Shaolin Soccer

Shaolin Soccer (Chinese: ) 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.

Shaolin Soccer

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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.

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]

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a 89% approval rating based on 95 reviews; the average rating is 7.10/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "The plot is utterly ridiculous, and the soccer in the movie is unlike any ever played anywhere on Earth, but watching Shaolin Soccer, you will probably find it impossible to care."[17] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 68 out of 100 based on 24 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews."[18]

Seto worked to make the novel as faithful to the film as possible but he admits that Stephen Chow's brand of Mo lei tau comedy does not translate well into illustrations.[22] He stated in an interview that "the Shaolin Soccer comic is 80% movie adaptation with 20% new content."[22] This new content includes a backstory about Steel Leg's training in Shaolin before the death of his master, as well as completely rewriting entire sections of the movie. For example, in the film a group of bar thugs beat up Sing and Iron Head after listening to their lounge-style tribute to Shaolin kung fu. The following day, Sing seeks out the group and uses his Shaolin skills to beat the thugs using a soccer ball. Fung sees the brawl and comes up with the idea of fusing kung fu and soccer. However, in the comic book, Sing is meditating in the park when he gets hit in the head with a soccer ball. The cocky players mock him and destroy a stone statue of his deceased master. Sing proceeds to use the soccer ball as a weapon.

The movie has been directed and co-written by Stephen Chow, who stars as Sing, a martial arts master turned street cleaner, who uses his skills in everyday life and is in love with Mui (Vicki Zhao), who sells buns from her little street stand and combs her hair forward to conceal a complexion that resembles pizza with sausage and mushrooms. It is a foregone conclusion that by the end of this film Mui will be a startling beauty. Less predictable is that Sing recruits seven soccer players from his former monastery to form a soccer team.

His inspiration to do this is Fung (Ng Man Tat), known as the Golden Leg because he was, years ago, a great soccer hero until his leg was broken by Hung (Patrick Tse Yin). Hung now rules the soccer world as owner of Team Evil (yes, Team Evil), while Fung drags his leg like the Hunchback of Notre Dame. It is another foregone conclusion that Team Evil will meet the Shaolin soccer team formed by Fung and Sing in a thrilling match played before what looks like a vast crowd that has been borrowed from a computer game.

The game doesn't follow any known rules of soccer, except that there is a ball and a goal. As the players swoop high into the air and do acrobatics before kicking the ball, I was reminded more of Quidditch. There is also the matter of ball velocity. The players can kick the ball so hard that it actually catches fire as it rockets through the air, or digs a groove in the ground as it plows toward the goal.

Since the game is impossible and it is obvious Team Evil will lose, there's not much suspense, but there is a lot of loony comedy, a musical number, and the redemption of the Poor Spotted Little Bun Girl. As soccer comedies go, then, I say three stars. It's nowhere near as good as "Bend It Like Beckham," of course -- but "Beckham" is in a different genre, the coming-of-age female-empowerment film. It's important to keep these things straight.

One Piece's goofiness stands out even among its peers, prompting discussion about what a more live-action-friendly manga would have looked like. Inspired by kung fu, Shaolin Soccer debuted four years too late for Oda to have known but holds similar regard with fans. Rotten Tomatoes has it at 89% with the critic's consensus being, "The plot is utterly ridiculous, and the soccer in the movie is unlike any ever played anywhere on Earth, but watching Shaolin Soccer, you will probably find it impossible to care."

Chow plays Sing, a.k.a. "Steel Leg," a would-be teacher of the ancient art of kung fu, Shaolin-style. He's not getting students, and his toes poke through worn-out athletic shoes. He meets another down-and-out athlete named Fung (Ng Man Tat), whose brilliant soccer career ended with a leg-bashing incident in 1959. The old man is still spry enough to recognize Sing's rocket launcher of a leg as a ticket back to the big time.

Awesome Music: The opening credits Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: When Sing first meets Mui at the bun stand, he sings a song to compliment her use of cooking and Tai Chi. When she accuses him of mocking her, a nearby patron backs up his sincerity with his own song, which inspires everyone nearby to join in a synchronized dance number. Naturally, this scene was deleted from some airings. Sing's song is mimicking a famous scene from 1960 Chinese musical called Liu San Jie (renamed Third Sister Liu in English), where the male lead first meets the female lead with a song, the same song that Sing sings to Mui. Ensemble Dark Horse: "Empty Hand", Team Shaolin's goalie, who is also a Bruce Lee Clone. In fact, this earned Danny Chan a role in a legitimate Bruce Lee 2008 television biopic after this, including a Role Reprise as Lee in Ip Man 3. Germans Love David Hasselhoff: Unsurprisingly, dubs exist for "soccer giant" countries like France and Brazil. Harsher in Hindsight: Fung's struggles in the film become much harder to stomach after knowing his actor Ng Man-tat's life after the film. This was the last movie Ng would star in alongside Chow. The pair's relationship soured allegedly during the filming of Kung Fu Hustle, when Chow let another actor take the role which was meant for Ng. Over the next two decades, the relationship gradually mended, but was never the same again. Ng also had multiple health problems: diabetes, heart disease and liver cancer, among others.note Chow had actually invited Ng to star in The Mermaid in 2015, but Ng had to decline due to his poor health. Just before his death in February 2021, Ng even said publicly note during episode 3 of Season 6 of Ace vs Ace, recorded in November 2020, but first aired in February 2021 that he's still open to collaboration with Chow as long as "Stephen's not retired, and I'm not dead". Even more poignantly, Tin Kai-man (Iron Shirt) was the one who made the announcement of Ng's death on behalf of his family. Hilarious in Hindsight: The ominous Buddhist droning-chanting we hear as Team Shaolin recovers their abilities may have a different effect on viewers now that the 2010 South Africa World Cup has popularized the vuvuzela. Speaking of which, Empty Hand has been compared to Guillermo Ochoa, and curb-stomp matches shown in this movie aren't that far from reality after what Germany did to Brazil in the 2014 World Cup. The scene where all of the Shaolin monks stay still in their kung-fu poses like the camera pans through the soccer field predates the mannequin challenge that circulated the internet in 2016. Fans of supposed Spiritual Successor Inazuma Eleven have already drew connections between it and this movie. Hollywood Homely: Chinese actress Zhao Wei is exceptionally beautiful in Real Life. While her character Mui should be the opposite (particularly because of the acne), she still appears as what Zhao Wei naturally looks like. Memetic Mutation: Iron Head's shocked face is a popular reaction image macro. "Go back to Mars! Earth is very dangerous!"note Mui becomes the substitute goalie for Team Shaolin in the final game against Team Evil and shaves her head completely bald. Sing's reaction to the character's appearance is this quote Special Effects Failure: Several uses of The Oner to depict Team Shaolin's rampage across the field, practical wirework and all, make the CGI soccer ball even more obvious. When the team dramatically reassembles on the rooftop, the white scraft worn by "Light Weight" is clearly being pulled by a wire. Since Stephen Chow obviously couldn't have his female lead shave her head they used a bald cap. Unfortunately stuffing all that hair in there gave her a rather oversized head. Squick: Weight Vest eating an egg out of Iron Shirt's mouth... and it happens twice. The bloopers extra even show Iron Shirt making a face to let the egg yolks pour out of his mouth. They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: How many viewers who have seen the original Chinese version feel about the American release cutting off a lot of scenes. Thankfully, the American DVD gives the option to watch the original version. Values Dissonance: Presumably why the underwear no-hospital scene was Played for Laughs. The Woobie: Mui, a humble baker who has poor self-esteem and a harsh boss. She tries to make herself more beautiful but it ended up hurting her even more, her crush on Sing gets turned down; it broke her so much she ended up getting fired since the stress caused her to mess up her baking. She does get better at the end, thankfully. Woolseyism: In the American dub, the first Team that Team Shaolin goes against is called Team Puma, based off of the puma logo on their uniforms. In the original Cantonese dub? Team Tofu. e24fc04721