Shaolin Soccer Scene
Paskasi Coppola
Martial arts, sports, and comedic pratfall violence, most of it exaggerated. A rival team shows up to play soccer armed with wrenches and hammers and uses them on the heads, legs, and bodies of the opposing team. While playing this team, the scene briefly switches to the lead character dressed like a soldier with a machine gun fighting in a wartime battle. A player's leg is broken by a cheating team. Soccer games turn into a mix of soccer and martial arts kicks and punches. A man has bottles broken over his thick head. Soccer balls are kicked with such power they knock over players or even throw them backwards several feet. A character mentions suicide as a response to humiliation.
Cigarette smoking, cigar smoking. Rival team is injected with performance-enhancing drugs. Character shuffles down a busy street disheveled and drinking a beer. Champagne drinking. Drinking in a bar. A character suffers a hangover.
Parents need to know that Shaolin Soccer is a 2001 sports comedy in which a ragtag group of soccer and martial arts misfits join forces to create a winning soccer team. The movie has some comic violence and crude humor, including a scene of a man peeing on a wall, and another man vomiting. There's some action/fantasy violence, and characters are wounded. While much of the violence is exaggerated for the sake of comedy and/or action, scenes of players getting legs broken by cheating rival teams also occur. Characters smoke and drink, and there's a reference to "American drugs," which are performance-enhancing drugs injected into one of the rival teams. A character mentions suicide as a response to humiliation. There's a joke about being in love with a married woman. A character removes his pants (off camera) and makes another character wear his underpants on his head to humiliate him. Profanity includes "s--t," "hell." To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails.
When former soccer superstar "Golden Leg" Fung sees Sing demonstrating Shaolin in the streets, he realizes the guy has what it takes to be a great soccer player. Sing (Stephen Chow) dreams of a world based on the principles of Shaolin. He realizes that becoming a soccer champion by using Shaolin techniques could bring his message to the masses. So, Sing agrees to help Fung start a team, and they invite Sing's brothers to form a team to play SHAOLIN SOCCER. At first, they suffer humiliating defeat. When they register for the big tournament, the owner of Fung's arch-nemesis team, Team Evil, laughs at them. But then the games begin. The Shaolin team's magical leaps and kicks bring them to the final round, where they must face Team Evil. But when the goalie is injured, who will replace him?
The most successful Hong Kong film ever, this is a very traditional underdog sports team story told in a delightfully nontraditional style, with whimsy, fantasy, and heart. Shaolin Soccer is pure silly fun with such wonderful spirit that even the dumbest jokes and most predictable developments seem brighter.
The film's visual imagination and effervescent good spirits are pure delight. A group of Chinese people spontaneously break into a dance number to the Kool and the Gang song "Celebration." Soccer players fly through the sky and kick the ball the length of the field. A sweet bun maker (that is, a sweet maker of sweet buns) uses kung fu to mix the flour and gets fired when the buns get sour after her tears fall into the batter. And the hero tells the heroine she is beautiful before her makeover.
Families can talk about "underdog" movies. How does Shaolin Soccer compare to other movies in which characters who don't fit in or seem destined to lose to their seemingly more skilled or talented rivals find a way to emerge victorious? Why do these movies have such appeal across a wide variety of styles and genres?
Shaolin Soccer (Chinese: 少林足球) is a 2001 Hong Kong sports comedy film directed by Stephen Chow, who also stars in the lead role. The film revolves around a former Shaolin monk who reunites his five brothers,[note 1] years after their master's death, to apply their superhuman martial arts skills to play soccer and bring Shaolin kung fu to the masses.
"Golden Leg" Fung, a Hong Kong soccer star, beats and berates his teammate Hung when the latter offers him a cheque to lose the game, claiming to be the middleman. Fung takes the cheque in the end and throws the game. Angry spectators beat him and break his leg.
Twenty years later, Fung walks with a limp and is the mistreated lackey of Hung, now a successful businessman. When Fung asks to coach Hung's soccer team, Hung mocks him and reveals he tricked him with a bad cheque and hired those who broke his leg. While drinking his sorrows in the streets, Fung comes across Sing, a Shaolin kung fu master who wants to promote the practical benefits of the martial art to the world. No one takes kung fu classes from Sing, however, as he is dirty and poor. He steals mantou from Mui, a woman with severe acne who uses Tai chi to make the food.
At first disdainful, Fung soon discovers the power of Sing's leg and offers to coach him in soccer. Compelled by the idea of promoting kung fu through soccer, Sing asks his former Shaolin brothers to join his team. Sing's brothers eventually agree. As a test, Fung arranges a game with a team known for vicious cheating. The thug team gives the Shaolin team a beating. When all seems lost, the Shaolin team members reawaken their powers and utilize them to defeat the other team. The thugs ask to join Sing's team. Sing takes Mui to try on expensive dresses at a high-end department store after hours and offers to buy her one. She gets a makeover to impress him, though the team and her boss mock her exaggerated '80s look. When Mui hints at her feelings for Sing, he tells her he only wants to be friends. She disappears after her boss fires her.
Team Shaolin enters the open cup competition in Hong Kong, where they see ridiculously one-sided victories due to their powers. They only meet their match in the final against Hung's Team Evil, who have superhuman strength and speed due to an American drug. The referee has also been bought out by Hung. Team Evil badly injures two of Team Shaolin's goalkeepers; the powerless members of Team Shaolin flee. As the team is about to lose by default, Mui, who has shaved her head, reappears to be their goalkeeper. When Team Evil's striker kicks the ball with flaming force towards Mui, she stops it with tai chi. She and Sing combine their skills and rocket the ball downfield. The ball blows through Team Evil's goal while hurling along all its players, scoring the sole and winning goal.
Later, Hung is imprisoned for doping, while the Team Evil players receive lifetime bans. Sing goes out for a jog and is pleased to see people around him using kung fu in their everyday lives, his lifelong dream having become a reality. A large ad on the side of a building shows that Sing and Mui, a famous couple, have won the world championship in bowling, among other things.
Actually the 'over the top' CG and kinetic soccer moves were an inspiration that came from the classic Japanese manga series Captain Tsubasa. The animation was very big in Hong Kong over ten years ago when it swept kids of all ages and even adults loved it. It has a cult following in Europe as well. But it was only possible with pen and ink back then, now with the advent of CGI, it can really be done....(the idea of combining it with Kung Fu was in my head for many years but we had to wait for the CG technology to mature)[5]
Chow had intended for this film to appeal to a global audience, stating, "I can't rely on the local market, because it's too small, so since Shaolin Soccer it's always my ambition to go international".[6]
Apart from several veteran actors, Chow stated in an interview with Premiere magazine that he cast several people in his entourage who had no prior acting experience before Shaolin Soccer. For example, Lam Chi Chung (Light Weight) had worked as Chow's screenwriter and Danny Chan Kwok-kwan (Empty Hand) was the dance choreographer hired to design the "Michael Jackson dance number" that followed Sing and Mui's first meeting early in the film. Chow comments he made Chan wear Bruce Lee's yellow-and-black tracksuit because only the goalkeeper "can wear a special uniform." Tin Kai-man (Iron Shirt) had been Chow's production manager on several movies, but had acted in numerous minor roles in previous films.[7] For instance, he played a young wanna-be Triad member in Chow's preceding movie, King of Comedy. Cecilia Cheung and Karen Mok, who briefly appear as Team Dragon Players 7 & 11 in Shaolin Soccer, had major roles in King of Comedy. Chow defends his decision to hire non-actors, saying, "In terms of finding talent, I try to bring out the funniest thing I notice about them during casting, if it made us laugh at the casting, it will also do on the big screen."[8]
Zhao Wei, who played the Mandarin-speaking Mui, said it was a different step for her to star in a Hong Kong production. However, Zhao admitted that she was not impressed with her look with less makeup because she is easily recognisable for her beautiful appearance.
In Hong Kong, the film was released on DVD[10] and Video CD on 14 September 2001.[11] The DVD release was shortened by 10 minutes, with the option for viewers to access the deleted scenes in the middle of the film. The scenes deleted from the DVD version are the dance sequence in front of Mui's bakery, much of the conversation over Mui's makeover and the blooper reel before the end credits. Viewers can also access the making of key special effects scenes as well.
The 2004 US DVD release by Miramax Films deleted 23 minutes of footage from the original cut; the omitted footage includes "Golden Leg" Fung's flashback opening sequence and Sing's interactions with Mui. This version features an English dub with Chow dubbing his own voice and Bai Ling as the voice of Mui. In addition, the DVD gives viewers the option to play the original Hong Kong version.[13]
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