Starring: Stephen Chow, Vicki Zhao

Released:14^th March 2005

Cert: 12

“Mighty Iron Leg” Sing (Chow) is a devoted follower to the martial art of Shaolin and is intent on making the World a better place by trying to teach all the techniques. But his problem is how can he package the practice into a commercially viable product?

            His path converges with “Golden Foot” Fung, a broken and shamed ex-footballer who needs to prove his worth again by coaching a team to win the coveted China Cup from the cause of his downfall and his Team Evil.

             They team together Sing’s five disillusioned (but similarly anatomically named) brothers and a collection of street thugs to fuse the two beautiful arts and make it to the finals.

            Shaolin Soccer is a brilliant blend of martial arts slapstick, football and ‘Matrix style’ special effects. This is how those effects laden Jackie Chan films like Tuxedo and The Medallion should have looked.

            The games are perfectly choreographed with a digitised ball never skipping a beat between passes even when it’s travelling at hundreds of miles of hours and scorching the pitch in the wake of its afterburners. Each of the brothers has their own quirky personalities as well as a speciality discipline to keep the humour fresh, on and off the pitch.

The DVD holds two versions of the film: the English dubbed release and the Cantonese original with English subtitles for the purists. This contains a couple of extra scenes, a bit more ‘real’ violence but the best part is the proper references to ‘football’ in the subtitles rather than the dubbed ‘soccer’ version .

            On top of that are two featurettes, an out-takes reel and a guide to Shaolin moves. The featurettes are a ‘making of’ that contains interviews with most of the cast and some of the production team; the other is a stage-by-stage comparison of the special effects process.

            The out-takes are marginally amusing but probably lose something in translation; it’s tough to know if the actors are fluffing their lines when you can’t understand their native tongue in the first place.

            The guide to Shaolin moves is nothing more than a paragraph on a select few of the teams’ disciplines.

The film is a mish-mash of so many genres that there should be something to keep most people interested and laughs to be had from all areas; the kinship, the football, the martial arts and the romance.

            An oddity of a film that is well worth checking out.