Siu lam juk kau (2001)

Director:

Stephen Chow

Writers:

Stephen Chow (writer)
Kan-Cheung Tsang (writer)

Release Date:

12 July 2001 (Hong Kong)

Genre:

Action | Comedy | Sport

Tagline:

Kick some grass!

Plot:

A young Shaolin follower reunites with his discouraged brothers to form a soccer team using their martial art skills to their advantage.

Plot Keywords:

Shaolin | Kung Fu | Soccer | Martial Arts | Football

Awards:

13 wins & 7 nominations

Cast

Stephen Chow	...	Mighty Steel Leg Sing
Man Tat Ng	...	Golden Leg Fung (as Ng Man Tat)
Wei Zhao	...	Mui
Yin Tse	...	Team Evil Coach Hung (as Patrick Tse Yin)
Hui Li	...	Banana Peel Girl
Cecilia Cheung	...	Team Moustache Player 1
Karen Mok	...	Team Moustache Player 2
Vincent Kok	...	Team Puma Leader
Kai Man Tin	...	Iron Shirt Tin (Third Brother)
Chi Chung Lam	...	Light Weight (Small Brother)
Kwok-Kwan Chan	...	Lightning Hands (Fourth Brother)
Chi Ling Chiu	...	Hooking Leg - Second Brother
Ming Ming Zhang	...	Little Hung
Pu Ye Dong	...	Little Fung
Shi Zi Yun	...	Team Evil Center

Also Known As:

Shaolin Soccer (International: English title) (UK) (USA)
Shao lin zu qiu (Hong Kong: Mandarin title)

MPAA:

Rated PG for martial arts action and some thematic elements.

Runtime:

113 min | Hong Kong:102 min (DVD version) | USA:87 min | Argentina:89 min

Country:

Hong Kong | China

Language:

Cantonese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital | SDDS (US version) | DTS (US version)

Certification:

Switzerland:12 (canton of Zurich) | Iceland:12 | Malaysia:U | South Korea:15 (re-rating) | South Korea:All (original rating) | Argentina:Atp | Australia:PG | France:U | Germany:12 | Hong Kong:IIB | Ireland:12 | Netherlands:12 | New Zealand:PG | Norway:15 | Philippines:PG-13 | Singapore:PG | Switzerland:10 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:10 (canton of Vaud) | UK:12A | USA:PG-13 (re-rating) (2004) | USA:PG (original rating) | USA:Unrated

Filming Locations:

Shanghai, China

Company:

Star Overseas

Trivia:

Film's U.S. release date was scheduled and rescheduled numerous times over a year and a half.

Quotes:

Sing: [after his team gets brutally beaten by Team Gangster] Why don't you stop them? They're being unlawful!
Golden Leg Fung: I'm the referee! I won't stop them!
Sing: What do you mean by that? You basically want us to die!
Golden Leg Fung: [blows his whistle] You! Out of the game!
Sing: Have you gone nuts?
Golden Leg Fung: This is a test! If none of you can pass it, then you can't play in the soccer league!
Sing: Well, this is a soccer game! This isn't a war!
Golden Leg Fung: The final soccer game is a war.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Wendy Wu: Homecoming Warrior (2006) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Mens' Courage

If you don't enjoy this movie, you are a bad person

Throughout the nearly two hour running time of this movie, the room was a glow with merriment, excitement, and remarks of "Holy crap, that is the coolest thing ever!" Indeed, for this movie is filled with amazing visuals, fantastic fun, and all around goodness. Shaolin Soccer is a harmless movie, the type that mentions the normal morals you might find in a children's movie (work in teams, don't let success go to your head, cheating is bad, etc.), without preaching them.

Some Shaolin-trained, but for the most part poor and unhappy men get organized in a soccer team with a coach who was crippled in a soccer riot after losing the big game twenty years ago. You've got a variety of misfits--the spunky young'n with the steel leg, the obese convenience store clerk who can nearly fly, the plutocratic salary man who uses a style reminiscent of Flying Chimpanzee's Cotton Belly in Wing Chun. It's an odd little band, stretching from barely-post adolescent to nearly retirement age. This rag-tag band is quite endearing and it works so well.

Sure, there are a few instances of cheap humor, but you've got to expect this. The visuals are fantastic, the characterization competent (even if you probably have seen the archetypes before), and it's a lot of fun, whether it's the parody of a war movie (which my friend called scant instants before it happened) or the somewhat unusual tribute to Bruce Lee (hint: it's all in the sunglasses).

Should you see this movie? Yes. I'd say this movie deserves 4 1/2 stars out of five based on technical merits, etc. But on fun? That's right, it gets a million billion stars. Now let's see what Miramax cut out--25 minutes? Crap.