Shaolin Soccer - Review - Trailer - Competition

Shaolin Soccer is a hilarious riot of a film; with slapstick aplenty and characters that instantly delight, making this film a breath of fresh air. In this piece of thankfully utter nonsense over the top wire-play, special effects and the sentiments of the kung-fu flick have been brilliantly applied to the beautiful game.

Shaolin Soccer is directed, co written by and stars the seemingly inexhaustible Stephen Chow who plays Sing, who has been described as Asia’s answer to Jim Carey and creator of Hong Kong comedy genre “mo lei tau” or “nonsense comedy”.

Chow’s central character Sing is an idealistic Shaolin graduate desperate to spread the word of his martial art to as many people as possible. When he crosses paths with ex-football legend ‘Golden leg’ Fung (Man tat Ng), the pair hit upon the idea of starting a Shaolin soccer team and incorporating the disciplines of the ancient fighting techniques into the game.

Fung was set up many years ago by sinister teammate Hung (Xie Xian) to throw an important game resulting in an angry mob breaking his leg and ending his great career. Hung now runs brilliantly named ‘Team Evil’, a team of players powered by American drugs, who Team Shaolin will have to beat to win the football tournament, $1M prize and revenge coach Fung.

The film is hilarious, Chow’s directing is brilliantly direct and the simplicity of the characters lets the film hit the ground running with the gags come thick and fast. The super powers of the Shaolin players are brought to life with computer FX and actors hung from wires, giving the whole film an outrageous comic book pace.

It has come to be expected that anything or perhaps nothing can be expected with Stephen Chow films where there really is very little attention paid to reality - the film is ridiculous to its core and is so refreshing as a result. The love interest in the film is also handled with humour as Miu (Vicki Zhao) overcomes her low self-esteem, after falling for the ultra positive Sing, to rise to glory as a slightly clumsy heroine.

With each Shaolin player a character of distilled comedy dynamite, the films’ plot barely gripping the reigns of reality and slapstick humour that literally blows the competition away; Shaolin Soccer is a gem of a film and the perfect tonic to beat the winter blues. Please go and see it!

Neil Mcfarland

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