turns out these are pretty far off base. Shaolin Soccer is not meant to be a kids’ movie; the jokes are more mature and there is a lot of visceral martial arts action that might be a bit violent for younger viewers as well. If anything, it’s a tongue-in-cheek spoof of these kinds of corny family movies.

“Golden Leg” Fung was a soccer star who missed a game-winning penalty kick in 1981, after which he was beaten up by an angry crowd and had his leg broken, ending his career. Fast-forward 20 years, and he is now ashamed to be the lowly janitor for Lung, the manager of a professional soccer team who gloats that he was the one who arranged Fung’s career-ending injury. Down on his luck, Fung meets up by chance with a Shaolin monk who is determined to find a way to introduce the beauty and practicality of Shaolin Kung Fu to the masses. Of course, he is sure that song and dance is the way to go, but Fung has a revelation and convinces him to form a soccer team instead. What follows is their quest for the championship trophy as these Shaolin monks use their mystical kung fu powers to kick ass on the soccer field and avenge Fung’s honour.

The movie is written by, directed by, and stars Stephen Chow, who is known as a god of Hong Kong comedies. Some of his previous movies include “From Beijing with Love” (a witty James Bond spoof), and “The God of Cookery” (about a TV chef cook-off). After seeing Shaolin Soccer I really want to see all of his other work as well. The clever humour is the thing that surprised me the most about Shaolin Soccer. Often foreign comedies do not translate well due to cultural differences, but I found this movie to be well-balanced and pretty damn funny. There was some silly slapstick stuff, some satire, and some stuff that was just completely over-the-top a la Naked Gun. There were some cultural inside jokes that I didn’t quite understand (often they were still amusing anyways), but there were also some apparent North American references as well, such as a brief Thriller-esque dance scene. Some of the best stuff comes during the outtakes at the end as well.

The other big reason to see this movie is for the action and special effects. Despite what you may expect, this movie had a fairly big budget and the FX are nothing to scoff at. This combined with some great martial arts choreography make for a visually overwhelming experience. Fans of The Matrix or Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon will definitely not want to miss this.

The movie’s story is flimsy as hell, and the romantic subplot was awkward and ill-conceived, but in the end this is all irrelevant. Shaolin Soccer is hilarious and exciting, and that’s all it aims to be. Hong Kong movie fanboys will be all over this movie regardless, but I really think this is a movie for more than just the cult crowd. So track it down and watch it any way you can… but hey don’t blame me if the dubbing sucks! — Sean