While movie stars such as Chow Yun-fat, Michelle Yeoh, Zhang Ziyi, Jet Li and Jackie Chan have become household names in North America, one of the biggest names in Hong Kong cinema is, for the most part, still relatively unknown. Funnyman Stephen Chow has built his career on absurdist humor and Jim Carrey-style shenanigans in films such as The King of Comedy, From Beijing with Love, and The God of Cookery (which was slated to be remade into a Jim Carrey vehicle before falling into development hell). Unfortunately, because of his penchant for Cantonese wordplay and in-references to Chinese culture, it has been difficult for his films to find audiences outside of his native Hong Kong and China. Last week, we explored his most recent foray into American cinema, Kung Fu Hustle. This week, we take a look at his debut trek into foreign waters, Shaolin Soccer-the good version, that is.
After soccer superstar “Golden Leg” Fung decides to take a “dishonor” check to lose an important soccer match, his career goes down the drain as the crowd rushes the field and beats and cripples Fung for his missed goal. Twenty years later, Fung is a lackey for evil soccer furor, Hung, who happens to not only used to be the teammate Fung picked on, but now a soccer legend and the chairman of the National Soccer League. Also of note, is that Hung is head of “Team Evil.” Yes, you read that right. Team Evil. How awesome is that? Depressed and broken for his reversal of fortune and the particular truths he finds out about his accident, Fung walks the streets finding reasons to live. Fortunately, Fung stumbles upon Sing, played by Stephen Chow, a martial artists trying to find ways to bring Kung Fu into the mainstream. After much preparation and soul searching, Fung gathers Sing and his Shaolin brothers together to form a team like no other: a Kung Fu based soccer team. While Sing trains and battles it out Shaolin style in the soccer ring, he attempts to woo Mei, a shy, charming but hideously-looking girl who uses her Tai Chi skills to make the best mantou in the world.
Shaolin Soccer has become a cult classic, though not necessarily simply for the movie content–sort of. It’s the top-grossing action comedy in Hong Kong history, and was a big hit at Toronto 2002. Miramax bought it, and shelved it for two years, apparently so Harvey Weinstein could cut it by 30 minutes, get rid of the English dubbing, restore the subtitles, and open it one week after his own Kill Bill Vol. 2. To put this movie up against Tarantino is like sending Simon Cowell against William H. Rehnquist, but Simon has his fans. Genius move, Miraxmax. Genius.
The movie really shines in the sequences where Sing and his teammates flex their martial arts prowess on the playing field. Combining ‘wire-fu’ techniques and extensive CGI digital post-production (it took four teams of programmers working 24×7 five months to complete the 400 effects shots in the film), this film presents the game of soccer in ‘bullet-time’ (à la The Matrix). A kicked ball morphs into a ball of fire and then the flaming outline of a tiger as it races across the field. Another kicked ball creates a shock wave as it flies through the air, creating a vortex that chews up the field along the way. Players make impossible passes, leaping several stories into the air or doing backflips that defy the laws of physics. Unlucky goalies have their sleeves blasted off by the impact of a supersonic soccer ball. The eye candy is breathtaking, unforgettable, and most of all, very cool.
Unfortunately, like most Hong Kong comedies, the quality of the writing wavers in Shaolin Soccer, with a few gags that don’t quite work and some scenes that quickly wear out their welcome. Thankfully, these are greatly outweighed by the gags that do work, though it would help if you had some passing familiarity with diverse subjects such as Chinese opera, wu-shu (Chinese fantasy swordplay) conventions, and who Wong Fei-hung is. Even if you don’t, there still are enough nods at Bruce Lee, The Matrix, and other broad targets of humor to ensure a good time.
The cinematography is rich in providing the epic style feel to the film and broadening the scope of the picture. Within the hands of cinematographer Kwong Ting Wo, Shaolin Soccer is delivers some of the most dynamic camera movements anyone has seen in Hong Kong cinema in recent times. The raw ingenuity and the gorgeous movement of the soccer balls as the camera wraps around the burning, racing speed of the CG ball is quite an extraordinary feat in preparation and execution. One amazing shot in particular had the camera follow the ball across the field from a bird’s eye view closing in on each pass to follow up and then out again to where Chow does a super flying dragon kick at the ball. It really is amazing.
Chow’s film making dares to be bizarre and lighthearted; he isn’t afraid to be a real storyteller, and he employs humor that may stump the mainstream mindset. (I’ve heard it referred to before as his “nonsense style.”) That this boldness is no accident; he’s an incredible talent, whether it’s as a charismatic lead or as a skilled screenwriter or an amazing martial artist. Let’s just hope that Chow sticks to his gonzo guns, and keeps making fantastically watchable, hilarious, action-packed films like this one.