DVD Review
by Kevin Carr
| MOVIE: **** (out of 5 stars)
DVD EXPERIENCE: *** (out of 5 stars) STARRING Stephen Chow as MIGHTY STEEL LEG SING Ng Mang Tat as GOLDEN LEG FUNG Vicki Zhao as MUI Patrick Tse Yin as TEAM EVIL COACH HUNG Rated PG-13 Studio: Miramax Directed by: Stephen Chow Back to DVD Review Home |
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To show how long “Shaolin Soccer” has been languishing in the Miramax vaults, I remember receiving a clip of it in a video email attachment back when I worked a corporate job with WorldCom. This was before I left the corporate world, became a full time writer, had two kids and became a stay-at-home dad. It has been literally years. The film was released in Hong Kong in the summer of 2001, which makes it as old as my eldest son. And now, finally it’s hitting DVD.
The movie itself is like “The Bad News Bears” with soccer instead of baseball, middle-aged Chinese men instead of American punks and Shaolin kung fu instead of Walter Matthau. It tells the story of has-been soccer star Golden Leg (Ng Mang Tat) who teams up with Sing (Stephen Chow) to make a rag-tag soccer team that uses Shaolin kung fu to win.
It’s been years since Sing’s Shaolin brothers have been together. Most of them are leading aimless lives or oppressed existences, and their kung fu skills have dwindled. However, they learn to get their kung fu spirit back when they join forces on the soccer field. They use their amazing powers to make a play for the national soccer championship against Team Evil, coached by Golden Leg’s old nemesis Hung (Patrick Tse Yin).
I actually saw this film in a press screening sometime last year before it was released. But with fluctuating release dates and schedules, I never really got my review out for its limited release run. Back then, I saw the cut Miramax had released for American audiences, which has many key scenes eliminated. I had been excited to see it because I heard some good buzz about it. But when I finally saw it in the theater, I have to admit I was a bit disappointed.
Parts of it seemed clunky and out of place. Some of the characters’ actions didn’t really make a lot of sense, even. So, my initial memory of a substandard “Shaolin Soccer” has sat in the back of my mind for many months. When I got the DVD, I was intrigued to see that it had the original Chinese cut as well as the version that was released in American theaters. So, the first thing I watched was the Chinese version.
This one rocked. It was hilarious. The characters made sense now, and I understood their motivations. After viewing the Chinese version, I scanned through the American version again to see what I had missed. A total of 23 minutes were taken from the Chinese version, and they were essential. Many of the scenes - or portions of scenes - that were removed seemed to make sense only in the context of Chinese culture.
For example, the opening scene that was deleted shows Hung paying off Golden Leg to throw the big soccer game. In the scene, Golden Leg makes Hung kneel and uses the back of his head as a foot rest. To a typical American, this might just seem a little demeaning but nothing that you could not overcome. However, taken within the context of the Chinese culture, this is the height of dishonor and insult. And it makes so much more sense later in the film when Hung subsequently uses Golden Leg as a foot rest to shine his shoe.
I can only guess as to why such deliberate and damaging cuts were made for the original release. I suppose it was to remove the highly cultural aspects of the film to make it more appealing to a mainstream American audience and hope for a sleeper hit like “Rumble in the Bronx.” Unfortunately, the removal of these scenes left significant plot and character holes that lessened the film.
Additionally, the translation for dubbing and captions of the American version changed the meaning of or toned down some language from the original Chinese cut that - while potentially offensive - made a lot more sense in its original form.
Fortunately, this DVD includes the original Chinese version as well as the American version. It doesn’t contain anything else in terms of special features. But having both versions for comparison and choice is enough to rate this disc pretty high in my book. This is where we see the real joy of the DVD format, allowing the audience to see different versions of the film without having to scrounge for alternative foreign cuts.
Kung fu soccer is just the beginning of the humor. There’s other surreal comedy moments, like a crowd breaking into a spontaneous “Thriller” dance. The cast is a menagerie oddly extreme characters, including a disfigured pastry chef who uses kung fu skills to make sweet buns. It’s nice to see a funny Chinese movie get wide release without Jackie Chan in the lead role, and it’s nice to finally see a martial arts movie that isn’t choreographed by Wo Ping.
Specifications: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound. Widescreen (1.85:1) - Enhanced for 16x9 televisions. French language track (U.S. version). English and Spanish subtitles.
