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Shaolin Soccer (1999)

"The greatest comedy of the year!" That's how Shaolin Soccer got promoted in 2001 and promoters weren't necessarily wrong. With Shaolin Soccer, Stephen Chow made his comeback as an actor, director and writer.

Having primarily shot comedies, he again focusses on comedy in Shaolin Soccer. Now beware, the type of Chow's comedy may not be appealing to everybody. If you have always enjoyed Cantonese humour, that may even contain jokes about retarded people (which is not the case to such an extent in Shaolin Soccer), you should have no problem with this soccer comedy. Stephen Chow is actually very talented in kung fu, but never really showed his skills in front of the camera. This time, he kind of gets the chance to do so. Is it disturbing to mix soccer with kung fu? Not unless you are a kung fu or soccer purist. You will actually love all these fresh ideas.

The story involves Sing (Stephen Chow) who is looking for a way to spread kung fu, since many people have lost or never even had interest in it. Desperately, he is looking for a way to combine kung fu with something popular, so that people will gain interest in kung fu. By collecting recycling waste he makes a living and while doing so, he gives people (who he finds need to learn kung fu) his name card and asks them to hire him as a kung fu teacher. His looks of a dosser are however no real help and people tend to ignore or to pity him and throw him a coin. However, when he meets Fung (Man Tat Ng), former soccer legend, he developes the idea of spreading kung fu by playing soccer.

Fung, who got crippled by people hitting his legs with baseball batts after missing a penalty kick, always has wanted to be a soccer team coach and by teaming up with Sing, it becomes possible. Together they go and look for talents who could join their team, when Sing comes up with the idea of using his 'brothers' from the old days of training together (probably Peking Opera like Jackie Chan) to form the perfect team.

The problem they are facing now is that none of them is experienced in playing soccer. This leads to the hilarious training sequence. Have you ever received the order from your P.E. teacher to keep up an egg like a ball without breaking it? Yes, that's true. All these kind of impossible training methods have been done with computer graphics and at the time of release, those were some great looking effects, especially if you consider that this is a HK flick.

The training sequence ends with a match against some thugs Sing has taken revenge on for beating him up. Of course they want revenge and use the soccer match, which is intended to solve the conflict between them, as a chance to take revenge again and the pitch as a battlefield. Gaining back their strengths, the brothers furiously defeat the other team and this way they indeed solved the conflict. The thugs' team returns to ask Fung to join the Shaolin Soccer Team. Now they have enough players to enter the Chinese Football League.

In a sequence which shows how Sing and his team rise from an unknown status to a very popular soccer team is brilliantly shot. After winning their first match in the league, this sequence starts. What we see now is players flying around the pitch and balls bended from behind the mid-line right into the goal. The music that plays in this sequence is the main theme of Shaolin Soccer which has been composed by Raymond Wong. You will find yourself humming along the melody.

The matches continue (one of which is against female players made up as men. You'll spot Cecilia Cheung and Karen Mok in cameo appearances) until they are in the finale against the evil coache Hung's Evil Team. What follows is something the players of the Shaolin Team have never seen before. The Evil Team has a unique way to win their game against Sing and his brothers. Shooting goals is not the way they intend to win, but to injure as many players of the Shaolin Team as possible, until they haven't got enough players to be able to continue the game. Of course, Hung has bribed the referees and the managers of the Chinese Soccer League. Being no Shaolins, the players of the Evil Team use American Medication to pump theirselves up with power and strength. Is there a way for the Shaolin Team to win this match and will Sing finally have spread kung fu to the public again?

Shaolin Soccer contains a nice sub plot which deals with blain face Mui (Vicky Zhao), who works at a bread shop. When Sing gives her the feeling of looking good and of self confidence, she falls in love with him, but this is not what Sing has wanted. He regards her as a friend. Although touching, the sub plot is best viewed in the longer version of Shaolin Soccer, since it goes a bit deeper in telling it.

Personally, Shaolin Soccer is one of my favourite HK comedies, because you can show it to non HK film fans and they will laugh as hard as they would when watching Hollywood comedies. If not even more. The special effects reach from a goalie who must face a team that throws with shoes at him which he then all keeps at the same time, until even Matrix-inspired bullet time when shooting a ball. Also noticable is Stephen Chow's running gag in a lot of his films of his character being a Little Dragon (Bruce Lee) fan. This is due to the fact that Stephen Chow himself actually admires Bruce Lee and is one of his greatest fan. Heck, he even made the team's goalie wear the Bruce Lee suit he has been wearing in Game of Death. Shaolin Soccer is a must-have for any Stephen Chow-fan and for everybody who loves physical comedy.

Written on May 2nd 2003

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