VoyForums
[ Show ]
Support VoyForums
[ Shrink ]
VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, [8] ]

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: 01:23:08 09/11/02 Wed
Author: JOEY - 轉貼自趙薇國際網友之家討論區
Subject: Movie Review on Shaolin Soccer (Ain't It Cool News - 9/9/02) - by lala(usa)

TORONTO: Prankster on 8 MILE & Miramax's Edit of SHAOLIN SOCCER!!!
Hey folks, Harry here... Well ......

First up: 8 MILE, the Eminem-starring pseudo-autobiographical (or - is it?) .....

SHAOLIN SOCCER
Next up was SHAOLIN SOCCER, a movie which I'd heard just enough about to know I wanted to see. There seems to be a lot of controversy over the possible Miramax editing of this flick, messing with the soundtrack and whatnot. I don't know what the original is like, I'm not the one to do a comparative study. But damn, this movie is FUN.

I guess most people reading this already know this, but anyway: Shaolin Soccer is a wacky, WAY over-the-top special FX martial arts sports comedy by writer/director/star Stephen Chow (the guy who announced the film referred to him as "so much more than the Chinese Jim Carrey"). From what I can tell, it's kind of the movie 'Kung Pow: Enter the Fist' wanted to be, only made by genuine Asians and combining the plot of a sports movie. Or maybe it's more like what a sports/martial arts movie would be like if it was made by the Zucker/Abrams/Zucker team (back when they were GOOD). Damn, it's hard to encapsulate this movie.

Basically, it starts with Golden Leg Fung (Ng Man Tat), a washed-up former soccer star who threw a game and had his leg broken for his trouble. (He's very similar to Woody Harrelson's character in "Kingpin", only with soccer instead of bowling.) He's now a flunky of the vile Hung, who of course is responsible for all his woes, and runs a soccer championship offering a million dollars to whoever can defeat his "Team Evil". (Yes, really.)

Golden Leg is dying for the chance to coach a team, but Hung won't give him one. Instead, he runs into Steel Leg Sing (Chow), one of a band of down-on-their-luck Shaolin Kung Fu masters. He's bitter because no one takes Kung Fu seriously or realizes it has applications outside of fighting (the demonstrations of some of these applications are absolutely hilarious). The two make the obvious connection and, after some reluctance, get Sing's old team together to learn soccer. Of course, they're out of practice: one guy's now a janitor, another is a stockbroker; 'Light Weight' (the guy who used to be able to do Crouching Tiger-style leaps) has gained a hundred pounds; and the former First Brother, Iron Head, now works in a nightclub, where he's regularly beaten by the manager. But of course, they'll rediscover their Shaolin abilities and start kicking ass on the field - and I do mean kicking ass.

Let me put it this way - I was prepared to eventually see a soccer ball catch on fire from the intensity of the kick placed on it. I wasn't prepared to see this happen during the second soccer match - and knowing that things were going to just get more and more insane from there. About the only thing we don't get to see is a soccer ball orbiting the Earth and hitting the guy who kicked it from behind, but I'm sure they would have used it if they'd thought of it. The whole thing is just the most joyously ludicrous enterprise imaginable, parodying everything from John Woo to The Matrix to Bruce Lee to a lot of Asian references I didn't get (at least, I assume they were references - maybe Asian people were just as confused as I was. Like, why was one team composed of teenage girls wearing fake beards?) And the gags go everywhere from over-the-top physical comedy to some devastatingly dry one-liners (and yes, they work in English - my favourite involves a cell phone call placed while on the field - you'll know it when you see it.)

Definitely a must-see, if it wasn't before for anyone. I actually think this movie will appeal to a broader western audience than did, say, Crouching Tiger, just because it's so clearly a comedy (and, oddly enough, a comedy with a very western style.) If only it gets a nice, wide release -
Prankster

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]
Forum timezone: GMT+8
VF Version: 3.00b, ConfDB:
Before posting please read our privacy policy.
VoyForums(tm) is a Free Service from Voyager Info-Systems.
Copyright © 1998-2019 Voyager Info-Systems. All Rights Reserved.