Review: Shaolin Soccer (2001)

This week’s movie is an old classic (well, maybe not that old) that I revisited on a whim.  Shaolin Soccer, written, directed and starring kung-fu comedy guy Stephen Chow, is an underdog sports-team story that brings to it all the classic elements of martial arts films over the years.  This means that it indulges in not only a good deal of fighting action, but plays with all the great clichés that can make even the worst martial arts flick into a enjoyable night’s watch.

The story follows Mighty Steel Leg Sing, one of a group of Shaolin practitioners who have, over the years, settled into normal if not gratifying lives.  Sing is pretty much homeless, wandering the streets doing odd jobs and collecting recyclables, all the while trying to get people to train in Shaolin under him.  After putting a tin can through a wall, he is noticed by a former soccer star turned coach, Golden Leg Fung.  Fung has the bright idea to use Sing’s Shaolin skills to form the ultimate soccer team.

At that point, it’s off to round up the rest of the gang and get a proper soccer team formed.  Naturally, there’s a bit of resistance at first, but Sing wins though.  Together, the crew, oblivious to how soccer works, begins to train.  After a quick montage, they figure the entire sport out and are ready for their first match.  The first team they play prefers to beat people up instead of play soccer, however, and everyone takes a good beating.  But like every good underdog sports-team story, they rally, rediscover their Shaolin skills and then return to become victorious.

Now fully trained, the team must enter a tournament and, eventually, face down Team Evil, the biggest, baddest, most heavily drugged-up team in the land.  Though players go down with grievous injuries, they struggle on to a dramatic and quite explosive conclusion.

This movie is fun on so many levels.  If you appreciate goofy martial arts comedies, the film will be right up your alley.  Stephen Chow indulges in every cliché that he can find, from both martial arts movies and underdog sports team movies.  The results are some quite ridiculous action scenes mixed with seemingly random scenes of singing and dancing.

Ultimately, this movie is for movie lovers.  If you haven’t seen a lot of older films in the genre, you might not get half of the jokes.  Still, there’s enough going on and the movie doesn’t slow down, so it’s still engaging in a campy way.  I fully recommend that everyone try to sit down at least once and watch this film.  And if you don’t believe me, check out Rotten Tomatoes and their 91% rating on the film.

Shaolin Soccer team evil courtesy of mubi.com