August 28, 2008
"I'm not here to fight, I'm here to play football!"
Some say the main purpose of the cinematic medium is to entertain. This result can be achieved in many ways, and in a film like Shaolin Soccer, it can be achieved in just about all of them at once. It can because ...( read more)it merges the two most popular forms of entertainment on our planet - films and football - and has a brilliant man named Stephen Chow behind it. Chow pays homage to classic martial arts films, fumbling underdog sports films, and even Hollywood musicals in an attempt (a successful one) to create one of the most clever and fun films to grace a film screen in quite some time.
This is essentially the kind of loopy, crazy, and infectiously fun film that Jackie Chan used to do before he went to the States and started making crap. I mean, how can you take anything too seriously in a film where the rivals are simply known as "Team Evil"? Beginning twenty years earlier, we're introduced to Team Evil's future coach, Hung (Patrick Tse) - who hires a mob to break the leg of his rival, "Golden Leg" Fung (Man Tat Ng) after Fung blows a critical shot and loses a championship match. Back in the present, Hung is rich and famous, while the crippled Fung has been reduced to his lackey. Disgruntled over his treatment, he leaves to try and start his own team, but quickly settles into the life of a drunken bum.
He discovers a second chance, however, when he comes across Sing (Chow). Sing is also a bum - but one with amazing dexterity and one hell of a kick, one that can practically send balls into orbit. It turns out that Sing is a former Shaolin monk, with several brothers who have all fallen into dire straights financially. Although their abilities have grown rusty from disuse, Fung still recognizes their potential and sets out to whip them into shape as a team that can stand up to Team Evil. Meanwhile, Sing has his eye on Mui (Vicky Zhao), an awkward girl who happens to be a kung fu master in her own right, her skills wasted on making sticky-sweet buns for a living. The mystical way she can handle a ball of dough is the only hint you need in order to know that she'll be crucial to our hero's victory in the third period of the third act's big match.
The real highlight to all of this is, of course, the actual football matches. The Shaolin team use their martial artistry to send balls flying at ridiculous velocity, creating shock waves and flames and all sorts of other fantastic special effects in the process. It's really impossible to describe, and it's definitely worth the price of admission just to see the matches being played. Sure, the structure defies all logic and rules of play - whole teams line up to take shots on a single goalie in a brilliant homage to Bruce Lee, while his teammates are nowhere to be found, not the mention the fact that nobody calls offsides either - but it's amazingly fun stuff to watch and you'll be too busy laughing your ass off and being wowed at the special effects that you won't care.
And like I said before, it's chock full of homages to both Eastern and Western cinema. This is definitely a film made by a film buff. For the most part, it's a big-time martial arts flick wrapped up with a sports gimmick, but there are all sorts of elements that help complete it. Characters stop what they're doing to line up in elaborate musical sequences that would be impossible in Asian cinema a couple of decades ago. There are allusions to Spielberg's work in a few spots as well: a ripple in a glass of water jumps right from the frames of Jurassic Park, and Sing says to Mui that she "looks like E.T."
Not only do I find Shaolin Soccer to be a fresh breath of new air for Hong Kong cinema, it's also martial arts comedy that has some true heart and a message to deliver. You can tell from the very beginning that not only was there a lot of time and effort put in to conduct a genre film of this calibre in terms of special effects, casting and story, but there is a certain amount earnest and seriousness that definitely rings throughout the picture. The first inclination of this has to be Stephen Chow's remarkably straight-faced, Woody Allen-esque performance as Sing.
What makes Sing so lovable is Chow's raw ingenuity for exaggerated pantomimes. His facial expressions declare a particular innocence that becomes heart-warmingly recognizable, as if each wink and blink, and every stupid grin he throws at you becomes a form of cinematic flirtation. His delivery in his lines pay homage to Jerry Lewis, Richard Pryor, Mel Brooks and even Mr. Allen himself as each sentence that comes out of his mouth is followed by the slight chin dropping and curious stare waiting to be recognized and given attention to. But I'm not going to rule out the great supporting cast that makes up Sing's fellow Shaolin brothers that form the rest of the team. Casted from the crew of Chow's own company, the Shaolin brothers range from a Bruce Lee look-a-like goalie to a break dancing player. And I can't mention enough how many times I died laughing at the character of First Brother and his unattractively droopy face and his "Iron Head" antics.
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 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 balls as the camera wraps around the burning, racing speed of the CG ball is quite an extraordinary feet 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.
Probably the one thing everyone will be talking about for a long time after watching this film are the utterly amazing and inventive special effects. Created by Centro Digital, the same special effects company that engineered the magical wizardry and electric Shaolin martial arts effects of The Storm Riders and Kill Bill, Shaolin Soccer not only becomes a comedic spectacle, but a Kung Fu marvel as well. Though it may be easy to say that the special effects have a certain amount of exaggerated direction, the nuances are what make them exciting to watch. The subtle detailing of each glowing and beautifully sculpted effects are reminiscent of Japanese anime in the sense of style and ambient flavour. A good example of this is in the scene where the Evil Team blocks Chow's first kick, where the ball starts out as a burning sunspot and into a flaming, roaring panther.
And, in the end, if you really think about it, the basic story of the film is very spiritual. In all actuality, Sing is really a Messiah, so to speak. And all he really wants to do is spread the word of Shaolin: "The Truth lies within us. The way of life is Self-discovery." Football then becomes the metaphor for the Earth because of the fact that it is the most viewed sporting event in the world. And finally it can even be moving, because it is a nostalgic recognition of how money-obsessed modern China has become, and how its glorious traditions have become a subject of mockery and dismissal. Therefore, the next time someone tells me that Shaolin Soccer was a good film but had a weak storyline, I'm going to tie them up and make them watch Ladybugs back to back for a month straight just to make a point that Shaolin Soccer not only rocks, it rocks and teaches ignorant kids a thing or two.
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